Job Description: Project Lead – Maternity Cover 9 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 who will work alongside the Directors and Associates of Studio Ashby at the highest level to lead multiple and varied IA and FF&E projects, with the assistance of more junior members of the team.
• A confident, loyal, trustworthy, dynamic, charming person who can hold their own with clients, project consultant teams, suppliers, contractors, and fabricators.
• Someone unafraid to take responsibility, ensuring Studio Ashby deliver a seamless service to our clients.
• Good project leadership skills, including the ability to mentor more junior members of the team.
• Someone with a proactive nature, great instincts and open to feedback.

The ideal candidate must have:

• A degree or equivalent in Interior Design/Interior Architecture.
• At 7+ years post-graduate experience with a minimum of 6 years in the luxury residential sector.
• Full proficiency using Vectorworks, Adobe Creative Suite & Microsoft Suite.
• A strong background in Interior Architecture, a high standard of technical ability and broad knowledge of materiality.
• A passion for FF&E with vast knowledge of suppliers, product and specialist finishes. Experience in procurement would be a plus but is not essential.
• Experience working on all aspects of projects, through all stages of work, from concept to completion.
• An understanding of project programs and deadlines.
• Financial understanding of project costs and budget awareness.
• 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.

Role Breakdown:

Creative Direction

• Together with the Directors and Associates, lead the creative and conceptual stages of the projects.
• Drive and inspire the design team, bring new ideas, helping to source new furniture, antiques and art and bring original and fresh thoughts to the studio.
• Design and develop beautiful bespoke furniture, including case pieces, upholstery, lighting and joinery.
• Present and sell concepts and design solutions to our Clients.

Design & Project Management

• Provide strong project leadership and seamless service to our clients, with exceptional communication throughout.
• Deliver confident, experienced and skilled space planning, applying knowledge of the planning process and building regulations where applicable.
• Attend regular internal and external design team meetings and assist the designers on the conceptual and technical side of the design process.
• Produce all delivery drawings and specifications to a design intent package level.
• Coordinate and oversee the project’s documentation, ensuring comments and revisions are always up to date.
• Develop detailed specifications.
• Support the Senior Management team in producing detailed project timelines with internal milestones. Provide regular and timely updates and progress reports to the Directors and/or Associates.
• Manage and check information produced by consultants, sub-contractors and suppliers.
• Respond effectively to complex questions and troubleshoot problems, whilst working and switching between various projects.
• Apply strategic thinking to projects. Forecast, identify, and communicate risks and brings ideas and solutions to the table.
• Close projects efficiently- support the project team on rectifying snags and wrapping up projects us as quickly as possible.

Team Support

Support the Senior Management team by;

• Contributing to setting the internal design standards and guidelines, ensure they are implemented by the team.
• Streamlining processes and procedures to increase quality and efficiency.
• Monitoring the project team’s output, report back to Senior Management in a constructive manner, highlighting successes and failures.

Oversee and Support Middleweight and Junior Designers across various projects by;

• Mentoring, providing help and guidance on any design-based queries.
• Redlining corrections, teaching the approved process, and ensuring procedures are followed.
• Drive and constantly work towards improving the company and our staff’s work experience, growth and studio culture.
• Encourage and promote team spirit and motivation.

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 ‘Project Lead’ 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.