This year's Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) continues to be Australia’s largest and one of the most closely followed design awards. Inside magazine started the program in 2003 aimed at celebrating the best interiors and products on offer across 13 categories, to top it off, five Special Awards are also given out each year. 

With a steady growth since then, emerging and mature practices and designers have all taken a stab at submitting their select designs with hopes of winning. Last year, the annual awards received the most entries recorded.

We Are Triibe's Shortlisted Entry: AJE Perth. Image © Dion Robeson 

"Triibe. Designing spaces and products that we love for the like-minded. We guide people in discovering the potential of interior spaces to create their ideal sanctuaries"

We Are Triibe, founded in 2013 by Jessica d'Abadie and Christina Symes, made this year's shortlist with their Aje. Store in Perth. With offices in Sydney and Melbourne, the power-duo have a repertoire both in Australia and internationally. As masters of natural colour palettes and  ambassadors of their own signature style, I take an exclusive look into their backgrounds to reveal We Are Triibe's way of thinking, business partnership, growing practice and success of making the Shortlist. 

We Are Triibe Directors, Christina Symes and Jessica d'Abadie. Image © Terence Chin

Liz Foo: Big congratulations again on making this year's Shortlist. It's great to uncover upcoming designers like Christina and yourself. How did both you and Christina start out in the design industry in terms of education? Was there something that drew you to design per se?

Jessica d'Abadie: I studied a Bachelor of Interior Design. Personally, I always knew I would keep forging along this path. Christina on the other hand, did a Diploma of Interior Design in Florence after starting out in marketing and fashion styling. We both started the business because we instantly clicked and had a strong passion for Interior Design. It made sense to join forces to start a new venture together as we each brought complimenting elements to the table. After some coordination and hard-thinking, we made the move to Sydney to start We Are Triibe.

Liz Foo: What an amazing transition moving from a business background to very creative endeavour. Did you both have an innate interest in design and the sort?  

Jessica d'Abadie: As long as I remembered, I've always loved Interiors. Right after school, I went on to study interior design and went on to work as an Exhibition Designer at GOMA in Queensland. Apart from that I also did a bit of freelance work before We Are Triibe. It was always something that I've wanted to do - so being able to do this is a privilege. Christina on the other hand, came from a very different background in marketing. She was also fashion stylist too! Running her own company and the works, so in a sense she definitely had the creative pursuit embedded in her. The big turn came when she decided to do something else - it's working out well though. 

Liz Foo: That's great to hear that your passion's translated all the way through. I find it quite rare to meet people who have gone down a similar sort of career path and succeed so well. How did you and Christina end up together?  

Jessica d'Abadie: We've actually been friends since we were 14 years old. I feel like we've known each other forever. Friendship aside, we definitely knew that a partnership was hard work and were willing to work through it. For the rest of it, we had to strongly rely on our creativity and persistence to get through.

Liz Foo: You both are such an inspiration, it's not everyday you meet someone you know you can start something with. I've also noticed the work you do is very refined and sophisticated in-line with fashion. At We Are Triibe, how many others work with you? Do you also work quite diversely with other disciplines?

Jessica d'Abadie: We have another two designers working with us, but we sub-contract work out when we need more manpower. It is highly-dependent on the project load and demand. After studying in Florence, Christina worked in Berlin as an interior stylist so I think that our skill-sets in terms of finishing off our projects with furniture and styling are complimentary. 

We definitely have a preferred group of furniture makers that work incredibly with hardwoods and such. But we definitely find that it is important to tailor what we and our contacts can offer according to our clients. Playing to our strengths, keeping track of what stages we're working in and location, whether we're in Byron or Sydney or Melbourne, are amongst the factors that come in to play when making decisions. 

Liz Foo: After 5 years in the industry, what advice do you have for other budding designers? Or to put in in another perspective, what would you think you should have heard when you started out as young entrepreneurs?

Jessica d'Abadie: I would probably tell myself that it'll work out and to just keep persevering. It is really scary starting out. The anticipation and unfamiliarity of things to come, and challenging hurdles would only make us stronger as a designer and entrepreneur. We would always seek out advice from other professionals in different industries. We had to learn a lot on our feet and be receptive to quick changes. You learn pretty fast when you have to.

Liz Foo: Are there any specific type of projects you look forward to work on in the future? Where do you see yourselves going from here? 

Jessica d'Abadie: We definitely love doing retail design, collaborating with other creative minds to create a beautiful partnership. We do a range of commercial and residential work as well. In terms of where we see ourselves going from here, I think we're looking at going forward and upwards in the same trajectory. Working with  like-minded retail brands, continuing to work on product designs and expanding our company. There are a lot of incredible brands out there that we would love to branch out and work internationally with too.

(-end of transcript)

 AJE. Perth. Image © Dion Robeson, courtesy of We Are Triibe

Find out more about We Are Triibe and The IDEA Awards Gala happening on the 23rd of November 2018. It was such a pleasure learning more about these two powerhouse designers, looking forward to see what else they will do within the industry. Onwards and upwards from here! 

All images courtesy of We Are Triibe

> via We Are Triibe