Working for Tips

Starting a business cold turkey, without any clients, presented itself with plenty of problems. Not all of them new to the business world but certainly new for a first-time entrepreneur and fledgling business such as WAKE. One of those problems, and arguably the only one that matters, is how to generate work and get paid. In attempts to resolve this problem and because everyone deserves well-designed spaces we put into place a controversial office policy: 

Design projects which do not require a permit, are estimated below 40hrs of work, and below $15,000 in budget will be done on a tip-based fee structure. 

Our first tip based project: Built-in bookcase and reading niche

A fair amount of time was spent defending and explaining this policy to my peers, friends, potential clients, and current clients. Stating that architects have removed themselves from the public eye, partitioned off our profession, and spent too long purely in the world of the theoretical praising the now “starchitects” which solely focus on the hyper-rich and Avante-guard. Because of this, it is now the general perception that hiring a designer is only for the “well off” which couldn’t be further from the truth. 85% of all architects and designers operate in small firms, less than eight people according to the AIA, and are just as common as your local pediatrician. However, for smaller projects the typical designer charges close to 20% of the overall budget which is a hard pill to swallow for someone already on the fence, unsure of what they’re buying, and holding the opinion that we work only for the rich. 

Now I’m not saying this true of all designers, nor am I suggesting that everyone is “eligible” for this policy, but it is a service we will continue to provide to the public and our clients when asked or approached with a design project. We will continue to do this for the following reasons:

1. Because everyone deserves good design, especially in a time where we are constantly inundated with bad design. 
2. Because it is time for designers to start to repair the misaligned public perception about what we do and why design matters. 
3. Because it keeps us creative fluid as professionals and exposes us to a higher number of design problems for us to learn from.
4. Because it is a great learning experience for our juniors and allows them to directly interact with clients earlier on in their careers spurring growth. 
5. Because the experience gained on smaller projects makes our juniors more capable of handling larger projects, ultimately providing better service to our clients.
6. Because you never know who might know who and doing a good turn daily never hurt anyone.
7. Because I believe it is a better marketing strategy, and time better spent, than always trying to upsell people, only go after the 1%, or take out ads and that by helping people it will keep WAKE in the forefront of their minds when they’re at a friends dinner party, and someone wants to undertake a development project. 
8. Because I choose to believe people are inherently good, will not stiff you if you do a good job, and appreciate the holiday cards of clients growing families and baked banana bread sent to the office every holiday from those we have helped. 
    

Why "Wake?"

I will try to keep this short, though it is anything but that. 85-90% of my graduate thesis was, arguably, a failure but the 10-15% that was not drastically exceeded my expectations and taught me more about life, design, and architecture than I could have ever imaged. I stubbornly proposed a hypothesis which argued literary ordering principles could influence architectural design and dove head first into various pieces of writing, dissecting and exploring each until arriving at Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce where I spent a little over six months trying to make sense of the text. My final presentation was a combination of architectural theory and design, wrought with questions, tangent conversations, and about four hours of juror interrogation which picked apart both the areas of success and failure in my approach. 

Architectural Mapping of London overlaying nodes of interaction, with transportation, and neighborhood boundary conditions from my M.Arch Thesis.

“WAKE” is both a tribute and reminder of that endeavor. A tribute to the exploration undertaken, the novel itself, and lessons learned during that period of time which continue to influence me today. “WAKE” also stands as a reminder to myself and our employees to strive for better as design professional and not fear the unknown, it also represents a promise to our clients that we will forever focus on the “what” in addition to the “how” while demanding active-participation from our work and its inhabitants. Both points I hope to elaborate on in a future post since they stem heavily from James Joyce's work. 

It is for these reasons, as tribute and reminder, and many more that the company is named after Finnegan’s Wake, a book I will happily discuss with all who wish to broach the topic.

Hi

For those of you that don’t know, I’m Nathan. Among other things, I’m an architect (though at the time of this writing still waiting painfully for the State of New York to issue my license number), an adjunct professor at New York Institute of Technology, a rock climber, an avid cyclist, an Eagle Scout, a Kung-Fu film buff, a comic book nerd, passionate world explorer, lover of whiskey, and foodie with a densely populated google maps.. 

Having grown up overseas, and trying to travel as often as possible, I do not particularly consider myself “American” nor do I strongly affiliate with or consider myself a New Yorker despite having lived in NYC for the past five years. With my early childhood overseas, and the following years in North Jersey before heading off to college, and beyond, the ever-present wanderlust has influenced my design methodology, approach to business, interactions with humans, and shaped my perspective of the world for what I hope is the better. 

The blog, like this company, is new and a work in progress so please pardon the white space as I prepare additional material. My plans for this company and blog are still under development. But part of this writing project is about seeking out new opportunities for collaboration with other designers, to forge new connections in the professional world, and an ever-present attempt/goal to turn my theoretical understanding of the world/profession into practice. To continually promote change in my life, grow as a person, and to be challenged as a designer to remain creatively fluid. I owe thanks to many people who have helped me along the way and will continue to assist me on this journey but a special thank you should be paid to Lauren Pearl and Steven Roberge for never letting me forget about self-care and the support they bring me while being buried in work.