Carl Dellatore

Publishing Projects for the Design Community

Carl Dellatore

What, Exactly, Does A Book Packager Do?

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An interior designer’s portfolio lives in two worlds: the physical spaces they create and the way those spaces are captured, contextualized, and shared with the world. This is where a book packager comes in. A skilled packager works behind the scenes to transform a designer’s vision, process, and unique perspective into a finished book—one that becomes a tangible reflection of who they are as a designer. It’s not simply about producing a beautiful object. It’s about orchestrating every element of storytelling: from the initial concept through the final printed page.

What a Book Packager Actually Does

A book packager connects a designer’s creative vision with the expertise required to bring it to life. They act as a conductor in understanding how each instrument contributes to the symphony. They work with publishers, photographers, editors, and technical experts to ensure that the designer’s voice comes through clearly, their work is presented compellingly, and every production decision serves the larger narrative.

The Services Book Packagers Provide

Concept Development and Strategy. A book needs a clear vision—not just a collection of compelling pictures. A skilled packager develops the conceptual framework alongside the designer. What story is being told? Is the focus a specific design philosophy or a range of residential and commercial work? What informs the designer’s approach? A good packager helps articulate this and shape it into a compelling proposal.

Author and Contributor Representation. If a book needs an essayist, foreword writer, or contributing voices, the packager sources those individuals and handles negotiations. For many designers, this is the hardest step to navigate on their own.

Editorial Direction and Content Strategy. Packagers work with writers and editors to create an editorial spine—a through-line connecting images, case studies, and reflections. This ensures the designer’s narrative is straightforward, their philosophy evident, and every word serves the work.

Visual Direction and Design. A book packager oversees the aesthetic life of the project—layout, typography, image selection and sequencing, and photography direction. In interior design books, the book’s design becomes a commentary on the designer’s sensibility. A minimalist designer’s book should feel different from a maximalist’s. The visual language must honor the designer’s voice.

Project Management and Production. From timeline to budget to printer selection, a packager handles the logistics that ensure the book meets the highest standards. They coordinate with the publisher to ensure quality control and troubleshoot issues that arise during production. The designer focuses on their craft; the packager focuses on bringing the book into existence.

Why Interior Designers Partner With Book Packagers

Publishing a book feels impossibly complicated for those without experience. The path from concept to finished monograph involves numerous decisions: traditional publisher or boutique press? Self-publishing? Who handles design and layout? How does one ensure quality?

A book packager streamlines the publishing process. Instead of building an in-house team or navigating the industry alone, designers can tap into existing editorial expertise, design knowledge, production experience, and publishing know-how. When someone asks if they can handle everything themselves, the answer is yes—but it comes with a caveat. Just as you wouldn’t advise a client to design their own kitchen without professional guidance, attempting to publish a book without industry experience often leads to costly mistakes. A packager brings specialized knowledge that saves time, money, and ensures a polished final product.

The Result

The designer brings the raw material—their work, their insights, their design story. The packager brings the expertise to shape that material into a book that advances their career and creates something they’ll be proud of for years to come. Design work deserves to be seen. A packager’s job is to ensure it’s seen in the most compelling way possible.

An Essential Timeline: From Proposal to Publication Date

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The development process for an illustrated design book has historically been opaque, with many designers and creative professionals unsure of the steps involved between signing a contract and seeing their work appear on bookstore shelves.

Authors need to understand the inner workings of the process to gain a clear and logical overview of the journey from proposal to publication, enabling designers to understand how a vision evolves into a finished book. Here are some of the questions I am regularly asked, with clear answers.

How Long Will It Take?

In my experience, the journey from a signed contract to publication for an illustrated design book typically spans two years; however, a highly organized designer with a robust plan and ready resources can streamline this process. There are interwoven stages, each requiring careful coordination and a dedication to detail from both creators and their support teams.

What Goes Into A Proposal?

The journey begins with the conception of a clear and compelling proposal. A strong proposal serves as a critical road map, outlining the vision, core themes, intended audience, and visual aesthetic of the book. It also articulates the unique narrative that will be woven through the images and stories within the book’s covers. A well-crafted proposal not only attracts publisher interest but also provides a cohesive guideline for the author, editor, and designer as the project progresses.

