Stephanie Kalb (’08 Interior Design)
Sometimes when you meet someone, you just click. For Stephanie Kalb and Chair of Interior Design, Sandra Olave, a shared elevator ride at College for Creative Studies was that moment. And it would prove to be pivotal in paving a career pathway for a lifetime passion for interior design.
The Interview
“I love this job because I love to draw things and then make it into reality”
–Stephanie Kalb
What sparked your interest in interior design?
I was taking evening classes at CCS. At the end of the semester, I came to this exhibition just to see it with my friends. As I’m getting out of the lift, I see this fantastic woman – this charismatic woman coming at me. She said, “You are Stephanie Kalb.” I was like, “Whoa. I don’t know this woman.” And that was Sandra Olave, the head of the Interior Design department. She said, “I want you in my class.” I have to tell you that this little sentence, for me, was very boosting. It really boosted my interest in interior design and materials. Then I studied for four years at CCS in the Interior Design department.
Did you always know that you wanted to go into interior design? Or is this something that you realized later in life?
I believe I knew it, but I didn’t understand it at the beginning. When I was younger, I started to study marketing for five years or so. But I was very interested in interior design. I was going to all the fairs in Europe. I was visiting all the construction sites that I could. Going and seeing and imagining the different rooms that it could be. I’ve always been very open to design.
How does it feel now to see your designs realized in front of you?
This is fulfilling to me. I love this job because I love to draw things and then make it into reality. This is my passion now. I love to see how drawings can become reality. Fulfilling the customer’s needs. We need to understand the ways they live when we’re doing residential, when we are doing offices, and the way they want the strategy to be put into walls. Because of my background in marketing, I’m very, very interested in this part as well.
What do you love the most about what you do?
Starting the project on-site. This is an exciting moment. You’ve been doing the conception for two months, three months, sometimes even longer, and then it turns into reality, into technical problems, into, “How am I going to work with this facade?” Then working with the workers and having them understand what you want to reach, and understanding their problems as well, is an interesting part for me. Plans are plans, but when you are in it, for example, this apartment was a big challenge because we had so many surprises, and we had to deal with so many problems. I love that.
If you could go back in time and talk to your younger self, what would you say?
Start studying interior design as soon as possible. Don’t waste your time. I have to say that going back to studies when you’re 35 – I was 35 at this point, with three kids – I had different problems from the other students. For me, at the beginning, it was quite a challenge, especially with all the software. I mean, the computer part was pretty tough. I had to work many, many nights on top of days as a mom.
I would start right away, and not be afraid of this kind of career.
How do you feel CCS prepared you for a career in interior design?
I have to tell you that I really loved their way of teaching. I could compare it with France, for example. France was very conceptual. Till the end, I mean, I did the last year in France, and it was very conceptual, while CCS was more technical. I love this part as well. Sandra is a great enhancer of talent and concept. She’s very good at bringing you to the end of your concept, and I loved this. And you’ve got other teachers teaching you technical things that are very fundamental when you start to work because you might have very good ideas, very good drawings, but if you cannot make it into reality, it’s a problem. I really loved the two parts of CCS, the conceptual and the technical.
At the end of the four years you transferred, why is that?
I was an expat in Detroit. My husband came to the end of his contract, so we had to go back to France. I couldn’t go on with the CCS studies, and on top of that, I wanted to study in France, because I knew I would practice in France. It’s a different system – electrical system, different rules, of course, different materials. I really wanted to have a graduation in France. So I completed four years at CCS with one year in Paris.
What’s your ultimate goal or dream?
I would love to work in the U.S., actually. I would love to do a project with my European background and to put it back in the U.S. with what I know from there.
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