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Cover Story
Consulting the Experts
ASID national president, H. Don Bowden believes residential and
commercial clients are seeing the value of interior design.
By Howard Shingle
Photography by Jim Robinette
This month, H. Don
Bowden, FASID, takes the helm as national president of the American
Society of Interior Designers (ASID). He is the principal of H.
Don Bowden—Architect, a small architectural and design firm
in Mobile, AL.
Bowden grew up in the South and does most of his work in the southeast,
but his projects have led him as far north as Manhattan and as far
south as Central America. The variety of projects he has worked
on is nearly as far-ranging: high-end residential, historic preservation
and corporate offices. “If it’s to be high-style and high
design and very functional, we’re who you call,” he says.
Bowden’ firm has just completed work refinishing the Masland
corporate office in Mobile; a new symphony opera corporate office,
located in a historic building; and a new command center for the
Air Force—seemingly, an usually wide range of projects. “They
are and they’re not,” Bowden says. “People work in
very similar ways no matter what, so we try to create an environment
that exemplifies what they do.”
Personally, Bowden enjoys working both on historic buildings and
on new projects from the early design stage. “As an architect,
it is very interesting to start something from scratch, but as an
architect and designer I certainly appreciate something that’s
already existing and maybe expanding upon that concept,” he
says.
Bowden has been involved with ASID for several years and in leadership
roles for at least eight years beginning as the Alabama Chapter
public relations chair in 1994. His service on the national level
began with the National Marketing and Communications Council from
1997 to 1998 and led to terms on the national board from 1998 to
2000 and the National Development Committee from 2000 to 2001.
“I’ve seen a lot of growth. I’ve seen us anticipate
what our members need and make sure we have the programs in place
before they realize they need them,” he says. “We have
been strategically planned for 12 years now, and it shows in our
strength of numbers. We’re offering cutting-edge programs.
In July we signed a document with the U.S. government recognizing
us as a partner with the Government Services Administration (GSA),
so they have shown the value of interior designers.”
D&WC: Do you have specific
goals you’d like to achieve during your term as ASID president?
H. Don Bowden: We have a Strategic
Plan and it’s the president’s job to keep us on that focus.
It’s my job as president to work on creating this Strategic
Plan with the board of directors.
This particularly is a year to make sure that there’s more
awareness of the value of interior design, and that ASID actually
represents a large portion of the contract designers as well as
our already-well-known residential market.
D&WC: What outside
influences are affecting design today? What will be the most important
societal and environmental issues facing interior designers heading
into the years ahead?
Bowden: Understanding how
to design for some separation between work and home space. We’re
going to work at home. We can now work anywhere. I can work in the
lobby of a coffee shop with wireless connections. So the important
thing is how to design a space that is appropriate and allows you
to create a distinction between work and home even though you are
working at home. That doesn’t necessarily mean creating an
office at home, but how to psychologically set a tone and an environment
that allows you to have some space when you are not working.
There has been a big conversion of dining rooms into home offices
because they were such seldom-used rooms, but even with that there
has to be a time and place for doing work so that your work doesn’t
creep up onto every aspect of your life.
The main thing is to set a tone or character and the function
of the space. It might be that realistically you’re going to
work in the family room, but there should be an area that opens
up to become the home office so when you’re in that captured
world you can work there and that’s the focus of your attention.
Then you can close it off and the room is back to being a room.
In the workplace, it’s the customization of your workspace.
It wasn’t that long ago that you accepted whatever was “in
the grid”—so if there was a plane of light above your
head, fine. Then we had task lighting, and we could customize our
space more. We’re seeing now the trend toward, maybe in the
future, customizing acoustics and customizing air-conditioning and
heating for the space. You could have an 80-year-old in a cubical
next to a 29-year-old and they’re going to have different environmental
needs. We see a very strong trend toward customizing enough to please
most everyone, but at the same time watching the bottom line and
keeping a cohesive design together.
D&WC: What are the most important
industry and career-oriented issues facing designers?
