Designer Spotlight: Noz Nozawa
Creative and bold color, pattern, and style are just a few ways to describe the work of Noz Nozawa, a San Francisco-based interior designer with her own firm, Noz Design. I can’t quite express to you just how happy her work makes me and I am so thrilled that I got to chat with her for the Designer Spotlight series. She was recently named to House Beautiful’s Next Wave designer hot list for 2020. If you haven’t heard of her yet, trust me, you will, as she is about to blow up. You have to check out her work – which is full of eclectically modern spaces – here and see below for what she has to say about interior design and her path to success.
Q. You’ve had a very different career path than many designers. What pushed you to make the jump from marketing to interior design and when did you realize you’d made the right decision?
A. I probably knew I wanted to do interior design since I was 6 years old. Everything I loved as a kid was interiors – it was all I cared about making from Legos, the only books I thumbed through at the book store (RIP Bookstar), and my favorite Saturday morning show was “America’s Castles” on A&E. But I come from hardworking Asian (1 immigrant, 1 born of immigrants) parents who wanted me to have a stable career and an easy life, so I went into marketing because I was very good at it and it was a way to make use of my prestigious business bachelor’s degree. Eventually I couldn’t bear going to work and reporting to someone and being assigned tasks that I quit my job to start my interior design business. I think I knew it would be the right decision when I got in trouble for obviously working on a design for my friend while at work, but it took at least 18 months of flailing around as a new business before I felt confident my decision would stick.
Q. Where does the design process for a space start for you?
A. It’s always about the client first: how will they live in the space? How do they want to feel? What kind of an experience are they wanting in that space for themselves, their family, and their guests? Asking thoughtful questions and listening with care is how every process starts. I can make anything beautiful or bold, but aesthetics only count as good design once the foundation of a space are right.
Q. You have a clear point of view in your design style, in which color and pattern take center stage. How did you develop this aesthetic? How do you pull together a space with such bold color and pattern?
A. I think I design with a freedom that allows elements to come together in a way that is evocative and interesting and narrative, untethered from the pressure to be strictly beautiful. I’m self-taught and didn’t go to design school or work for another firm before I started, so I also think that my aesthetic was able to form by way of what I personally found compelling and vibrant, and what I’ve felt worked great in a home to give it the sense of energy or whimsy or sense of humor or playfulness that clients are wanting from their spaces. I’ve been really fortunate that so many of my clients have also been drawn to boldness, and then find me to help enable them to make these “braver” design decisions.
Q. I love color and pattern done in a chic way and your projects knock that concept out of the park every time. What feelings and experiences do you wish people have when they are in your spaces?
A. That’s so sweet, makes my day to hear that the spaces I create can make someone happy beyond the people who live there! Every client and every space is different of course; even in the same home, a client will want to feel differently in the kitchen vs. their bedroom vs. a space they’d share with friends. But the through line hope I have for all my projects is that clients feel that their spaces enhance their lives: that any pain points from their previous space have been solved for; that the improved functionality and flow serves them as they go about everyday life. And at peak existentialism, I hope people when they’re in one of my spaces can feel at some level that I’ve put a lot of love into bringing each space to life.
Q. You are a California girl. How does being from and working in California inform your design?
A. Having grown up in the Los Angeles suburbs, lived in San Francisco for 12 years, and spent lots of time at our cabin in Lake Tahoe, I can say confidently there is no one California – we’re a huge diverse state with all kinds of communities, backgrounds, and lifestyles. So without having the perspective of designing in another state, I’d probably say that the cool thing about being an interior designer in California is that everyone’s design is different. Diversity and uniqueness are celebrated – it’s not about having the same kind of home as someone else. So that spirit of being proud of your diversity and infusing one’s design with parts of your singular story definitely comes through for me in my work.
Q. You say on your website that home is critical to mental health and happiness. Can you say more about what that means to you and the spaces you create?
A. The modern world we live in is so hectic and busy, and we have more access 24/7 to things that grate on our mental health than ever before: 24-hour news, 24-hour Instagram giving you FOMO. It seems too like many of us are working more than we ever have, with work days being more packed and longer than ever. If I had the power, I’d want all of us to have what we needed and then some, working less, seeing our loved ones more, and having more time and energy to explore our creativity. But so far, I’m not that kind of powerful!! So for me, helping someone’s home be a supportive, restorative, self-affirming, inspired place to return to at the end of a hectic day is how I can make someone’s everyday world a little better. I also think that modern society is a lonely society, so if I can also create a space that someone wants to share with loved ones, that’s huge.
Q. What is a great piece of advice you’ve received that has helped you in your career?
A. Accept that fear is a part of growth. You’re always going to be afraid of what’s next. If you conquer your fears and accomplish something, you’ll look back and realize there wasn’t much to be afraid of, but you’ll look forward to what else you can do and that will be scary again.
Thank you so much to Noz Nozawa for this fabulous Designer Spotlight. Check out her work here and follow her on Instagram here. And to catch up on the Designer Spotlight series, take a look here.
