Hi! Welcome to VRDE’s blog. My name is Viridiana, my friends call me ‘Viry’ and creativity makes me happy 🙂
When I was 9 years old I designed a business card where my title was “Interior Designer”. It was bright pink with blue letters, and it was stapled to another card of a cousin’s whose job title was ‘Architect’. My favorite game was to play with Barbie dolls, but instead of playing with the dolls I would take hours arranging their little furniture and customizing it to make it look pretty.
Since then I knew I had a passion for design, and this is my design story:
In 2005 I started a 4 year degree program for Interior Design at DISD. At the same time I worked 2 years at a family owned and operated jewelry store, where I designed their second location. It was a DIY project with a curved wall, lots of wallpaper, wood molding, and painting.
In 2007 I left the jewelry store to go work at a 1,000 square feet showroom with high-end furniture, accessories and art. During the store’s downtimes I would re-arrange the showroom and create individual vignettes. A mix of modern with Asian vibes and custom designed sofas gave me a love for eclectic styles.
In 2008 I landed 2 internships with different Interior Designers while still working at the furniture store and attending school full time. Both designers were extremely experienced and talented, one specialized in fine art, and the other was a former ASID president. I did my required hours with the fine art curator and landed a position as a freelance designer with the latter.
2009 came and the economy collapsed. Unfortunately the furniture showroom closed its doors, as well as the design office of the former ASID president, leaving me without 2 jobs in 2 months. That same year I graduated from Design Institute of San Diego with a BA in Interior Design.
In 2011 I started working for a store in San Diego that consisted of a group of manufacturers from Mexico producing state-of-the-art custom pieces. The store would showcase pieces of each manufacturer and offer them to the hospitality and residential sectors of San Diego and its vicinities.
Later that year one of the companies of that group hired me as their main sales rep, giving me tons of experience. Working with them made me understand manufacturing processes, lead times, costs, logistics, problem solving, and of course, all these while being able to custom design and coordinate many projects for awesome clients such as home owners, interior designers, architects, contractors, and store owners.
2017 is the year when VRDE Studio is born, after many years of dreaming about it. It is the culmination of preparation, experiences, as well as a collection of all the great contacts acquired through years of work in the field. VRDE is now a team of designers, artisans, and industry experts in several fields, all ready to transform your VISION into REALITY.
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