Each year in northern California, IIDA bestows a Distinguished Achievement Award upon an outstanding service provider. This year’s honoree is Tom DiRenzo, A&D director at San Francisco Herman Miller dealer CRI. Mr. DiRenzo has been active in IIDA for more than 11 years. He’s known for his wit, his wicked sense of humor – always appreciated by audiences at IIDA’s Honor Awards, which he co-hosts every year – and for his willingness to support, mentor and speak up for all aspects of design unstintingly.
Officeinsight met with Mr. DiRenzo to glean some ideas and tips for all of us who work to support those in the design community.
officeinsight (OI): How did you get “the call” to be in our industry?
Tom DiRenzo (TD): I’m an Italian from New Jersey, and I’d always wanted to live in California. I graduated from college with a degree in Journalism, which is sort of funny because so much of what I do in my work with clients is ask questions.
It’s all about asking questions and listening, isn’t it?
Anyway, I knew Andrew Belchner [Mr. DiRenzo’s husband and a past IIDA honoree], who was head of interiors at RMW at the time when I was working at Esprit. Andrew took me to Chicago for NeoCon soon after we met. I remember being in the Merchandise Mart and thinking, ‘Here we are, in one of the most exciting cities of the world on a beautiful day, and why is everyone in this big airless, sunless building, looking at furniture?’ But, what I picked up on in the very beginning was the community of people. They were there as much to see each other as they were to see the furniture and products they were selling. They were creative, and they were sensible, because you have to be both for corporate interior work. And I felt I could be part of them. I loved it from the beginning! I love that sense of community.
I applied for a sales position at Knoll. When Patrick McDevitt interviewed me, he told me that, “this is a relationship business,” asking me, who did I know?” I thought for a minute and said, “Well, I know Andrew Belchner and Charlie Pfister and Orlando Diez-Azcuy. He hired me on the spot.
OI: Who have your mentors been?
TD: Mentors, or tormentors? [laughs] Andrew has been an amazing mentor, of course! He’s a great designer, and he taught me the design perspective. Bill Watson [CRI principal] has been and still is a mentor to me, in a brotherly way. But you get mentorship on a lot of different levels, don’t you?
OI: How has our business changed in the past five-to-10 years?
TD: Of course, the speed of things, and the expectations. The bigger concern I have is, are designers losing their voices? The other factors involved in projects – real estate people, project managers, facilities managers – all of whom can be wonderful contributors to a project, can also contribute to the derailing of the design process. Design is not a commodity. There’s a magic to design. It’s not like selling copier machines or printers; it’s a different process, and I don’t want that to get lost in the mix of what’s going on now.
Designers are being given less to do today than in the past. Budgets are absurd at times. We have to educate our clients. It’s a bit like raising kids; we can’t try to be their friends or try to get them to like us. As professionals, we have to be able to bring up the tough realities that are involved in creating a fabulous workspace with our clients.
OI: What advice do you have for people starting out in our business?
TD: Be a good listener. It’s about people. It’s about what they’re having problems with. Treat them like humans. Be honest. Don’t promise something you can’t do just to win business. Be in it for the long haul. As Sharon Cadiou [a past IIDA Achievement Award winner] said, “I’m in the futures business.” Fight for design. Love design, and fight for it.
OI: Why is it important to be active in IIDA?
TD: Well, it’s not called the International Vendors and Construction Association! [laughs] If designers don’t get involved, the voice of IIDA could change. The organization isn’t for vendors; it’s for designers. There needs to be constant education for emerging designers, with seminars on topics such as how to present to clients, and how to hold your place at the table. You [designers] are not another trade. Develop your voice. That’s why you were hired. The affect of good design on business is huge. The most exciting projects I’ve worked on have been the ones where clients recognize the importance of design.
OI: What does this award from your peers in IIDA mean to you?
TD: It means more than I can say. I feel very proud. I also feel like I should really be giving them an award, but that’s probably the Italian in me!
No, I really feel honored. And I feel blessed to be doing something that I love so much. Letting people feel heard, being a human being with others – these are simple but important and vital things that we should all do in life.