I never thought I would be here again. Sitting at my computer, wondering which image would best illustrate my design topic of choice, but here I am doing just that. I’m writing this first entry from a familiar place. Twelve years ago, I started a blog to make the best out of a sad situation. It was 2009 and I was a recent interior design graduate with big, bright, brown eager eyes waiting for my big shot in the design world. Well, then the market tanked and I, and so many of my classmates, was thrown into a sea of candidates who had been recently let go from various architecture and design firms. Not many people were hiring and it was competitive for the jobs that did exist. But, I was enterprising and I decided to start a blog, like so many that I read in my daily life for inspiration, but from my vantage point and my voice, which I knew was young and different yet nuanced.
In February of 2009, I hit publish on a blog called, Design Wonderland. To keep Design Wonderland going I worked 2 design-related part-time jobs, from an architectural material librarian to junior designer at a residential firm and a few freelance jobs that came up. I woke up at 4:30 AM to write about fashion and textile collections from my favorite brands, review my favorite design books or identify trends I saw coming down the line. For five years, Design Wonderland was my favorite job, even after I got a full time job and moved to NYC to work for a big luxury jewelry company. And the only reason, I folded it was because writing about design and working in design began to feel like my whole world. At the time I did not realize that I wouldn’t ever escape either. OOPS!
I’m writing this in 2021, in a pandemic that won’t quit and after it caused me to lose a job that I moved back to NYC to take. But this space isn’t a Design Wonderland redux. This space is not my marketing tool. And design and I, now, have a complex relationship. Since 2009, my career has spanned more than just what we all think of interior design. It includes retail design, placemaking and both traditional and environmental branding. In spaces that I have built and worked in, I’ve confronted racism, sexism and attempts at bullying. I thought I hated design for a long time. Turns out I do not hate design, I hated some of the environments I was in and I was burning the F out fast. However, I didn’t realize how burned out I was until I was laid off and finally had time to hear myself think.
I plan on waxing poetic on the thing in between design; the spirit of place, home and space. I find joy in the grey area that challenges my idea of home.
Maybe I will explore that here, but mostly I plan on waxing poetic on the thing in between design; the spirit of place, home and space. In this last year, my relationship to all three has changed and I know I’m not alone. I find joy in that grey area that challenges my idea of home. I found support next to a tree in a park that I visited daily when the social uprisings of 2020 occurred and I couldn’t get out of my head. You will read my musings about colors, furniture and design history, as well and my complicated relationship with domestic interiors. Honestly, I don’t know what this space will become ( tarot for home anyone? want to explore the intersection of cannabis and design?). But that is fine with me, because eventually, with these big brown eyes and an even bigger heart for design, I was bound to walk through this door of writing about design again.
designislit.com 