Phoenix-based Ideation Design Group is responsible for a wide array of the city’s restaurant and hospitality projects—including Modern Grove, the food court at Arizona Mills shopping center in Tempe and the traveler-friendly local restaurants in Sky Harbor International Airport’s Terminal 4. Co-principal Jennifer Reynolds established Ideation in 2004 with partner Carl Schaffer, and the now 30-person firm has partnered with some of the world’s largest brands on innovative restaurant concepts. Here, Reynolds discusses the link between fashion and interior design, celebrity chef-helmed airport projects, and the importance of lighting a restaurant.
Did you always know you wanted to be a designer?
An interior designer, no, but I was always inspired by art and design. I was interested in fashion design for a while, but when I first started college I was majoring in graphic design.
What are some of your first memories of design?
Really, it would be fashion design—the creation, fabrication, success, failures, and learning what not to do. When I was young I loved critiquing fashion and recreating designs to enhance them. I would drape fabrics, creating lines and spatial relationships between different body areas and incorporating texture using different fabrics. I also loved to create a signature in a design, whether it was by adding an embellishment or a cut out. I realized later in life that this feeling is found in all disciplines of design. That was definitely my first taste of wanting to be a designer.
Did where you grew up influence your career path?
I am a nice, Midwestern girl with a strong work ethic and desire to succeed, but I truly believe those values come from the influence and encouragement of your family and support group. I think I was just born with a passion for design, and have been fortunate enough to build a career doing something I love.
Give us a bit of your background: college, first jobs, early lessons learned?
I went to school at Iowa State University in Ames and I loved it. Ames is a great college town. It’s a very small community with a big school, so it had a very fun and interactive vibe. I graduated the semester before my now husband and started my career working for one of my professors, who had a design firm in Des Moines. I learned a lot from that job—mainly to call the bank before depositing my paycheck to verify funds. I also learned that the IRS does not like it when you don’t pay your payroll taxes. Funny what working for your ethics professor teaches you! With my tail between my legs, I packed up to move back to Minneapolis.
On the way, I took a detour to visit my best friend in Phoenix. After spending a week in Phoenix (in January), I fell in love with the city, the sun, and the desert. I began sending resumes to all the local design firms and was thrilled to hear right away from Associates in Architecture and Design Ltd. (AAD), a firm that specialized in restaurant and retail design. During the interview with my prospective boss (Carl Schaffer), he said, ‘You tell me what you think you are worth.’ Here I am, a new designer with almost no real world experience and I don’t know what to say. When we finish the interview Carl said, ‘Oh forget it, the job pays $6.50 an hour.’ After I fell out of my chair, I thanked him for the interview and told him I would have to think about it and get back to him. I left the office fuming and called my mom crying about how I could have a college degree and end up making less than if I worked at McDonald’s! Needless to say, when I called back to politely turn down the job offer, Carl corrected his mistake ($6.50 per hour was the going rate for the librarian) and the rest is history. I worked at AAD for almost eight years, and today Carl is my business partner.
Why and how did you start your own firm?
After working for AAD for almost eight years, the owners sold the company. Shortly after the sale, the entire design staff was laid off. I took a job doing corporate office design and hated it, and then I took a year off to spend with my little boy, while my husband took a new job in Oklahoma. While living in Oklahoma, old clients started calling and asking me to do some consulting projects. When my husband’s one-year contract ended, we had the option to stay in Oklahoma or return to Phoenix, so we quickly packed our bags and moved back. By that time, I was getting more work than I could handle, so I called my former boss Carl, who was also let go from AAD. We began talking about starting our own firm. We took on a few big RFP projects and some smaller remodel jobs with just the two of us. Within a few months we hired two others and moved to our own office. That was in 2004. At Ideation we now have a team of 30 designers, architects, and project managers. The growth was not something I ever expected, but Carl and I always had a good rapport and it was a good fit.
Can you discuss some of your recent projects?
