Designers at J. Pocker are the first people that clients interact with when they work with the company. In client services I acted as the liaison between my clients, vendors, and production staff.

J. Pocker has been in business for almost 100 years, so the clients who come into our shop know that we do some of the best work in the industry. I’ve worked with top design firms in the city like Bunny Williams and Definition Design, galleries like Opera Gallery, and prestigious individuals like Mike Bloomberg, and both Amy and David Sedaris. My work has been featured in the New York Times while I worked with Ken Fulk and by proxy Ronan Farrow.

I bring in between $40,000 and $60,000 in sales every month, which means I’m usually working on 30-50 projects at once. We have a 4-8 week turnaround from point of sales to artwork pick up, and it’s my responsibility to know what is going on with each of my projects at every stage of production. Artwork and frames pass through many divisions of specialized labor while they’re being worked on, and it’s my role to keep the experts on track and on time.

I keep detailed spreadsheets to stay organized and on top of my work. These spreadsheets may include information about the clients, our communication history, locations of materials, ordering dates, pricing, artwork descriptions, and any other information that may be relevant and important to know. I’m also not the sole designer at J. Pocker. I work with a team of 3 other designers, and I need to know what projects they are working on as well. We stay in constant communication through email, in person conversations, and detailed note taking on our POS software and spreadsheets so nothing gets missed.

J. Pocker works with a wide range of vendors: locally in NYC, domestically in the U.S., and internationally. As a designer I need to know the right people to call for the right jobs. As I tell my clients, “I’ve got a guy for that.”

I keep a good relationship with our vendors, knowing that my work couldn’t get done without them. On the other hand, I selectively choose who I work with to make sure that the work I want done gets done right. I work with about a dozen bespoke frame vendors each specializing in their own sector of the trade (gilding, leather, wood, steel, and acrylic mostly), commercial moulding providers, fabric vendors, mirror and glass companies, artwork conservators, mounters, printers, mat painters, fabric wrappers, artwork installers, art handlers and delivery companies. And if I don’t know who to call, I can find someone who can point me in the right direction.