Meet Matt Ihms of Another Look in Central Phoenix

Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Ihms.

Matt, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I didn’t begin my journey into architecture until sophomore year of college. Before this time, I had little exposure to what an architect really did on a daily basis. Although the area was unfamiliar, I was raised by two hard working parents that brought me up with values of self-teaching, which led to a mindset of; no matter the task, I could learn and find a means to accomplish it.

Once deciding upon this path in design, I reached out to a couple of builders who I had worked under during previous summers. I knew that one would use draftsman to draw up his projects while the other drew his own by hand. I offered my services to them at an hourly rate, which matched what they had paid me as a laborer. While at that time, my drawings took much longer and are almost laughable to the content they provided, the experience was invaluable. Not only did I go through the entire process of: meeting with clients, coordinating engineers, drawing plans and submitting to the city, first hand, I had the builders critiquing on what I should change or adjust the next time based off their experience on how things got built in-the-field.

Upon finishing my schooling, I worked for a variety of architecture firms, all focusing on different areas: education, churches, residential, restaurants and hospitality. Each one provided a different atmosphere and skills that I then looked at both the good and bad that came with their process, to differentiate myself and develop how I operate now with my firm.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The jump to self-employment is one of the scariest and most rewarding things I would say that one could go through for work. There are countless challenges and wild circumstances I have endured along the way. I will mention the first struggle I faced. My initial battle came in finding a steady flow of new projects. While I had projects to work on when I broke off on my own, they were quickly completed as I was able to now spend my full time on them, versus nights and weekends as before. For the first six months, we were living paycheck to paycheck, with half of my jobs being odd and ends just to get by. I spent any free time going to network groups and meeting with potential clients to drum up new business.

However, most of this was futile as I had a small portfolio of built work and my young age evoked a sense of lack of experience (even though I had about ten years under my belt from working on jobs from the start of college). I think too often we hear a super condensed version of someone struggling through something, and then all of a sudden it got better, and now that person is doing great. We get this false sense of what that person actually endured. I remember after several months of no new projects, the stress of unpaid bills and uncertainty of incoming payment brought an overwhelming amount of weight on my shoulders that I would find myself daily, just standing in the shower to clear my head from that stress; contemplating the thought of ending my dream of working for myself and feeling so overcome, I would find myself throwing-up many of these instances. We all go through continuous challenges and struggles and become stronger once we get through them. At the time, this was the hardest thing I had gone through, but each new one that comes along gets easier and easier to deal with.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
The outlining belief of my business is to make this world a more beautiful place by the little means we can.

I set up Another Look as a design firm, focused on architecture and custom fabrication. We deliver a boutique experience by taking every project as an individual case, providing a cognitive approach by listening to the client’s needs and tailoring a design from our experience and insight.

One of the things that separate us from other small, architecture firms is the ability to provide custom fabrication as well. A major belief in this profession of mine is that true architecture requires one to first know how to build, before they can know how to properly design.

This ability of, potentially, being able to build everything we design has allowed us to push for key features on projects to get realized either by us or others if we initially get told by a builder that they do not have the ability or experience to carry it out. This understanding has also led to partnering with other designers for consulting or fabricating of art installations and furniture, which we now do on a regular basis.

What were you like growing up?
I grew up with a loving family and tremendous friends that were supportive and enlightening to me. My interest followed the people who I respected as I was growing up. I only began to look at architecture after seeing the potential impact I could have with it.

I strive to be able to provide the abilities and insight I now have to those that I can in the hope that it further allows them to continue, or have, a positive impact on others. We constantly take on pro-bono work for non-profits and individuals to put this value in action. I started this support from having witnessed the lives of some amazing friends and mentors carry out a similar mindset. I saw through their actions the way they love others in their field of work and how that impacted a community.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mattihms.com
• Phone: 480-266-8193
• Email: matt.ihms@gmail.com

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