May Musings: Events, Design Business Tips & Meet Jessica
May Musings: Events, Design Business Tips & Meet Jessica
DSA Insider: Contract Tips, Events and Fresh Reads
Design Contract Tip From Attorney Wendy Estela:
Tip #1: Be Transparent About Your Process
"Be transparent about your process. No two designers work the same way, and the differences between processes can be confusing to clients. Educate the client about the way you work so you can avoid misunderstandings."
When it comes to contracts, clarity is everything—and that starts with being upfront about how you work. As Wendy Estela, a partner at Kahan Kerensky Capossela LLP, points out, no two interior designers follow the exact same process. What feels standard to you might be completely unfamiliar to your client. That’s why it’s important to clearly outline your approach in your contract—how you handle phases like sourcing, approvals, revisions, and installations. The more you educate your client about your workflow, the fewer surprises there will be down the line. Transparency sets expectations and helps avoid potential misunderstandings.
Upcoming Events:
Vacation Rental Design Summit: Summer Escape 2025
High Point, NC | June 23–27, 2025
The Vacation Rental Design Summit returns to High Point for a week of design-focused education, connection, and inspiration. This B2B event brings together interior designers, hospitality pros, developers, and brands to explore how elevated design enhances ROI and the guest experience in short-term rentals.
Programming includes daily expert-led sessions, immersive experiences, showroom tours, and wellness-driven activities. The event kicks off with a welcome reception on June 23 and runs through June 27.
Founded by Jane Dagmi, Jessica Duce, and Ericka Saurit, the Summit was awarded the 2024 Gold Achievement Award by the North Carolina Travel Industry Association. For more information, click HERE.
NeoCon 2025
The Mart, Chicago | June 9–11, 2025
Since 1969, NeoCon has been the premier event for the commercial interior design industry—serving as a launchpad for innovation and a hub for connection. Each year, design professionals from sectors including workplace, healthcare, hospitality, education, and government gather to explore groundbreaking products and ideas shaping the built environment.
The 2025 edition will feature over 450 leading and emerging companies debuting thousands of new products across furniture, fabrics, flooring, finishes, and technology. Complementing the exhibition is a robust lineup of accredited programming and keynote presentations from top voices in design and business.
More than a trade show, NeoCon is where design moves forward.
Fresh Reads:
"Natural Living By Design" by Melissa Penfold
In Natural Living By Design, internationally renowned design expert Melissa Penfold explores how thoughtful interiors can profoundly enhance our physical and emotional well-being. Blending timeless style with healthy, life-affirming principles, each chapter dives into elements like light, nature, flow, and awe—demonstrating how beauty and wellness go hand in hand. With inspiring imagery from celebrated designers including Steven Gambrel, Bunny Williams, and Peter Marino, this book is a must-have for anyone looking to create a sanctuary that supports both style and soul.
Published by Vendome, a leader in sustainable publishing, Natural Living By Design is more than a design book—it’s a guide to living better, naturally.
Marketing Tips With Ericka Saurit: Get in position.
How defining your positioning attracts, rather than limits, opportunity (and is the first thing you should do before anything else!)
By Ericka Saurit
Last month, we talked about how important it is for your brand message to be clear—not just clever.
This month, I want to follow that up with another idea you might not have heard much about—but it’s absolutely essential if you want your marketing to actually work.
It’s called positioning. And understanding exactly how your brand is positioned will literally change everything!
If you're struggling to stand out—or wondering why your marketing feels scattered—you might not have a marketing problem at all.
You might have a positioning problem.
Before you build your website, post on Instagram, or even design your logo, you need to know exactly where you want to stand in the market—and who you want standing there with you.
Positioning is how you define the specific space you want to own in your client's mind.
Good positioning is not…I’m a designer. It’s not…I create beautiful spaces.
But instead: I’m the designer who helps busy families create a space where everyone feels right at home.
Or: I’m the designer for people who love to entertain at home.
See the difference? Specificity is what makes you memorable.
When you’re positioned well, your ideal clients immediately know: you are for me.
Here’s what you can do to sharpen your positioning this month:
1. Claim your place.
Write down, in one sentence, the space you want to own in your client’s mind. Keep it short, specific, and focused on the client—not on you.
