Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Laura Blanco. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Laura, appreciate you joining us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

When you are decided and know what you need everything is easier. We are convinced that we would like to stay relatively small so that we can stay intimately involved in the process. The process is such an important phase to scale up. Sometimes more important than results. For me the starting point to grow is patience, the confidence in oneself and in the team that accompanies you. The only failure is to stop, to quit. If you go on you are definitely scaling up. Even if results are not as expected or if you move forward at a slow pace, I believe it is always growth. When things don’t go well we also grow and sometimes even more. Since 2016 when I started my first interior design, everything was growth, and I believe that’s because I didn’t quit at difficult times. Putting your heart and passion into your work is essential. When working in interior design and reforms, the relationship with the client is continuous and it is very important to know how to listen and be patient when it comes to the process. The result is pleasant but the process are often long twists and turns and it’s there when you need to grow.
Before traveling to the United States, the challenge was magnificent. During the pandemic we have worked virtually from Argentina and we had an opportunity in this new way of working. Thanks to the new virtual form, we were able to get involved in the US market and little by little we have been growing from then to now. Today we are based in Miami and we are working in different projects in the US. I really believe there`s no specific path, but you have to move forward.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I always admire people who seem to have the perfect professional with lifestyle balance and that’s something I always work to achieve. Balance is one of my favorite words. If I have to choose some other words that would describe the way we work they would be rigorous, calibrated, experimental.

Im inspired with nature around my projects. In Catalpa Studio we develop spaces that are respectful with the environment and embedded in a simple and true narrative. We work in a mix between authencity and a sophisticated simplicity. Architecture is life, is everywhere and in different forms.
When it comes to residential design our emphasis remains in the client’s ultimate use of space. We pride in tailoring our projects for an elevated experience which reflect client’s expectations and needs. Our goal is to create a perfect surrounding suitable for wellbeing and lifestyle. The main ingredients to achieve are the use of light, the relation between the exterior and interior, the use of natural materials and focus on simple and open spaces.
I love to use a quote Eames use to say, ¨the details are not details, they make the design¨.

We would love to have the possibility to get to choose which projects we want to work on and also test out our ideas. But we are in a phase where we work hard and for the growth of our business we need to pick them almost all of them. When we first set out we were interested in form, but structure, materiality; vernacular building strategies; and landscape have also been important design drivers in our work and would be in the future.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Being realistic and transparent it’s so important for our clients. They love and appreciate hearing real things and not just what they want to. Miami is a challenging place to get a project built, just in terms of the bureaucracy. A project that might take 5 months to design and permit in another state, can take up to a year in South Florida, given the number of professionals that have to be involved; the number of drawings required by the City; conflicting code requirements between agency departments that have to be negotiated and resolved; etc. It takes an incredible amount of patience from the client and architect. The way we finish our projects, the personalized attention and how we involve with each client I so important. Whether it’s about a decoration or a reform, or a design restyle, in any case we have a constant relation with the client that you can notice at the end of the process. And in this way is how new clients come to us. They tell us about a project we made or they have been recommended by other ones. In Argentina we call it ¨el boca en boca¨.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Nowadays this is an important strategy to focus into. I believe that the best way to reach a good audience is step by step, time at a time. When you run you might get confused, or you might miss some parts of a rich and beautiful process. When you walk and you don’t stop walking you get there, you definitely will. Never give up, keep going that’s the clue. I consider myself a ¨sense of art¨ person, so I place heavy emphasis on process as a means of furthering creativity and invention. We try to run each of the projects through a matrix of different digital and analog media lenses as we go, including painting, hand drawing, physical models and mock-ups as well as cad, 3D computer models and renderings. We strongly believe this fusing of media provides a larger, more creative palette from which to work. So when we talk about social media, we also believe that the personal work, the intimate focus we have with clients and potential ones is extremely important. Its not just to have social media, is not quantity. Quality is the game.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.estudiocatalpa.com
• Instagram: studiocatalpa

Image Credits
Norka Haiek @thehaiek_photography