In June I was in Dallas putting the final touches on a residential project – you know, that point in the process when things start to get a just bit exasperating.  The client was next to me rightly expecting to see the rug they had purchased and I couldn’t find it in the photo stream of my phone. The longer I looked, and the more I couldn’t find it, the sweatier my hands got.  The image had gone AWOL but I swore that it would not happen to me again.  It was way too embarrassing!!!

And so I recently found a new and very useful interior design photo app for the iPhone and iPad called To the Trade – it’s the brainchild of Andrea Elish of Savel Fabrics in NYC.

With this interior design photo app, images already on your phone, emailed/Dropboxed to you or captured by your phone can be organized into set categories – Project, Type, Vendor, Room and Color.  You then have the ability to further customize each group with your own tags (sub-categories) for better organization  – such as Project/Smith NYC apartment or Vendor/Maison Gerard or Room/living room or Color/grays. And if this isn’t enough, you also have the ability to add notes to each image!

Images and their notes can be emailed to a client or colleague or synced to a desktop or iPad through DropBox.  It’s key to note that the user has full control as to whom they want to share the images with.

The app is perfect for trade show visits, project site visits and/or installations, sourcing, punch lists or just plain inspiration.  But the best thing is that you will FINALLY locate an image without rolling through your entire business and personal photo stream – and your client need never see photographs of your kids on the beach in Jamaica again!

Richard Rabel is a New York Interior Designer and Principal at Richard Rabel: Interiors+ Art, a design studio offering residential design, decorating and art advising services.

image credits: To the Trade, an interior design photo app, New York