Swati Goorha didn’t have a conventional route into a design career. While she’d been captivated by architectural wonders throughout her childhood in India, she ended up embarking on a more pragmatic direction, culminating in her obtaining an undergraduate degree in chemistry and a master’s degree in marketing and advertising. Her love for design emerged after she relocated to Ithaca, New York, and enrolled in some art and design courses at Cornell. Ultimately, this lead to a master’s in interior architecture and design from Drexel University.
However, her graduation in 2009 coincided with the global recession, a challenging period to land a design role. She first entered the retail industry, before securing her debut job in design. The subsequent tenure in another firm fueled her aspiration and in 2016, she resolved to establish her own design enterprise, using wisdom she received from a previous project manager.
A mentor once told her that in this field, competition is fierce and to succeed one must be authentic in their design persona. Good design emerges when one maintains their unique style and identity.
Operating in a saturated market, Goorha forged her own successful path by bucking the trend of popular beige and neutrals, instead, she chose to welcome an aesthetic filled with color and vitality. She approached each new project as a unique entity and story. Her creative spirit and exceptional design skills won her a place in this year’s well-regarded Kips Bay Decorator Show House. Here, she showcased a design that reflected her personal journey and the paths she pursued to reach her current stature. This design was not only indicative of her visual storytelling prowess but also of her reputable firm, how she operates it, and her method of engagement with clients.
On a particularly intriguing note, Goorha shared why her practice avoids conducting discovery calls, her strategic approach towards scoring high-quality projects, and how tweaking her pricing model positively affected the way clients perceive her time.
Goorha initially operated her business with a flat-fee model, but soon realized that her team was investing significantly more time on each assignment than what was reflected on her rates. The switch to time billing enabled her to value her services appropriately, and surprisingly it also changed how clients evaluated the firm’s time and capabilities. As Goorha notes, this strategy resulted in clients respecting the firm’s time, which is extremely crucial in generating high-quality work.
She adds, “While I aim to maintain a close relationship with my clients— understanding their personal life, meeting them for coffee or dinner— it’s crucial for both of us to respect the boundary between client and service provider during work.”
One distinctive aspect of Goorha’s philosophy is her belief in storytelling. Though creative objects play an essential role in design, the stories that fuel the creativity provide an emotional connection. And as Goorha astutely points out, clients are not merely investing in objects but in the stories they unfold – truly a testament to the power of design narrative.
All things considered, Swati Goorha’s journey in the world of design speaks to a deep understanding of the intricacies of the field. Her success emerges not only from her thoughtful design aesthetic but from respecting her client’s time, her team, and the powerful narratives her designs weave. These are key factors of running a successful design business.
