How Do You Scale ‘You’? Brad Ford Has Ideas

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“It's always a little bit of a nutty month,” says interior designer Brad Ford, calling in virtually from Fair, his design showroom and firm HQ at the New York Design Center. A few days prior, the showroom had been packed like sardines for What’s New, What’s Next, the New York design community’s unofficial back-to-school soirée. No time to reset, Ford had already turned his attention to Field + Supply, his semi-annual festival of contemporary craft that returns to Kingston, New York, this weekend. This three-pronged business portfolio, which includes the eponymous design practice he founded in 1998, presents a masterclass in one of the industry’s perennial challenges: scalability. Here, the Arkansas native discusses the importance of diversifying your business (psst: books deals and licensed lines don’t cut it) and shares prudent insights to get you there.

–Mel Studach, Senior Editor, AD PRO

Markets and Margins

Mel Studach: Scalability is one of the biggest challenges within the A&D community—I hear it from designers all the time: How do I scale ‘me’? You’ve led by example when it comes to building assets beyond yourself. Was that always the plan?

Brad Ford: At the end of the day, for as many people as you can hire and the number of projects you take on, the client still wants [the person] whose name is outside the office. Because of that, you really are the only asset. READ MORE