Who Do I Need To Work With?

Once the proposal secures a contract, the next phase involves assembling the principal creative team, which typically consists of an established author and a skilled editor. Their collaboration brings the book’s narrative architecture to life, ensuring textual clarity, consistency, and resonance with the intended audience. Through rounds of drafting, reviewing, and revising, the author and editor shape the manuscript into its compelling final form. An organized designer can expedite this process by providing explicit reference materials, timely feedback, and thoughtful responses to editorial suggestions.

How Important Is A Book Designer?

The design phase is where vision becomes tangible. Selecting an experienced book designer is paramount, as this professional interprets the designer’s aesthetic sensibilities and applies them across page layouts, typography choices, and the integration of imagery. The designer collaborates closely with both the author and the editor to ensure that visuals and text coalesce into a cohesive whole. Cover design and internal layouts are iteratively refined, and the designer generates mockups for review and approval before committing to final files.

What About Image Rights and Permissions?

One of the most time-consuming and essential steps involves securing all necessary rights and permissions. Negotiating image rights with photographers, alongside obtaining permissions from homeowners featured in photography, is vital to mitigate any potential legal issues and to uphold creative integrity. These negotiations can be complex, as they involve reviewing and executing contracts, corresponding with multiple parties, and tracking usage rights for every image within the book.

What Are The Final Considerations?

Once both manuscript and imagery are finalized and all permissions are secured, the book enters production. This involves fine-tuning the layouts, reviewing high-resolution files, and conducting multiple pre-press proofing rounds to ensure printing accuracy. Close attention to detail during this phase pays dividends, as even the most minor error can impact the finished product in design books where visuals are paramount.

What About Marketing The Book?

After passing the final press check, the book is sent to print—a stage that may require several weeks or even months, particularly if printing takes place overseas. Meanwhile, preparations for the marketing campaign are underway, including the creation of pre-release teasers, promotional materials for media and influencers, and coordinated launch activities. Once the books arrive, a carefully orchestrated launch introduces the new title to the world, signaling the culmination of skill, vision, and patience.

Essential Rights and Permissions Guide for Design Book Publishing

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Creating your own design book is an exciting career milestone, but success requires more than stunning visuals and compelling content. Behind every professional coffee table book lies a critical framework of rights and permissions that protects your project from expensive legal complications. Understanding this process is essential.

Photography Rights: Your Legal Foundation

Photography copyright management represents one cornerstone of your design book publishing journey. And this often comes as a surprise: Even when you commission and pay for original photography, copyright typically remains with the photographer unless explicitly transferred through written contract.

Every photograph requires a detailed licensing agreement defining usage parameters including print run and digital distribution rights, geographic limitations, licensing duration, and commercial restrictions.

The cost of securing these image rights varies significantly based on several key factors. Your existing relationship with photographers can substantially impact pricing—established collaborators often offer more favorable rates or flexible licensing terms compared to first-time partnerships. Additionally, whether your publishing house allocates a budget specifically for image rights acquisition affects your negotiating position and ability to secure comprehensive usage permissions.

Property and Artist Permissions: Critical Details

Additionally, your design book will require comprehensive publishing permissions from property owners, which protects you from legal claims while maintaining positive relationships with featured homeowners who often become valuable project advocates.

Artist permissions demand equal attention when featuring artwork, sculptures, or decorative objects within photographed spaces. This oft-overlooked detail can derail projects. Artists retain intellectual property rights regardless of who owns the physical work, making written consent mandatory.

For example, your clients may own a Picasso drawing hanging above their library mantel—but showing that room in your book requires permission from the artist’s estate through organizations like the Artist’s Rights Society. Even contemporary artists whose work appears incidentally in photographs must provide written consent.

Essential Rights Management Practices

Implementing systematic rights and permissions management protects your investment while streamlining production. Start by creating comprehensive documentation that records every image, artwork, and property with associated licensing agreements, usage parameters, and expiration dates. Publishers require this detailed documentation before your project goes to the printer.

My suggestion? Plan early in securing rights and permissions–ideally during the photography phase. By embedding rights clearance into your creative process from the beginning, you’ll avoid costly delays or forced content changes that can derail your timeline and budget. Missing documents waste time, or worse, force expensive last-minute content replacements that compromise your creative vision.

