The beginning of a new year is always an exciting time, spurring a sense of opportunity, desire for growth, and the gift of a fresh perspective. This January begins not only a new year, but a new decade– the perfect time to launch a new initiative. In that spirit of new beginnings, Design Manager is thrilled to announce our first brand ambassador, Bria Hammel.

Who is Bria Hammel?

Bria is a longtime friend of Design Manager. She has been a user of the interior design accounting and project management software from the earliest days of her business in 2012, when she was a one-woman shop. Now, not only does her firm, Bria Hammel Interiors, have 17 employees and over 20 projects at any one-time, but Bria is also the founder and CEO of Brooke & Lou, an interior products company, and the co-creator of Hammel House & Co., a property and urban development firm. 

Bria Hammel Interiors focuses on residential projects across the Midwest and mid-Atlantic. Its portfolio has an impressive mix of remodels and ground-up construction projects, for which they partner with only top-tier architects to ensure the highest-quality craftsmanship. Bria’s work has been featured in a number of national media outlets, including industry staples such as Traditional Home, HGTV Magazine, House Beautiful, Martha Stewart Living, and various local publications. 

And she has earned numerous awards along the way. She received HGTV’s Fresh Faces of Design award in 2015 and 2018; was a finalist for an International Design Award; was selected as a 2018 Style Spotter for High Point Market Authority; and received 2nd place in Sub-Zero Wolf's Kitchen Design Contest in the Traditional category in 2019. Bria is no doubt a rising star, but she doesn’t take the spotlight all for herself. Her team at Bria Hammel Interiors is all female, and she takes care to train and mentor her employees to guide them toward their full potential. 

Photography by Aimee Mazzenga

Why Bria Hammel is the Model Design Manager Ambassador

Beyond her extraordinary credentials as an interior designer and entrepreneur, Bria embodies the Design Manager ethos of organization, efficiency and flawless presentation. From the earliest days of building her business, Bria saw the need for an industry-specific tool to help keep her bookkeeping up to date, her accounts balanced, and her projects running smoothly. While designing is the fun part of her profession, she understood the importance of building her business operations into a well-oiled machine. By investing in Design Manager as a one person firm, Bria was able to grow her business quickly without having to implement structure retroactively. 

“Design Manager kept our business and projects organized and created processes for our company without us even trying,” she says. “I can now on-board a new employee within a few short weeks. Less training meant more client work and billable time. I now have 17 employees that use Design Manager on a daily basis.”

Today, Bria credits Design Manager with helping her team provide impeccable service. She says of working with clients, “the trust factor is huge. You've got to look like you know what you're doing, and you have to have the products and services to back that up, so having a program like Design Manager that can keep us organized and keep track of the details all in one place is really important. If clients ever need to call with a question, we're able to give them an answer right away, just by using Design Manager". 

It’s no wonder that Bria has become the successful owner of multiple businesses, with creative talent, business acumen, and the foresight to pursue her endeavors with a plan for the future. 

She says Design Manager has been so helpful to the growth of Bria Hammel Interiors, “It's very hard to go back and try to organize the past,” she says. ‘If you can start off in a really smooth way and getting those tools in place from the beginning, it just lets you design and do the things you love right away." In fact, the efficiency and easy scalability that Design Manager has brought to her business gave her the ability to launch a home decor collection, Brooke & Lou, in 2018. The collection features beautiful, livable products that fit into everyday households, and their Designer Trade Program makes it easy for fellow interior designers to bring these high-quality artisan pieces into their projects around the world. 

What to expect from Bria Hammel and Design Manager in 2020

With Bria Hammel on board as a Design Manager brand ambassador, expect great things for 2020. For starters, Bria will be sharing her wisdom across a series of posts on the Design Manager blog and the BHI blog. Look for features on how Bria became an entrepreneur, details on how she manages her successful businesses, and more about her delightful home decor collection, Brooke & Lou. In addition, followers of Bria Hammel Interiors (@briahammelinteriors) and Design Manager (@designmanager) should be on the lookout for fun collaborations at High Point and more. There is plenty of content in the works from this dynamic partnership, so be sure to stay tuned.