Why involve us early in the design stage?
Simply put: Because design and reality (technical and materials) sometimes are at odds as we are sure you have previously experienced during your projects.
Our motto: Planning is key, knowing the facts is essential.
When it comes to our product, design professionals need to know the why, how and what BEFORE drawing. Why? Because it will save money, aggravation and inconvenience.
Here a few examples:
Wine Wall Curved Lobby Wall Liquor Wall
Size mismatches (the most common costly mistake)
A wall panel is designed 5' x 9' whereas Acrylic sheet is max 4 x 8. On top of that our stone veneer material comes in dimensions outside common parameters. Now the acrylic and veneer product have to be joined and matched which is labor intensive and will increase the cost. Staying within common product dimensions will help reduce costs. Extrapolate this mismatch-error to multiple panels and you will see a huge yet avoidable cost increase.
Easy fix: ask us first and we help you in the technical part of your design.
Future maintenance
An Onyx bar top is laminated to LED sheet which is attached to the substrate with adhesives. Future maintenance of lighting elements is virtually impossible without destroying the piece. We have seen a variety of such applications even in casinos and restaurants but believe that this isn't helping the client.
All of our projects will be maintainable.
Side issue: LED's are promoted to have a long life span. Be cautious! We have seen them fail within a few weeks. Failure can occur anywhere in the component chain (transformer, controller, nodes, wiring, connections, etc. etc.). If this subject is of interest see more info here.
Appearance
One of the most important elements of a design is in jeopardy if things are not coordinated properly. That is distance between light source and surface material, condition of surface material, type of light source, color temperature and several other factors. If the backlit piece is not put together right, it will not look right! (Examples)
We test before, during and after production of any given project to make sure there are no cold or hot spots, lighting is distributed evenly and all components are working properly. We want 100% client satisfaction!
So, in many cases missing or insufficient coordination between Architect, Designer, GC, Subs and Trades will lead to failures in the construction process and compromises in the outcome. We experience this in 8 out of 10 projects, some major, some minor. In all of these cases and since our product is the last to be installed, we are asked to make certain adjustments. Sometimes we can, sometimes we cannot. Either way all of this is avoidable with proper planning and communication. We certainly will do our part and like to do it from the beginning!
Our team can give you a number of tips on how to avoid snags later on. So do yourself a BIG favor:
Contact us early on in the design stage. You will be glad you did!
