design + energy + excellence

Category: General (Page 18 of 28)

My Colouring Pencils

 

This is not JUST about an ordinary colouring pencil set.

 

This is the colouring pencil set I waited 6 years for.

 

How many children these days have to wait 6 years to get a set like this?

 

Well, back in 1986 that is what happened to me. I was in secondary school when the need to have ‘proper’ colouring pencils started.

 

My mother couldn’t afford to buy what I needed. So I had to manage to work with rubbish colouring pencils, most of them leftovers from primary school.

 

Sometimes I would borrow one or two pencils from the colleagues that had nice big sets.

 

It was tough.

 

But the years went by and that didn’t stop me to be creative and have good marks.

 

Pencil Box

 

It was much later in the Christmas of 1992 that I got this Caran D’Ache metal box set.

 

It was all I had wished for! …It came too late but it felt like a dream come true. I am not sure if my brother realised how important his present was to me.

I recently got reunited with this set after some 12 years without seeing it. It still holds a special meaning. Just as in life, we cannot always have everything we want when we want or need but it’s important to BELIEVE that dreams can be made true and on the way to pursuing them we will grow and learn a lot about ourselves. We just cannot give up!

 

When was the last time you waited 6 years for a dream to come true?

 

Isabel
_____________

 

Useless facts about my colouring pencils:
  • 13 of these pencils were hardly used and never sharpened. As I said, they came too late when I was using less colours and more graphite, charcoal and ink pens.

 

  • There were 2 pencils missing in this set and one that was not the original. I was able to retrieve all the originals (I had brought them with me when I came to Ireland in 2002) and the set is now as it was originally.

 

  • I don’t colour that much these days but in the last few years I was able to survive with a set of 12 Faber- Castell pencils and a set of 24 Derwent pencils. I am now the proud owner of some 76 decent colouring pencils 🙂

 

  • The colours I most use are blue, red, yellow, white and black. Mondrian style… But I use them to convey my ideas and differentiate volumes, materials or textures, nothing too exciting…

 

  • I found the original white colour pencil in my sewing box. I guess I don’t use it that much, AH!

 

  • I told you these were useless facts!

 

Are You Our Type of Client?

At some stage, when business gets very busy we will have to start selecting our clients.

“What?!”, you say. And we can hear you laughing and scratching your head!

No, we are not being snobbish or picky, it is just that there are persons we love to work with and others that not so much.

In recent years we have been fortunate enough to love 94% of the clients we had. From these, we were madly in love by 53% of them, this means they ticked ALL the boxes below and we even became friends.

We offer a service of excellence and we want to keep it like that. Full stop. So we decided to put together a list of what makes our ideal type of client (in no particular order):

1- Passionate

2- Friend of the environment

3- Design educated OR open to learn/appreciate

4- Funny and relaxed

5- Honest

6- Will let US solve the (design) problems and challenges

7- Respects our work

8- Provides feedback (good or bad!)

9- Has a realistic budget

10- With a holistic approach to life

 

If you have ALL the characteristics above do get in touch with us TODAY. We would love to work with you!

And we know, from experience, YOU will love to work with us.

 

 

The Secret Guide to Deal with Architects – Take 6

 

Our 6th secret tip about how to deal with an Architect focus on relationship building as an important pillar for collaborative work.

If you have just landed here do not miss our previous tips:

 

6. Build Trust

Build a relationship with your Architect based on trust and credibility. Your Architect’s duty is to always act in your best interest. An Architect has the most appropriate training and experience to design, co-ordinate and manage your building project, and you need to believe this!

An Architect that feels trusted by a client will definitely go an extra mile and you may even get some freebies along the way (most likely extra time not charged and extra care and passion for your project).

Take 6

Hot tip: Become a friend rather than just a client. Open your heart and share your interests with your Architect (even if they are as simple as liking giraffes!), you may find out that your Architect has similar interests and what best way to start a relationship where teamwork is so important!

 

Go to Take 7 – Enjoy the Process

 

Start from Take 1 – Stages

 

 

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