Hospitality Design - September 2009 - 128

Andrew Alford I grew up in Akron, Ohio. a child unless I was covered in paint or had my hands sticky with glue. young teenager. I’ve never been a minimalist! Founder and Principal • Andrew Alford Design Studio • San Francisco • www.andrewalford.net I wasn’t exactly sure I wanted to be a designer, but I did know I wanted to do something creative. I was never happy as My first memory of design was when I was five years old and my mom let me pick wallpaper for my room. I chose an incredibly busy pattern of yellow, orange, pink, and green 1970s quasi-psychedelic style crayons. I remember my mom asking, ‘Are you sure that’s what you want? You are going to have to live with it for a long time.’ I stood by it until I was a I really didn’t enjoy college. I’ve always been more of a ‘learn things in the real world kind of guy’. My first job out of college was working as an operations supervisor on the pre-opening team at Universal Studio’s Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando. I got the job because I worked my summers in college at an amusement park in Ohio (yes, I was a carnie) and I had done a semester long internship at Disney’s college program. I got into design when I moved to New York in 1999. I knew by that point that I wanted to develop a career in design, so I got a job as a receptionist at Thomas Jayne Studio. Thomas was a fantastic mentor. He would buy me historical design books and then assign homework where I would have to study rooms in the decorative arts wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He would then have the entire office go to the Met and I would have to give short presentations about the rooms. Thomas was also very talented when it came to mixing beautiful luxury items with things that other people might find vulgar or profane. His love of pageantry and the absurd ended up having a big influence on my aesthetic. A friend of mine and I were joking that a lot of designers and architects talk about their love of ‘clean’ and ‘pure’ lines. I’m the exact opposite. I love dirty lines. I would call my style maximilism. I’m really into old fashion floral chintz fabrics right now. After working for Thomas Jayne, I took a job as a junior designer for David Kleinberg Design Associates. David really helped refine my palette by introducing me to French designers like Jean Michel Frank and Jean Royere. David often worked in beiges, creams, and whites. I always thought beige was beige and white was white, but David helped train my eye to see very subtle color differences. Working at Kimpton was like a dream come true. The spark that got me into design in the first place was when I worked at Disney and Universal and saw how fantastic it was to design public spaces that could be enjoyed by everyone, not just a minority of wealthy people. I’m probably most proud of the lobby at the Hotel Triton. It was the first opportunity for me to start showing the world my own style and point of view. A lot of times the materials I select don’t necessarily make sense when they are all laid out on a table. The Triton was definitely one of those cases. I found myself saying ‘trust me’ a lot, and to be honest, I’ve been saying ‘trust me!’ ever since. The deciding factor for me to go out on my own was when I went to Thailand for a two-week vacation. I found so much inspiration in those two weeks, but I used up all of my accrued vacation time in order to go. I realized that I needed more freedom in order to grow both as a designer and as a person. Opposite page, clockwise from top left: The Spa EQ at the Hotel Monaco in San Francisco; a guestroom at the Pacific Edge Hotel in Laguna Beach, California; the lobby and guestroom at the Waterfront Hotel in Oakland, California; and the lobby of the Hotel Triton in San Francisco. www.hdmag.com I love creating spaces that make people laugh. 128 hospitalitydesign

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - September 2009