Author Archives: Jenna Mogstad

Sponsor Spotlight: Quanta Collectiv

Company Name: Quanta Collectiv
Your Name: Cheryl McIntosh
Position/Years:
Architectural Photographer / Co-Owner of Quanta Collectiv; 13 Years as a full-time freelancer; IIDA Sponsor since 2021

QUANTA COLLECTIV, a majority woman-owned creative firm, offers clients in the design and build industries a cohesive, central source for high-end architectural photography, drone and video productions. It is a partnership between professional architectural photographers, Cheryl McIntosh and Casey Braunger. 

What is your favorite IIDA event and why?
Our favorite IIDA event is the Design Excellence Awards, which we had the privilege of participating in when we filmed and produced the award videos for the 2021 celebration. 

What is your favorite product/service offered by your company and why?
One of our most popular service offerings is the Hour Bank, which extends a reduced hourly rate (and rights to all presented assets) in exchange for a commitment to a set number of hours. It’s like a zero-risk, pay as you go retainer that covers stills, drone, video–and even marketing services such as copywriting and graphic design. We love this arrangement because it cultivates an immersive relationship with our clients and their projects–which in turn yields beautiful, meaningful work. 

What aspect of your company are you most proud of and why?
Casey and I worked in-house as marketers/photographers for large architectural firms before launching Quanta Collectiv. This experience touches several aspects of our work and allows us to better relate to the needs of the marketers and design teams we partner with. For example, Casey and I like to shoot projects together whenever possible. He is often operating the drone or video while I’m shooting traditional stills, and our teamwork on site (and in production) creates a cohesiveness between assets that tells a more compelling creative story.

What value do you see in being an IIDA Oregon Chapter Annual Sponsor?
The IIDA Oregon Chapter creates opportunities for professional interior designers and their partners (like us!) to grow personally and professionally while connecting with the community as a whole. We believe our IIDA sponsorship has helped build brand awareness for Quanta Collectiv, while putting us in front of clients who’s beautiful work we are genuinely excited about. 

On a typical Saturday where can we find you?
On a typical Saturday, my favorite place to recharge is out in the forest. My work van gets me into remote areas where I enjoy camping with my Goldendoodle, Wookiee, and foraging for mushrooms. In fact, my enthusiasm for mycology echoes what excites me about design… the symmetry, the beauty of mathematical perfection, and the organic colors and textures that inform and inspire the spaces we inhabit.

Membership Spotlight: Toshiro Tsuha

Name: Toshiro Tsuha
Company/Position: Scott Edwards Architecture – Interiors Project Assistant
IIDA member since: 2022

Why are you a member of IIDA?
I became a member to connect and learn from a supportive community that understands my passion for interior design. Since joining, I’ve had a tremendous amount of support and acknowledgement in my efforts to advance my career as a designer from my colleagues at IIDA. It means a lot to me to know that there are people in my corner that want to help and see me succeed, and I’d like to do the same for others.

What is your favorite IIDA event?
Happy Hour! There’s nothing better than getting together with your colleagues to mingle and socialize. It’s also nice to catch up with other professionals and friends you haven’t seen in a while. These events are where the cross-pollination of ideas amongst your peers transpire and the information you take away from those conversations may spark a new perspective!

Tell us a bit about your creative process:
It all starts with inspiration. Whether it’s a color, place, or thing, I lean into the feeling that the subject invokes and visualize what it would look like. Aesthetics immediately come into play and I start to assemble a mental mood board. Things really start to take off when I begin to develop a preliminary FF&E. 

What is your favorite design magazine/blog?
I love Resident Advisor! It is an online magazine dedicated to showcase underground electronic music from around the globe. Music plays a significant role in my life and influences my creative process. Resident Advisor is usually where I discover emerging artists and new music to listen to ranging anywhere from organic house to minimal techno.

On a typical Saturday where can we find you?:
You can find me sharpening my photography skills. I enjoy taking pictures of neon signs, light trails and cityscapes in the urban night. After the sun sets, the city becomes its “true self,” where stale scenes by day turn ominous and fascinating at night. You might also find me photo editing at a local coffee shop around Portland.

