About this Event
As we begin to reach the close the Design Bay Area: Year of Design, we're ending with a series of Dynamic Minds Tours and looking to the future: An exceptional Friday afternoon in two of San Francisco’s most inspiring design creative minds and studios— each utterly distinct, each a masterclass in a different dimension of the art of living.
Design writer, author and seminar curator Diane Dorrans Saeks presents an intimate afternoon that moves from the studio of one of the city’s most celebrated interior design collectives to one of its most beautiful and storied design destinations.
Each studio visit is a structured presentation — carefully planned and personally introduced by Diane Dorrans Saeks, who sets the context for each firm’s work before the principal designers and their teams take the group through their current projects, design philosophy and creative process. This is an intimate, guided experience, not an open studio.
First, an inside look at NICOLEHOLLIS — the award-winning San Francisco studio ranked among the world’s top luxury design firms, where a team of more than forty designers, interior architects and furniture designers work in a spirit of creative collaboration. The studio will present current work in Hawaii, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and offer an exclusive preview of the NICOLEHOLLIS Collection — sculptural tabletop design in historic alabaster, cashmere and natural cotton goods that reflect the studio’s philosophy of timeless, nature-informed beauty.
The afternoon then moves to the Geoffrey De Sousa Interior Design studio and the De Sousa Hughes showroom at the San Francisco Design Center — 27,000 square feet of luminous galleries where Geoffrey De Sousa and Erik Hughes have curated one of the most extraordinary collections of furniture, textiles, lighting and art in the American West. Geoffrey will speak about his design philosophy, his current residential projects, and his ongoing collaborations with global artisans and makers. The showroom represents over fifty of the world’s most coveted boutique collections, including Liaigre, Thierry Lemaire, Alexander Lamont, Jonathan Browning and Caste Design.
A special highlight of the visit will be a close-up look at the new Alison Berger Glassworks collection — handcrafted using ancient techniques, her lighting designs and objects capture and reflect light with magical effect, and De Sousa Hughes is her exclusive San Francisco showroom representative.
The afternoon concludes with a reception in the showroom — wine, conversation, and an unforgettable close to the day.
These are structured, curated design seminars — planned presentations with the principals and teams of each studio. Attendees move together as a group through each studio under Diane’s guidance. Maximum 30 attendees ensures an intimate and genuinely interactive experience.
Pre-registration required · Admission by pre-registration only · Not suitable for guests under 16
We will begin at NICOLEHOLLIS and move to the next studio during this event.
Photo Credit: @douglasfriedman
Event venue & nearby stays
1000 Bryant St ste 503, 1000 Bryant Street, San Francisco, United States
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