FOUR ON ONE WITH JIE PAMBID
                   People say that artists rather do the work than talk.  Some interior designers could also take on the artists' mood.  This is not the case with Jie Pambid.  In fact, he is one that shares the intricacies of his craft.  He earned this right by winning the "Best Store Design" award for his work in Island Spice, Festival Mall branch.

                Jie took on an unusual concept in this project.  He used all natural materials like bamboos, wood and other materials found in the island to express the store's personality. He incorporated mermaids into the store to give it an enchanting look.  He offered something new that the retail market has not yet seen commercial spaces.

                In this very brief interview, we also glimpsed into this renowned interior designer's peronality.  One aspect that shone through immediately was his meticulousness.  He starts off with planning everything thoroughly and when everything is right for the client, he executes his designs in full details to really showcase the beauty of it.  For you to personally get to know him, you have to read the following interview yourself:

                    G:     Is budget a prerequisite to a good design?

                    Jie:      Yes, very much. There are certain designs that you can’t achieve with a very limited budget, so the more money that they offer to you the more you can be creative. ‘Yun ‘yung number one limitation talaga, budget.

                G:     Was the design that won high-budgeted?

                     Jie:     Yes, we were given an open budget for that. It was an ideal budget pero nagtipid kami. Siyempre, hindi namin masyadong inubos ‘yung pera ng cliente. It was a very good project to begin with kasi since it was the pilot for the renovation. They really spent a lot, tapos with the other stores that will follow, mayroon na kaming costing, let’s say for this store P10,000 per sq. m. ang gagastusin. Pero, for that particular store wala silang binigay na restrictions. Kasi, they approved the design then we had it costed, so after that nang nakita nila na it costs this much, inapprove nila, tapos nasunod na lahat.

G:     What do you think is the punch of your design?                      Jie:     Mahirap sabihin ‘yan kasi hindi ako ang judge pero I would say siguro na because we are presenting something new that has not been done before and it was something exciting for the retail market. Kasi ‘di ba you have to take into consideration the other stores – stores that are in the same category practically. And for the particular category, kakaiba kami because it is really something new at tapos ma-detalye siya and at the same time you wouldn’t think na a retail store would do this kasi commercial ‘yan, you pay rent, you pay a lot of overhead, so you don’t normally spend for designs, but the thing is, what we would want to be able to impart as far as designers are concerned, is that a store design is a very crucial aspect of retailing also what would the person make go inside your store. Basically, a particular percentage of that is how good that design is and how functional it is and for this particular store, we were able to blend both aesthetics and function at the same time. Tapos, you look at Filinvest, modesty aside, talagang, it’s one of the stores there that would really stand out. G:     Can you give tips?                      Jie:     Just be true to yourself for one thing and always make it a point to be sincere with your clients because your clients are actually your bread and butter like what happened kasi with Island Spice. We have a very ideal client to begin with, tapos we sort of like maintained that rapport. Kumbaga, kung may problema, hindi namin pinagtatakpan, and at the same time, kung may pumapalpak, we owe up to ou mistakes and we try to correct it ourselves, but the client knows about it. Ayoko kasi personally, I don’t know what other designers, but I don’t want to cover up kasi ‘yung iba in terms of cost, hindi kami nagpapatong, wala kaming mark-up pero whatever is the designer fee ‘yun lang ‘yung bayaran ninyo sa amin tapos kayo na ang bahala. We could recommend suppliers tapos bahala na kayo, you deal with them. You don’t have to give us the money. I don’t want to hold money that is not mine. Wit regards to suppliers, sa kanila na ‘yon, kung bibigyan nila kami ng commission o hindi, pero we do not demand. That’s one of the reason also why clients like us, because what they see is what they get. Wala kaming kieme, kung may nakitang mali ‘yung cliente papalitan namin, pero kung paminsan-minsan, with regards to specific designs, siyempre as designers, insist mo rin kasi ikaw ang gumawa noon. Pero, so far, we don’t have any clients who wanted to change the main concept.  

We certainly can learn something about this guy at the end of it all.  We, the interviewers, came home with more insights that we hope you also picked up from this interview.

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