Taylor and Co.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

McIntosh Poris Associates is an architecture and interior design firm in the Detroit area. We're located in Birmingham with an office in Detroit as well. Birmingham is a 19th century suburb of Detroit, right outside the city.

What is your position?

I am the principal of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Taylor & Company?

It was in the early 2000s. I think at the time, we had done a lot of good work, but we hadn't gotten it out there so we wanted to find a way to promote our portfolio.

SOLUTION

How did you come to work with Taylor & Company?

I had met Julie [Taylor, principal at Taylor & Company] long before we started working together because she had done PR in for my graduate school. She was focused on design and architecture, which for me was a big deal because most PR firms didn't know the industry. I thought that was a good fit, and we had mutual friends and clients. That's how we started with her.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2001 or 2002, and we are still working with them. There were a few years during the recession where we dropped it. We had to cut back, but we started back up this year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any feedback from this engagement?

I can tell you, in the Detroit area, among the design community and people familiar with design and architecture, we're now known as one of the few local firms that has somewhat of a national presence. For instance, Dwell did their definitive list of architects and designers worldwide, and there are only two firms listed in Michigan, and we're one of them. For somewhere like California, it was probably 50, but Michigan is a different market. That really impresses people here.

We were published in Dwell a long time ago, in their second anniversary issue. We got work directly from that. A big multi-family developer in Chicago that saw that, and then hired us to work on Lafayette Park. That was a good, direct result of Julie and her team getting us published.

Thanks to Taylor & Company we've been featured in more than 100 publications. I do think it's helped with the perception. Getting published means something to people. It gives us credibility.

What distinguishes Taylor & Company from other providers?

The owner understands our business and our industry very well, and she's connected in the business and the industry. The editor of Interior Design magazine was coming to Detroit, and I got to give her a tour of Detroit. I spent a day with her. That's a big deal, and it helped that Julie knew her.

I get some of those relationships through her but, mostly, she's just constantly looking out. She has an idea of the work we're doing, and she's constantly looking for places to place it and how to get us out there. I think that helps a lot. We were able to build on some of that into better projects.

Is there anything Taylor & Company could have improved or done differently?

We've been published in a lot of books. There's a whole series about the 100 best houses in the world or the next 100 best houses, and we've been in most of those. We've been in books about the best bars and the best restaurants. I don't know how much those have done for us, I just don't know that the circulation of the books makes as big of an impact as magazines or the Internet. I think partly that's just because the industry has changed, so books and magazines are just not what they were, the Internet's kind of taking over.

Now that I've started back up with her, that's something that remains to be seen. How much actually is going out in social media and the Internet that can have a wider impact vs. magazines and books, which seem to have less unless they really have a presence online. That's an area that I just don't know yet. I'm curious to see how that's going.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company is Dan Brunn Architecture and Design. We do mostly architectural design work, both residential and commercial, with a mix of hospitality and product design. We're based in Los Angeles, and most of the work right now is here. We're a small office with just me and five other people.

What is your position?

I'm the owner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Taylor & Company?

The idea was to get my name more broadly known, to grow beyond just residential design, and to be seen more as a leader in the design world.

SOLUTION

Please describe the nature of the work Taylor & Company has done for you.

They have done mostly public relations services as well as connecting me to various speaking engagements.

How did you come to work with Taylor & Company?

I originally used Google, and I looked to see what some other architects I admired were doing. I was able to find out who their publicists were, which turned out to be just a few. I had meetings with some of them and, to be honest, nothing felt right. I didn't feel like they understood what I was all about nor did I feel like they could make me grow into what I wanted to become.

I also wanted to work with a smaller office. Quite frankly, the minute I met the owner of Taylor & Company [Julie D. Taylor], everything fell into place. I just could tell that they would be my partner.

What is the status of this engagement?

I believe we started working with them two years ago, and we are still working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or other feedback from your work with Taylor & Company?

I'll give you a remarkable story. Within the first week of meeting us, the owner was able to get a house I had just finished in Venice into The New York Times. Literally, we met, she made a call, the person came over to see the house and, within a month, it was actually in the paper. We had a header at the top of the piece and two pages on the inside. That was all with a month's worth of work. It was just incredible.

I knew that I had a great product, but I just needed the connections to get it out there, and the owner has those connections. Julie knows the right people, and she knows what story will work where. She is very astute about knowing when to pitch what to whom in order to get the best results.

Also, she was able to get me a speaking engagement with Dwell on Design, and they actually set up a whole panel based on part of my design philosophy. That was just because of her introduction, and that actually led to one of my projects eventually being incorporated in the Dwell on Design architectural tour.

Taylor & Company also set up a speaking engagement for Interior Design magazine. She got me on a panel where everybody was probably 50 or 60 years old, and I was maybe 35 at the time. That was pretty impressive. Since then, we have been in numerous other magazines. Everything that I have been able to do in the last two years came from Taylor & Company.

What distinguishes Taylor & Company from other providers?

Everybody loves the owner – that's the bottom line. She knows people, people love her, and they respect her. I think they know that if she brings something to them, that means something. She has that kind of community respect. She's part of the American Institute of Architects, which is really impressive. She is very well respected in the field, is heavily involved in the profession,  and she knows all the players.

Is there anything Taylor & Company could have improved or done differently?

No. I actually think they've done everything perfectly. The only thing is whether they do social media. I don't know if it's part of their services. I don't think it is, but I am beginning to realize that it's a huge part of the world, and maybe that's the only resource that I would think could be added. For example, my social media network and Instagram are both stronger than theirs is, and I think that kind of support could be a little bit stronger on their end.