We recently connected with Livia Shi and have shared our conversation below.
Livia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think it takes to be successful?
To be successful, I believe it requires one to have an optimistic attitude and to have a resilient mindset. Success may come easy to a lucky few, but most of us have to work hard to achieve our goals. The journey to success will likely be filled with lessons and hardships along the way. How one handles adversity determines your path to success.
When I first started my own business, it was humbling and I was faced with new obstacles that I hadn’t encountered before as an employee. I was used to handling large projects like 14 acre retail centers, high rise dormitories, etc. at work. Suddenly, I had to start from the bottom by taking remodels of homes. I had to market myself by sending flyers door to door & making cold calls to potential clients. Initially, I took jobs for very low pay just to get the experience. Slowly but surely, I graduated from doing remodels to getting ground up projects. For the furniture aspect of my business, I started off doing a custom piece for my cousin’s condo in Long Beach. Gradually, over time, with the right marketing, furniture manufacturers started contacting me to design lines for them. I would say the lesson that I have learned from all of my experiences is that if you are persistent, hard-working and carry an optimistic attitude, you will always come out on top!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Livia Shi and I’m Design Principal & Founder of Atelier LSM2 Inc, a full service architecture & furniture design firm based in the Los Angeles area. After finishing my undergraduate degree in architecture at UC Berkeley, I immediately moved back to the LA area where I grew up. For the next eight years, I worked for companies where I garnered the training and skills to be a skilled architectural professional. In 2007, I decided to open up my own design practice, Livia Shi, Designer, which focused on the design of custom single family residences & furniture design. As my own boss, I found a freedom that I didn’t have before when I worked for others. I really enjoyed interacting with my clients on a daily basis, listening to their ideas and coming up with a collaborative design without having to worry about office politics or answering to anyone but myself in terms of project decisions.
Eventually, in 2015 my sole proprietorship morphed into Atelier LSM2 Inc., a full-service architecture & furniture design firm based in the San Fernando Valley. Atelier LSM2 Inc. is comprised of a small, but skilled staff of experienced architects & designers. As Principal of the firm, I oversee the company’s business opportunities & day-to-day operations of the firm. As Director of Design of the firm, I generate each project’s overall conceptual design and unique vision & make sure that the design theme is carried through from conception through construction. Although we do all types of projects, I’m most proud of our residential architecture & furniture design projects which have been featured in magazines like Azure, Inhabitat, Archello, Re-Thinking the Future, Valley Scene Magazine, Interior Design Magazine’s Fall Market Tabloid, & Interior Design Magazine’s Decade of Design Book. For the record, I was also a founding partner of Architecture LS3, Inc. from 2011-2015, a bi-coastal architecture & design firm headquartered in Los Angeles.
Atelier LSM2 Inc. is a design-oriented, Los Angeles based, architecture & furniture design studio specializing in commercial, residential, institutional, civic and hospitality projects. Our focus is on the conception and delivery of exceptionally designed projects which exceed our clients’ expectations. At Atelier LSM2, we make sure our client’s needs are addressed on every level and we create our designs to adapt to the ever-changing global environment. We believe that good design not only comes from innovation from our staff’s design expertise but also from collaboration with our clients’ agenda. Each design is unique and blends in harmoniously with its surrounding environment. Whether the project is for a new building or furniture piece, at Atelier LSM2, Inc., our goal is to provide friendly and quality professional service. We strive to create exciting designs that are cutting edge yet cost-effective, buildable, and feasible. Our designs are unique but tailor made to a customer’s needs. This is what sets our design services apart from our competitors. We make sure that each project is delivered on schedule and budget. Through extensive survey of existing conditions, we come up with creative solutions that are customized for each particular site. Atelier LSM2 staff also have considerable experience in providing construction management services. The firm utilizes prime engineering consulting, computer graphics and rigorous quality control standards to ensure success of every single project. Most of all, we give confidence to our clients that no project is a daunting feat; the only limitation is our infinite imagination and ability to create a unique, timeless design. Furthermore, at Atelier LSM2 Inc., we are dedicated to serving our clients’ best interests and strive to create a building that is not only beautiful but safe. We make every effort to apply the latest codes and standards to ensure the best quality design work for our clients. We consider each project to be our best advertisement and every client to be our best potential reference for future work.
Although I’m excited about each project that my company undertakes, I’m most proud of the projects that have achieved recognition through publications. A modern glass eagle-winged gazebo that I designed in the San Fernando Valley was featured in high profile magazines like Azure, Inhabitat and also included in Interior Design Magazine’s Decade of Design hardback publication. Furthermore, a high end coffee table that was prototyped in my Defying Gravity furniture line was also recognized in various online publications like Interior Design Magazine’s Fall Market Tabloid and Archello. Aside from publications, I was particularly excited about a three story commercial building that I designed for a project in the Woodland Hills, CA. The third story of the building was to house a high end restaurant, so I designed a very futuristic curved looking structure to house this eatery. A majestic waterfall entrance to the building added a magical touch to the inherently spectacular design. I’m also particularly proud of two recent designs that I did for a new apartment building in the Los Angeles area and also a new custom ocean view home in Ventura.
In the end, I want everyone to know that creating inspiring, cutting edge designs is just part of my brand or story. The most important thing I want readers to understand is that the success of your brand is all contingent on how you handle the journey along the way.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
If you ask me honestly, if it has been a smooth road to my current success, I would definitely say no! Without my resilient personality, I would not be standing here today as a female business owner. Early on, from my college days as an architecture student at UC Berkeley, I had to learn how to stand my ground with my ideas quite early on. I was never the ‘A’ student, but the student who came up with eccentric designs for school projects. My projects never quite fit into the conservative design sense of the University’s architectural department and particularly with my professors’ or teacher assistants’ mindsets. Nevertheless, I always stood firm with my ideology because I believed in creative expression over getting that ‘A’. Twenty five years later, out of all of my architecture friends in college, I am only one of two people in our circle still pursuing the profession.
Persistence and a positive attitude really pay off in the long run. Moving on past graduation, my entrance into the ‘real world’ was equally challenging as I entered into the architectural work force and encountered numerous obstacles. Most notably were the consequences of actions that I suffered from jealous female coworkers. Although there are more women in the profession now, we are still in the minority. Therefore, the competition amongst women in a company is extremely high. At my first paying job at a West LA firm, I was deliberately made to feel unwelcome by older female architectural staff on my first day on the job. At another job later in my career, I was backstabbed by six women on my project team because they were jealous that I was hired in a superior role to theirs. They went to great lengths to try to get me removed from the company by fabricating stories about me. Yet through all of this negativity, I never lost faith that, even in my darkest days, I would come out successful in the end. I never gave up and that’s why I’m still standing here strong today – as a successful female business owner.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
Regular networking has been the best strategy for growing my clientele. By actively attending in person business mixers, I am able to mingle with professionals within my industry & form relationships with those that I have a connection with. Sometimes a connection with another business professional happens immediately and I am able to obtain a referral right away. However, other relationships take time to develop. In a day and age where virtual events are the norm and trend, Zoom networking events have also provided a convenient way to meet others in my industry within an online setting. The clientele that I acquire through referrals often introduce me to future new clients. So it’s great to have a chain reaction like that.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.atlsm2.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atelier_lsm2inc/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/livia-shi-65662849/
Image Credits
John Linden – Glass Gazebo Sarah Carmody – Ventura Custom Home