Friday, May 29, 2015

Week 3

Global Perspective for Design:

"Innerspaice Architectural Interiors – the size, experience and infrastructure to design and manage any type of workplace project, anywhere on the planet."

That is our motto. Innerpaice is quite diverse in its clientele. We do projects all over the country. Last week I was calling and scheduling shipments for a project in Alaska! This week I've been working on a dental clinic in Missouri and the US Army Research Medical Center in Maryland. Jessica is working on a hospital in Kansas and Erin does mostly local sales. 

Josh and Kelly are over our logistics. They make sure the items get shipped to the correct location and hire an installer to put the spaces together. Since we do a lot of renovations, it takes more time and effort to coordinate moving old furniture and decor out and then coordinating all the new items we specified. One of the designers will also travel to the location in order to insure everything is done correctly. 

Innerspaice uses multiple manufacturers to give clients an array of options in order to fit their individual socioeconomic needs. Culturally, Innerspaice designs their clients' spaces to fit their locations. 

Innerspaice also does a lot of GSA projects that require us getting quotes to bid on a government building or renovation. Government departments get a discount on their services, decor, and furniture, so part of my job since I've been here is to get quotes from manufacturers about different products we need for our project. 

Hope your enjoyed this CIDA day on the blog!

Haworth love and mine, 
Emily the Intern 

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Week 3

Hello, hello!
I'll have to do this quickly because I am SWAMPED in work this week! Four-day weeks are nice, but I still have 5 days worth of work to get done, so it's also stressful! Tuesday I worked on submitting a proposal for a government project. I had to create spreadsheets of the products we needed to be sent off to get a quote.
Wednesday I had a meeting at ServisFirst Bank downtown and we met with the president of the bank to go over the furniture and finishes we picked out. The meeting went really well, though we still have a long way to go! The client is trying to stray away from super traditional, but at the same time it's a bank, so it still has to be conservative. It is quite a challenge to incorporate both of those things!
Later Wednesday afternoon I accompanied one of the designers to the Mobile Airport Office building that was newly renovated. We looked at the offices and field-measured so that I can draw them up in AutoCAD and get some ideas for the layouts of the desks.
After that, we went to PMOA to field measure their space for 20 new cubicles and movable walls! It was my first one to field measure for an actual project and it's harder than you think!
I'll give you an update tomorrow.
Haworth love and mine,
Emily the Intern

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Week 2

Hello, hello!
Playing catch up for week 2--longggg, busy week. On Wednesday, I attended a CEU seminar with one of the designers here at Innerspaice. I lovingly call CEUs Lunch-n-learns, which is what we call them in college. I walked in and low and behold my dear, sweet, friend was there! Haley Straub! We were so excited to see a familiar face we hugged for a good 2 minutes. Also...as you can see in the photo below, we matched! Even down to the jewelry color.  How cute is that? While we were there we also got to network with the other Interior Designers in the Mobile area. It was awesome to see so many creative people in one place! I even got to see another designer I interviewed with at TAG. Networking is so important in our field. We heard presentations from Steelcase, DesignTex, Tandus-Centiva, and WilsonArt.

As you probably already saw, I was at the Mayor's office at the beginning of the week...then at the end I went to the Mobile Airport Authority with Erin! Which, in its own right, is a little less exciting, but nonetheless important. We brought chairs for them to test out for the new design of their conference rooms.

{Side story, the woman we were corresponding with, and who tested out the chairs was asking me about my internship and where I went to school. When I told her Southern Miss, she told me she was a Southern Miss alum, which was really cool. And then...she asked me if I was in a sorority and when I told her I was a Chi Omega she jumped up and hugged me because she is a Chi Omega alum too! How fun is that!? Making connections all around Mobile...}

Wednesday afternoon I worked on the Palmer Hyundai business office in AutoCAD and drew up the plan that Bonnie had hand-sketched. After lots of trial and error, AutoCAD and I became friends again and an extended breakup. :)

Thursday we had a meeting with our client from the Mayor's office as well as the client for ServisFirst bank and we went over the plans for the bank to decide what furniture she needed as well as the finishes for the flooring, walls, and task chairs. After the meeting Erin and I compiled binders with the furniture brochures and labeled them so that we know what furniture we've chosen for each room and to keep us organized.

Haworth love and mine,
Emily

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Week 2

Hi everyone!
This week I'm working on the City of Mobile's conference room! (Yes, I was in the mayor's office on my 4th day of work-- cool, huh?!) Erin and I are working with the designer for the city to specify a 20 ft Haworth table. Here is a photo of the existing conference room:

Very traditional and neutral..And blah.We already have new chairs ordered and the table and credenza are in the process of being ordered! I drew up the conference room in AutoCAD today and learned how to specify the Haworth furniture in CAD and export it to Project Matrix in order to get the pricing for the table, electrical boxes, cable box, credenza, credenza top, and how to specify the different leg types and leg placements.
Just for fun...this is the Mayor's office designed by the talented city designer, Sara McCoy! And check out that view! To die for...



