2. Pick your people.
Sketch out a short description of your ideal client. What do they deeply want? What do they struggle with? What are they searching for that you’re uniquely qualified to help them find?
3. Draw a line in the sand.
If you try to be for everyone, you end up resonating with no one. Make a short list of who your brand is not for. (This doesn’t have to be public—but it should guide your messaging and marketing. We’ll talk about this more next month!)
Positioning is powerful because it acts like gravity.
It pulls the right people in—and subtly tells the wrong ones to keep moving.
And that’s not just OK. That’s the goal.
Because when you know who you’re talking to, you can create marketing that feels natural, not salesy or pushy. You can design services that align with exactly what YOU want to do. You can stop trying to outshout everyone—and simply connect.
Next month, we’ll go even deeper.
I’ll show you why understanding what truly motivates people to buy is the secret ingredient most brands miss—and how you can use that knowledge to strengthen everything you do.
DSA Member Special Offer:
DSA members can now save $500 on enrollment in Marketing School for Creatives (MSC), Ericka Saurit’s signature program designed to help creative entrepreneurs build a clear, confident, and consistent marketing strategy—without the overwhelm. With lifetime access to the core curriculum, expert-led workshops, live support, and a library of templates and tools, MSC is a must for any designer ready to level up.
12-month access to step-by-step video training
25+ expert-led workshops (AI, SEO, PR, Instagram + more)
Live coaching, event access, and done-for-you templates
$33,000+ in total value
Pay just $997 (normally $1,497) with code: DSA-500-25
More details can be found in your DSA Member account under the DSA Member Benefits tab. Reach out to support@dsasociety.org for help. Start building a marketing plan that actually works! Be sure to keep up with Saurit Creative on socials!
Episode 4: Bringing Your Brand Voice to Life with AI
What would your brand look like as an interior space?
In this week’s episode of AI in Design, Jenna takes us on a creative deep-dive into turning your brand voice into a visual vibe—with a little help from ChatGPT, of course.
It’s part branding exercise, part design fantasy, and 100% a fun way to connect with your business on a deeper level. You’ll learn how to prompt ChatGPT to reflect your brand personality, ask the right questions, and generate images that actually feel like you.
Whether you’re looking for fresh content ideas, stronger brand clarity, or just a good excuse to play with AI tools, this episode is packed with inspo. Bonus: it’s a great conversation starter with clients, too.
Don't forget, DSA members get a special 30% off of The DAIly — a premier AI training program designed for creative professionals! Login into your account and see on the benefits page for the exclusive discount code.
Collaboration Is Key
Jessica Duce believes collaboration helps drive success for vacation rental designers.
By Lindsay Field Penticuff
Jessica Duce has moved her business three times in the more than two decades she’s been in business and thriving in the fastest-growing design category in the world—vacation rentals.
“What I think drives us and others in the Vacation Rental Collective is that residential design is awesome, but you don’t always get to stretch your design muscle, because you have to make sure you’re keeping rue to your design client,” says Duce, who is Owner and Principal Designer of JDuce Design and Co-Founder of Vacation Rental Designers, the VRD Summit and Vacation Rental Collective. “But in vacation rental design, you’re encouraged to stretch your design muscles, and how great is that!”
Duce, who has operated her business in California, Nebraska, Colorado and now Texas, didn’t originally think interior design was her calling. Her mother was a single mom working as an interior designer and specializing in kitchen and bath design.
“It was a very hard business for, so I knew I was never going to do that,” she says. “I went to college knowing that I didn’t want to be a designer like her because it looked really hard, and I ended up studying business and worked for a bank.”
However, while working at the bank, the manager asked Duce to help redesign an office space, which led to her doing the same for others in the bank, and—within about a year—she found herself designing lobbies for Wells Fargo bank locations in her area.
“My mom called me one day and asked if I had realized that I had a design business inside a bank,” Duce says. “That was an epiphany, so I quit my job and started my own little company.”
And while Duce does do residential design, a majority of her business today focuses on vacation rental design, a niche she discovered was a good fit for her in 2015.
Vacation Rental Design Summit: Summer Escape 2025
Jessica Duce has moved her business three times in the more than two decades she’s been in business and thriving in the fastest-growing design category in the world—vacation rentals.