Why This Matters for Your Career

Meticulous attention to rights and permissions ensures every creative element is included with complete legal integrity, supporting both publishing success and long-term career credibility in the competitive design industry.

Branding By The Book

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Nothing beats a well-crafted design monograph when it comes to interior design marketing. Think about influential books like Mark Hampton’s “Mark Hampton Decorates” or Kelly Wearstler’s “Modern Glamour”—they are more than just visually appealing; they are manifestos that transformed project documentation into powerful brand storytelling that continues to attract clients.

When you share years of interior design work into actual bound pages, something magical happens. But it takes careful consideration. You have to examine what you really stand for as a designer, articulate your unique design philosophy, and figure out what makes you different from everyone else.

This process transforms a collection of home design projects into something much more substantial—a cohesive brand narrative that resonates.

Why Interior Design Books Still Matter

A design monograph shines like a perfectly cut diamond. Each project gets positioned just right to show off your interior design expertise in the best possible light. While everyone else is frantically posting to social media feeds, hoping someone will pause long enough to notice, you end up with something permanent in the Library of Congress. Something people can touch, flip through slowly, and absorb.

The most innovative designers understand this idea. The late Elsie de Wolfe and working legend Bunny Williams didn’t become household names by accident. Their published works became calling cards that preceded them into rooms, establishing credibility before the first client consultation even took place.

Today’s interior design industry is saturated with visual cacophony and trends that change every five minutes. A professional design book cuts through all that digital chatter with real intention and authority—precisely what you need for successful interior design business growth.

Building Your Interior Design Brand

Know What Makes You Different

Here’s where simple interior designer branding comes up short. Everyone talks about “luxury interior design” or “modern home design”—and sure, these SEO-friendly terms matter for your design marketing strategy. But what really makes clients choose you over the other designers in their area?

You may have mastered sustainable interior design in ways that don’t sacrifice beauty for environmental consciousness. Or you’re the family-friendly luxury specialist who proves that high-end residential design can survive real life with kids and pets. Whatever your niche—contemporary rooms, traditional styling, or considered eclecticism—you need to own it completely.

The designers who really succeed pick their lane and stay in it. Pick your position and defend it fiercely.

Understand Your Client Base

Effective interior design marketing starts with knowing exactly who you’re talking to. The Manhattan socialite looking for timeless sophistication thinks completely differently from the tech CEO who wants clean, minimal lines. Same budget, totally different psychology.

This understanding needs to shape every decision about your portfolio book—from the paper you choose to how you write about each project. If you specialize in the luxury family homes I mentioned earlier, demonstrate how beautiful design addresses real-life needs. Tell the story about gorgeous upholstery that shrugs off juice spills and homework sessions. You get the idea.

Your Visual DNA

Every interior designer worth remembering has a signature—something that makes their work instantly recognizable. Some designers have never met a natural material they don’t love. Others live for bold color combinations that would terrify most people.

Don’t apologize for these patterns in your portfolio book. Celebrate them. These repeated elements show that you’ve developed a point of view through years of practice, not just copying whatever’s trending on TikTok this week.

When you write about these visual themes, get specific. Talk about how that hand-forged hardware feels under someone’s fingers. Describe the way morning light changes your favorite paint colors throughout the day. These details help potential clients imagine actually living in your rooms.

The Words You Use

The language in your interior design work carries just as much weight as your project photography. Every word becomes part of your brand architecture, creating expectations that follow you from first consultation to final installation.

Suppose you’re the “contemporary modernist” designer, which sets up totally different expectations than calling yourself the “vibrant colorist”. Once you pick your words, stick with them everywhere—client meetings, Instagram captions, even when you’re chatting at networking events. People should recognize your voice, whether they find you through a Google search or hear you speaking at a design industry event.

How You Make People Feel

This is important. Your brand has to communicate the actual emotional experience of living in your spaces. Are you creating security? Inspiration? Calm? Excitement?

Successful interior designers know they’re not just moving furniture around. They’re choreographing how people experience their daily lives and shaping the emotional backdrop for everything that matters. Your brand has to communicate the actual emotional experience of living in your spaces. 