A rather large challenge I faced on Tuesday was AutoCAD. It's been a year and a half since I've used it and I learned on a totally different version, so I have been struggling through it a little bit. However, Josh and Bonnie have been awesome at helping me and teaching me new shortcuts and tools to use. At our staff meeting this morning (Wednesday) I was assigned the ServisFirst project along with Erin, so I will be doing all of the CAD and specifying/pricing of furniture! Eeeeek. I'm nervous, but excited! Keep reading to see how the project is going! I have a big meeting with our ServisFirst client tomorrow, so I'll post about it on Friday!
Haworth love and mine,
Emily the Intern

Monday, May 18, 2015

Bio and Desk Photo

Hi! My name is Emily Stokley and I am an intern at Innerspaice Architectural Interiors in Mobile, AL. I'm from a small town called Sweet Water, AL and I have two wonderfully supportive parents and 3 beautiful sisters. This blog is an account of my summer as as intern! The picture above is me at my desk. I love my work space and I feel so blessed to be a part of the Innerspaice team! A few of my responsibilities include:
+Organizing and maintaining a functional and clean resource library
 +Assisting the designers in choosing fabrics for furniture
 +Pulling finishes from the library for the designers to view
  +Sitting in on client meetings and taking notes for the designers/sales manager
  +Helping admin assistant complete purchase orders by double checking sales numbers
  +Putting together finish boards for client meetings
+Ordering samples online for designers
+Joining staff members on site trips to assist them in various ways
 +Assisting the team by completing various projects in AutoCAD


Friday, May 15, 2015

Week 1

Wayne showing me how the putting green 
works in the Haworth raised flooring system. 
How cool?! 

C Spire project finish board I designed on my second day! 
(carpet is existing, so Jess had to work with what she had) 
#renovationprobs

This is our vault (aka resource library). It is a very 
neat piece of history and one of my favorite things 
about the office! (second only to the putting green) ;)

Week 1

Hi everyone!
     Emily the Intern here! I am an interior design student at the University of Southern Mississippi but I'm interning for the summer with Innerspaice Architectural Interiors in historic downtown Mobile, AL. Innerspaice has 7 employees and as far as I can tell, this is the set-up:
Jim is our Principal, Josh is the Director of Design (my boss), Bonnie is the sales manager, Jessica is a designer, Erin is a designer, Wayne is the project manager, Kelly is the administrative assistant...and then there's me: the Intern. Innerspaice sells mostly Haworth products, but also uses other lines such as Global, National, and OFS in their design solutions. They do new projects, renovations, and also solely furniture sales.
     On my first day (May 14th) I walked up and was greeted at the door by our traveling rep, Richie (Innerspaice is also in Fort Walton, FL and Birmingham, AL). I walked in, shook his hand and introduced myself saying, "Hi, I'm Emily! The Intern." In return he said, "Hi Emily the Intern." So...that is why I've named my blog Emily the Intern. Kinda catchy, huh?
     On my first day I was thrown right in and started organizing the resource library.You can imagine my thought process when I was told that would be my first assignment. However, there is much joy to be found even in the little things. So..even in my nice 'first day of work' outfit I was on the floor in the vault (our space used to be a car dealership in the 20's so our resource library is a literal vault) organizing the samples, separating them into the correct categories, and filing them away.
     As unimportant and mundane as that task seems, I found  a lot joy in organizing and making our vault functional and user-friendly. And darn if all that organizing didn't come in handy when Jim handed me a company logo color (the brightest shade of blue I had ever seen in my life) and told me to find some fabrics to match it. I literally went through every fabric folder, every box of swatches, and every drawer of memos we had searching for the perfect color and pattern. Knowing where everything was came in really handy while searching for the right shade of blue in a bold pattern for the tuxedo chair going in the C Spire office lobby. I found some Jim really liked so we're going to show the client on Monday!
    My first day on the job I also got to sit in on a client meeting with Erin. We met with an independent designer who is hiring us to do the furniture specifications for the renovation of ServisFirst Bank in downtown Mobile. She brought in the plans and we took notes on what furniture is needed and what the existing building looks like. I'm going with Erin on the site visit Tuesday, so stay tuned for more on the ServisFirst Bank!
     Today was my second day and I actually got to do the finish board for the C Spire project! Jessica, the designer for the project, gave me the list of finishes so I pulled them from the resource library and began mounting them foam core board. Pictures to come!
     That's a wrap on the short, but sweet week one of my internship!
Haworth love and mine,
Emily the Intern