We often refer to our customers as our partners. We share the same end-goals as our customers on every project, we work in lockstep with them to conquer design and engineering challenges, and together, we work to deliver their vision. Working like this requires spoken and unspoken synergies, mutual respect, and most of all, trust.
Partners seemed like a good label for our customer relationships until we considered the business definition of partnership. According to Entrepreneur.com, a business partnership is “a legal form of business operation between two or more individuals who share management and profits.” Tax and business attorney and author, Barbara Weltman, likened a partnership agreement to “a prenup negotiated before a marriage”. Neither of these definitions fit the spirit of the customer relationship Creative Edge strives for, so we decided it might be time to come up with a new label. Before we headed to the thesaurus, we considered two recent project experiences to help us focus on how we work with our partners before we explored the semantic possibilities.
Partners in Achieving Perfection:
An American House, Hinsdale, IL
The design vision for this stunning home included uber-high-quality stonework crafted from hand-selected marble slabs shipped from quarries in Spain and Italy. The design team pushed aesthetic and technical boundaries and settled for nothing short of perfection from themselves and the sub-contractors who made their vision a reality.
Creative Edge materials experts collaborated closely with project architects to match grain patterns perfectly before cutting the premium stone slabs. Our technicians took extra care to package and label each element to allow installers to achieve the perfect results the client and design team intended. The result is an award-winning property that, according to its homeowner, “lives even better than it looks.”
– Architect, Liederbach and Graham, Chicago
– Interior Design, Steven Gambrel, New York
Partners in Innovation:
Tallahassee International Airport, Tallahassee, FL
The centerpiece of this major airport renovation is a 6,000-square-foot terrazzo floor that depicts a vintage map of the Florida shoreline. Whimsical details and a custom epoxy blend stimulate the senses and help guests experience the towns and beaches of the Florida Panhandle before they even leave the airport. Creative Edge partner and exclusive distributor of our TerrazzoTek System, Terrazzo & Marble Supply Company, created the custom epoxy blend that further elevated the uniqueness of this floor. Terrazzo contractor, David Allen Co. expertly executed the design team’s creative vision using TerrazzoTek products to shorten timelines and keep budgets in line.
According to the designer, working with Creative Edge "Gave us true freedom. There was literally no limit to the detail we could incorporate into our designs.” We can’t think of any higher praise we could receive from a partner. We are truly humbled by this comment.
– Terrazzo Artist, Kelly Taffee Design
– Terrazzo Materials Supplier, Terrazzo and Marble Supply Co.
– Terrazzo Contractor, David Allen Co.
We work with some tough customers – and we love it!
We work with people and firms who are:
Creative visionaries out to accomplish big things architecturally Inspired by their client’s challenges and opportunities Not afraid of innovation Committed to excellence
Creative Edge is always striving to support these people and their work in new ways. Our customers need a partner with capabilities that complement their own. They also need a critic who will closely review and re-engineer their designs so they can be successfully created in delicate mediums like natural stone and perform well in architectural settings. They need a technical adviser who will assure that their precious materials will be cut and packaged in a way that delivers them safely to the job site. They need a confidant who can explore possibilities and offer guidance throughout a project.
The team at Creative Edge includes project managers, design engineers, and fabricators, who shepherd technically challenging projects to dramatic and beautiful conclusions. We partner with design teams when they have a clear end vision but can’t quite negotiate the path from architectural drawing to installation-ready materials on their own. We advise material selection, and skillfully manage the tricky details of using a jet of water and the right caliber of abrasive material to cut everything from metal to precious natural stone, and glass.
We want to be a partner, and so much more.
Our partnership reflection has led us to this conclusion: our relationship with our customers can’t be described with a single word. We are partners; and we’re also critics, advisors, confidants, and friends to the designers, architects, builders, manufacturers, and installers we have the pleasure to work with. The custom architectural surfaces we deliver are always the result of creative collaborations with creative people. Each project is unique, and a single label doesn’t apply.
We'd love to help you do more with floors in your space