Growing from a startup into an international brand requires nailing key meetings with both new and existing clients so that we can distribute more of our products and invigorate more spaces around the world. While we’re confident in the quality of our products and our capabilities, it still takes a lot of work to prepare for client meetings, which we tend to have on a weekly basis. Preparing for each meeting can take weeks at a time, and we take a team-based, passionate approach to get ready for these opportunities. And when possible, we like to bring multiple members of our team to the meetings. “Any time we can actually get in front of the customer and show them our product, show them what we can deliver, the quality and the timing…It’s so much better just having everybody in that room,” says Chris Hartswick, Ideoli’s Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer. During our meetings with clients, we often go over several prototypes that we developed from a design standpoint to outfit their retail and office spaces, and we’re sticklers for detail. For example, the packaging that holds these products needs to be as exciting as the product itself. “Presentation is so important,” says Kathleen Keane, Ideoli’s Marketing Manager. Making a good first impression with packaging helps the client get excited about the products we’re presenting. With our attention to detail, our meticulous planning and our team’s infectious energy, our meetings with clients tend to go very well, and we’re excited to prepare for more!
In order to get the best quality glass for our LED lighting products, we only work with the best partners in this field who follow a sophisticated glass manufacturing process. To start, manufacturers create the perfect mixture of several types of filtered natural sand and chemicals. From there, these contents are mixed and then placed into a large furnace, transitioning molten materials into liquid glass. After being heated to over 1400°C for several hours, the liquid glass is then fed into the custom glass molds to start taking shape, as specified by the product needs of our clients. Last, and most importantly, once the mold is filled, the glass is then slowly cooled by applying controlled heat to prevent breakage. The end result of this process is high-quality glass that can be incorporated into our custom furniture and fixtures and accompanied by the latest and greatest technologies in LED lighting. Ideoli and its partners don’t cut any corners in our manufacturing, including when following this meticulous glass-making process. It’s what we do, and it’s what makes our end products such high quality!
Building a successful global company requires building an incredible team that can take on important responsibilities and support further growth. As Ideoli continues to expand internationally, we’re increasingly developing our footprint in Asia, which has included bringing on our newest Senior Project Manager, Mark. Serving as the project manager for the whole Asia Pacific region, Mark is responsible for all of the production and the dozens of support staff employed through Ideoli’s network on this side of the world. This team is passionate, hard-working and works closely with each other, says Mark. Having dedicated, knowledgeable team members like Mark makes a huge difference in our ability to succeed as an international business. With operations and clients around the globe, it’s important to have people that represent our brand, believe in our vision and contribute to the overall fun of the company. Wonder where the team will expand to next!
At Ideoli, we value not only building a successful global business but also leveraging our success to give back to the communities around the world that we’re active in. In this regard, we are beyond thrilled to announce our next chapter of INVIGORATE YOURCOMMUNITY– where Ideoli embeds itself in local communities to help make a difference. Our latest project took us to Michoacan, Mexico, a beautiful state within a country that’s key to ideoli’s success. Michoacan sits between Guadalajara and Mexico City, and it’s a part of the world surrounded by beauty and wonderful people. To give back to this region, Ideoli’s team went on site to work with local schools that lack the basic essentials needed to create an invigorated environment to learn in. We are helping to fix this, and we are documenting the journey along the way. Stay tuned to see how we invigorate these schools and give back to more communities around the world.
When you make incredible products, you need a freight partner that is just as incredible to help you get those goods to clients. Our freight partners help us navigate the overwhelming geographic, political and economic landscape on a daily basis. One of these partners, Lauren, a freight expert, provides three key tips to ensure that freight supports your business, rather than drags it down due to unexpected delays, costs and errors. 1.Build Trust: “You want to work with somebody you trust because at the end of the day, this person is in charge of your livelihood,” advises Lauren. “You want someone who cares as much about your cargo as you do and who is able to advise you with their expertise and recommend the best ways to go about bringing your goods in.” 2. Know the Rules: “I think the top mistakes are just being unaware or ignorant of rules and regulations at origin countries and even at destination countries,” says Lauren. “You want to educate yourself on as many different aspects about importing as you possibly can.” 3. Make a Plan: “Planning is everything,” notes Lauren. “You want to know the national holidays and the peak seasons at your origin countries so you can avoid extra costs and shipping delays. Knowing all the details about our freight and planning accordingly helps everything run seamlessly for our clients. And with large freight containers needing to ship daily from Ideoli’s factories, we need experts like Lauren to make it happen.
