Early this Spring, we were approached by Beth Greene, Kravet Executive VP of Marketing and Strategic Branding, about their Design Grad Program. The Program began six years ago, with the goal of partnering with design schools to prepare their students for the transition from classes to working in the industry. As of this year, Kravet is working with 93 schools across North America, with over 1,000 student accounts in its trade program.
Kravet asked Lucas/Eilers to take on the role of Design Mentors for their collaboration with SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design). We were thrilled to be part of this wonderful initiative of helping guide the next generation of residential designers!
To give you a brief overview, there were two studios participating in the collaboration, under the careful eye of Sarah Boehm, Professor of Interior Design at SCAD. The students were introduced to the Kravet brands and an individual project of designing a master suite.
Following this small intro project, the students were grouped into teams of no more than three students each to complete the rest of the residence that included a living room, kitchen, dining room, guest bathroom, and two client driven spaces – ex. yoga room, art studio, etc. It was at this stage, we were introduced to the small groups that we were assigned to mentor through to the completion of the project.
Once the kick-off meeting on the larger project components took place, we scheduled frequent, interim check-in sessions via remote digital media to review the progress, answer any questions and generally, act as a sounding board for the students’ ideas. The project completion culminated with the Final Group Project Presentation at the end of May, in Savannah, Georgia, which we attended in person.
Here is what one of the students , Megan Cranston, had to say about the collaboration: “The program was super helpful by providing in-depth access to information about the products I was interested in specifying, beyond just the basics. Especially at the beginning of learning how to properly specify products, it made the process super simple and easy to navigate. Also, it gives me a sense of security knowing I’ll have this community once I graduate college as well as an amazing tool at my disposal. I joined the program in the past few months so I haven’t been able to utilize the program to its fullest extent yet but I’m excited for more opportunities to do so in the future.”
Megan will be doing a summer internship at Lucas Eilers Design, starting July, and we look forward to welcoming her to Houston!
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
