Photoshoots & Projects!

Yesterday my photographer & her assistant (Helen Norman & F.J. Hughes) -are also good friends- arrived to shoot a few projects.  I am SO EXCITED about these photos!!!!!  Today we're shooting another one & I can't wait to see these. 

{Not a photo from our shoot yesterday...  this is froman earlier shoot of  my textile line}

Yesterday, we shot a living room & dining room in an adorable bungalow along with my newly (& finally) finished office and workspaces at home.  I had help this time from Holly Chapple, an amazing floral designer based out of Leesburg.  Holly'a work is featured frequently in magazines & wedding blogs and she is INCREDIBLE.  If you love flowers like I do, her work is pure eye candy.  We met after she saw my feature in Victoria Magazine & the timing couldn't have been better.  Together we looked at scouting shots I'd taken of the rooms to be photographed and came up with loose plans for arrangements we could use when we took photos of my finished work.  Holly then created the actual arrangements in her own style for the shoots.  

{This isn't one of our photos but a beautiful little arrangement I pulled off of Holly's blog- The Full Bouquet-   You need to visit.  But you'll spend waaaaaay too much time there, just a warning! ;)

So anyway...  I get emails & questions every once in a while about showing more of my finished work.  The reason I don't show very many of my finished projects on my blog is because I'm hoping that some of my unshown finished projects will be published.   The Catch 22 with finished projects in the interior design business is that to attract clients & show others what you can do, you need to put your BEST projects on your portfolio & your blog, but you also need to bring attention to your business by being published in shelter magazines...   And many magazines (including some digital magazines)  don't want to use projects that have already been shown online. 

I have been lucky enough that some magazines- both local and national- have published projects seen on my blog/portfolio, and I can't explain how thankful I am that I have been able to share my work with you on here & then with a much larger audience when the magazine is released.  I completely understand magazines not wanting to publish things that have been seen already anywhere  because they are looking for completely fresh & new content, but I also really appreciate that some other magazines understand that these projects & the sharing of them is directly related to designers' livelihoods & will still publish things that have been seen before.  I think it really affects newer designers (like me) because each project is really a different facet of what you can do & your business drastically increases every time you add new photos to your portfolio because you attract new people & you improve and solidify your business.  (Although I guess this probably applies even to very established designers because I'm sure they're pushing their own design envelopes too with every new project.)   We are in the business of creating & we have to share & show what we create in order to keep going & to keep moving forward, but we have to be really careful about how we best "share" our work the first time. 

Believe me, I am like a child when it comes to being excited about finished projects that I'm proud of.  ("Look what I made Mom!!!".)  And the first thing I want to run & do is post the pictures right here to share with you all because I feel like you are routing for me & offer me so much support, but I have to temper myself & my excitement.  (It's torture, for real.)  And I want to put them on my portfolio so that potential cllients will see them & want to work with me.

But then...  Every time I have learned that a project of mine is going to be published, it's like a dream come true.  Honestly.  I pour over magazines & just love them so much, and when I find out that something of mine will be in one, it's surreal.

So I have to balance it all & decide carefully.

Any thoughts?  I'd love to hear your experiences & I've been thinking for a while that it would be great to compile a list of magazines who do accept projects that have been on blogs & those that don't, just so that people are aware of what options they are closing off when they put things on blogs & what options are still viable.  Anyone know any ones in particular that are one way or the other??

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I'm off for the day to the photoshoot--- have totally been on the computer blogging while my children run wild.  Oops.

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.