Today we’d like to introduce you to John Lay.
John, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I started my professional career in Miami after graduating from Florida State University in the mid 90’s. I had always lived and been attracted to culturally diverse areas and Miami was a booming design arena during that time. I took the lowest paying of three offers because I loved the people and went to work for a design manufacturing company that designed and fabricated items for both the dining rooms and kitchens of most of the top restaurant chains in the US, South/Central America and Mexico. It was a great experience to grow and learn so much about the way items are efficiently designed and manufactured. They gave me an enormous amount of opportunity to learn every aspect of the restaurant industry from sales and design to fabrication and large scale roll-out concept design. I started as a junior designer and left as the Director of Design seven years later.
I relocated to Atlanta after receiving a job offer from another design manufacturer to be their new Vice President of Design & Marketing. I spent five years with them before starting my business in the prime time frame just months before the 2008 recession with our daughter on the way. It was a stressful but extremely rewarding time as it allowed me to plug into my daughter’s life and proved that I could keep the business afloat even in the worst of economic times. Any honest business owner will tell you that staying in business for ten years is a respectable accomplishment and I am very proud of that.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Definitely not a smooth road. Architecture, Design and Branding are overly complicated and most people don’t really understand what we do. It takes a great deal of planning to create a well-rounded concept weather it’s a restaurant, retail or corporate office. We are more business consultants than anything else. Most of the struggle comes with the even flows of development and keeping the right amount of talent without getting to top heavy. In order to give our clients the best value and return on their investment, we have to be incredibly efficient.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Innerworks Design Group – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Innerworks is a full-service architecture, interiors and branding firm. We help new concepts create a compelling story in a vast marketplace of choices. We help existing concepts to be more efficient and connect to their patrons and large concepts scale their development in a structured approach. We focus primarily in the commercial hospitality, retail and corporate office segments but have dabbled with a myriad of projects. We look for the right kind of client that understands the value we bring to the table and then apply our creativity to help grow their business.
I am most proud of the stories we get from our clients of how we have positively impacted both their businesses and their lives personally. Each client is an opportunity for us to help them reach their goals and I am proud that we are a part of their story. We also have amazing vendors, craftsmen and service companies that we have vetted over a long period of time in the Atlanta area and across the US.
What sets us apart from many firms is practicality. We understand that there is a big divide between creating a compelling concept that is both affordable for our clients and obtainable for the vendors that come after us. I started this company because there was such a disparity between really good conceptual and execution firms. There are a lot of firms that create great concepts and others that are great at execution and value engineering, but rarely are they good at both. We have performed concept development and value engineering services for McDonald’s, Cellairis, Burger King, Morana, Blue Moon Pizza and many others and really understand how to do both well. We handle everything including permitting, contract administration and construction administration and oversight which allows our client to focus on running their business.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Innerworks is currently working on a complete re-brand and restaurant concept for Blue Moon Pizza and a new upscale restaurant concept in Virginia Highland. Atlanta continues to develop and we are excited with all of the opportunities that are coming our way.
Innerworks is targeting the launch of our furniture line by the end of 2017 with an exciting mix of items that can be used in both commercial and residential environments as well as dimensional interior finishes to enhance the spaces we all frequent with a little more interest.
Contact Info:
- Address: Innerworks Design Group
1075 Peachtree Street NE
Suite 3650, Atlanta, GA 30309 - Website: www.innerworksdesign.com
- Phone: (44) 817-3700
- Email: info@innerworksdesign.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/innerworksdesign/
Image Credit:
All images are the property of Innerworks Design Group.
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