Pitching my concepts

It depends on the type(s) of companies you are going to pitch to.

My experience is mainly with residential manufacturers (who manufacture or import their wares, and sell through a brick and mortar dealer base). They typically don’t have the usual design department structure - you would want to talk with a VP of merchandise or product lines, or a product line manager who deals with the type of items you want to pitch. How to initially talk with them? Often you need someone else in the industry to recommend or introduce you to them to get any kind of response, although I’ve seen pretty good pitches from designers cold-calling in High Point and at Chicago Casual Mkt. Emailing is probably least effective, a slick mailer might get their attention, but in person is IMO the best way.

A company that retails through catalogs or has their own retail stores (like Crate & Barrel, Target, etc.) may or may not have the design department contacts like senior designer or creative director, but they might. From what I understand, their management structure is often similar to the residential manufacturers.

A contract/office furnishings company like Herman Miller, Steelcase, etc. will likely have the senior designer or creative director that you can target. I don’t have much exposure to this side of the furniture industry, so I could well be wrong.

BTW, I checked out your website, nice work!