Tom Stringer was drawing house plans on graph paper in the second grade, and ever since then, he knew he was destined for a career in design. After growing up in Elm Grove, Wisconsin, Stringer took his childhood interest to the design department of the College of Architecture at Arizona State University, a program he specifically sought out because they put architecture, interior and product design under the same roof.
While at school, he worked for Scottsdale designers Nancy Kitchell and Brad Newland. When Newland fell ill, he temporarily handed the reins of his small firm to Stringer at just 21 years old. “It was one of my first true trials by fire,” he tells host Dennis Scully on the latest episode of The Business of Home Podcast. “It made me understand how well I thrive in that environment. I’m at my best when I’m in over my head, and then you fight, and you survive, and then you prosper.” After moving to Chicago and working for Alessandra Branca, Stringer launched his own business in 1995. His work has since been widely celebrated by the shelter media, his projects have taken him around the world, and his firm has worked across multiple generations of the same family.
A hallmark of Stringer’s philosophy for a prosperous, long-running design business is to overdeliver on benefits—he not only gives his staff standard perks like insurance and a 401(k), but has instituted free executive coaching and a sabbatical period every five years. Those benefits, Stringer says, enrich both the employee and the firm. “If that associate has recently been to Europe or done some great adventure travel as an employee, they’re a richer source of information as a designer or an architect,” he says. “They’re more valuable to the client because they have a higher level, frankly, of just sophistication. A young designer who’s been to Paris is a better designer.”
Crucial insight: In Stringer’s vetting process for new clients, he looks for three things: a personal connection, a dedication to philanthropy and a willingness to curse. “On first meeting, if a client’s life story and their personality and their mannerisms and their energy make me want to hang out with them and go to dinner with them and to hear their story, then that’s the test, right?” he says. “If a client uses profanity in an interview with me, not in a judgmental way, but in an aside, I know they feel comfortable with me. If they’re willing to drop the f-bomb, I think they feel comfortable here.”
This episode is sponsored by Loloi and Annie Selke. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
The Thursday Show
BOH executive editor Fred Nicolaus and host Dennis Scully discuss the biggest news in the industry, including the fate of the DCOTA, rising mortgage rates and the design industry’s next killer app. Later, Substack writers Leonora Epstein and David Michon join the show to talk about how the platform is changing design media.
This episode is sponsored by Kohler and Klafs USA. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
