November CET Designer User of the Month: Rachel Clark
Known as a connector in her local design community in Little Rock, Arkansas, Rachel Clark, lead designer at L&M Office Furniture, is passionate about using her design talents to make a positive impact on people’s lives. Her passion shined through in a recent education project she submitted to the 2020 CET Designer Awards where she earned second place in the Success Story category.
Rachel’s submission highlighted a project for Southside School Systems in Batesville, Arkansas. The school found L&M Office Furniture on social media and engaged them right away to help refresh its junior high school. Using CET Designer and Zoom to design live in front of the client, Rachel’s team designed, specified and ordered product for 20 classrooms all before the new 2020-2021 school year.
“I’m very passionate about education and using my talents to help people. Both of my parents are teachers and coaches and I love getting to do education projects like this,” Rachel said. “What I loved about this project was I was able to create a space that kids are excited to go every day to learn and grow, and teachers can function and get their job done daily.”
Rachel adds CET Designer played a key role in helping L&M Office Furniture land the project.
“What really grabbed their attention was having CET Designer and the capabilities of what it could do,” Rachel said. “I think we blew them away from start to finish with the entire program, design process and everything we could do for them.”
Rachel’s career began in the residential design industry in her home state of Georgia before she made her way back to Arkansas. She made the jump to commercial design in January 2017 where she began her journey with CET Designer.
In February, Rachel joined L&M Office Furniture as design lead to help start up its Little Rock, Arkansas office. When she started her new role, L&M Office Furniture was using multiple tools for the design and sales process. Projects were taking longer, and the dealership used three programs to draw in 2D, render in 3D and price and quote projects.
As a cheerleader for CET Designer, Rachel introduced the software and helped the dealership fully transition to the software in 2020. Now, L&M Office Furniture uses one tool for its entire design and sales process thanks to CET Designer.
“When I started at L&M Office Furniture, the dealership had never used CET. When the owner found me and a few other designers who had experience in CET, we were able to hit the ground running and teach designers the software,” Rachel said. “CET Designer has changed everything for this company. We are doing everything in CET – every project and every designer uses it.”
Her favorite CET Designer tip is saving and creating favorites to speed up her workflow. Over the years, Rachel has built libraries of fabrics, finishes and accessories and was able to share those with her new team so they didn’t have to start from scratch when they adopted CET Designer.
“CET Designer definitely helps me be the best designer I can be,” Rachel said. “The software offers an easy way for applying finishes and making a rendering look amazing and realistic. We definitely blow people away with renderings.”
Rachel says she’s already seeing CET Designer help her dealership gain traction within the A&D community.
“Whenever I tell an A&D designer about the RevLink Extension, their ears perk up and they get excited,” Rachel said. “CET Designer has opened the door to doing projects jointly with A&D firms. I can see CET helping us gain projects and grow with our A&D community, which is huge because that’s where a lot of our large projects are.”
When Rachel isn’t designing spaces, you can find her planning and hosting events with her twin sister Emily, who is also a designer and works in the A&D field. Together, they have built a vibrant design community where designers connect, collaborate and have fun together. Rachel also loves football, spending time outdoors kayaking, boating, fishing and hunting, spending time with family and immersing herself in creative projects like calligraphy and event planning.
“I love taking someone’s challenge, like a complicated space, and turning it into a functional and beautiful space they live in,” Rachel said. “I’m very passionate about my job and I love using my talents to make someone’s life or work life easier and better.”