Bowden: The most important
things are: sustainability, so that we’re using products that
are friendly to the Earth and as much as possible renewable; also,
the quality of the space, whether that’s indoor air quality
or the quality of the products and the longevity of products that
we use in the space; and, as much as possible, things that might
do multiple tasks so that we are getting the best use of each product.
D&WC: How are present-day
economics affecting designers’ businesses?
Bowden: If anything, it has
been more a psychological effect. We have seen, particularly in
our region, that people have been startled with the uncertainty
of the economy. Industry seems to have suffered more than the private
sector.
With us, as architects and interior designers, usually we see
downturns in the economy long before anyone else. There hasn’t
been a slowdown at all. Housing starts have been good. We’re
still good with office starts and renovations. I thinks it’s
manufacturing that has suffered more so than the other segments
of this industry at this point.
Residentially, we see people devoting a lot more energy to their
homes because they are bringing some work home, but when they are
there they want a sense of everyone being together. Maybe in the
past kids were in one end of the house and adults were at the other.
Now we’re seeing more and more people getting back to the nucleus
of a family. Making these environments secure is the No. 1 issue.
Then comes creating a sense of place where we are comfortable.
D&WC: What are the
up-and-coming contract style trends?
Bowden: In commercial markets
we’re seeing that more and more conversations happen in hallways
and at the break area. We’re starting to see companies design
those areas so that people can congregate there. Instead of the
coffee stations being stuck in little out-of-the-way corners, now
they’re becoming like the kitchen of the home in that they’re
more the hearth of the area. People gather around and there are
places they can have their impromptu meetings, and it’s working
out real well in that it facilitates more spur-of-the-moment interaction.
Cubicles are becoming more customized so that in many instances
they can almost become rooms themselves. Sometimes those rooms are
created simply with taller panels or glass panels, but nonetheless
they are starting to define space more.
D&WC: What do most clients
consider first, second and third when choosing interior furnishings:
price, function or aesthetics? Where does maintenance come into
play?
Bowden: I don’t find
them mutually exclusive of each other. More important than price
is value. That really is true.
I don’t think you can have function without aesthetics. Certainly,
you could, but I would not consider that good design. It’s
important that you achieve some sort of aesthetic concept that you’re
after, but at the same time if it is not functioning well the occupants
will rearrange it to suit themselves. Those two—function and
aesthetics—go hand-in-hand.
The more important concern is not really price as much as value.
It’s a matter of would I be willing to pay more and actually
achieve what I’m after, or can I achieve what I want at even
a lesser price? Optimizing the dollars spent is much more important
than how many dollars are actually spent.
Maintenance is always a consideration. Always.
D&WC: Are clients more
knowledgeable about interior design than in the past?
Bowden: Absolutely. We’re
in the Information Age. People have so many channels they can tune
to, so many magazines they can read, and so many lectures they can
attend that we’re dealing with a far better educated consumer.
Which is an advantage to us.
It’s so much easier dealing with an educated client because
they realize the value in what we do, firstly. Secondly, they understand
that oftentimes there is a higher concept that you are shooting
for so they don’t get bogged down in the individual details.
They look more at the bigger picture.
As a general rule, clients who are exposed to so much more design
are more open to design concepts.
D&WC: What segment
of the consumer population is using design services today? Are more
or fewer clients looking for professional services?
Bowden: I think more. At one
time it was considered that only household with incomes above $75,000
called an interior designer. For large-scale projects that may be
the case; however, with all of the information available the public
is much more aware of the value of interior design.
We’re seeing that many of our clients, who might even be
first-time homeowners or small, starting corporations, understand
the value of the dollars spent for interior design—and it might
not even be for a huge project. These are people that we will build
a relationship with and as they grow and get older we will continue
doing their work and their friends’ work.
Everyone loves the idea of doing it yourself. I think that has grown
dramatically. But what is happening is that interior designers are
learning not to be retail oriented as much as being consultants.
When we have retail designers acting as consultants, then even the
do-it-yourselfer will find them approachable to hire them for their
expertise, even if they do much of the work themselves. We see designers
becoming resources.
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