“Listening” for Design
Seek moments of truth. It’s this pure and simple.
When asking questions and listening to someone, all we are looking to uncover are those small truths that can carry consistency through a thousand small decisions. A meaningful, rich design concept is developed from this. It is what sets a unanimous and agreed-upon heading for the course of a home’s lifespan (which is far longer than just the initial project). Upfront, when you’re building, there are a thousand decisions caused by inevitable realities (from the likes of engineers, builders, and architects) that can seem to “botch” a design. But we’re not gathered to create something inside of your imagination, we’re here to bridge the gap between imagination and the grounded reality of wood, stone, and fabric in a mechanically air-conditioned environment (more on that later!).
The all-important “Design Concept”
Great things happen as a result of a tight vision. Especially when it comes to “moving the masses” (which is absolutely the case in a construction project) the simplicity and resonance of a few simple ideas and articulations go a long way in aligning everyone involved. So when a subcontractor gets confused, there’s something consistent to lean on. An example might be a keyphrase like, “The Nature of Home.” If this is a component of the Design Concept, then a builder would know that he’s not going to be doing a lot of clean and sleek modern finishes. It puts his head in the right design space, and he won’t suggest modernist solutions or stark finishes.
People come to Slaughter Design Studio to look for an aesthetic that’s locked away inside their head, we get there by asking a lot of questions and looking for those consistent themes that get repeated from conversation to conversation. We don’t just blink and make a Design Concept appear, we chip away at it, piece by piece over some time. People find this reassuring. You don’t have to walk in with it all perfectly crystallize in your head, and you don’t have to find eureka at the first meeting.
What’s special is when the aesthetic begins to join in with the practical mechanics of a space. We want to guide people into a seamless drift between the artistry and the practical elements of a space and the Design Concept really helps as you resolve these two components.
The Gritty Part of Design: Problem Solving
We had a really excellent story wherein the client wanted a “kitchen that didn’t look like a kitchen” and really didn’t want to see an obtrusive soffit caused by the HVAC system. This could have ground everything to a halt as we began waving the wand to try and make these things disappear, but the fact of the matter is that a kitchen looks like a kitchen because of how it functions, and a house without ductwork is a house without air conditioning. So the “problem” wasn’t going to be solved without drawing these comments back to the “conceptual”. We can’t just delete a kitchen, sink, burners, and refrigerator, but we can take these desires as a “principal” and then use design to remove emphasis from them and re-direct the eye of the user to other elements that more strongly characterize the concept of simplicity and clean visual space.
This is a process of bringing people from intention into reality, but with direction. Seeking a moment of truth means embracing the honesty of what space is (in this case, a kitchen) and embracing its functional requirements. Integration stems from the leadership of the Design Concept. We began searching for solutions around that reality and discovered a beautiful solution offered by other elements. We integrated the HVAC with the lighting and kept the function, but reduced the visual footprint.
“A concept grounded in reality becomes a design challenge: to make something better than what it is at first. This is the next level of detail and thought. This is why designers design.”
Lasting Results
Slaughter Design Studio is a champion for the whole concept of timelessness. We’re not a cheap-fads shop, because very rarely is that an accurate and true reflection of the people we serve. We’ve discovered that a well-formed Design Concept is the crucial point in creating cohesion without everything having to match all the time. So you can keep collecting and buying over the years and what you add doesn’t look like something ill-fitting, it looks at home, it looks like you. Time adds texture and meaning to a space rather than deteriorating it, because everything stems from the person reflected in that home. Tastes rarely, truly change, and by taking time to know what that is for each person, we make better long-term decisions.
There’s as much looking as listening in this process. We have to take our blinders off and observe the reality surrounding a person’s life. A person’s current surroundings say a lot about what is influencing the Design Concept, a well-worn trail on the floor from the kitchen to the patio says that a person likes to take their food outside. So we make sure that makes the list, “Put that patio door as close to the kitchen as possible!”
When we listen, we repeat. This is invaluable, to respond with, “What I hear you saying is…” This cycle creates a lot of clarity. It allows us to really take to heart what a person is saying just as much as it gives them a chance to reframe their meaning if needed. It can be worrisome, making decisions that you don’t feel equipped to make, so we use the actual listening process to create confidence, to give people the strength to find their own convictions and deeply know what it is that they like in a space.
For us, it’s become simple. Take time to know people, listen well, establish a Design Concept, repeat it over and over again in its simplest form, and use it as a tool to keep everyone on the same page. Don’t get lost in non-realities, a concept is a principle, it’s got to live in reality, and in Texas, you don’t need to lose your HVAC to have a beautiful and clean space!
*These writings are a collaborative effort between Slaughter Design Studio, and Ben Rodgers Pivotol. We do the designing and thinking, they capture it in words and “essence” so we can share it with you!