Rachell Kim

In my early career, before going into corporate interiors, I worked in this little boutique firm where I did trade shows and exhibition booth design. I really enjoyed that process because I got to design smaller, almost like little showroom-type spaces, and our clients were all international clients, so I got to work with a lot of different brands and international clients. That really opened my eyes a little bit when it comes to design and branding. Similar to my background, since I'm not from the States, I was able to bring in some inspirations and cultural backgrounds from South Korea, and that mixture really helped me be successful in telling a story. Also, when I do presentations to my clients, because I'm not too confident in my verbal skills, I tend to lean more towards my visuals to explain my thought process. With that, I think it really helped me grow my strength in creating visual presentations that could tell a really good design story. Even if I'm not there to explain what it is, our clients can really tell where the inspiration is coming from and how I'm visioning the space.

This is a little personal, but in my third or fourth year, I was really overwhelmed with everything that I had to be doing and responsible for, and I thought about moving away from my career. My manager at that time told me, 'God only gives you the struggle that you can handle.' She really saw my talents in what I do, so she was like, 'You know, just be patient with yourself, you don't have to do everything right now.' Even though I was thinking that I wanted to leave this field, she said, 'I know you're gonna continue in this field, because I see your passion and love, and you're so good at what you do.' That mentorship really brought me back on track and kept me going.

I would say you need to enjoy what you do, because our field is really a passionate field, and we need a lot of love and energy to do what we do. In my first few years of my career, I had to do a lot of overtimes and things like that to make it happen. But now, with AI tools and everything, things are a little better, and as you grow into your career, you can be more flexible with your hours and everything. I saw a lot of young designers where they are in their first, second, third, fourth year of their career, and they just gave up. They left and did something else because they couldn't hold those first few years. But if you really love what you do, and if you're patient with those first few years where you are learning a lot of stuff, then I think you can be successful.

I've been focused on corporate interiors, which is designing headquarters and office spaces for my clients, and it's been a struggle for the last few years after COVID because how people work and our office culture is very different than before, and it keeps changing. People were downsizing a lot, and now they're slowly going back to the office, but they're definitely smaller than before. They want more collaborative and more hospitality-type spaces in their office than individual workspaces. I don't think there's a conclusion yet on how we are moving forward, because a lot of people are working from home too, and they prefer to be remote and flexible. We really don't know what's gonna be the next future in the workplace. That's the challenge - we don't know the answer. The office environment and this industry is a bit fragile right now because we just don't know what's coming next. A lot of the firms are having a hard time finding new projects because everything is kind of up in the air right now. People don't want to invest their money in their workplace at the moment because they don't know what the new future is gonna be.

Honestly, I don't have big values like some other architects and designers may say, like 'I want to change people's lives' and 'I want to change the world and how people behave' and things like that. My values are really personal, and I want to find what I love. Steve Jobs is my role model as a designer, and he quoted, 'Never stop finding what you love, because you are working 80% of your time in your life, and if you are not 100% satisfied in what you do, then you're gonna regret at the end of your life, and you're basically wasting your life.' I really believe in that, and so I continue to find what I love and where my heart goes, and I never stop.