Bud Angst laughs that his clients are sometimes skeptical of a 25-year-old architectural designer. However, he adds, “They are willing to trust me, knowing that I’m backed by a company that’s been around for 40 years.” As a designer at Houses and Barns by John Libby, Bud Angst appreciates the support of a family business, as well as the industry competitiveness of a large company. Read on for Angst’s interview with Maine Home+Design.

Q. What’s the team like there?

A. I learn a lot from them. It’s a family-run company, and John, the owner, treats it like an extension of his family. If anything goes wrong, he protects everybody on the team. That extends to the clients, too. It’s not just us. He takes care of everybody.

Q. What do clients worry about during a project?

A. Clients worry about the amount of time and effort that can go into digging a hole at the beginning of a project. They see all this money they’ve spent, and then this grass field or driveway is now just a giant muddy pit. I always say, “Give it a few weeks—you’ll see. It’s just hard to understand right now.” I think that time delay between when they see it in a 2D drawing and seeing it in 3D is pivotal, and I help them see the project through to the end. We get them to hold their breath for a few minutes.

Q. How do you collaborate with your team on different projects?

A. When I’m designing a project, I’ll sit and have lunch with our construction crew every day, and we’ll talk through projects that I’m designing. They’ll tell me also the best way to build it, so I can take their advice back to the drawing board. Having everybody involved from the beginning of the process speeds up construction and avoids any problems. It gives everybody what they want.

Q. What inspires you most about architecture?

A. I know that even if I moved, five years from now I could come back to a completed project and say, “Oh yeah, that was year two at John Libby’s.”

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Maine Home+Design’s MH+D Inside Out series features interviews with creators from our community and gets inside some of the top minds in the design industry. Read on for their stories, tips, and sources of inspiration.