As a global company with clients and projects all over the world, ideoli ships products daily via air, ocean and train. In order to optimize our freight, we need to work with the best in the freight industry. We work with experts such as Lauren to learn more about what’s going on in the industry so that we can stay ahead of any potential issues that change brings. For example, the makeup of the global freight carrier industry has changed in recent years, which can affect who we work with and the details of transporting our products. “Beginning with the collapse of Hanjin in the summer of 2016, we’ve seen a wave of mergers and acquisitions among global carriers. Just a short 5 years ago, we had about 20 major players, whereas this year, we’re working with14,” explains Lauren. In addition to internal industry changes, political and economic changes also affect the freight industry. For example, tariffs between the US and China have made an impact on international freight. “The immediate impact that we’ve seen has definitely been an extended peak season,” says Lauren. “Shippers are trying to get their goods out of China before newer tariffs hit or the current tariffs are increased.” Going forward, Lauren thinks that clients will try to diversify their sourcing so as not to rely so much on China. It will take time for other origin countries to develop their resources, but Lauren sees a shift on the horizon. “I think shippers are really going to start to try and source from different places to avoid these tariffs.” This advice from one of the experts we frequently work with helps ideoli stay on top of our freight so that we can deliver amazing products to clients with amazing results.
As described in a recent article and video of ours, we rented out the luxury mattress retailer Coco-Mat’s showroom in the fashionable SoHo neighborhood of New York City for a fun night of drinks and a cooking class to reward our hard-working team. In this article and video, we’ll tell you all about the delicious food we made! The team took a class from a wonderful company called Cozymeal and we cooked up four amazing dishes. First, we started with a Horiatiki salad, which is a traditional Greek saladcomprised of tomatoes, cucumber, Kalamata olives and Greek feta. Fun fact: Greek salad is not made with lettuce. Next, we made zucchini and halloumi fritters with garlic, cumin and lemon yogurt sauce. It was as delicious as it sounds, and that was just the beginning! For the main course, we made Greek lamb kleftiko with potatoes and seasonal vegetables. “Kleftiko” means Greek lamb wrapped in parchment paper. Using this technique helps to keep in all the flavors. Lastly, for dessert, we made Bougatsa, which is a delightful Greek style custard pastry with cinnamon. It was the perfect way to complete the meal. As tasty as the meal was, the best part was how our team members were able to spend quality time together away from our daily work. These types of fun activities help make us even stronger as a company!
Ideoli’s rapid growth and commitment to excellence is not only catching the attention of clients and industry awards; we’re also hitting the public eye, such as with our CEO George Stroumboulis being featured in VoyageLA. VoyageLA is an innovative online publication that highlights the best that LA has to offer, particularly the entrepreneurs, small businesses and artists that make the area unique. The magazine recently interviewed George about entrepreneurship and created a profile on him as a result.In the article, George shares the backstory on how he and Co-Founder Chris Hartswick started ideoli and grew it into an international success, including some of the ups and downs along the way. George also shares some important personal insights, such as how he prioritizes family time despite being such a busy entrepreneur. His family is both supportive and closely involved with ideoli, and his three-and-a-half-year-old daughter is often in the office and even traveling with him to job sites when possible.In addition, George shares his views on what it’s like to run an international business with employees and partners in different time zones around the globe. Communication tools, and lots of airline miles, help him stay globally connected. Be sure to check out the full profile on George to learn more about his experience running ideoli. You might pick up a few entrepreneurial tips along the way too!
Ideoli doesn’t just walk the walk when it comes to going the extra mile for clients —we fly too! Recently, we had to complete an intense round of manufacturing for a number of clients who needed products before the holiday season started. This meant that we had multiple production runs, across multiple factories, in several different countries, all at the same time. To ensure we completed these high-volume, high-profile production runs without compromising quality, our co-founders George Stroumboulis and Chris Hartswick made it a point to oversee the production of Ideoli’s fixtures, lighting and furnishing products in person. Doing so meant that for a period of two months, George and Chris took alternating trips to Asia on a weekly basis to work with the teams at the production facilities, sometimes even just for a day when schedules demanded it. Although Ideoli has an exceptional team and trusted partners, George and Chris wanted to literally go the extra mile due to the time crunch to make sure everything was on track, per specification and perfectly packed before getting to clients’ locations across the US, Europe and the Middle East. Racking up impressive air miles, George and Chris were able to ensure Ideoli met these intense deadlines for clients and distribution partners. At Ideoli, we do whatever it takes to keep our clients and partners satisfied and to grow our business– another example of how we do things differently and raise the bar.
