Inside Perspective from a Interior Designer & Founder | Rayon x Habitat Curator — Transcript

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1. 0:00hello everyone it's so nice to meet you
2. 0:02all here I'm Hannah Chua I'm the person
3. 0:04behind habitat Creator interior design
4. 0:07and I am a licensed interior designer
5. 0:09based in Manila Philippines with almost
6. 0:11eight years of experience now so I
7. 0:13specialize more on residential homes and
8. 0:16cond unit design how do you understand
9. 0:18and meet clients needs every project of
10. 0:21course there's like a first step and
11. 0:23that is knowing the project details
12. 0:24first before I get to the client needs
13. 0:26so for me I invite my potential clients
14. 0:30for an online Discovery call and they
15. 0:32usually have like a template
16. 0:34questionnaire just to make sure that my
17. 0:37usual questions about knowing the
18. 0:39project details are covered during the
19. 0:41meeting and yeah just basically my
20. 0:44Discovery is more of like getting to
21. 0:46know the client getting to know the
22. 0:47project details and making sure that
23. 0:50it's something that I can realistically
24. 0:52work on so yeah uh aside from getting
25. 0:55all the project details of course
26. 0:57getting to the meat or to the core of
27. 0:59the design is knowing how to design to
28. 1:01those are who are going to live in the
29. 1:03space right so even in like the first
30. 1:05meeting I want to ask clients to
31. 1:08describe how their day-to-day routine
32. 1:10looks like so you know just like the
33. 1:13simple things can be much of a big deal
34. 1:16for them when it comes to Des signing
35. 1:17spaces right so it does help me in
36. 1:20knowing which one is their priority even
37. 1:23though they're not entirely like aware
38. 1:25of that and then yeah uh taking note of
39. 1:28the certain inconvenience no matter how
40. 1:30major or minor say they seem and
41. 1:32incorporating them into the problem
42. 1:35solving of the design process yeah like
43. 1:38my based my general motto or like
44. 1:41mindset of that is that I have to design
45. 1:43a system that works for them rather than
46. 1:45creating an entirely new setup that
47. 1:47might work against them I do find it
48. 1:50helpful to talk in a language they
49. 1:53understand and I what do I mean by this
50. 1:55is that I try my best not to bombard
51. 1:58them with so many design jour orans
52. 2:00because of course it overwhelms them and
53. 2:02sometimes that can put things into like
54. 2:05mistranslations so for example of course
55. 2:07I'm going to ask them how do they
56. 2:09visualize their space and then some
57. 2:11clients would say for example I want a
58. 2:14mid-century home and I would ask them
59. 2:16instead of like hyper fixating on the
60. 2:19style they said I would ask them to
61. 2:21break down into details like what what
62. 2:24about midcentury they actually like is
63. 2:27it the color palette they usually see is
64. 2:29is it the furniture is it the certain
65. 2:32influences that they usually project
66. 2:34onto that style I usually try to like
67. 2:37break it down and because in the design
68. 2:39process usually the the the end result
69. 2:42would be like a Miss like a compilation
70. 2:44of all the requirements and personality
71. 2:47of the client so it's not like really a
72. 2:49textbook style if if that makes sense so
73. 2:53yeah I I also like for them to explain
74. 2:56it more in simple words like for example
75. 2:59I want them to describe how they want
76. 3:03their space to feel like is it going to
77. 3:05be bright and Airy is it going to be
78. 3:07cozy something like that so it's
79. 3:09something that I can work around with
80. 3:11rather than focusing on a style being
81. 3:14myself helps because it does help me uh
82. 3:17pick the right clients to work with and
83. 3:19I'm pretty sure that's how they feel
84. 3:21about me like since I'm going to be a
85. 3:24designer and since I focus more on homes
86. 3:26it's really important to build that
87. 3:28trust and that conf that the clients can
88. 3:31you know share some tidbits of their
89. 3:32personal life in order for me to somehow
90. 3:35integrate it even in minor things in the
91. 3:38design so yeah what advice would you
92. 3:40give an interior designer at the start
93. 3:42of their career I would say like this is
94. 3:44something that is quite personal to me
95. 3:46as well so the first thing is that don't
96. 3:50be afraid to start small whether it's
97. 3:53any project whether it's like you know
98. 3:56uh if you're working on your own room
99. 3:58for example you can always start from
100. 4:00there and try to experiment like like I
101. 4:03think it's a bit similar to what I've
102. 4:04said don't be too obsessed with labeling
103. 4:06yourself at the first at the first start
104. 4:09of your career because most of us don't
105. 4:12really have a clue yet that's how I feel
106. 4:15yeah so can get quite overwhelming and
