IIDA: Momentum Group review

This semester I attended the IIDA networking event at the Momentum Group.  Here we learned about textiles and what a fabric/textile designer did.  It was actually quite interesting.  As a student in the Iarc program you are required to take a textiles class, but I actually never fully understood a lot about textiles and the manufacturing process.  We were able to do a tour of the warehouse and see the workers organizing the fabric to be shipped out and making fabric swatches for design students, designers, clients, etc.  I met with Leo Bushell for a brief moment.  Leo is a designer for the Momentum Group and was very eager to tell me about what it’s like being a textiles designer.  He said that it was rewarding to be able to see your designs actually go from paper to “press.”  However, sometimes with companies such as the Momentum group, they have a certain “image” that seems to be a standard for their company, making it not as easy sometimes to be as creative as one would like.  After talking with Leo, I’m not so sure I would be happy as a textiles or furniture designer.  I was also about to meet with some professionals and get some feedback on my portfolio. 

            I first met with Shannon Ferguson, a designer for ID Collaborative.  She was very nice and gave me some great feedback.  I was looking for more feedback about the images I chose to put in my portfolio as well as my initial Graphic Design of the portfolio itself.  She really liked my graphic design and logo but did give me a couple pointers in improving my logo and switching some of the colors up.  Jeff Lynn and I both met with Shannon and she did a really great job at looking at both of our strengths and interpreting what we should be putting in our portfolio.  She did say that if we have any revit work to make sure we put that in, but also to make sure our portfolio really speaks towards what we’re really good at.  To show mediocre work in several areas is not always better than showing your best work in one area. 

            I also met with Kelly Barger from River’s Edge as well as Blair Davis from ID Collaborative.  Kelly had a unique look on the design world.  She recently started her own design business and has made a very successful name for herself.  However she does most of her work with residential and has the chance to work with a lot of high end customers.  She said, that if you want to start a business and be on your own as a designer, you need to make a name for yourself first.  Find customers who love you and will be loyal and continue to come back to you, as well as recommend you to their acquaintances.  Blair seemed to agree with her, but stated that she’s not sure she would ever want to have her own business because of the liability that comes with it.  As a designer, having a firm to back you up if something were to go wrong with a project certainly has its advantages.  

 They had a bunch of fabric samples out for us to see.  This was really helpful because it allowed us to actually feel the fabric for ourselves and compare them.

We Received a great tour of the warehouse!   To learn more about the Momentum Group check out their webpage here!