It is hard to believe that it has been three years since I started our online interior design business. Many things happened since then and went though lot of changes with our e-design business including types of services, websites and a new business name. It was quite experience for me to learn and understand e-design industry. It is what it has kept me busy those years now. I realize that I haven’t really shared much of myself to you and my clients since the day one. It is time for you to get know me better! :)
I was born and raised in southern California but lived in Oregon and Seattle, Washington before returned to southern California and then now living in Vancouver, B.C. in Canada. You can call me a West Coast guy, haha! There are some interesting things about myself.
I was growing up wanting to be an architect so I would design skyscrapers, shopping malls, or any large buildings. Until I am in my late teenager years and I realize that requires lots of skills in math which I seriously lack in. I had to end my dream career and decided to major in business and urban planning when I attended to Western Oregon University. Before I start my second years in college, I moved in my apartment with my two roommates which didn’t let me to decorate our living room but I ended up decorating my bedroom. I got lots of compliments from my college buddies about my room look and suggested me that I should be an interior designer. Funny thing, my mom was an interior designer too! She did lots of interior design projects for many high end homes in southern California and never thought I would pick that up. I changed my major to interior design and transferred to Art Institute of Seattle to study this field. I received my Bachelor of Fine Art degree in 2008 but by the time I graduated, the economy went south. It made it challenge for me to find any entry level interior design job since all interior design and architecture firms in Seattle were laying off its employees and few of them went out of business. I had to do some freelance interior design works time to time and did an internship at upscale furniture showroom in Seattle Design Center. Then economy got better and these firms are hiring those days. I tried again and I faced other challenges to land an interior design career due to discrimination against my Deafness. That was the first thing they were very concerned about without giving me the chance to prove them that I can do the job. You have probably noticed by this point that my English is not great. I grew up in the States and learned English but for me, English is still a second language. Many people don’t realize the ASL (American Sign Lanquage) is really very different than English with grammar, so conceptually I often put my thoughts together in ASL grammar and it may sound weird. Many studies show that English is one of the most difficult languages to learn for non native speaker because and for me that is true when I write English. I could have had this all proofread and corrected, to make perfect English for my reading audience, but I want to be authentic and that this is my voice “speaking”; good grammar or not.
At the point, I expressed to my other half my frustration about unable to land an interior design career that I love doing. He suggested me to start my online interior design business. At that time, I never heard of anyone doing online interior design service and thought it was brilliant idea. That is how everything started! Three years later, this whole e-design industry is booming and made it more accessible for anyone that need help from professional interior designer from anywhere and get it done via online. That made me happy that I am able to help people to make their dream spaces to come true even we haven’t met in person.