Courtesy of Marcia Moore
Jacey Whiteside and Marcia Moore
One could argue that good design sense, crucial for any interior designer, is intuitive. Natural talent certainly is a factor, but other equally important areas of the design business are not innate and aren’t easily learned from a book or a class—they need to be taught. In such a hands-on industry, real-world experience under the eye of a seasoned designer is invaluable.
Many designers begin their careers under the mentorship of another designer. “Having a mentor in the design business is one of the most important things to seek out,” says Amy Herman, president of the American Society of Interior Designers’ Missouri East chapter. “A positive mentor relationship can give you confidence and build you up for success in any stage of your career.”
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Emily Hall
Earlier in her career, designer Emily Hall considered launching her own design business but wasn’t quite ready to strike out on her own. She took the opportunity to work with award-winning designers Jessie D. Miller and David Kent Richardson to get more experience first.
“I learned so much from them,” Hall says.
She thanks Richardson for his support when she was ready to go it alone with her own firm, Emily Hall Interiors, and has taken his example to heart. “We’d talk about projects, and he offered to let me use his studio. I employ two women now. I hope I’ve been as helpful to them as everyone has been to me.”
Over the course of her 38-year career, interior designer Marcia Moore has mentored five young hopefuls. One, Jacey Whiteside, has worked her way up to a project manager position in Moore’s firm, Marcia Moore Design. The two women met in 2019, the year Whiteside graduated from Illinois State University with a bachelor’s degree in design. Moore hired her as a design assistant, then mentored her in every aspect of the business: how to select fabrics, how to choose colors and furniture. The two women also discussed how to effectively communicate with clients.
Courtesy of Marcia Moore
PowerPoint Presentation
A moodboard compiled by Jacey Whiteside for an interiors project
“I filled her brain full of everything I did,” Moore says. “You can be a great designer because you have that creative flair but [then] really fall down on the business side of it. My goal is that Jacey becomes a great designer and then stays with me.”
April Jensen, principal of ADJ Interiors, has been both mentor and mentee. She takes a gentle, positive approach when working with up-and-coming designers in her firm.
“I think the only way to teach people is through positivity and your own behavior, your own way of approaching a problem,” she says. “It’s more than just the technical aspects of your job. When you deal with someone’s whole being, it brings out the best in them and allows their creativity to flow. I expect a lot, but I’m not expecting anything I’m not offering, too.”
Jensen looks for mentees from whom she can learn, too. The first associate she hired had computer-aided design skills; Jensen doesn’t do her own drawings, so she was excited to have a designer in the studio who did. “She was young and inexperienced, but she was hardworking and a perfectionist,” Jensen recalls.
Her advice to young designers is simple: Get as much experience as possible, no matter what the task might be. “Pay attention if you have the opportunity to be in the field,” she says. “Write everything down so that when you review your notes, you understand why you did what you did.”
