My boyfriend gave me some shit yesterday. He read through my posts and said to me that I don't mention my team enough. I felt bad suddenly. In many ways what he said is right. Even though I'm the team leader the fact is without my team nothing would get done. The people that work with me are the foundations of my success so I would like to dedicate this post to those wonderful people that I am privileged enough to have with me on every project. Many of my team are very junior meaning that they look to me for guidance on every step of their work. Sometimes this frustrates me but the reality is if I hire a senior designer or architect into my firm there may be a clash of egos and ideas. I dont need a colleague that wants to debate the merits of my design ideas with me. I want someone who asks me the best way to do what I'm asking and then get on with it....:)
I have two architects working with me on most of our design projects. These guys are invaluable and their work is just fantastic. They are qualified architects and one is a certified civil engineer. This is important as certain construction drawings need to be signed by a certified architect and engineer when submitting for planning permission to the local authorities. I love seeing a hand sketch turn into a technical design drawing and it's my architectural team that I have to thank for that! For example here is a sketch I have done today - By Wednesday afternoon it will be a first draft technical drawing ready for review.
One of my team has been with me since the very day I opened my studio. She is my rock and never lets me down. Her name is Oil (strange name in English but a normal name in Thai). We work together on all the design projects and Oil is the one that remembers every detail that I forget. She is often on site and always has a measure tape and camera on hand to double check everything....
Jay is one of my junior designers that is very very competent. He often gets things wrong but I love some of his ideas and I love that he is not shy to ask me advice and questions during the work process. He learned a long time ago though - do not ask me the same shit twice or I will get mad!
The renders that I often present here are down to my two Jedis - Lin and Captain. these guys are both lazy as shit but I cant help but forgive them because as soon as I give them a task to do they get it done beautifully in double quick time. Then they kick back and watch youtube or smoke cigarettes until I come back to to check their work. they are absolutely invaluable to my team and are so talented at the render software that I let them have plenty of free rein.
My construction team are of course equally important. I love that I can turn up at the site with drawings and give them some shit. It took a while for them to accept that I know what the hell I'm talking about but my brother is always very supportive and nobody dares argue with me. It's an ongoing battle to make my construction boys understand the high level of detail we demand for our client. I'm very proud of the improvements that have been made over the last couple of years and now many of my team are just getting so great at their work. I see them taking more and more pride in their work and just doing fantastic efforts at the final details, which in Thailand construction are often overlooked.
Many of my readers I guess dont realize just how many people I have working for me. This photo below shows about half my team. The factory team were unable to attend on this day and also many or our construction team were at the job sites. I love all of them and feel that we are all one big family. Without them I would not be where I am today and I made a promise to my boyfriend that I will give them some better recognition in future posts....:)
