Meet Adriana Oxford of Gensler; Adriana Oxford Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Adriana Oxford.

Adriana, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in an extremely visual home. My mom was always interested in design, changing and moving things around our house week after week, bringing in new art and artists, new furniture, new textiles. Our home was a constant evolution. On top of that, we grew up traveling quite a bit. The world became this lens for my sisters and me to experience culture, experiment with adaptability, meet a wide variety of people, and to come into very close proximity with the arts. So from a very young age, travel and design and art were very dear friends that cultivated my visual eye and interest in crafting beauty.

To be honest, I never thought that design would be my path. I grew up as one of seven, and most of my family are lawyers. On some level, that was the expectation for me too, or so I thought. When I was in high school, my art teacher, Roy Bares, began encouraging me to pursue art in college. At the time, I did not think that I had the talent to pursue fine arts as a legitimate means of income; however, through his encouragement, that’s the path I chose for myself. I painted my way through the University of Texas until I realized that… well… I needed to find a job.

My mom knew a local Austin residential interior designer, Lindsey Arthur, from her various jaunts out to Roundtop’s antique fair. Lindsey and I got connected and plugged into each other’s lives pretty quickly. As a side note, I think it’s really rare when you meet someone for the very first time, and something instantly clicks, like you have known each other before. That’s how it was with Lindsey. She took me under her wing quickly and taught me everything she knew about art and design and construction. Those two years with her were very pivotal for me.

Aside from teaching me the technical, she showed me how design is an access into people’s lives and relationships with them – not just about aesthetic beauty but beautiful friendships and experiences as well. I will always be grateful for Lindsey’s openness, not being stingy with her knowledge. She shared, and she genuinely taught me, and I hope that one day I get to humbly do the same for someone else trying to get their start. After my two years with Moontower and PlayHouse, I realized that my art background was not solely limited to a canvas. I could use what I knew about fine arts and start applying those things three-dimensionally in space.

That whole idea really excited me! However, in order to really get connected in the architecture and interiors world, I needed a degree. I attended grad school to get my MFA in Interior Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design, and I would say that Savannah is where things really shifted for me – where I started to care for the quality of my work, develop an aesthetic, and be able to vocalize how design can physically and emotionally contribute to society.

During school, I was pretty adamant about not going to go work for a large corporate firm after graduating. I laugh at that now-now that I work at one of the largest architectural firms in the world. You never know where a road will take you, and I often think that the things you resist the most are actually the things that are meant for you.

Now that I am at Gensler, I work mostly in commercial hospitality – bars, restaurants, hotels, private clubs, small-scale boutique workplace – ALL THE FUN STUFF! What I enjoy is creating wacky, hospitable, experiential space where people feel welcome and can connect. That’s the goal.

Since being in the commercial design world for quite awhile now, I am starting to miss the intimacy that is residential design. That is why I have decided to launch a small side business this year focused on artwork in the home. My painting has been put on the back burner as I have explored the interiors field, and I am now coming back to it in hopes that it will bring other people as much joy as it has given me.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I tend to operate under the idea that everything that meets you, ease or struggle, is meant to greet you as a teacher. My greatest teachers so far have been:

1. Rejection – Humility: I have heard the word “No” quite a lot early on in my career. I applied to both the UT Art Department and Architecture Department twice before getting admitted to the BFA program at UT the second time around. I got rejected from quite a few jobs right out of school because my work did not fit into a particular aesthetic. I think those rejections have housed for me one of my biggest lessons in life so far — always ask again. Go 100% after what you want, and if the answer is “No,” then you have the exact same answer as you did before you asked. There is no fear in putting yourself out there and asking the question. Getting told “No” on all of these occasions has graciously given me a deeper sense of personal humility and gratitude for those opportunities that were “Yes’s.”

2. Confusion – Clarity: I was always a polymath growing up – I was good at math, I could paint, I was athletic. I do not say that to brag, but to say that I was always confused which life venture was for me. Should I go to business school or follow all my siblings into law? In college, I struggled specifically with whether my direction was to be a full-fledged artist or pursue the design field. It was not until recently, grad school specifically, that I really believed it could be both, and that all of these things can complement each other.

3. Comparison – Confidence: Coming from a family of hyper-successful doctors and lawyers, insecurity ran high in my veins in middle school, in high school, in college. Am I going to be as successful as my siblings? Are my parents going to be disappointed in me if I choose something different? So on and so forth. It was not until I stepped away from home for awhile, moving to Los Angeles and then to Savannah, that I began to own my personal gifts and have confidence in them. Sometimes all you need is a little space for yourself, alone without anyone else’s opinion, to figure out what you really want and to forge that path.

Please tell us about Gensler; Adriana Oxford Artwork.
As a Designer: At the risk of sounding cliche, I’ll start with this, “I want to make everything around me beautiful. That will be my life.” Elsie DeWolfe.

My colleagues and clients at Gensler know me as the materiality queen. I am hyper-tactile and have about every single fabric swatch and tile sample that is the latest and greatest at my desk, stored and packed in boxes under my desk. I’m a modern day hoarder!

At Gensler, I design restaurants, private clubs, bars, small-scale workplace, and often times a combination of all these things. That’s where the real excitement begins! I love design because it’s a tactile puzzle. Some resolutions involve finishes, others involve spatial solutions. The goal is to design sensory, hospitable spaces where people feel welcome and known, and I think that’s where my greatest strength comes into play – my empathy.

I love to be able to sit in a room and connect with a client and be able to truly understand what they want without them saying much. It’s about honestly connecting with people, reading their energies and personalities – it’s my favorite part about design.

As an Artist:
To be honest, I am just started to claim this about myself. I am an artist, and I am starting my own commission-based art platform. The focus of my business will be on creating emphasis within the home utilizing art focal points. I will paint custom, one of a kind, art pieces alongside personalized design consultation so both art and space are fully integrated. I have always operated under the notion that art and architecture are combined – the experience is homogenous. Art speaks to space, and space speaks to art. What I do not want is for something I create to look out of place, stuck up there on the wall. I am looking for a marriage and an integration.

The reality is that art interventions can have a powerful impact if treated properly. The ways in which we interact with our environment, in both material and immaterial ways, are the ways we form our lives. When art becomes less of an object and more of a trigger for experience, it becomes a vehicle for self-expression and a chance to tell your story. I want to help tell your story.

I have my first couple of clients right now, and our goal is to create purposeful, clear, creative, energetically-filled space. With that said, my services will include a house smudging in order to clear stuck energy out of your home. To be perfectly frank, it is a requirement if I am going to work with you. We all need a clear space to collaborate together! The intention and end goal is to create a space that is integral to your home and fuels your creativity day in and day out.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I know that this is the expected answer, but NOTHING. My path has been forged for me, and I trust that every single experience has brought me to where I am now. I wouldn’t trade that for anything.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.adrianaoxford.squarespace.com
• Phone: (409)-790-9192
• Email: oxford.adriana@gmail.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/oxford.adriana/

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