Articulate this in your design portfolio with actual client stories. Ask them for testimonials that talk about real-life changes, not just how nice everything looks. Maybe it’s the family whose kitchen renovation turned into their favorite gathering spot, or the entrepreneur whose home office makeover led to their most productive year ever.

Why This Actually Works

Physical books declare that your interior design work deserves contemplation, that your philosophy is worth preserving, and that your contribution to residential and commercial design will outlast whatever hashtag is trending this week.

The best interior design books become treasured references that sit on coffee tables and library shelves for years to come. They work as silent brand ambassadors long after publication; that’s the power of branding by the book—it transforms you from just another designer into someone whose influence extends far beyond the rooms you create.

Building the Perfect Visual Team for Your Interior Design Book

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Designer: Tina Ramchandani www.tinaramchandani.com
Stylist: Anna Molvik www.annamolvik.com
Photography: Ellen McDermott www.ellenmcdermott.com

Building a strong team to document your work is an essential step in creating a standout interior design book—and as a book packager for interior designers, I know that collaboration is the key to success. For designers seeking to elevate their brand, attract premium clients, and create a lasting marketing asset, surrounding yourself with the right people—photographers, stylists, and an experienced editor—can make all the difference.

The Photographer — Capturing Your Vision in Every Frame

Professional photographers are the cornerstone of visual storytelling. A skilled interior design photographer knows how to capture light, color, texture, and the unique flow of a space. They don’t just document rooms—they translate your design vision into images that inspire and resonate. Whether it’s a sunlit minimalist living room or a richly layered traditional study, high‑quality photography transforms your work into art, creating images worthy of publication and capable of engaging even the most discerning clients.

The Stylist — Setting the Stage for Storytelling

A stylist brings a designer’s portfolio to life, ensuring each shot feels perfectly composed and emotionally engaging. They work closely with you to arrange furniture, accessories, artwork, and lighting so that every element contributes to your narrative and brand identity. From adjusting the placement of a chair to selecting the right flowers for a dining table, the stylist’s attention to detail creates editorial‑quality images that feel intentional and refined—turning a space into an unforgettable scene. Photographer Ellen McDermott shares her thoughts below.

Excellent photography highlights good design through lighting and composition, yet it is the stylists we come to depend upon to give the space the mood and narrative which supports the designer’s intent.

Without the skill of a stylist many rooms feel distant and untouchable. Stylists take time to understand the designer’s concept and vision elevating the viewing experience through florals, food, props, and visuals such as art, soft throws, and pillows.

As a photographer, knowing a stylist is on set creating an inviting look and feel allows us to do the work of capturing the space more efficiently resulting in a very creative and productive shoot.”

Designer: Dominick Rotondi Designs www.dominickrotondidesigns.com
Architect: Peter Cook www.petercookarchitect.com
Stylist: Anthony Santelli
Photography: Ellen McDermott www.ellenmcdermott.com

The Editor — Shaping the Narrative

While the photographer and stylist focus on visual excellence, an editor oversees the process to ensure the images tell a cohesive story. The editor coordinates schedules, aligns the creative vision, and makes sure every photograph matches your brand’s aesthetic. They also make critical decisions about which images appear in the final book—balancing beauty with narrative flow. This editorial guidance ensures the finished interior design book feels polished, professional, and tailored to your business goals.

Why a Collaborative Team Produces the Best Interior Design Books

When you work with a photographer, a stylist, and an editor working together, the result is powerful. Your work is presented at the highest standard, the story of your brand is told with clarity, and the final product becomes more than a portfolio—it becomes a marketing tool that elevates your authority, builds credibility, and attracts premium clients.

Ready to capture your best work in a book that tells your unique story and grows your business? I can assemble the ideal creative team to ensure your vision is documented in an exceptional, lasting publication. Let’s talk.

Build Your Audience: How A Platform Helps Designers Land Publishing Deals

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In today’s publishing landscape, great ideas alone are often not enough to secure a book deal. Publishers are constantly evaluating two essential factors: the quality of the concept and the likelihood of financial success. While strong writing and a compelling premise are crucial, a well‑established platform—your website, social media presence, and professional visibility—is what reduces risk and creates real opportunity in the eyes of a publisher.

