Your company, Diane Butterworth, now supports a number of key suppliers and manufacturers in the office industry, could you tell us a little bit about how you got involved in the world of CAD? What drew you to specialise in this increasingly important part of design?
I was first introduced to CAD over 10 years ago in my first year of university. I studied product design and, as a form of communicating my ideas, it was fantastic. I can’t draw by hand, so the pragmatic approach of a computer fits my style really well.
I became a space planner in 2011. Back then, I felt designs often lacked individuality as it was rare that a manufacturer had their products available as a digital file, meaning generic models were used and slightly altered in space to ensure the footprint was correct. As for 3D, it was rare, to say the least.
With the BIM level 2 government mandate coming into focus in 2016, specific models became more of a requirement than a luxury. This gap in the market was the spark I needed to start my own business, designed to offer manufacturers support in creating digital versions of their products.