Photo credit: Scott Lowden www.scottlowden.com
The Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design prides itself on an interdisciplinary graduate learning environment. Peter Huesemann-Odom’s career trajectory—which brought him to our Interior Design graduate program three years ago—perfectly embodies this creative framework. Though his portfolio spans design industries (fashion and visual marketing, architecture, interior design, and hospitality) and continents (Europe, the US, and South America), all of his endeavors are rooted in the same emphasis on the integrity of a space’s integrity, aesthetic harmony, and sustainability.
Huesemann-Odom has received recognition for his work in recent years including the competitive 2023 Gensler Brinkmann Scholarship which has “celebrated design excellence and innovative thinking,” in student work since 1999. The selection team granted him the 5,000 prize for his design of a research and development facility for the Boston-based consumer electronics manufacturer Next, which incorporated elements of biophilia and robotics.
In addition to teaching and academic pursuits, he currently works with his husband at Dixon-Rye in West Midtown—which was recently mentioned in the New York Times and Architectural Digest—providing design consultation, styling, and visual marketing. He also works alongside Tim Nichols for his Atlanta firm, NO Architecture. Husemann-Odom graduates this year and is completing a thesis that posits the case for a unified, multi-building arts center on Georgia State’s campus.
We sat down with him earlier this year to discuss this career, what brought him to the Welch program, and how the program might serve as a bridge to future endeavors.
Welch School of Art & Design (WSAD): You have a diverse portfolio from high-end clothing brands to interior design staging. Where did your interest in design begin?
Peter Huesemann-Odom (PHO): When I look at my path, it seems really diverse, but in the end I was always following a certain idea. I always reflect back on myself at ten years old. I was already fascinated by architecture and how we live in and move through space—not that I could word it that way of course. I was constantly rearranging and redecorating my room. Every time my parents would come home, they’d say, “Oh, well Peter changed the living room again; he's going to give us a tour of what he changed.”
But I came from a small town with just 10,000 inhabitants in the German countryside. [Based on what they saw where we lived] My parents didn’t think people were looking to hire architects, and interior design wasn’t much of a thing back then. They were worried I wouldn’t earn money in the career I wanted.
WSAD: What showed you careers like this were possible?
PHO: I did a school exchange in Brazil for one year and lived alongside a host family with two siblings. One was studying architecture. It's so funny how the universe sometimes points you in a direction to explore.
When that exchange ended, I went back to Germany, finished my education, and started to work in hospitality at the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten Kempinski Munich, a 5-star hotel in the South of Germany. I hoped I would be exposed to the beauty of architecture and people with a sense of aesthetics, but of course, I was 19, so I started with a dishwashing job.
In Germany, we have a three-year industry apprenticeship, where you cycle through each department of a company every few months (like a hospital residency but of course it's all hospitality: kitchen, room service, lobby, restaurant sales, marketing and such). I graduated from my hospitality training program, finished best in class for the year, and went on to work in the reservations department. That was my first, let's say...experience outside of my parents’ upbringing and the scope of what they thought the world could offer me.
WSAD: And when did you enter the fashion industry?
PHO: At that time, I also began working as a salesperson at Tommy Hilfiger and really enjoyed it. It was there that I was first exposed to creative merchandising. A friend of mine did the window and mannequin designs. This is where I first noticed there is actually a professional position for that, engaged with aesthetics and spatial design. There are design guidelines, and everything has a place. It began forming my mindset of how I knew things could be.
WSAD: Was it a light bulb moment for you?
PHO: Yes, I could see that things look beautiful, but there was also a concept behind them, and it’s not just by accident that those things come together. I also learned that you can earn money by working in an aesthetic field.
I still wanted to play it safe in the hospitality environment, though, so I pursued a business administration degree in the South of Germany, with the idea that I would have the option to go back to that if I wanted to…But with this degree, I could also explore something else I really wanted to explore: fashion and visual merchandising.
WSAD: Where did that take you? I noticed a lot of elaborately designed window displays in your portfolio.
PHO: My first internship was with McNeal, under the umbrella of Peek & Cloppenburg (a huge department store like Saks 5th Ave). They have their own brands in Germany, one of which was an American lifestyle brand catered to menswear. And I ended up continuing to work for them after the internship.
I designed and created seasonal and collection-based window installations and visual merchandising with POS decoration, campaign merchandise, lighting, and music for all vertical brands across stores in Germany and Austria, coordinating with the design, marketing, and sales teams (including work for Berlin Fashion Week).
WSAD: This was while you were in school?
PHO: Correct. I worked and studied at the same time and kept my connections with friends at Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger. I also applied for an internship there because my degree program required six months of experience in a company before writing a report.
So, I worked in sales and visuals for Ralph Lauren in Munich. Then, for more experience abroad, I went to Stockholm, Sweden and worked for their Scandinavian headquarters for six months, touring Norway, Finland, and Denmark too. I did sales analysis for them, field trips, and visual merchandising sales all in Swedish, which was kind of crazy.