A platform, at its core, is your ability to reach and engage an audience. In the past, publishers relied on their own marketing infrastructure to introduce an author to readers. Now, with the explosion of digital media and niche communities, authors are expected to come to the table already connected to their audience. A carefully curated website establishes your identity, conveys your aesthetic, and communicates your vision. It becomes the central hub where publishers (as well as potential readers, collaborators, and media outlets) see not only your work, but also the depth of your engagement with a community.

Perhaps most importantly, a platform gives you control. By developing an audience before you approach a publisher, you create momentum. You can test ideas, refine your message, and gauge interest in topics that might become chapters or sections of your book.”

Social media plays an equally critical role. A following does more than tally numbers—it demonstrates influence. When someone chooses to follow you on Instagram, Pinterest, or LinkedIn, they are raising their hand as a potential reader and client. Publishers interpret that engagement as a forecast: the book you are proposing has a built‑in audience waiting for it. That lessens the financial risk and makes it easier for them to commit resources to design, printing, and marketing.

Perhaps most importantly, a platform gives you control. By developing an audience before you approach a publisher, you create momentum. You can test ideas, refine your message, and gauge interest in topics that might become chapters or sections of your book. This feedback loop strengthens your proposal, because you’re not simply offering an abstract idea—you’re presenting a concept that has already inspired conversation and proven value in the world.

Building a platform doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Start with a professional website that clearly showcases your work. Update it consistently with journal entries, project highlights, and insights into your process. On social media, resist the temptation to post sporadically; instead, craft a consistent voice that reflects your aesthetic and invites authentic conversation. Remember: the goal is not sheer numbers, but meaningful interaction that positions you as an authority in your field.

When you approach a publisher with both a polished proposal and a robust platform, you demonstrate that you are not only a creative visionary but also a strategic partner. That combination is powerful—and it can make the difference between a good idea and a published book.

Why Every Interior Designer Needs a Book

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Books have long served as lasting documents for creative vision. In today’s competitive fields of interior design, producing a book is far more than compiling a portfolio—it’s a strategic tool that elevates your practice into a recognized, premium brand. 

Authority and Credibility

In an era when social media posts vanish into the algorithmic vapors, a published book offers permanence and prestige. It positions you as a trusted expert—a designer whose vision carries weight. On coffee tables and library shelves, it functions as the ultimate business card, continually marketing your work. This tangible proof of expertise often justifies premium pricing and attracts discerning, high‑value clients in the design and architectural world.

Clarifying Your Design Philosophy

The process of creating a book refines and codifies your creative DNA. Selecting your strongest projects, documenting your process, and articulating the principles behind your work help define what sets you apart. Whether you design minimalist interiors bathed in natural light, maximalist rooms rich with lush color, or traditional spaces rooted in historic precedent, your book becomes both a brand manifesto and a visual operations guide, ensuring consistency for clients, collaborators, and your team.

Expanding Business Opportunities

Published designers often find themselves invited to speak at industry conferences, contribute articles, or collaborate on product lines. Media coverage flows more readily to authors, delivering publicity worth thousands in ad spend. Like the salons of Paris, authorship places you in influential circles where reputation and opportunities grow in tandem.

Creating Scalable Assets

While client projects demand your direct time and presence, a book generates passive revenue through royalties and licensing while laying the groundwork for courses, workshops, and strategic partnerships. Much like planting a perennial garden, the benefits persist season after season—your work continues to inspire and influence even in your absence.

Blending Visual Impact with Insight

For maximum impact, combine stunning imagery with insightful commentary. Describe the way light cascades across a textured wall or how a hardwood floor pattern leads visitors on a pathway, offering readers both inspiration and a taste of your expertise. Share enough practical advice to establish authority while leaving intrigue that encourages future collaboration.

Choosing Your Publishing Path

Traditional publishing provides broader distribution and a stamp of established credibility, but self‑publishing should not be discounted–it offers control and higher profit margins. In either case, your book serves as a timeless ambassador—merging professional authority, cultural depth, and sensory allure.

Bottom Line

A thoughtfully produced design book is more than a record of your work. It’s the most elegant and enduring interior design marketing strategy you can create—one that builds lasting authority, attracts premium clients, and ensures your vision resonates well beyond the project’s completion.

