How Art Consultants Partner with Interior Designers

For interior designers working on commercial projects, sourcing art is one item on a long list of details they oversee. Often, when a designer finds time in their busy schedule to select art, they’re out of billable hours. Partnering with a commercial art consultant can be a huge help. Commercial art consultants have the expertise to handle the entire art curation and procurement process with minimal supervision while adhering to the designer’s vision. They’re art experts and project managers with interior design experience and training. If you’re an interior designer or architect, read on to learn how an art consultant provides seamless, professional art integration that enhances your overall vision, elevates your design narrative, and ensures your clients see your expertise in every detail.

Collaboration Starts with the Interior Designer’s Vision

When art consultants partner with interior designers, we always start with the interior designer’s vision. You’ve already developed a story, theme or brand identity for their clients. When you bring us onto a project, you want to express that to us and let us know the thought process that brought you to this style, look and identity. Often, you’ve already selected the FF&E package, such as the furniture or finishes like wall coverings or custom rugs. Our assignment is to understand this vision and ensure that any art selected complements the design and speaks to the story you’ve already started to tell.

Why Designers Need an Art Consultant: Time and Expertise

A lot of the interior designers who reach out to us tell us, “I don’t have any hours left on this project.” What a challenge when you still need to source the art! For an interior designer, the world of art procurement is an entirely new one. You will need to spend a lot of time researching how everything works. To give you a better picture, here are just some of things you’ll need to figure out.

• Researching unique artists or prints that connect to the story.
• Negotiating pricing.
• Researching appropriate framing (e.g., acid-free mattes or museum quality glass.)
• Finding qualified art installers.
• Learning art logistics (e.g., shipping freight, insurance, artist contracts, oversized piece costs.)

It’s like a second job and most interior designers don’t have time to do it.

Art Consultants Are Fast and Efficient

As commercial art consultants, our in-depth resources, knowledge, and experience allow us to manage the entire art procurement process faster and more cost-effectively.

• We have a robust database of trusted artists and vendors that allows us to hit the ground running.
• We have certified interior designers on our team to ensure all art selections complement the design of the space.
• We read floorplans and collaborate on art placement and logistics.
• We work with branding departments to ensure art is coordinated with wayfinding and other signage.
• We manage budgets and ensure you maximize it for greatest impact.

Streamlined Project Management

Interior designers don’t have to manage us like other subcontractors. We know designers are busy making big decisions about hundreds of other things. Our job is to make your life easier.

• Our team boasts certifications in project management and interior design. We know the designer’s pain points because we’re experienced in this industry.
• We cut down on the number of emails to the designer while presenting everything with full transparency.
• We require minimal supervision but invite the designer to be as involved as you want to be.

Our Four-Step Art Procurement Process

Our four-step process for art procurement remains consistent regardless of the client.

1. Discovery – Establish vision, goals, and expectations for the artwork. Create selection criteria, determine budget, prioritize artwork locations, and set milestones and deadlines.
2. Selection – We present a wide array of options and guide clients through the review process to narrow and finalize art selections, locations, and pricing.
3. Production – We procure the artwork and custom framing, manage the artists and vendors, oversee commissions, and ensure quality control. Art is completed on time and on budget.
4. Installation – We coordinate and oversee delivery and installation of the art. We recommend best practices for art maintenance and have many ideas to engage your community with your art program.

When we work with a designer, we consider you to be a key stakeholder on the project and we encourage you to be as involved as you want. If you choose to step back, we strive to have at least one meeting with you during the discovery phase to understand your expectations and hopes for the art. We also keep you in the loop by offering you the chance to weigh in on presentations to the client. We touch base with you about frames to see if you have any strong feelings about one type over another. And we collaborate with you on placement of the artwork.

How Can an Interior Designer Engage an Art Consultant?

For interior designers who want to bring an art consultant onto their project, there are flexible engagement models. Our job is to make the interior designer’s job easier, so we go with what works best for you.

Proactive Subcontractor

Some of our interior design partners bring us in early as part of an RFQ/RFP response. When that happens, we are a subcontractor of the interior design firm. The designer oversees us and they are usually our main point of contact until we establish a rapport with the end client. Once we establish that rapport, and the interior designer gets busy, they often step back to let us do our thing. In other cases, the interior designer remains very involved and attends every meeting with us. It’s up to the designer and depends on the project.

Mid-Project Introduction

Sometimes an interior designer will introduce an art consultant to the end client when art comes up mid-project. In these cases, again, some designers remain involved while others remove themselves from the process.

Direct Referral

Some interior designers provide the art consultant’s contact information to the end client and that is the extent of their participation in the process. In these cases, we work directly with the end client to go through the entire art procurement process.

Key Areas of Collaboration That Save Interior Designers Time and Headaches

Art Placement

One way art consultants can save designers time is to mark up the floor plan with suggestions for where to place art. A qualified commercial art consultant knows how to read floor plans and identify opportunities for art placement. As the designer, all you have to do is review it and say yes or no. Whether you mark up the plan and tell us where you’d like to see artwork or we do it for you, collaborating on art placement early during the discovery phase is key.

Logistics

Another important collaboration between art consultants and interior designers is to coordinate art selection with the FF&E package. Art consultants need to know all planned wall materials because they dictate the kinds of art that can be placed there. They also need to know about furniture or equipment to be placed in areas marked for art because they can affect the size of the art.

Branding Integration

A good commercial art consultant can coordinate with a design firm’s branding department to ensure artwork, signage, and branded graphics, like wall vinyls or branded posters, are balanced, cohesive, and of similar quality.

Budget Management

Art consultants use their knowledge of the art market to advise designers whether an artist or vendor quote is reasonable. They can also help you stay on budget by offering value-engineered solutions based on their knowledge of art costs. For example, you might specify a large artwork in your plans for maximum visual impact, but the budget comes up short. As art consultants, we know that even a six-inch reduction in size can save $500, helping you improve costs without compromising your vision. Or, if you decide you really want a natural looking frame that happens to be maple, which is the most expensive material, we can help you find something similar for a lot less money. Or we can suggest a different piece that doesn’t require a frame, forgoing the cost altogether.