I know a guy who got 2 nights stay at a luxury hotel for him and his girlfriend from a client. He didnt ask he just had a good relationship with the client and the client just gave it to him

I have a couple...both from clients...

1. a weekend trip to visit and stay at a house I designed in Wisconsin and then going to a Packers game at Lambeau Field and sitting in the third row off the field.

2. receiving a $2000 bonus from a residential client because we were, "the best part of the project."

you just asked for some for free from us. but there really isn't such a thing. there is always a cost or something that is exchanged.

So what do you have to offer us?

Well, looking around my desk I've got several architect/engineer scales with various product manufacturer logos on them. Pens & pencils & post-it's & graph paper with the same. All the usual handouts from lunch & learns.

Pales in comparison to other jobs out there. Once dated someone who worked with vendors that got me into several sporting events (football, bball, hockey) all in box suites ~ free booze and fully catered. Also got $100/plate steak dinners and free demo products off those same vendors. We broke up before the free caribbean cruise/colorado ski vacation decision came due.

So it sounds like most of the freebies come from a good relationship with the client, and not from manfacturers trying to get spec'd. I guess it makes sense that an interior designer would get more freebies since there are more players in the manufacturing game. It doesn't surprise me that when there is only one truss company or one window manufacturer in your area, they wouldn't really have to try.

I'm still in school, and have only had a summer or two working in an office, so I don't really know how everything works yet. But aren't there products that you must be in the industry to buy? (I guess this might apply moreso to ID stuff) Aren't there inside connections that are available to us? Other than just knowing where to look for cool stuff. Is there minimum amounts to purchase? For instance if I was renovating or building my own home, would it be difficult to get some of this stuff? Could it be just as simple as asking for samples?

It would take one huge pile of gypsum board samples to drywall your house. Even if you work in interiors, do you really want to tile or carpet your house with a mosaic of different colors and patterns? This isn't the profession to go into to build a house with cheap or free materials. Besides, labor is usually far more than the material costs anyway.

i worked on the new warehouse/showroom for the local steelcase dealer - they sent me on the steelcase jet to the showroom in santa monica and gave me a THINK chair...really nice people.

I have gotten a few things for my home discounted or completely free when I contacted the rep for the product I was interested in and asked if they offered an industry discount program. I was most successful in getting discounts from reps with whom I had some previous contact with on projects or had at least met face to face. It also seems to work the best for niche products, items that are new to market, or manufacturers who see their product as a hand-in-glove fit to the type of projects your firm works on.

If you're expecting to build an entire house from freebies, samples, and discounted items...well, that's just not going to happen. Of all the things I've ever gotten, I've probably only "saved" a total of about $1000 or so over what the average joe would have paid, which is not much in the grand scheme of renovating a house. It might have been possible to do somewhat better with more kissing up and begging, but it's just not worth it and it runs the risk of burning professional bridges.

it's all a matter of perspective -

getting 'real' stuff is almost always a question of asking. and where you are in the food chain. if you're a first year intern with no buying power, good luck. if you own the firm and do a million dollars in interior purchases a year, you're doing better. be a design principal at gensler and you could get just about anything you want.

for example, we bought chairs from humanscale for our office at an obscene discount (cough cough 70% cough cough) because we asked and that was the architectural discount they had going. so our 1100 chairs cost us just under 300. herman miller once had a deal going where you could get 60% off list, but that was only on office line products and they no longer deal directly with architects. the best discount we could find was 40% off list.

we've bought kitchen cabinets and appliances from super high end manufacturer's when they're re-doing a showroom (literally paying 5 cents on the dollar for brand new appliances that 'were last year's model'.) i've personally gotten a new golf driver, several free rounds of golf at pretty decent courses, lights, books, a couple of pieces of furniture. mostly, get to know the reps but more importantly, be a nice person and believe enough in the product to spec it. that kitchen cabinet company? we love the stuff and pretty much use it exclusively on our residential work (every time we can afford to). so, it goes hand in hand.

swanky companies in corporate office/hospitality/luxury residential almost always have huge advertising/marketing budgets that they have to spend. not 'can' spend - have to spend. lunch and learns are one way, but sending you to their plant is another. also, the larger the company (knoll, steelcase, etc.), the better the chance they have marketing money to spread around.

best companies i've seen locally in terms of being friendly to the designers:

large brick companies (the golf folks)
any of the swanky kitchen cabinet folks (siematic, bulthaup, etc.)
commercial carpet companies (may just be a regional thing)
commercial office furniture (chairs, etc.)
'exotic/luxury materials' - 3form, etc.

companies that i know did/do architectural discounts:

miele
gaggenau
wolf
knoll
herman miller (both of the last two go through their distributors)
humanscale (they rock)
shaw
interface (although you really need to know a local rep)
steelcase
usb

i'm sure pella or some of the other building component companies have some kind of program where you could get a little bit of a discount, but they're simply not going to go 70% off on a whole house worth of windows. maybe 10% if you're lucky.

hope that helps.

sorry - one last thing:

if you're looking for free sporting tickets, stick with the contractors. all of them - ALL of them - have several season tickets to the various sports teams (speaking as a major city). you probably won't get the prime games, but for baseball or basketball where there are dozens of games, you can probably score a few.

what you say makes sense laru. It's nice to hear your opinion which comes from a place with much more experience than I.

Your point about being the first year intern with no buying power is true enough, but makes me think. What if for instance you are interested in research and wanted to build some mockups? I guess this is the same principle to being in school and trying to score free model making material. So let's say I was thinking about doing something not typically seen.....thin shell compound curve masonry vaults...Would the local brick company be willing to supply some material to do some small mockups? What would be the best way to approach them? I imagine they would probably want something in return though; pics, analysis, etc. I guess if you are trying to show innovation and open up new markets for them, it should be mutually beneficial relationship.

guess I will have to save my pennies for any slick chair that I hope to have.

industry discount on furniture can be pretty good but the sad part is, the kind of place that gives you an industry discount on furniture is the kind of place that is so expensive to begin with that you still can't afford it even WITH 55% off. Yep, that's the boat most architects I know are in. Still saving up for that Womb chair... maybe next year.

I've been put up in a GC's parent's house. We were doing an out of town design/build house in Whistler, BC. One of his foremen was also a professionally trained chef and cooked us amazing dinners. This happened about one week a month all summer.

My boss had a very good relationship with the GC and the owner, he kept them from killing each other and the project.

I was on the project team for the local Herman Miller distributor's new showroom space. HM flew the three of us to their headquarters for two days of relaxing, wining and dining. They gave us all sorts of goodies when we were there (books, cycling jerseys, mini eames chair pieces, etc.)

My father in law is a high-end custom residential builder. Viking gives him free kitchens for his parade homes (this past year it was worth 70K just in Viking appliances). Kohler is providing all sinks and fixtures for the lake house I've been working on with him. Jeld-Wen flies him around the country playing golf on their corporate jet to play golf/tour factories/eat cheese, et. al. Stock Building Supply/Ferguson/Woosley also take him on numerous trips year round including golf in Mexico, Nascar, Troon Golf in Arizona, etc...

As far as gifts I've received, I've got a box of 500 flat pencils from Stock, and a few note pads from BlueLinx. Oh, and gloves from Weyerhauser and a Soft Cooler from Stock as well.