Listen to the full interview with Holly on a special bonus episode of The kbbreview Podcast. Use the player below or go straight to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Alternatively, simply search ‘kbbreview’ wherever you get your podcasts.

After travelling all the way from Australia, Holly Magee knew her career path would take her down the design route – she just had no idea she’d end up designing kitchens and bathrooms.

Magee already had a degree in interior architecture, although this focused mostly on commercial and hospitality spaces. After hunting around for a design-focused job, she heard about a position going at Elysee Kitchens & Interiors, and before long, had a job as a creative designer.

“I didn’t think it would ever specifically be working with kitchens, bedrooms or bathrooms at all,” Magee recalls. “It was more a starting point to get the ball rolling on working in the design industry, but I’ve just fallen in love with it.”

And despite being a genuine Rising Star in this industry, Magee has only held her role for a year or so. After originally joining the studio in an administrative capacity, she now handles everything – from project design, quoting, having design meetings with clients, and ordering products.

Elysee’s sales director, William Smith, says Magee also has a real gift for taking incredibly complex and technical design concepts and presenting them to clients in a way that makes perfect sense, and puts them at ease.

“Instead of presenting clients with renders, I like to take them through the actual software programme and walk them around the space. If there’s anything really complicated that they don’t understand, I just delete it and draw it for them while I’m in presenting. It becomes much easier to explain, and it helps them understand a lot more about how their design could work.”

Described by Smith as having an “instinctive” understanding of what it means to work in this industry, Magee thinks one of the most important skills for a designer is having the ability to quickly put your clients at ease.

“I’m a bit of a people person, and I think it helps the client get to know you, and who they’re going to be working with. Obviously, liking each other is very important, but having them trust that I can create something that is going to be beautiful and tailored to them is so important.”

“I love when you get certain projects come in, and you’re get to be really excited because it’s totally different to what you’ve done before, or maybe there’s a few more challenges to work with. I love those times, because I always think, ‘how can I make this work and still create a nice design?’. And then my favourite part is getting to actually present what I’ve done at the end.”

Over the next several months, you can find out more about each of our Rising Star finalists at kbbreview.com, as well as on The kbbreview Podcast and in each issue of kbbreview Magazine. The winner will be crowned at the prestigious kbbreview Retail & Design Awards ceremony at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole on March 2.