5 Rules for Designers: Learn Them By Heart to Avoid Mistakes

All documents must be formatted in accordance with the law, relationships formalized, and all decisions and actions should be clear and meticulous. These general truths also apply to the profession of a designer, insists architect Tatyana Kazantseva. Memorize these five simple rules.

Tatyana Kazantseva — architect and designer

In every project, she aims to create a reliable, convenient space for daily life, meticulously planned, with its own unique style and atmosphere reflecting the client's personality.

1. Sign the contract

Working with a contract is always very boring, as there's a flight of creative thought and brilliant solutions ahead. Why waste time on this unworthy bureaucratic paperwork when clients are so sweet and reasonable, full of ideas and enthusiasm, and inspiration is unbearable?

Take the deposit — and forward, toward eternal life and beauty! Only later do you realize that along with your drawings, they were expecting devoted support through all stores and construction markets, that the tile layer laid tiles crookedly with your hands, and the final payment will come only when the sofa confirms its resistance to wear for 15,000 cycles. In short, come down from the heavens to earth and sign a contract.

2. Sign all approved drawings

Yes, you came up with a genius solution. Yes, the sparkle in your client's eyes can't lie — they're happy to have connected with such a talented person like you. But the sparkle in their eyes was not a sign of approval but an allergy to your perfume, which you didn't consider, and you've already prepared all the sketches and drawings.

Yes, I understand that no better solution exists than this one, but only the signatures of interested clients can be a real, non-illusory confirmation of future work. If your confidence in yourself was not only enough for the perfect combination of two wood textures and 20 sheets of blueprints, but also for a full set, this rule is even more essential. You don't want to furnish your home with furniture that for unknown reasons doesn't meet the client's expectations? Be vigilant.

At the beginning of my career, what annoyed me most was the need to make notes for contractors (builders, manufacturers, and suppliers) on even the simplest drawings: about size adjustments in reality, discrepancies in dimensions at the construction site, about hardware approval, and about clarifying details.

It seemed that only an idiot could get confused and make a mistake in such simple things. In fact, it's the idiots who rely on others' conscientiousness and professionalism and save those 5 minutes needed for copy-paste from one drawing to another. Don't be lazy.

3. Don't be friends, work

You should forget that you are a pleasant and good person ready to redo anything 300 times for free, drive around the city looking for the right shade, and answer questions from foremen politely all day long.
Believe me, friendship won't come out of such work, but free labor will be required. Be a professional.

4. Remember who is responsible for everything

There can only be one designer (or studio) on the site. Good taste and a whole collection of AD magazines won't speed up or improve the project realization process in any way.

As soon as the client directly or indirectly mentions their design proficiency and good taste, or casually says that they could have done it better or the same — they automatically end up alone with their construction site. Words must be answered.

5. Value your work

Even despite the fact that the interior design profession has been completely devalued by uneducated advice on apartment decoration. Even despite the thousands of graduates from various design schools who scare good people with their outrageous incompetence for small (and not so small) fees.

Any smart person, distant from global spatial organization issues, wants to get sensible professional help and is ready to pay for it. In short, friends, work well, work clearly. Don't be lazy and don't let the minors slip through — only this way will you not sink in a thick mass of questionable figures in interior art.