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If you had to sum up your career, where would you start? Where you started and where you are now? What were the pivotal moments that made you who you are? Yes, it’s really hard. I set out to write this post to tell you a little bit more about the designer behind HaylieRead. But man, I’m not sure where to start.
So I’ll start with the easiest part, my background. I attended Savannah College of Art and Design and studied painting. Yes, not interior design, I'll get there. Painting was my passion from about age 12. I took many many classes, trying to hone my skills and become a professional artist.
Well I struggled, I ended up learning that painting was really hard when you had to do it for a career. I no longer had the freedom. I had deadlines, specific styles and quantities to achieve. Also, side bar, I also had the love of my life studying at another college about 500 miles away.
Kind of a tough combo to realize at age 19. A) your passion is not your career! B) You are navigating a long distance relationship. Not fun!
I soon found that I needed more structure. I needed a career that could use my creativity but also had a system and structure. In the end, I found Interior Design. And man have I not been disappointed. Interior design pulls out the best sides of me. I can be creative and dream up amazing spaces that no one has seen before. I can also buckle down and figure out the technical details required to achieve this one of a kind design. It is perfect! It uses both sides of my brain.
So I ended up at Iowa State University, with the BF, and with a new found passion for my chosen career. I graduated with my Bachelors of Fine Arts in Interior Design and minor in environmental studies.
From there my passion grew exponentially. I found a job at an architectural firm immediately. I began working with an uber talented, superwoman, who taught me how to be a professional creative. I was thrown into large projects where I learned how to work with clients, contractors, and architects.
I just kept wanting to learn more and more. Work on a bigger and badder project. At the end of every project I had learned so much. At one point, I realized that I was missing something. I was finding that commercial projects really only cared about time and money. I was missing the passion from the clients. I knew that a passionate client that was willing to build a new hotel or high rise, would never be as in love and thrilled with the end result as an individual’s home or personal space.
Thus, an idea was born. I set out, looking to find this next level of gratification. I knew I could design beautiful spaces and make them come to life. But I needed more now. I wanted to feel that when a project was complete that the client was so happy with the result, that I had actually changed their life! Design can do that! Design can really alter the way you live and feel. More on this in a future post!
So in 2020, the beginning of a new decade, I decided to shift gears and open my own interior design studio, HaylieRead Design. And I could not be happier! I created a studio where the client comes first. Every decision I make for a space, I ask myself, why? Why are we using this porcelain tile over a ceramic? Why are we removing the kitchen walls and extending the living room into the kitchen? These answers may seem obvious but in reality, not all designers care about how the client uses the space as an end result. It can just be all about the final photo. I needed more than that! True joy is when the client can’t imagine living in their space before you transformed it.
Of course there are challenges. How do you teach an Interior Designer business skills and Quickbooks??!! Quickbooks is my archnemesis. But I found that if you love something so much, all of the challenging hills just feel like dips in the roller coaster. Just keep moving and you will soon be at the peak!
