Make Meaningful Connections

My dad was a storyteller. That was how he connected to people: he told his stories, and he listened to other people’s. He was curious, and he wasn’t afraid to ask tough questions. This year, I’m taking a page out of his book and looking for a sense of connection I’ve lost during the pandemic.

In 2022, I’m focused on making meaningful connections.

I loved our office in Cleveland and I miss Cleveland but I am not going to lie, I love working from my house, I love Zoom, but nothing beats the rigor of going out and meeting people face to face. Nothing can be perfect, but no matter what the method, we can still make meaningful connections happen.

designRoom was founded on the idea of connection. Even when it was just me, connecting with our clients was the most important thing to me. I didn't want to create work in a vacuum, and I did not want to create just another design firm. I wanted to be different. To me, that meant prioritizing real communication over popular trends. Specifically, the creative team has direct access to our clients, a genuine connection. It's always a challenge to describe your own organization, but here are the values that have stuck with us over the years:

• We open eyes by creating something special. We determine the right strategy, develop a plan, recommend big ideas, and deliver flawlessly.
• We are committed to doing the right thing. We show up, ask tough questions, set clear expectations, communicate with candor and push beyond the ask.
• We believe in the people we work with and for.
• We are scrappy: nimble, collaborative, resourceful and genuine.

This year, we’re going to go in-depth into each of these values by talking to members of our team and hearing their stories. You’ll learn about our process, our insights, different ways we think and what our work and the people we work for mean to us.

In our next post, we will go deep on what opening eyes and creating something special means exactly.