Meet the Blogger: Getting to Know Rising Star A. Keith Powell (Part 2)

Yesterday, we chatted further with A. Keith Powell of A. Keith Powell Interior, who was recently honored as a Star on the Rise during DCOTA's Stars of Design Awards. Here's more from Keith from our afternoon spent getting to know him better.

GDG: What was your experience like at the Stars of Design awards and being honored as a Star on the Rise?

AKP: I feel quite honored being chosen as a 2006 Design Star and one of the 2012 Stars on the Rise recipients. It's an honor to be recognized by my peers.

GDG: What have you been busy with recently that you have been particularly enjoying?

AKP: One of my favorite projects this past year is a loft apartment I am just finishing up for a lovely German woman. She is terribly sophisticated and wanted, literally, a Faberge egg to live in! So I gave her a completely modern mix of modern elegance with many layers of luxurious textures covering every surface. The results are more spectacular than I could have imagined. I am looking forward to having it photographed this month.

GDG: Can you share a fun fact about yourself?

AKP: I have many collections, most of them in storage as I am living in a much smaller place at the moment. But one thing that I will never give up no matter how small my quarters, are my books. I have hundreds and hundreds of coffee table books on subjects ranging from photography to design, classic cars, architecture, and dogs!

Stay tuned to GoDesignGo for more from DCOTA's Stars on the Rise!

Meet the Blogger: Getting to Know Rising Star A. Keith Powell (Part 1 of 2)

Last week, we introduced you to A. Keith Powell of A. Keith Powell Interior, who was recently honored as a Star on the Rise during DCOTA's Stars of Design Awards. We had the pleasure of talking with Keith about his Stars of Design experience and what he has been up to since.

GDG: When did you realize your interest in design?

AKP: Honestly, I had zero interest in design growing up! I really hadn't a clue there was any talent there until a happy accident with Ralph Lauren!

GDG: What most progressed your skills in this industry?

AKP: As I grew to realize this was my true calling, I looked back at my career as a window designer and started deconstructing the way I had been putting things together. This gave me a real-time understanding of how I could bump up my skills and grow my talent.

I started to create depth of field, layering textures and colors just as if a room were a huge window display. This gave me a deeper appreciation for my training as a window designer and made me realize how valuable that training was in creating my current career.

GDG: Were there any mentors who were particularly helpful along the way?

AKP: My biggest mentor, hero, and inspiration was, and always will be, Mr. Gene Moore of Tiffany & Co. He was possibly the most brilliant person I have ever known. His vision and scope of how to tell a story far surpassed the amazing work that I was fortunate to be doing with Ralph Lauren.

My training with Ralph Lauren was also invaluable in teaching me the nuts and bolts of construction, blueprints, and how to read and draw them in scale. I learned everything about plumbing, lighting, codes, materials, and almost everything involving construction of a house.

Stay tuned to GoDesignGo for more from Keith tomorrow!

DCOTA Star on the Rise A. Keith Powell (Part 2)

Alexander Keith Powell, of A. Keith Powell Interior, in Miami, was recently named one of DCOTA's Stars on the Rise during the Stars of Design Awards. He goes by Keith for short, but his history in the industry is much longer. Here's more on Keith's experience in the industry and how his boutique firm got on its feet.

Upon starting his own display company and acquiring clients like Ralph Lauren, Gucci, and others of the like, Keith decided it was time to broaden his creative realm. Eventually, he was hired by a friend, a professional polo player, to decorate his estate in South Florida. From that point forward Keith never looked back. Following this design project, he quickly developed a strong and loyal client base in Palm Beach and the surrounding areas.

It was from that first project that Keith felt he had truly developed a “complete design” approach. Having such experience gave him the opportunity to encapsulate interior and landscaping design to create a singular vision from the driveway to the rear lawn.

A. Keith Powell Interior has recently relocated to Miami. Keith maintains a presence and works everywhere from Newport Beach, California, to Jamaica—where he recently completed a 20,000-square-foot project for a heavyweight boxing champion.

Keith has an innate ability to “push people’s limits beyond what they expect or accept within their own realm.” This philosophy and his design talent have allowed him to expand to places he never thought possible. “I am thrilled to say I really love what I do. As strange as this may have sounded to me 20 years ago, I can’t imagine doing anything else!”

Next week, Keith spends some time with us for a Q&A about the projects he's been busy with lately and what it's like to be a Star on the Rise.

DCOTA ‘Star on the Rise’ A. Keith Powell (Part 1 of 2)

We recently spent some time getting to know a few of the awarded Stars on the Rise from DCOTA's Stars of Design Awards, and Alexander Keith Powell, who goes by Keith, is first up. Keith’s company, A. Keith Powell Interior, of Miami, is what keeps him busy these days, but Alexander has been in the design industry for more than 18 years. In all that time, he has made sure that his boutique firm is a success.

A native of Los Angeles, Keith grew up with an exaggerated imagination of the real world. His mother, an animation director at Disney Studios in Burbank, would bring Keith to work with her on the weekends. This allowed him to live in the reality of having Snow White and Goofy as babysitters.

Keith moved to Fort Lauderdale to study marine biology at a local university. After realizing he was more of the creative sort, he took a job working for Ralph Lauren in the display department.

On his career switch, Keith noted: “I found I had a real talent for putting things together.” Within two years, he started his own display company and soon after acquired Ralph Lauren as his first freelance client at the request of the company president.

Over a short period of time, Gucci, Tiffany & Co., Calvin Klein, and Gianfranco Ferré followed as clients.

Stay tuned to GoDesignGo tomorrow to learn what Keith’s design mantra is and how his company eventually got started.