I love a good story. And after spending decades as a journalist, I like to think I know how to spot one. Often, the secret sauce is specificity — the more distinct a story, the more uniquely reflective of an individual’s voice or circumstances, the more memorable it becomes, and the more relatable. Ironically, the specific is universal. Even if we can’t identify with the exact details of someone’s life, we can often relate to their hopes, fears or anxieties, and through their stories see ourselves reflected back.
That’s how I felt watching a recent virtual discussion IIDA hosted. We convened highly accomplished women in design to tell us how they charted their path to leadership. Their stories are incredible and instructive, and in their telling, I found myself thinking back on my own career struggles, triumphs and crossroads.
Below you’ll find a few nuggets I took away from the conversation, inspired by the designers’ stories. If you have a chance — perhaps over the Thanksgiving holiday — I encourage you to watch the full conversation on IIDA’s Academy page. (I’m willing to bet you’ll be grateful you did.)
Mentors are everywhere. “Two years ago, I hired my mentor,” said Aimee Burmaster Hicks, IIDA, principal and interior design director at Page, now Stantec. “She had a decade less experience than me. We’re partners now. She has a real talent for business development — she’s a relationship-builder.” Her colleague brings in work, Burmaster Hicks added, and she does so “in an authentic way. She maintains relationships. She can call a client she had 10 years before and that person would pick up the phone…At a firm like mine, you’re going from project to project; what she’s taught me is to be intentional about maintaining some of those ties. She’s taught me so much, and I hired her. Your mentor doesn’t have to be your age, or even in your field. And you can have more than one. I have several, all ages, all different roles.”
Remember who you are and what lights you up. Bring that to your work. “I was always into art growing up,” said Omoleye Simmons, vice president of commercial design at Tarkett, “so I knew I was going to do something creative. I love to draw and paint, and no matter what phase of my career I was in, I brought that into my process and I celebrated it. How I grew as a designer was to learn how to take the artistry and have it as the foundation to help build an authentic process — to not copy anything, not borrow anything, but develop it by hand.” That approach helped propel her career. In a previous role, Simmons would take her original art, scan it, and create digital iterations to produce custom carpet designs.
Don’t put your dreams on pause. “People always say life moves fast, the kids grow up fast, but your career really does go fast,” said Sarah Kuchar-Parkinson, IIDA, owner and creative director of Chicago-based interior design studio Kuchar. “I can’t believe I’ve been a designer for 20 years. That just sounds so weird to me. It really goes by in a flash, and if you are somebody who had thought you might want to do something different, or you thought there would be more variety, now’s the time. Ask for those opportunities, seek them out, because five or 10 years will go by, and you might be doing the same thing. Maybe that’s what you wanted, but if you do want more variety, it’s important to really advocate for that, and go after what you want.”
Be vulnerable with those you trust — and stay open. “During the pandemic, I’d had a baby, my husband had lost his job, I’d lost my job, and I was actually thinking of leaving the industry altogether,” said Bonnie Toland, a strategy consultant at Gensler who was formerly a practicing designer (and whose first job out of school, funny enough, was writing for officeinsight). At a crossroads, she turned to people she trusted. “I started reaching out to mentors across different industries, and one piece of advice I got was, ‘do something adjacent, because you have too much experience within the industry to just abandon it.’ And that’s how I ended up moving into strategy. It was not an easy transition. This is probably the hardest job I ever (had)…but I get this opportunity to do so much of the thinking behind projects, and I love that part of it.”
Editor’s Note: Cindy Dampier is Chief Marketing Officer for the International Interior Design Association, where she leads all marketing and brand strategy, bringing her expertise in brand voice, creative ideation and process to an organization that serves and advocates for the worldwide community of commercial interior designers. Cindy is a lifelong storyteller whose previous experience includes leading agency content teams, as well as a career as an award-winning writer and editor for publications including the Chicago Tribune.