Designers are finding new clients by driving to them – in a TRUCK.
The group, based in Chicago, found that they were struggling to interact with new customers while they remained ‘hidden away’ in their offices.
They dreamed up the idea of touring the area in a van where they could hold meetings with clients and formed the company Design Driven.
Spokesman Matthew Clapper said: ‘For the longest time finding an architect, interior designer, or landscape architect has been an incredibly tedious and time consuming job. Designers tend to spend most of their time in their offices or with other designers, which makes them seemingly hard to find to the general public.
‘Finding a designer also involves hours spent in front of your computer screen, searching for different firms and looking through all of their websites to find their projects and slowly narrowing it down until you finally pick one.
‘Design Driven was created out of that visible need to eliminate those barriers, both physical and mental, that exist between designers and the public. It’s there to create the ability for designers to get out of their offices and into public settings that encourage interaction and conversations between them and the public. Any business is all about relationships and the design fields are no different.
‘Every person that a designer meets outside of the office is a potential client, so why not come up with a visible, accessible, and structured way of tapping into all of those missed opportunities. Well that’s exactly what we’ve done.’
The company takes their van to events such as farmers markets, fairs and festivals, where designers sign up for slots inside the wagon. They are then linked with prospective clients who are able to meet them inside the truck. The truck then moves on to the next event.
It works in conjunction with a website that lists and rates designers from the local area. Appointments can also be booked through the website to meet a designer in the truck.
The company said that it hopes to expand and launch trucks across the U.S.
