Configura’s CET Designer User of the Month is Chantel Fitzgerald of Inscape. She’s a huge champion for design.
“There are so many reasons to love design – creating something that didn’t previously exist, the satisfaction of seeing a design come to life, and the constant evolution of design,” she said.
As far back as she can remember, she was creating designs for her future house. In high school, she spent a lot of time in the school’s art studio.
“I always knew whatever I chose as a career had to be challenging, creative and never monotonous. I chose to go to school for interior design since I was – and still am – so captivated by designing house plans,” Chantel said.
She interned with an architecture firm in Toronto and, after graduation, worked for a couple of kitchen and bath companies where she handled drafting, specification and sales for residential projects. But, after six years in that field, she became increasingly interested in commercial design. She began subscribing to office design magazines. At design shows, she found herself drawn more to the commercial furniture presentations than to the residential ones.
“When I heard about an opening at Inscape, I decided to take a leap of faith and jumped head first into the office design world – and I haven’t looked back!” she said.
First introduced to CET Designer about nine months ago when she started at Inscape, Chantel’s transition to the software became easy once she learned to trust the process. “With AutoCAD, everything in the drawing had to be placed by the user. With CET Designer, its smart capabilities are so extensive, and it took me a while to get used to how responsive and intuitive (the software) can be.”
At Inscape, she and team members use CET Designer for the design and specification of commercial typicals and high-end renderings, and for space planning, sales support and training.
“CET Designer is a huge time saver! In comparison to other programs that can be a lot more tedious, CET Designer lets you create designs very quickly and, if you require multiple options, it’s simple and speedy to whip a few up. With this type of quickness, you can jump into a project and have a lot of freedom to explore different designs without missing any deadlines,” she said.
Now an avid CET Designer user, Chantel won first place in Configura’s 2017 CET Designer Awards in the category of Best Office/Material Handling/Healthcare Rendering.
“The rendering was my first attempt at using levels in CET Designer. I really enjoyed creating and providing a lot of depth for the space. Lighting was probably the most time-consuming part of this rendering due to the depth and different levels. I also really enjoyed creating the skylights and exploring how to perfect the lighting that would provide the most realistic look possible,” she said.
Her favorite CET Designer tip is to use the Calculation tab to find specific items in a drawing. “This is particularly helpful in large-scale drawings when there are hundreds of items and you need to specifically locate one. I just right-click and the ‘locate on drawing’ button pops up, which has helped me numerous times. This is another example of how CET Designer can be a great time-saver.”
When Chantel isn’t working her magic in CET Designer, she’s likely delving into DIY projects or hanging out with her two pets – her dog, Lennox, and her cat, Penny. She’s also taken up photography as a hobby, and she makes it a point to travel somewhere new at least once a year.