We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Robby Perkins a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Robby, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful projects I’ve had the pleasure of working on are the concepts that I’ve designed for Daniel Reed Hospitality. We enjoy the privilege of living and working in historic Savannah, Georgia. There is more meaning and depth when a concept is genuine. People can tell when you’re trying to trick them with design gimmicks. There are so many food and beverage concepts opening all the time, and you can create just about anything anywhere these days. Our mission statement includes: iconic, restored, landmark locations. The history and heritage of the locations inform the conceptual design phase and a genuine, meaningful story grows from there.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Upon graduating from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a BFA in Architecture, my husband and I helped found Daniel Reed Hospitality: a restaurant group that owns and operates five unique concepts in downtown Savannah, Georgia. For over a decade now, I’ve acted as Creative Director for our company. Prior, I worked for Marc Jacobs, Int.​

At Daniel Reed I am responsible for all forms of visual communication such as interior design, branding, marketing, editorial, advertising and packaging, to name a few. I work collaboratively with different departments across each Daniel Reed concept.​

A diverse expertise in design and customer service help me to craft creative design solutions that enhance the customer experience by carefully considering the relationship between the environments I create and the patrons that visit them. I believe that successful design is holistic and personal and always includes impeccable attention to detail with original thinking.

In addition to the commercial design work I do on a regular basis, I’ve also completed several private homes in and around Savannah. The needs of every project and client are different. No project is too big, or to small. It just needs to be the right fit. As I have matured as a professional, I’ve learned to listen carefully, ask important questions and only engage where and when I think I can make a meaningful contribution to a project.

How’d you meet your business partner?

While I am solely responsible for the creative, my husband and I are partners in our hospitality group. That means that we enjoy the great responsibility of owning and operating the concepts that I design. This has a profound affect on the design decisions that I make. The experience of how things stand up to the test of time and ongoing maintenance has informed and changed the way I approach design. We both have backgrounds in design so it is a truly collaborative process.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Everything is a straight uphill battle these days. Every aspect from the business end to client relationships are being challenged more than ever before for all sorts of reasons. My advice is to just keep going. The final outcome is the result of constant compromise and negotiation. I think that is the “pulling back the curtain moment” on design. I think the misconception is that as a designer you get to do whatever your heart fancies. It’s just not that romantic! It’s logistics, and problem solving.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.robbyperkins.com
• Instagram: @robby_perkins
• Other: www.daniel-reed.com

Image Credits
Jeremiah Hull