Dan Davis, Principal, Designer

Dan Davis has led many creative lives, bringing an unusually wide skill set to every project. He’s previously worked as an art director, a fine arts painter, an event planner and a landscape designer. Along the way, he’s won numerous awards, including a bronze Lion at the Cannes Film Festival, a United Nations Public Service award, and a Best of Houzz.com award for Customer Satisfaction. His interior design work is featured in local and national publications, including Hour Magazine, Ambassador, StyleLine, and The Detroit News and Free Press, and Desire to Inspire and many other interior design blogs.

1. Prior to starting your full-service design firm, you were a creative director in advertising. What made you decide to make the decision to do interior design?
   As you climb the ladder, you manage more and create less. I missed creating on a daily basis. I needed a new creative outlet, and always loved interior design.
2. What type of projects do you find most satisfying?
   The more difficult projects. I love thinking strategically, creatively, and practically all at once. Give me a hard-to-solve problem, and I am one happy designer.
3. What inspires you?
   Travel, music and sharing ideas. I love collaborating on projects because it leads to great solutions.
4. Name three words that describe you.
   Passionate. Earnest. Focused.
5. Why do all your projects look so different?
   I design for my clients and their needs, not just how I would do my own home. I love getting into a client’s mindset and discovering a whole new set of building blocks that maybe I haven’t used before. It’s all about the client’s needs and wants. 
6. What is something people are surprised to learn about you?
   I am a farm boy, and an Iowa State banjo champion.
7. What design rule do you love to break?
   I don’t follow rules. Does that count?
8. What are you happiest doing when you’re not working?
   Traveling, entertaining, cooking, working in my garden, and being with my family.
9. What is something that surprises people when they hire you?
   That I ask so many questions. I once had a client who was a psychologist tell me I asked more questions than she does!
10. Why do you think clients should choose to work with Dan Davis Design?
    We try harder than other firms to deliver a personal and unique product to our clients. We love to help them tell their own story.