We are working on the new Sheraton hotel in Mesa, Arizona near the new Cubs Spring Training facility. It is our first big hotel project and it includes two restaurants, 180 guestrooms, a 30,000-square-foot conference center and a spa. It’s very exciting for us and for the area. We are also working on Sammy Hagar’s Red Rocker Bar & Grille in Southland casino in West Memphis, Arkansas. Sammy has been a longtime client and his projects are always unique and fun. We are designing a wide variety of airport restaurants for cities across the country, including Charlotte, Dulles, Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. Every airport project is unique and they give us the opportunity to work with some great celebrity chefs like Todd English, Silvana Esparza Salcido, and Johnny Hernandez.
Is there a challenging project that you are especially proud of?
It is tough to choose one. I am really proud of all our projects, and although I am sure most designers say this, they are all challenging. I’m not sure where this is in writing, but I swear somewhere on our website, our business cards, or in the hold music on our phones, our message says, ‘Please come to us with a ridiculously short timeline, landlord challenges, and a limited budget and we can make it work and look good.’
What are you looking forward to at your office?
We recently expanded our design staff to four designers, two graphic designers, and a team of illustrators. It’s exciting to have such a talented team in place and see what we are able to create. The designers I hired are all very bright, capable women who are well-educated and have great design experience. It is such a breath of fresh air to be able to work with them, nurture them, and guide them. It makes coming to work a joy every day.
What do you find are the most challenging and exciting aspects of your job?
The most challenging aspect is handling problems when they arise. As a multidisciplinary firm, you have to rely on your team and sometimes things go awry. I truly believe that how you handle these moments defines you as a business owner, a mentor, and a person. I like the challenge of solving problems and making sure we learn from them. As for what is most exciting, when I am not dealing with a challenge, I love the quick pace and the newness that every day brings when you work in architecture and design. Our production times are short, so there is no time to be bored. Working on a project requires focus—you live it, eat it, and breathe it until it is done. Then it is on to the next one. I love that dynamic. Not everyone can work that way, but I am not sure I can do it any other way!
What is the most important thing to remember when designing a restaurant—both in terms of branding and interiors?
Lighting is the most important thing in restaurant design. It doesn’t matter if you are designing a 5-Star sit-down restaurant or a quickserve casual dining concept, you can’t light air, so making sure that you are lighting the thing that needs the pop and sparkle is crucial. I also think lighting helps create the art and theater of the space and helps tell the restaurant’s story. It breathes life into the design, making it sexy, seductive, or enticing. Without the proper lighting, you have none of those things. I cannot tell you how many badly lit spaces I see and think of how they can be fixed.
Is there an architect or designer you most admire? Why?
I would say Martin Brudnizki. His design aesthetic touches every surface, and he isn’t afraid to mix textures and colors to create an experience. I like to think that I follow that aesthetic and share his core philosophy, so when I see Brudnizki’s work, I love to dig into it and study his thought process and unique little touches that show how much thought he put into the design.
What would be your dream project and why?
I would love to do a small boutique hotel. The intimate setting, attention to detail, accessories, and the restaurant inclusion would be interesting and fun to design from the ground up. We had one hotel project that was this type of concept, but it was too large to design and develop with a boutique feel or aesthetic. I have always thought that would be a fantastic project to take on.
If you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?
Most people will name someone famous or historic, but for me it is my aunt, Catherine. She died earlier this year and although she had a terminal disease, I was in denial and really thought she would live forever. She was my inspiration. She taught me that women can do anything and to believe in myself. I didn’t see her or talk to her as much as I would have liked, but she was always a driving force in the back of my mind, and I would give anything, if I could take her to dinner one more time to thank her for inspiring me, for pushing me to be more and do more, for teaching me to see the best in people, to be compassionate and to forgive. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have someone in their life like Aunt Catherine. I just hope she knew how much she meant to me. I miss her every day.
Where would you eat and what would you be having?
There is a great restaurant in Phoenix called Quiessence. I love the name and the feeling it evokes, as well as the intimate feeling you get while dining there. It is a farm-to-table concept, where you sit in this quaint bungalow having dinner at the farm where the food is grown. The menu changes weekly and is dictated by the chef and what is harvested from the farm that week. It is almost a custom experience, where every course is paired with complementing wines. You never have the same meal twice. It is a one-of-a-kind experience and the perfect setting to enjoy a long chat, great food, and lots of wine.
If you weren’t a designer, what would you be?
Probably a lawyer because I love to argue!
