CONDOMINIUM living has become a way of life for Malaysian house buyers. The appeal is simple, features such as security and lifestyle facilities make it the preferred choice to come home to.
Co-founder of Anwill Design Steve Lee was quick to notice the growing trend before it took off.
“I noticed that there was a huge market for interior design with the surge of condominiums,” said Lee, who had just graduated then.
Despite his background in chemical engineering, Lee was determined to pursue this line of work. But due to his lack of professional experience, he was in need of help, especially in the area of marketing.
Jeff Low, a secondary schoolmate, agreed to jump on board.
“I called Jeff, who had a background in PR and Marketing. And after explaining the vision to him, we decided to develop our company,” Lee said.
Since its establishment, the duo has taken various housing projects under their wing, tailoring each design element to the client’s specific need
How would you describe your creative process?
Low: We brand ourselves as a condo specialist and we have a package. And in this package, we have three core values – affordability, design and all-inclusive.
We approach our clients through online marketing. So, we focus on putting our content online and from there, our clients will normally approach us. Once they do, we will walk them through our design selections and the package quotations.
For our design selections, the available choices range from Scandinavian to Muji style. Based on our studies, these two styles are popular these days. So that is how we usually approach things. We like to help our clients visualise their design selections at our first meeting, before moving on with things.
Is there a particular project that you are most proud of?
Low: No. This is because we mainly focus on our customer’s satisfaction. For every unit, we have this motto – you give us a unit, we return you a home. As long as we are able to deliver that, we are proud.
How do you constantly come up with ideas?
Low: The best inspiration always comes from life experiences. We believe that in order to deliver dream homes, we need to be able to put ourselves in our client’s shoes. We need to be able to see things from their point of view for things to materialise. And it is only possible if you have a lot of life experiences. So, aside from keeping up with the latest trends, we draw inspiration from our real-life experiences.
Has there been any strange or unrealistic requests from a client?
Lee: Definitely! There have been clients who requested a fully furnished unit with a very limited budget. For instance, they want a unit with three bedrooms and two bathrooms to be fully furnished within a 20k budget. This is quite difficult to work with because we believe quality things come at a reasonable price. We normally advise the client to look for another specialist who can work within the budget.
Low: A lot of customers do not really appreciate and respect what we do. In fact, many think they can do it themselves just by opening online apps like Pinterest. Many already assume they are interior designers themselves.
Is there anyone you would like to work with in the future?
Low: Yes, but most of them are developers. Like Acobo and MSunrise because they mainly focus on customer satisfaction. Their direction is quite similar to ours. Take MSunrise for instance, which is responsible for many highrise and premium condos. We believe our services as condo specialists are in line with their vision.
What are your hopes for the local interior design industry?
Low: I hope there will be more awareness about what we do as interior designers. This is because we feel like our work as designers is really undervalued. As mentioned previously, many customers do not appreciate or understand the value of our work. So, we hope more effort would be made to create awareness about what we do. Only then, can we create more opportunities and a stable platform for aspiring interior designers.
