Kevin Rossi: How Interior Designers Work From Home With Luxury

South African company Kevin Rossi Design, has seen surprising benefits by working remotely. Rossi says “Working from home is a luxury and the necessity for the future.”

A year ago, many, if not all of us, were confined to our homes due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Working remotely has been an adjustment both good and bad leaving us to debate whether working from home is a dream come true or less than ideal.

For professional Interior Designer, Kevin Rossi, increased productivity is definitely something he has seen increasing. “People can be highly productive when working from home environments.”

There are two key factors that create an increase in productivity:

1. A healthy employee feels better, they have more energy and endurance to meet requirements.
2. A comfortable and safe work environment contributes to an employee’s happiness and a happy employee is more inspired to produce good work.

For years we have seen design agencies investing in flexi-hours to promote a balanced, healthy relationship between home / work time. This can be a controversial premise when we look at lessons learned from works of J.R.R Tolkien. The author postulates that, “In joy thou hast lived. Beware of the Sea! If thou hearest the cry of the gull on the shore, thy heart shall then rest in the forest no more” (The Two Towers, LotR Book 3, Ch. 5, The White Rider). This opens to interpretation that humans adapt well to environments that are benevolent.

According to a recent case study by The Harvard Business School – during the pandemic the average workday increased by 48.5 minutes, just being confined in your personal working environment. Experience has shown that while an office environment allows for a dedicated and focused coming together of minds it can also create “false positives” which sometimes lead to bias and favouritism. These false positives reduce our chances of being truly happy– which ultimately leads to death of creativity for the interior designer.

Working from home allows us to focus on what really matters – performance, but it can be counterproductive if an individual is not good with panning and discipline.

4 reasons working from home is preferable…

1. Less Stress

Absenteeism is what happens when employees call in sick! In general absenteeism is expensive for both employee and employer, because it reduces productivity. When this happens, one may miss out on valuable work experience. The healthier your work environment, the healthier you will be.

2. Savings

We have all done this, bough lunch when working in corporate offices, when we add stress to this, we might just end up spending unnecessarily. People who can work from home save on fuel, car maintenance, transportation, parking fees, a professional wardrobe, and more. At the end of the day, these savings add up, and that you can Take It to The Bank!

3. Sustainability

As designers we determine our responsibility around sustainable ideas, and our ideas impact our environment. One of the fastest and cheapest ways for us to reduce our carbon footprint and to affect climate change is by reducing commuter travel. In fact, we are all living witness to this when the canals in Venice ran clear, the dolphins appeared in Italy`s waterways amid coronavirus lockdown.

4. Technology

Design inspiration comes in many forms. Technology is now one of them and has revolutionized the business. In the not-too-distant past Interior Designers relied on standard practices such as hand drawings. While hand drawings are still crucial, technology has afforded us the ability to evolve standard practices. Technology has also changed the ways designers’ market themselves, – Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads, Twitter and LinkedIn have become standard operating procedure for showcasing work and increasing footprint.

Rossi, has developed his own methodology for increased productivity and believes that it will ultimately be an ideal way to continue in the future. “The benefits when working at home impact so many things on a global scale that it’s sure to become the best way forward – giving luxury and design a whole new meaning.” says Rossi.

For more visit Kevin Rossi.