Interview with:Donna Frasca [color4charlotte]
DESIGN
 | What is your specialty? My speciality is choosing designer color schemes for homes with open floor plans. Many homes in the South Charlotte area are large and from standing in one area in a home, you may be able to see more then one room at a time. Sometimes people find it a challenge to choose colors for this type of home. |
| Where can we view your portfolio online? |
| What made you interested in design? I was always interested in color and design from the time I could hold a crayon. That's a long time! |
| What has been your professional career path? I've been very lucky in my careers. All the jobs I've ever had have been in the decorating or design field. I have experience and knowledge in just about every aspect from walls to floors and everything in between - flooring, wallpaper R&D, window treatment and drapery design, ceramic design, lamp design, graphic design, interior design, sales, color matching, countertop and backsplash design, upholstery redesign, staging. I've worked for many design firms but always had my own business on the side. I don't think there is any aspect of decorating and design that I haven't done. Owning my own business was the natural progression for my career path. I'm a one stop decorating service that specializes in color. |
| Have you received any awards for your work in the field of design? The awards I've received are amazing testimonials from my clients. You can see them on my main website at www.DecoratingbyDonna.com. Here is just one of many:
“If you are contemplating painting your home and could use some help with the selection of your colors, I highly recommend Decorating by Donna! A color consultation is well worth the money – one wrong color choice could cost you! I am so pleased with the color palette Donna chose for my house! She is a pleasure to work with…she will listen to your vision, guide you through choices and ultimately direct you to the perfect color for each room! The entire process was fun and simple! I trusted Donna 100% with the selections - now my home is painted, and it is amazing!!! I love every color we picked!!! |
| What is your motivation? What makes you get up in the mornings? I get excited when I choose colors for a home. People invite me into their personal space and trust me to choose colors that they would like for their home. That's a lot of trust that someone puts in you. I'm glad I can make a difference in their life by choosing amazing colors for them. |
| How would you define your design style? I don't really have a style. I have to be open to all styles so I can accommodate what other people want. I have to get into their heads and view their home to decide what style will best suit them. |
| How do you promote and move your work? At first I started out like everyone else - newspapers, flyers, direct mail etc. Then I realized how powerful the internet has become and I use it to it's fullest. Between all my websites, blogs, forums and everything else I do online, my SEO's are VERY high. If you Google "Color Specialist, Charlotte" I'll be the first few pages of information. That's how my clients found me - via internet. I also receive clients via word of mouth which is the best kind of advertising you can get. I've lost a lot of money experimenting with the yellow pages and mailings. I find that if someone needs color for their home, they are going to search the internet and they can find me there - call me - we can have color for your home in a little over an hour! |
| In which new areas would you like to experiment? I'm always brainstorming on how to reach more clients and to provide for them the best possible decorating services I can. I recently started a group called "The Decorating Guild for South Charlotte". This group is a newly formed group of hand picked Specialist in the design field. I want to be able to provide a full service decor for my clients and I have an amazing group of people who can do that. We really make a great guild - very talented. |
| Shapes, color, concept: where do you usually begin when conceiving a design? It's imperative to listen to the client and to what their needs are. I'm very blessed in the fact the choosing colors comes naturally to me. When I enter into a clients home and listen to what they are looking for, I have a full color scheme already in my head in about 10 minutes. The only challenge is finding those colors in all my paint fan decks I have. Oddly enough, I have the paint decks memorized by now so the process is very easy now. |
| What are your sources for documentation and to generate ideas? That's easy - everything around me from photographs, clothing, artwork, flowers, nature, food - anything that has color is a potential designer color scheme. |
| Which festivals or awards in your field do you find most interesting? I rely heavily on the Designers I've built "relationships" with online. They are designers from Valspar to Color Marketing Group. I live and learn through their eyes. I read their blogs, posts, books etc and the best part about it - if I have a design question or dilemma, I can ask them via email or blog. Again, the power of the internet is worth it's weight in gold. |
| What is your favourite type of customer? My favorite type of customer . . . . would have to be one that trusts me 110% to choose the best possible color scheme for their home - no questions. Some of these clients have wasted so much money on paint samples, wrong colors, gallons of expensive paint and a tremendous amount of time. By the time they hire me they are just so grateful that someone else will choose colors for them and they will be the right colors, the first time! |
| To a certain point, is copying justifiable? I don't copy. Clients are paying me to choose a color scheme for them. If I was going to copy someone else's work, they could just go to their neighbors house and use their color scheme. No, copying is not justifiable but if you see something you really like - you can certainly put your own spin on it to call it yours! |
| List some things you dislike seeing in design. The only thing that urks me is when a color scheme or design is beat to death or just saturated in the market so much that every other home you walk into has the same color scheme. A good example? Brown/blue and brown/green combos. -this needs to stop. Like I said in a previous question, if you really like these colors, just put your own spin on it. Try brown and salmon or blue and gray. |
| Do you believe the newer generations are better at designing? The only disadvantage newer generations have is lack of experience. When I was 20 years old I was just as good in choosing colors then as I am now, I'm just more refined with all the experience I have and the process goes quicker. With experience comes confidence. |
| With which type of client would you decline in working for? The only client I would decline is one who questions my consulting fee. I have a very reasonable rate of $125 for a home in the 3,000 sq foot range. Larger homes of course would be priced accordingly. It takes me no more then an hour and a half to choose an entire color scheme for home of this size. There was only 1 client that changed a color I recommended and only 1 client that thought $125 was too much. It's funny, now that I think about it, most of my clients were just thrilled that someone was choosing colors for them, they didn't even ask me what my fee was until it was time for me to leave the consult. One client was so happy she paid me cash and more then what I asked for because she was that happy. She was so cute! Like I said, out of the dozens of clients I've had in the past 2 years, only 1 I declined. Oh yea, and one other client that would have been a 3 hour one way ride. I like to keep it local so I can keep the cost down. |
| How do you calculate budgets for a design project? I have a flat fee. Nothing to calculate. Easy. |
| Which professionals in your field -contemporary or past- do you most admire? The Color Pro from Color Marketing Group, Kate Smith, Color Designer Maria Killam and the four color experts from the color blog of Valspar paints. Google their names and you will be able to find and enjoy a wealth of information on color and design. |
| Which software applications do you most utilize in your work? I use very simple applications - Microsoft Word for writing, iWeb for website design, iPhoto for pictures and the internet for everything else from Twitter to blogs and all of cyber space for everything else. |
| How do you distinguish passing fads from mainstays in new trends? I have a very strong 6th sense and i just know if a colors going to be a hit a fad or just a trend. Back in 2007 it just popped in my head one day that purple of call colors, was going to be the next hot and heavy. Here is it 2009 and it's still going strong. There is a big buzz about pink right now and I would have to say that will not make it to Easter 2010. CMG said blue is the new color trend for 2010 and I would have to agree with that. Blue is good for so many reason and there are so many blues to choose from. It'll be around for a while. |
| If you weren't a designer, what would you be doing? I'm a Scientist in a Designer body. |
| At this moment, what would be your dream job or project? I would love to be the one who sits around the table and comes up with the names for paint, lipsticks etc. Wouldn't that be cool? |
| Can you see yourself in this field twenty years from now? Always. |
| Which design resources online do you frequently visit? Too many to mention. The great thing about information is that you are not limited to one venue. I use them all and learn and much as I can. |
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