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Meet Mark Hermogeno of Hermogeno Designs in Eagle Rock

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Hermogeno.

Mark, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Delving into the interior design world for me was a series of good and bad circumstances. In college, I started working retail jobs at companies like The Disney Store, The GAP and Restoration Hardware where I enjoyed a new skill of visual merchandising and styling. I graduated from CSUN with a degree in anthropology in 2000 and I continued working retail well after leaving school. Three years later, I wanted a change so I decided to move to San Francisco where I knew only a couple people. I took a job as a manager and visual merchandiser for now closed Smith & Hawken and then in October 2003, I received devastating news: I was diagnosed with HIV. Feeling lost, I dove into work that included styling multiple stores in the Bay Area while managing the city store. Months later, a surprising event took place that changed my path yet again: I met my partner in 2004 and we decided to move in together. As chance would have it, the same time we chose to move into the building, the University of California Berkeley Extension opened a campus in the same building and it happened to be the interior design certificate program.

On a day off, I wandered into their office, signed up for an Intro to Interior Design. Once I finished that class, I quit retail and went back to school. After my second semester a teacher who knew I had experience with space planning and styling in retail said I should start working with clients. I placed an ad on Craigslist and I found my first major project: a custom, new build home in Hayward, California where I designed the entire 3000 square foot interior from the kitchen and bathrooms to the custom furniture and lighting. The project then appeared in various publications like Design Journal Magazine and Kitchen & Bath Design News Magazine and the powder room even won second place in the Window Fashions Envision Design Competition. My business took off with projects all over California from a low-cost senior apartment building in Livermore to kitchen remodels in Los Angeles. I saw my HIV diagnosis and the subsequent events with finding interior design as the pivotal turning point in my life and I am happy for it all.

2012 was yet another turning point. My partner and I decided to relocate back to Los Angeles to help my brother who was suffering from kidney disease. I continued to grow my business once back in my hometown, this time with projects from Seattle to New York. My work continues to be featured on manufacturer websites, trade publications and even mainstream media like the San Francisco Chronicle. Since being back in Los Angeles, I have designed numerous friends and family’s homes and I even get to work with artisans like Lakan De Leon of Kidlat Woodworks. Now that my brother has received his new kidney, I even get to work with him since he photographs our projects.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I wasn’t planning to start my business when I decided to get out of retail and start design school. It all happened so fast and unexpectedly. I struggled of course with how to start my business because at the age of 28, I didn’t have any clue. Luckily my partner owned a restaurant in his previous life so he was able to help out a bit but the rest was a learning curve. I also started my business without any loans or investors, using only our own funds. At the height of business I was working on up to 10 projects at one time with a staff of 4. But all that changed when the recession hit and it hit pretty hard in the Bay Area. I had to let my staff go and it was just me with few projects, chasing clients down for payments. That was a really difficult time. Other than for my brother, we relocated back to LA because of the recession.

After moving back to Los Angeles, I realized the market was a bit different and I was going to take a job at a showroom at the Pacific Design Center until, as good timing would have it, friends from college asked if I would redesign their 3000+ square foot Craftsman home. Thankfully they hired me and since then business has been steady and great. I have a stead stream of client with all kinds and sizes of projects now.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Hermogeno Designs – what should we know?
I officially started my company Hermogeno Designs in 2004 in San Francisco as a general interior design business that offered a broad range of services. But as time progressed, I gravitated to interior architecture, kitchen and bath design and remodels. I love to transform rooms, take down walls, build structures and create new spaces within existing homes and businesses. I love architectural styles from the early 1900’s Edwardian to current modernism and am known to create California cool and relaxed environments that are impactful, stylish, unfussy and usable. I myself am casual, easy going but equally opinionated, a good mix when dealing with client’s styles and budgets. So much so I have expanded my reach to event planning and design.

I am most proud of how much I have accomplished over the last 16 years with little help from investors or others. I have built this business on my own with projects all over the country and with projects published in magazines, newspapers and online services. I am grateful for all the opportunities presented to me by amazing clients and I am thankful for the relationships I have built with vendors, contractors, artisans, fabricators and installers.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
As I mentioned before, I am thankful for my partner Jordan who has been supportive throughout the years. He backed me up when I decided to start my own business and he helped promote my work. I am also thankful for my parents Albert and Mila who not only helped me with design school but who also let me redesign a couple of their bathrooms and who also promote my business through word of mouth and through social media. I am grateful for my brother Michael Anthony who also helps me gain clients but who also photographs most of my completed projects. I am thankful for awesome vendors, contractors, installers, architects, specialty trades showroom reps and manufacturers for their hard work. And I am most especially appreciative for the clients who trust me to transform their homes or businesses. Without them, there is no Hermogeno Designs.

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Image Credit:
Michael Anthony Hermogeno of 8X10 Proofs; Stuart Locklear of Stuart Locklear Photography; Nick O’Neil

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