Community as a Business Strategy: Interior Design Business Tips from High Point Market
At High Point Market, Crystorama hosted a thoughtful panel on a topic every interior designer can relate to: how community can help shape, support, and grow a design business.
Moderated by Crystorama Tastemaker Antonio DeLoatch, the conversation brought together DuVäl, Jaclyn Isaac, and Nikki Watson for an honest discussion on interior designer networking, brand partnerships, referrals, visibility, service, and business growth.
The biggest takeaway was clear: community is more than connection. For today’s design industry, it is a business strategy.
Brand Partnerships for Designers Start with Trust
For DuVäl, the creative force behind House of DuVäl, meaningful partnerships are built over time through trust, consistency, and alignment.
During the panel, he shared how years of shopping, sourcing, and relationship-building with Sherrill Furniture eventually led to the launch of House of DuVäl. His story offered an important reminder for designers: the strongest brand partnerships often begin long before there is a contract, collection, or launch. They begin with a genuine relationship.
DuVäl also spoke about the importance of not being a gatekeeper. By sharing resources, contracts, pricing insight, and business lessons with other designers, he has built a reputation as someone people trust, support, and recommend.
Build a Design Business Around What You Need
Nikki Watson brought a practical and refreshing perspective to the conversation. As a Dallas-based staging and design expert, she spoke about identifying a gap in the market and building around the real needs of her business.
Her collaboration with Zuo Modern was created with stagers in mind, offering pieces that support the way staging businesses operate. For Nikki, the goal was not just style. It was function, price point, mobility, and profitability.
She also shared how service has become part of her business model. Through quarterly community projects, Nikki invites clients to participate in meaningful giveback efforts, creating deeper trust and stronger relationships.
Turn Business Challenges Into Opportunity
For Jaclyn Isaac, founder of Doni Douglas Designs, community helped inspire a new business solution. Her launch of Nest Freight grew out of a common pain point for designers: logistics, freight, receiving, warehousing, and delivery.
Rather than accepting those challenges as part of the process, Jaclyn saw an opportunity to create something that could support both her firm and the larger design community.
Her story showed how shared industry frustrations can become valuable business ideas when designers are willing to talk openly, ask questions, and solve problems together.
Reframe Growth as Expansion
As moderator, Antonio DeLoatch guided the conversation with warmth and clarity, encouraging the panelists to speak openly about fear, visibility, and the moments that changed their businesses.
He shared how reframing his own growth as expansion helped him move into new rooms, take on new opportunities, and build community in a more intentional way.
His message was simple but powerful. Sometimes the next introduction, opportunity, or connection is closer than you think. It may come from a local event, a showroom conversation, a peer referral, or simply saying yes before you feel fully ready.
Community is one of the most valuable tools in a designer’s business. Download our guide for practical takeaways from the panel, designed to help you build connections, create momentum, and grow with intention.
The Power of Community
At its heart, the panel reflected what Crystorama continues to cultivate through its Tastemaker community: authentic relationships with designers who are shaping the industry through creativity, generosity, and leadership.
The conversation was not just about networking. It was about building a business with intention, supporting one another, and creating opportunities that extend beyond a single project or moment.
Because in the design industry, community is not a side note. It is part of the strategy.
