The Perks of Designing Under a Large Firm, with Pembrooke & Ives’ Brigitte Coleman | S29E10

Welcome back to The Chaise Lounge! This week, Nick chats with Brigitte Coleman, design director at Pembrooke & Ives in New York City.Brigitte grew up in California, and always knew she wanted to move to New York. She also knew she wanted to be an architect, getting her inspiration from Julia Morgan, the architect behind Hearst Castle. After graduating from Sci Arc in Los Angeles, she moved to New York and worked in hospitality for ICRAVE and Rockwell. Currently she is a design director at Pembrooke & Ives.Brigitte's situation caught us by surprise. She is not owner of a design firm or company, and is not an independent designer. Rather, she leads her own team in one of 6 studios within a larger firm specializing in interior architecture. She gets to pick her team members, and she is very selective, as teambuilding is crucial to her.The idea of working under a large firm may turn most designers away at first, but there are advantages that will be appealing to others. Brigitte focuses only on the design work. Things like accounting, working with clients, all that is handled by the company. So if you want to be a designer but don't like to deal with clients or invoices, you may want to consider an opportunity like this!

I'm very specific on who I hire. Because us - design directors - run our teams differently, we have different management styles, different expectations, so I prefer to handle hiring myself.

Brigitte Coleman

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