Photography by Spacecrafting
Mark Suess Designs
Mark Suess
Your definition of luxury: Exceeding the standards of quality. Embracing all that combines the best in style, comfort and taste.
How to embody opulence: Make a bold personal statement about your lifestyle. Project your values and style with the choices you make regarding your home and work. This shows that you not only aspire to achieve the best for yourself, you also translate it to your profession, family and friends.
How to get inspired: Exposure. You can tour the world through your television. Whenever I watch a show, I ponder what I’ve seen and how I can incorporate it into a design. Travel shows about exotic cultures add diversity to your thinking about living styles. Cooking shows highlight the excitement of entertaining kitchens where people gather and share food experiences. Sports events inspire media and game rooms where people can show their competitiveness. Inspiration comes from taking notice of what makes you happy and transferring it to one’s surroundings.
Trend you love: The greatest revolution in design is lighting. The new LED fixtures and integrated systems are changing how we think of lighting design and functionality. I’m loving the mix of modern engineering and traditional concepts; the blend has created a class of lighting new to the design world. It represents forward thinking on design aesthetics, functional lighting and low-energy consumption.
A classic that will never go out of style: Neutral color palettes. The tones may vary from beiges to grays to whites, but none will ever be out of style. Each creates a background for colorful art, upholsteries and accessories.
Most memorable project: For a historical Victorian remodel, I visited the city of Carrara, Italy — where the marble for Michelangelo’s statuary was quarried — to select the materials for the mosaic floors I was designing for the kitchen and dining rooms. The quarry owner gave my clients and me an exclusive tour of this fabulous resource. Standing alone in the cutout portion of the stone mountaintop, I realized it was the most exceptional organic cathedral known to man.
Your company’s trademark: Exceeding expectations. I travel to the other side of the world for my clients. I create surroundings that call upon my cultural experiences, architecture, fashion and food. I engage with the people who create my visions.
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