Some Thoughts on Nuance

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The sepia mural enveloping this room, designed by Suzanne Rheinstein, was painted by Bob Christian, and the chairs and wooden chimera on the Louis XVI marble mantel are 18th century. The painted, gilded, stained, and waxed wood surfaces and various fabric textures bring a subtle interest to the space; the ceiling was lacquered off-white to reflect light. Photographed by Pieter Estersohn as it appears in “Interior Design Master Class” from Rizzoli, New York.

(WRITTEN FOR AND PUBLISHED BY THE DESIGNERS SOCIETY OF AMERICA)

You would be hard-pressed to open a newspaper or visit an online media outlet without discovering an article about the coming (or already here?) artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. Some praise AI’s problem-solving virtues in medical treatment and data analysis; others warn of impending calamity as malicious actors misuse AI to disrupt communication or further dilute any semblance of privacy we still have.

Consider this: In November 2023, there were no less than 40 stories on AI in The New York Times—covering everything from AI-controlled drones deployed in warzones to AI’s impact on career illustrators whose livelihoods are now threatened by art-generation programs. That latter example brings the point closer to home as we ponder how AI affects architecture and design professionals.

On architecture: An August 2023 piece published in The Guardian, written by Oliver Wainwright and titled “It’s Already Way Beyond What Humans Can Do: Will AI Wipe Out Architects?” takes an in-depth look and the conclusions—some fancied and others already realized—are no less than earth-shaking. AI is altering the future of architecture in unimaginable and revolutionary ways.

As a designer, you may already use generative AI to create 3D models, optimize space planning, or organize floor plans. Machine learning is taking hold, too, with programs that analyze preferences and predict what furniture your client might choose in a given room. And financial analysis programs are quickly-advancing, helping designers improve accuracy, transparency and workflow—all toward maximizing profit margins. Taken together, these advances are changing designer’s lives for the better.

But the questions persist: Will artificial intelligence take over the interior design industry? Or worse, render it obsolete?

The answers, at least in part, can be found in a piece the late designer Suzanne Rheinstein wrote in my book “Interior Design Master Class” on the subject of nuance. Contemplate her paragraph on the elements of a room:

“Assuming the architecture has been attended to, and the preliminary floor plans made, choosing the furniture must be done carefully. When considering pieces old and new, pay attention to finish and textures. The antique chairs I buy often have beautiful old and rubbed (not chipped!) paint with the wood showing through or faded gilt or mellow fruitwood frames, which look very attractive in the same room, with none of them standing out more than another. The tables may be small shapes from Asia, with 40 applied coats of lacquer creating the characteristic soft undulations in the surface. Or it can be a bespoke modern table with a smooth lacquer finish and simple bronze legs. I sometimes order extremely plain tables or desks with very finely woven raffia or glazed linen applied for texture.”

Rheinstein’s operative words are somewhat alliterative—choosing, carefully and considering—but they make an essential point: The devil is in the proverbial details. The nuanced decisions she made during her career elevated her rooms, for which she found herself on the AD 100 and Elle Decor’s A-List year after year. Her carefully honed aesthetic vision gives us insight into the future of design in the age of AI because while it may be true that a software program can choose color palettes or organize floorplans, it’s the nuanced details arrived at through years of experience working as a designer that artificial intelligence misses—at least for now.

I’ve been thinking not about how AI advancements could detrimentally impact the design industry but how the changes might make for better designers.

Hear me out.

While it may be an oversimplification, designers create interiors by identifying aspirations, exerting creativity, and marshaling resources to realize individually tailored spaces for their clients. That statement offers a roadmap.

Thinking about aspiration, the late Steve Jobs had it right: “Don’t give the people what they want; give them what they don’t know they want yet.” Have in-depth conversations with your clients that help you arrive at design solutions beyond your client’s expectations. Regarding creativity, challenge yourself to find furnishings and finishes that set you apart; instead of a showroom piece, scour the local antique shops for something unusual or engage an artisan to make a one-of-a-kind piece. And go the extra mile on installation day—stock the new refrigerator with your client’s favorite champagne or have fresh peonies on the dressing table. Together, these actions will underscore the value of hiring a design professional.

Designers who balance the advantageous aspects of machine learning with an ever-expanding use of their imaginations will continue to succeed far into the future. I’d bet on it.