When it comes to design, nothing’s etched in stone
Well, almost nothing! Clear, firm documentation is just as important as flexibility when change is needed.
There is a huge difference between the two extremes of a seat-of-the-pants approach to your project process, and hard-line inflexibility. Neither bodes well for a successfully smooth path for you and your design team.
Together, you and your design team must decide what needs to be hard and fast, and what can be flexible and open for change. The answer to those factors is closely connected to timing, sequencing, irreversible actions and, of course, cost.
It begins at the beginning with your documentation and planning processes, which constitute the initial aspects of a “Critical Path.” All the content of your project moves through multiple stages from the Vision all the way to Completion. Those stages are plotted into a series of choices, decisions connections and actions that become the path of the project. It is usually referred to as critical because each step or stage comprises either the base for or the result of another.
It would be ridiculous to believe that there would be absolutely no occasions for possible adjustment and reconsideration requiring changes. Design projects
large or small are complex. The larger they get, the more complexity increases. When you take those many details into consideration, it becomes easy to see that there are factors you will want to remain steady, secure and dependable; and others that mandate flexibility.
Trouble may occur when confusion arises about where to be stubbornly insistent on no change, and where change is absolutely necessary. Sometimes an overly large point may be made about a relatively small detail change, and that can cause a shake-up in the rhythms of your project. It
is important to place such problems in perspective relative to your whole project. If one decision or one stumbling block gets too bogged down, it can compromise ten other factors waiting sequentially in the wings.
Your professional designer can assist you in handling such trouble spots when or if they arise. It is often difficult to see all the ripple effects of either rigidity or “capricious” change. Your team will provide the relationships of one process to another as they impact on timing and cost.
When it comes to cost, most clients have no problem insisting on etching their perceived “budget parameters” in stone. But sometimes, they want changes that put that hard-line in jeopardy. That is one place in the process where “etched-instone” and “I-want-these-changes” may create serious conflicts.
Your professional team must adhere to the exact parameters you lay out for them in your negotiations and documentation. When your designer suggests changes, it is purely speculative, and subject to your discretion! When you suggest changes — or require them — your team must be reactive to your wishes, of course. That is why any changes (or rigidity) should be subjected to close scrutiny and clear communication.
The tools that bridge those frequently testy situations are Authorizations and Change-Orders.
Both parties should look at these forms as friendly, and respect both their power and their necessity.
Sometimes an overly large point may be made about a relatively small detail change, and that can cause a shake-up in the rhythms of your project.
Robert Boccabella,
B.F.A. is principal and founder of Business Design Services and a certified interior designer in private practice for over 30 years. Boccabella provides Designing to Fit the Vision© in collaboration with writingservice@ earthlink.net. To contact him call 707-263-7073; email him at rb@ BusinessDesignServices. com or visit www. BusinessDesignServices. com or on Facebook at Business Design Services.