Traditional design and procurement practices for furnishings, fixtures and lighting can be frustrating. You have to pick up a catalog, search for options, negotiate pricing, and deal with complicated sales channels, just to get an ordinary product. But what happens when you want to design something from scratch, or replicate an existing style, or simply want to get a better price on the types of items you’re already buying? This is where Ideoli comes in. We work directly with architects, lighting designers, distributors and end-users to bring custom furnishings, fixtures and lighting to life. And don’t be scared off by the word “customization.” Elsewhere, customization often translates into added costs, time and uncertainty, but that is simply not the case with Ideoli. We work directly with you to come up with tailored designs, whether it’s an idea that popped in your head or it’s inspiration from something you’ve seen in another store or from another designer. We then take these tailored designs and work with our domestic and international manufacturing partners tocome up with real samples and prototypes for you to test, along with pricing and delivery options for you to consider. This testing process, along with our unique network of partners, allows us to ensure that once everything is agreed upon, the vision you originally had will turn into products of the highest-quality workmanship, with pricing at or below your original budget. So “customization” isn’t a bad word if you don’t have to pay extra for it! There’s only one way to prove to you that our model works. Start by getting in contact with us and sharing your latest idea, doodle, a picture you saw in a magazine or an existing sample you already have in hand, and we will wow you from there.
At ideoli, we believe that we are not only defined by our successes but also by how well we address hurdles along the way. No one is perfect; mistakes happen, and sometimes challenges like weather are beyond anyone’s control. What we can control, however, is how we respond to difficult situations. For example, we recently received a call from a client that had just received thousands of products from us for a large national rollout for their own client. Unfortunately, this was not a pleasant call, as many of the products arrived damaged. That’s because a series of hurricanes rocking the South in the US caused our shipment to be rerouted by a freight company, which dropped several pallets while in transit. Although the freight company’s fault, we knew we had to resolve the issue immediately for our client. So we sent our best and brightest down to the client’s warehouse to assess the situation and quickly come up with a targeted game plan. We ended up coordinating testing of all products on site, replacing defective product and damaged packaging with new ones. We then removed all the damaged materials.Ideoli received the first call from the client explaining the problem on a Tuesday, and we resolved everything by Friday othat same week. The client was able to then complete their shipments immediately, making them extremely happy with how we resolved the situation. Problems are inevitable. The way Ideoli addresses issues with a sense of urgency and accuracy is what sets us apart.
When we first created a custom, diamond-shaped lighting fixture to serve as a showcase piece for a prominent retailer, we knew we produced something special. Winning a prestigious LIT Design Award for this fixture in March 8, 2019, helped reinforce this feeling, and we’re proud to be recognized for this amazing project. The LIT (Light in Theory) Design Awards are international honors bestowed upon the world’s best lighting product designers and lighting implementers. They honor creativity and innovation in lighting, based on the belief that lighting is both an art and a science as well as one of the top elements of design. Ideoli won this award within the chandeliers category by creating a beautiful, custom lighting fixture that looks realistically like a large diamond. We created this chandelier for a national jewelry retailer in Orlando, Florida, to serve as the focal point for an 8,000-square-foot retail space. Since then, we have produced several more for their national locations. The fixture itself measures almost six feet in diameter, and it represents the exact cuts of a GIA diamond. We created this effect through both a unique construction process and innovative LED lighting. Specifically, the interior of the fixtures uses polished stainless steel to create the look of 58 facets found on a real GIA diamond. We then constructed the exterior frame from clear acrylic panels to make the diamond translucent. Since the frame is see-through, we used highly-reflective aluminum panels from Germany within the center core of the fixture to create a sparkly look. From a lighting perspective, we installed an advanced, color-changing LED lighting system in the girdle of the diamond in a way where the lighting points inwards. Doing so prevents the LED lights themselves from being seen but the light they emit reflects off the interior core to create even more of a sparkle. This innovative fixture catches the eyes of customers to help drive attention and ultimately revenue to the store. We’re honored that our hard work and creativity also caught the attention of the LIT Design Awards.