Alex Brookhouse
Alex Brookhouse
Experience Designer
Los Angeles, CA
www.alexbrookhouse.com
instagram @abrookhouse
instagram @itssumshop
pinterest
WHAT DO YOU DO?
“I’m an experience designer. ”
For me, experience design means visually evoking positive emotion in consumers. This usually manifests in visual merchandising, creative direction, installation art and interior design. It’s my natural talent to manipulate physical space to make people want to interact with it and by extension, sell some stuff.
WHAT STEPS DID YOU TAKE TO GET TO WHERE YOU ARE NOW?
I’ve always been interested in creating space. From a young age I expressed creativity through personal style and designing my bedroom. So I went to FIDM for visual communication. I worked at Anthropologie for years as a visual merchandiser and display artist where I had the opportunity to hone in on design principles and diversifying my rolodex of mediums. I really enjoy creativity paired with analytics, so merchandising hits all the marks for me (“I can make a creative decision to put these items on this table and it made this much money?!?! Whaaaaat”). My next “step” from Anthro was starting to pursue freelance work as an installation artist while working with Jennie Kwon Designs doing production management. I had a brief stint back at Anthro training a newly hired home merchandiser until I started working for a commercial real estate company as the director of visual experience. That role taught me so much about project management, ada compliance, partnerships with artists and creative direction. Currently I’m working on my passion project, sum shop, where I curate experiential art events and pair found home goods to make buying art feel more accessible and also promote community over profit. It’s literally the sum of my life experiences in one business so it’s a fun side hustle!
How do you stand out in your field?
I love expanding my creativity and challenging myself to see/do whatever interests me at the moment. I have over 10 years of experience in the design field which has given me a good foundation with technical knowledge and my curiosity informs my creative decision making. My design mission (and life mission) is to inject as much positivity as possible into whatever I touch. I believe that space is sacred and can impact mood, and therefore is a great vehicle to inflict a positive change in the world. My philosophy on this is thought of in a holistic way through color, design, texture, soul, scent, intent, community, customer interaction and customer service. Curiosity is inherent in making my mission successful.
WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON RIGHT NOW?
Right now I’m working on honing in on my aesthetic and angling my portfolio to support that. Also, a lot of hat wearing for sum shop.
WHAT'S YOUR STYLE/PERSPECTIVE/TASTE? DO YOU HAVE A PROJECT THAT REPRESENTS THIS?
My aesthetic is pretty fluid and depends on what I find interesting at the time. Maybe minimal, contemporary but a bit organic, with pops of vivid color and cat memes? For me it’s hard to put words to the essence of something, so I live for a mood board. You can check out my pinterest board for my home to get a vibe of my personal style right now. Also! Every Sunday on @itssumshop I curate images that are inspiring me at the moment.
WE ARE ALL SLASHIES WITH MULTIPLE SKILLS, WHICH ONE DO YOU WISH YOU COULD DO MORE OFTEN?
I love home goods. I love everything about creating space. I also am a sucker for contemporary design/art. So working in that space is my dream. Visual merchandising comes so naturally to me in relation to that so the next step for my career is probably in store or fixture design or upper management visual merchandising(setting directive). I want to focus my knowledge of merchandising to be more back-end, a more global perspective of the business and marketing driven.
WHAT IS FRUSTRATING YOU RIGHT NOW?
Currently, we’re in COVID times so not being able to go out and explore has been really getting to me. Buuuut I guess generally I find it challenging to authentically promote myself by myself. Like I know that marketing shouldn’t depend on my mood but it totally does and sometimes(a lot of times) I just wanna do the ol’ scroll and like and not push out content. Figuring out how to be community driven while self promoting is hard sometimes.
IF YOU COULD HIRE SOMEONE FOR $20/HR, WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE THEM DO TO MAKE YOUR DAY EASIER?
From my work experience, I’ve done a lot of mentoring and training so I’ve integrated that into my creative process. It is really helpful to me to have a sounding board or someone to open up a collaboration with to take the project to a higher level. So I would hire a general assistant I suppose, or someone to work with to help grow their career as well.
LET'S BRING OUT THE TIME MACHINE. WHAT DO YOU WISH YOU COULD HAVE TOLD YOURSELF, WHEN, AND WHY?
I would proooobably visit myself in middle/high school. I’d tell her to explore all the opportunities the creative field has to offer and really tune into herself to explore what direction she should take. I grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania where the most exposed career path to get out of my town was through fashion, I always liked expressing myself through clothing so that felt like a natural progression. I didn’t realize I could draw or create things with my hands outside of clothing until I was a senior in high school, when it felt too late to explore(for college submissions). Now looking back I may have studied industrial design or interior design or architecture, because I actually don’t like fashion that much lol.
IF YOU COULD TALK TO AN EXPERT TO GAIN MORE INSIGHT ON SOMETHING, WHAT WOULD IT BE ABOUT?
I would gain more insight on sustainability, but more specifically harmful chemicals within products. Aside from what products I use personally, I want to make sure that everything I do has a positive impact long term so it would really upset me that something I chose to be somewhere could potentially be harmful to someone.
WHAT KIND OF OPPORTUNITIES/PROJECTS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
I’m looking for full-time work to take my career to the next level. I would love to shift into working with contemporary furniture or design in some way. Having visual merchandising as my foundation makes my skill set pretty vast, arranging space can be applied in many different ways, but I’m looking to make my way into store/fixture design or visual merchandising management(not hands on but more directive based, working with marketing teams and creative). I want to take this path to eventually become a creative director of a brand. I will still be working on my business so flexibility to continue that on the side is important to me.
DESCRIBE YOUR IDEAL JOB/CLIENT/COLLABORATION.
Okay I have two ideal jobs. I would love to work under Jill Singer from Sight Unseen and assist in the creative direction of the site. The other job would be working for The Future Perfect in opening new locations or curation.
WHAT IS YOUR HOURLY RATE, RETAINER, OR SALARY RANGE?
Salary range 85-100k/year
HOW SHOULD SOMEONE APPROACH YOU ABOUT WORKING TOGETHER?
Email is best, catch me at : makeshitwith@alexbrookhouse.com and follow me and my business on instagram!
Intro should include an image that is inspiring them at the moment, is it a kitten? is it a bottle of mustard with googley eyes? is it a chair?
HOW DO YOU STAY CREATIVE?
Self-care! Pinterest! Instagram collections! Friends! Camping! Dancing! Exploring creativity!
This member profile was originally published in May 2020.