Industry Insight: Jayne Crampton, founder, JAEs Interiors

What does JAES Interiors do? What’s the elevator pitch?

Basically I design spaces for people. People are my specialist interest! Where I feel I differentiate myself from some of the other organisations out there, is that I approach everything through a consultation approach. Whether it’s just light touch conversation to understand more about the vision for the project or a deep dive with the C-suite, heads of departments and specialist groups I just crave knowledge 

I truly don’t feel you can design a space unless you absolutely know what’s at the heart of that organisation. My passion is understanding the business, its personality and the people who work there. That then allows me to design appropriately and purposefully.

What inspired you to set up the business? 

I ran my own company previously for nearly 10 years from my late 20’s, before making the move back into a full-time role. After an illness and then the pandemic I started to think ‘actually, maybe it’s time to set something up again’ as I wanted more freedom, more flexibility to be with my teenage daughters and maybe more choice around what clients and projects ‘float my boat’. I’ve done a lot, seen a lot, achieved a lot. I just like being sat at home with my dog doing my own thing.

The freedom is the thing, I choose my own hours, my own pressures and my own timescales. As much as a lot of organisations say, ‘you’re in charge of your own diary’, you’ve still got to answer to the boss. I now just have to answer to myself, and I’m a tough boss.

How has the first year been?

Super chaotic, super busy, super stressful. But very very rewarding too. I actually just took a leap of faith, launched the business on LinkedIn, crossed my fingers and thankfully the phone rang.

I’m lucky that over the last 25 years I’ve worked with some amazing companies, so I’m relatively well-known in the industry and I am very lucky to have worked with some wonderful clients who have kept in touch and still trust me to deliver. 

What sets the business apart from the competition? 

For me, it’s knowing the client intimately. I’m a very strategic designer in that everything has to have a rationale, a reason and a purpose for being there but Im also very emotive and love that my work makes a difference to peoples lives 

When clients are spending significant budgets, they want a rationale of how their money is being used in the right way and the impact this will have on their business. Also why are we making these decisions? Why are we creating this settings? Why are we applying this product, this fabric? And so on. I can always answer that, because I’ve done the necessary deep dive into the business.

But for me its my connection to their people, its about building relationships that enable a joint trust between myself and my client, that’s what sets me apart as I am inherently authentic  

It sounds like the predominant trend in workplace design right now is to ‘humanise’ the office. Does that ring true for you?

I think I've always tried to do that. I have a huge interest in psychology (in fact I have a psychology degree that I never quite finished – blame my first child) and I always try to reflect the psychological and physiological factors that go into a great workspace.

I want people to walk through the doors of any environment that I’ve designed, and for it to feel comfortable, innate, calm, easy. It needs to be a comfortable transition from what is often a busy, hectic, stressful home life. That for me is the humanisation of space. Every good designer should always think about the human beings they’re creating for.

What’s the long-term ambition? Where’s the business going?

Now I’m through the first year, I need to start working on this. The long-term vision is to hopefully just keep going! I’m open to moving the business into more of a consultancy direction, but I don’t want to let go of the actual design process, either. I love it all. There isn’t anything I don’t love about this industry. This industry is grounded in making a difference to people’s lives every day, the one thing most people have to do is work and that working environment should have a positive impact on and elevate everyones day! Everyone deserves a great space to work

Follow Jayne at linkedin.com/in/jaynecrampton-jaesinteriors