Job Description: Middleweight FF&E Designer & Stylist – 12 month contract

Who are we?

Studio Ashby is a London-based interior design studio, founded by Sophie Ashby in 2014. We are a dynamic group of twelve experienced designers, working across residential and commercial interior design and creative direction in the UK, Europe and further afield. We pride ourselves on our positive, professional and personal approach in all that we do. We work efficiently and collaboratively to bring integrity and soul to interior life.

What do we do?

Our mission is to create habitable spaces with identity. Whether it’s a home, a restaurant, a hotel or a commercial development, we apply the same creative approach that starts with envisioning the lives of the people who will inhabit it. We question what inspires them, what moves them and how we can fulfil their desires and support their needs with our design. Art plays a central role in our inspiration and process. Stemming from Sophie’s own passion and training in art history, we believe art has a vital place in every interior and no space feels complete without it.

Together with interior design we also provide creative direction. This allows us
to create immersive experiences in the environments we design, ensuring the character and style of our clients is felt in substance across all details and touch points. Our creative direction includes many aspects that affect how we experience our environments: from art consultancy and buying to bespoke collaborations, books to uniforms, planting to fragrance. With greater consideration to the many layers that make up our interior world, the deeper the connection we have to it in response.

Relationships are core to all that we do: relationships with our clients, our customers, our suppliers, manufacturers and the many craftspeople and ateliers we work closely with. Our work is a collaborative process involving many different people, and strong relationships are crucial for achieving good results. We believe design should be a positive experience and it’s important to have fun along the way.

Reporting to the Directors and Associates, you will provide FF&E, Accessories and Art schemes from conception through to installation, including scheming, sourcing, budgeting and procurement.

What we’re looking for:

• Someone who demonstrates, through every aspect of who they are, a passionate love of design, art and beauty.
• Someone with experience in scheming and styling, with a good design eye and natural creative instinct for art and colour.
• Someone who thrives both working in a team and independently at the highest level on varied high end residential FF&E projects.
• A confident, loyal, trustworthy, dynamic, charming person who can hold their own with clients, suppliers and project teams.
• Someone with a proactive nature, great instincts, open to feedback.
• Someone unafraid to take responsibility and ensure Studio Ashby deliver a seamless service to our clients with exceptional communication throughout.

The ideal candidate must have:

• A degree or equivalent in Interior Design/Creative Degree
• At 4+ years post-graduate experience with a minimum of 3 years in the luxury residential sector. Ideally international.
• Full proficiency Adobe Creative Suite & Microsoft Suite.
• Broad knowledge of FF&E suppliers, product and trade costs.
• Financial understanding of project costs and budget awareness.
• A passion and knowledge of Art, Antiques, Furniture, Lighting, Textiles and Objects.
• A flair for creative concept generation.
• An exceptional eye for scale and balance, detail and colour.
• Impeccable and concise communication and presentation skills, verbal and written. They must be fluent in spoken and written English.
• Vectorworks experience

The role breakdown:

• Liaising with creative director and clients to define their vision and understanding their preferences
• Developing and presenting design schemes, space planning, and compiling mood and material boards.
• Preparing and developing with the team detailed presentations, drawings, materials, and other documents relating to the FF&E design
• Building and maintaining good supplier and contractor relationships to ensure projects are delivered to Studio standard.
• Sourcing and procuring bespoke joinery and FF&E design, reviewing technical drawings supplied by others.
• Managing the design and procurement process, liaising with manufacturers and suppliers from concept through to completion, ensuring that client project deadlines are met.
• Preparing FF&E project procurement programmes
• Managing FF&E, Accessories and Art inventories and budgets
• Managing and coordinating FF&E Installation with Installation specialists
• Working with Creative Director and Brand Manager as a stylist in photography shoots

If you think that your skills, experience, and personality make you well suited to this role we’d love to hear from you.

Please submit your covering letter, CV and portfolio in PDF format, with the subject ‘Middleweight FF&E Designer & Stylist’ to careers@studioashby.com

What does Sophie believe in?

Sophie has a simple mission, balancing rational and emotional needs to create interiors that are functional but feel warm too. She believes that design should be approachable, not exclusive, and that it can enhance an experience and inspire people. She is inspired in equal parts by people, culture and nature – and where they come together. Her nomadic upbringing and love for travel, combined with her artistic sensibility has given her a deep-rooted curiosity in our sense of place, both how we respond to it and how it shapes us in return.

Sophie believes that good design has meaning: the things we surround ourselves with everyday should move us, and make us feel alive. It is these qualities that she is inspired by and seeks to bring to bring out in her interiors – ultimately it is a soulfulness that allows people to connect to the spaces they inhabit.