Today we’d like to introduce you to Brooke Spreckman.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I got started with my Interior Design career in San Francisco, designing commercial and residential spaces. Alongside the tech-boom in San Francisco, I designed for some prominent creative offices, as well as Victorian and modern mansions. I kicked off the more prominent portion of my career designing 300,000 sq. Ft of the Airbnb headquarters at a design firm.
A significant turn of events that helped enforce the fact that I wanted to grow my career fast happened when I got hired as a design assistant a pretty fast growing interior design firm. Within the first few months of starting, my direct boss was out of the picture, leaving me to work directly with the founder – not their usual structure.
I think they were too busy to hire and just put a lot of responsibility onto my plate out of the need to keep things moving. They quickly saw I was both highly capable and probably naive, working very crazy hours, however – still figuring it all out. From there, I continued to grow as an extremely independent professional.
I then moved on to restaurants, and since 2016, I’ve designed and created ‘the new look’ in terms of brand prototype for over 10 Tender Greens restaurants in California, NY, and Boston. I’ve since been working with other brands in the food and commercial space, helping brands with their workplace to establish their brand’s voice in a physical environment.
Ultimately, I always knew I wanted to be an Interior Designer – from a young age I loved going to home depot on errands with my friend’s parents. When my parents were buying a house, I was in the 4th grade, and I was drawing up “floor plans” for the potential variations of bedrooms I could possibly be getting. “If my window is here, and my door is here, I want my bed to go like this.”
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Fortunately, it has been – however, I am a very positive, social and enthusiastic person. That combination means that I move fast on an idea and an opportunity, and if something doesn’t work – I figure out another way to make sure it does.
When I am faced with a challenge, I fix it and make it work – whether that’s with a project or a force that is out of my control. I think being put in situations that aren’t up to me, force me to navigate ways to make things become up to me.
Something that maybe considered as the worst thing to happen to someone else – getting let go from a job was the best thing that happened to me. I was working at a firm without any positive support to grow, the environment was claustrophobic, and I needed to go.
Thankfully, I was pushed out, and the next day I was hired to do a 5,000 sq. Ft. ground up build. The project lasted a year and a half and introduced me to some of the best and smartest people I know. I believe everything happens for a reason and accepting those forces rather than fighting them will always result in what’s best for you, naturally.
Please tell us about Design Hutch.
I have a residential and commercial Interior Design practice called Design Hutch. I specialize in telling a brand or person’s story via their physical space.
I am known for my work at Tender Greens, where I pushed boundaries in design, helping a corporate-chain restaurant feel a little less corporate-chain. I am most proud of being able to reinvent the creative wheel and work through non-trending avenues to make each design I produce feel original to the brand in need. I like to focus on what I am good at, being a multi-functional creative powerhouse. I don’t design for the flavor of that season.
I’d rather create something new and pump out ideas to help a company become more functional and provide a long term platform for their ideation to grow whether that is establishing your function in a workplace or a concept in retail. If you have a brand that wants to create a display for your product, I not only make that display look good, but I make that display function to a tee so that your company can continue to function off that display.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I grew up with a mother that loved to plan trips, themed parties, give gifts to literally everyone, book spontaneous hotel weekends – pack a bag, get in the car and go. Therefore, coming up with a favorite memory from childhood is a tough one. She created a world of favorite memories for me. My mom was a go-getter, a pusher but also the most comforting person to be around. I am definitely who I am because of her.
My mom who was insanely talented and successful has now passed, so to try and sum up one memory is difficult. She was the type of person that did what she wanted, all of the time. Otherwise, what was the point? I’d have to say that one of my favorite memories was being picked up in a limo from elementary school in the middle of the day to go on a “surprise” trip to Chicago. I was told that I needed to report to the front office.
To my surprise, a stretch limo was sitting in front of the school for ME to get into. A surprise trip to Chicago wasn’t enough, she also needed to get the limo.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.designhutch.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/brookespreckman
Image Credit:
Bethany Nauert
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