107. 4:18we do tend to try to attach ourselves to
108. 4:20a certain image even though we're not
109. 4:22entirely sure yet so finding your
110. 4:24designed voice is something that you
111. 4:27will encounter on in the process
112. 4:30and of course a network we can't really
113. 4:33uh disregard that connect with your
114. 4:35colleagues and other professionals
115. 4:37because there's like a lot of things you
116. 4:39can learn from then and it does take a
117. 4:42village to make the design work don't be
118. 4:44afraid to put your work out there on
119. 4:46social media because there are a lot of
120. 4:48opportunities on social media that's how
121. 4:51I scored an interview with rayon right
122. 4:53now which Rand features made you decide
123. 4:55to use it for your projects actually my
124. 4:58first impression foran when I saw them
125. 5:01on Instagram was like I love how
126. 5:04lightweight and accessible they are
127. 5:06that's like my first good Impressions
128. 5:07about rayan was and that when I actually
129. 5:10tried it for the first time and I tried
130. 5:11like the free version of it and then I
131. 5:13saw how intuitive and smooth it was that
132. 5:16made me wish that I wish ran existed
133. 5:19when I was still like a student or when
134. 5:20I was just like starting out I think uh
135. 5:23yeah I I do like the cloud-based feature
136. 5:26because it helps me you know go uh make
137. 5:29it P able and just uh work on the go
138. 5:31like for example if I'm on site or if
139. 5:33I'm doing some purchasing it's just easy
140. 5:36for me to like uh check on rayan and
141. 5:38just have like certain Dimensions to be
142. 5:40checked and I know that this is like a
143. 5:43small feature of Ron that I think not a
144. 5:46lot of people hasn't like talked about I
145. 5:48love how you can just like click on the
146. 5:50wall and you can just easily check the
147. 5:52dimensions and even like the surrounding
148. 5:54dimensions of it it's so um it's so easy
149. 5:57to double check if you're doing like the
150. 5:59right dimensions and yeah uh it's pretty
151. 6:02easy to learn because there are already
152. 6:04a lot of videos online especially on
153. 6:07YouTube so with those features in mind
154. 6:10it does make the software feel more
155. 6:12inclusive to all types of designers
156. 6:15which whether you're like freelancing a
157. 6:16small for a small firm or a large
158. 6:19company that makes a huge difference
159. 6:21mainly because yeah I I can't really
160. 6:24stopped sharing how lightweight rayon is
161. 6:27really because you know uh standard
162. 6:30software uh does take a allll or have
163. 6:33like certain requirements for your
164. 6:35computer and when you're just starting
165. 6:37out or when you're a student everyone
166. 6:40really has like the privilege or
167. 6:41capability to upgrade to meet those
168. 6:44certain standards so yeah just making it
169. 6:46accessible to everyone is like a really
170. 6:49plus feature for me the software saves
171. 6:52me so much time because there's an inapp
172. 6:54library of blocks so instead of like
173. 6:57going to separate websites manually
174. 6:59download my cad blocks and double
175. 7:01checking their Dimensions I can easily
176. 7:03do them in app in the software and then
177. 7:06one thing that maybe not a lot of people
178. 7:08know is that there's like a family of
179. 7:10blocks that you can actually download
180. 7:12There's a top a top plan there's also
181. 7:15like a front view for sections so you
182. 7:17can easily just drag and drop there can
183. 7:19you share an example of a project where
184. 7:21rayon enhanced the outcome I do like the
185. 7:25power of using the inapp blocks
186. 7:28especially the human and animal ones
187. 7:30because it gives the client a better
188. 7:32perspective and uh understand the scale
189. 7:34and proportion even in the 2D plans it's
190. 7:38important to remind ourselves that even
191. 7:40if we reflect the dimensions in the in
192. 7:43the technical plans some clients don't
193. 7:45really understand or grasp how
194. 7:48Dimensions work so what I do is that I
195. 7:51usually put a person or a pet there just
196. 7:54to have them just to give them like an
197. 7:56idea like how many people can pass
198. 7:58through this space is it going to be
199. 7:59crowded when thing people are using the
200. 8:02space simultaneously one of the things
201. 8:05that also enhance my process when using
202. 8:08Ron is that I can customize the plants
203. 8:11from something so Technical and
204. 8:13intimidating to something more
205. 8:14presentable and um easy to read
206. 8:16especially for clients so I really like
207. 8:19how you can stylize the features from
208. 8:22selecting fonts selecting colors adding
209. 8:26hatches and textures you can all do that
210. 8:28even adding Shadows to the to rayon is
211. 8:31actually quite easy to do even
212. 8:34understanding layers work is very
213. 8:37intuitive