The IIDA Oregon Chapter’s Commitment to Social Justice

April 12th, 2022
Kate Stuart, IIDA
Past President | IIDA Oregon Chapter
Interior Designer | Bora Architecture and Interiors

The IIDA Oregon Chapter has been busy working behind the scenes to advance and include a new foundation for a commitment to social justice. Now that we’ve taken real actions we are ready to share our new social justice mission, current efforts, and future goals to our members and the Oregon design community.

When I stepped into the IIDA Oregon Chapter’s president role in the summer of 2020 I called it a pivotal year. We were in the midst of a rising pandemic, continuing climate disasters, the Black Lives Matter movement, and a presidential election. I challenged our community to remain strong and optimistic. To uphold our mission to be the face of professional Interior Design in the State of Oregon by continuing our dedication to serve our members and our community through change and uncertainty, to design for humanity with dignity, equity, and justice.

When Amber Turner took over as president in 2021 she was able to build on that momentum. She further committed our chapter to implementing principles of social justice, diversity, equity and inclusion into our every day operations, so that as an organization we can contribute to a more inclusive and just society. In addition she committed the IIDA Oregon Chapter to expand our reach with more student engagement.

The IIDA Oregon Chapter board first discussed our challenges with diversity, equity, and inclusion during our Winter Board retreat in December of 2020. At that retreat, we asked, “How can we expand beyond our current majority demographic of white women to include a more diverse membership and audience?” As we shared ideas and brainstormed, it became clear that we can – and should – do more.

Our goal as a Chapter is for diversity, equity, and inclusion to be a consistent thread that runs through all the work we do. To begin this work, we determined that our community-facing engagement tools and the policies and procedures by which our Chapter is run should be analyzed to determine what needs to be added, modified or removed. To achieve this goal we applied for and received a grant from IIDA Headquarters to hire a professional consultant that specializes in diversity, equity and inclusion, Ann Su Consulting, to help guide us through this process and discover actionable steps that we can take to make the IIDA Oregon Chapter a more diverse and inclusive group – for our Board, our members, our local design community and the integrity of the Commercial Interior Design profession as a whole.

Through the formation of a Diversity Equity and Inclusion committee and the ongoing work with our consultant, the IIDA Oregon Chapter has been able to:

  • Award our first ever membership grants, removing financial barriers and prioritizing BIPOC (black, Indigenous, and people of color) professionals in our community who would otherwise not be a member of IIDA.
  • Started revisions to our Chapter policies and procedures to add more inclusive language and set policies for more equitable meetings, purchasing guidelines, nominations, and awards.
  • Create a new ‘Director of Social Justice’s position for our Chapter board of directors.
  • Implement a new social justice mission statement, defining what diversity, equity, and inclusion means for the IIDA Oregon Chapter. You can read our new mission statement on our website, here.
  • Committed to apply for another grant in 2023 to build a More Diverse Future by creating new programming for K-12 students, targeting BIPOC and underserved communities in an effort to spark more interest and bring awareness to interior design as a profession and career path.
  • Partner with other chapters to formally request IIDA Headquarters to collect and share demographic information for our membership so we may track progress.

In addition to the progress listed above, we have also taken actions to create more programming outside of Portland, expanding our reach to other parts of Oregon to create a more inclusive design community state-wide. This year’s Design Crawl Series features project tours in Eugene, Milwaukie and Portland – don’t forget to get your tickets here! We also recently hosted a happy hour event Giving Back with Friends of Trees taking place simultaneously in Eugene, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington. We are hoping to offer more philanthropy partnerships like this in the future, continuing to give back and serve our local communities.

Even though my term as Past President concludes this summer, I am confident that we have set a clear foundation that will live on and continue to grow, improve and ultimately lead to a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive future for the IIDA Oregon Chapter. If you’d like to get involved with the IIDA Oregon Chapter it’s the perfect time to join!

We are currently seeking passionate candidates to volunteer and serve on the IIDA Oregon Chapter Board of Directors for the 2022-2023 board year, including finding an appropriate candidate to serve as the Director of Social Justice to lead these continued initiatives! If you’d like to get involved please apply or reach out to us at (info@iida-or.org) for more information. We’re happy to do in person coffees or zoom chats!