WSAD: Oh, wow. How many languages do you speak professionally?
PHO: I mean, I’ve lost a lot of Swedish now, but I speak Portuguese, English, German…a little bit of French, and Italian.
I was still in touch with the director of McNeal, and so I did my final capstone project for them by creating a visual merchandising guideline for the brand. They had, I think three or four stores, some of which I helped them open by flying in to create all of the visual merchandising concepts. My boss hired me while I was still in the program.
I worked there for four years. After the merchandising guidelines, I built up the team and worked for the department store as a brand ambassador. I continued to plan and execute their seasonal window concepts.
WSAD: What has led to a lot of your success in this industry?
PHO: I always stay in touch with my colleagues and meet with headhunters for coffee. I send things like Christmas cards and handwritten notes to my ex-bosses. I think that really helps. I keep telling my students that and when I look back at my career, it's all been paved by the network I created.
It was a headhunter who brought me back to Munich for Bogner, a premium skiing and sportswear brand. They wanted to set up a strategic visual merchandising team, so I was in charge of the brand from the showroom and window displays to store design, working out the details with architects…So, I was already, by accident, starting to work within the roles of interior design and began learning more about technology and software within those fields.
After working there for a long time, I was hired by Oui, a German womenswear brand based in Munich, following a franchise concept. I was in charge of the visual presentation of about 60 stores all over Europe.
WSAD: You’ve done a lot of work across Europe. What brought you to the States?
PHO: At the time, I had a boyfriend who was a fashion designer from Tallahassee. He started his own fashion company, Wingate, for which I created the branding. We traveled a lot, so I quit my job and started my freelance business as Hmann. Funny enough, I continued to work for all the companies that I previously worked for.
WSAD: It’s great that freelance work allows you to travel. I can see international influences in your work. Where did you visit?
PHO: We traveled back and forth between the States and Germany, so I've been to San Francisco, LA, up the West Coast, the East Coast; Saint Louis, Cincinnati, Nashville, Birmingham and San Antonio, Houston. It's kind of like a potpourri of all these different states. We pursued a trunk-show concept for Wingate, showcasing the collection for special orders at smaller concept stores and department stores like Saks Fifth Avenue. That included setting up the pop-up store, window designs or curated fashion shows presenting the new collections to customers and sales staff. Once again, I was in charge of the visual presentation, styling, and imagery, and my partner was responsible for the clothing, PR, and all sales processes.
During that time, I met my future husband, Bradley Huesemann-Odom, who lives here in Atlanta and is an interior designer. He has a shop and successful interior design studio on Howell Mill Rd called Dixon Rye. Soon after, I moved to the States with a tourist visa, two and a half years ago in April. I wanted to figure out what my future could be like with Bradley. I knew I could stay three months, but at that time he proposed and we got married. I was still working freelance for clients in Germany and Austria but I wanted to figure out what I could do over here to further my career while waiting on my green card and couldn’t work. I decided to pursue some kind of education.
I looked into SCAD because my husband went to SCAD and Georgia State because he knew Prof. Frankie Ware, who is a graduate student from SCAD. I reached out to Michael White and sent him my portfolio and then he suggested we should jump on the call.
WSAD: Wonderful.
PHO: Yes, it all kind of fell into place.
While studying here, I continue to work for Bradley in the store and design studio. One of our latest interior design projects was featured in Architectural Digest and one of my styled shoots for the store ended up being published in the New York Times. To further extend my network and experience here in Atlanta as an interior designer, I started working for Tim Nichols, President and Founder of NO Architecture, last fall. I worked there for a couple of months, but with my final year of school and the continued support of my husband's business, I chose to end my time there and continue to support our family business.
WSAD: Isn’t that full circle?
WSAD: What has your experience been like in the MFA program here?
PHO: Since I didn’t have a fine arts background, Michael recommended I take some courses to learn perspective and drawing for the drafting side of interior architecture. I did a lot of undergrad classes mixed in with my graduate courses—up to six classes a semester— and had my feet in two different cohorts. And so yeah, that has been an interesting journey.
WSAD: You’ve traveled while in the program, too, yes? In addition to the New York trip, did you go to Mexico?
PHO: Yes, I always try to go to places that are very architectural and historic or that have some kind of design background. When I go to new cities, I do some research, but I mostly let the city lead me.
I represented the university in Vancouver at the Interior Design Educators Council Conference, presenting a paper I co-authored with Dr. Hoa Vo on understanding spatial perception via virtual reality and internet geography.
WSAD: And you’ve been teaching some ID courses here.
PHO: Yes, I like teaching and may do it after graduation. With my experience in retail design, I created a completely new syllabus, program, and schedule for a senior class in interior design at Georgia State.
WSAD: Oh, incredible. So this is a course in our curriculum that you built the framework for.
PHO: Yes. I asked the students to come up with a branding idea, such as creating a brand and then designing a retail store for this brand. In the spring, I taught Spatial Design. It’s been fun.
WSAD: Can you tell me about your MFA thesis?
PHO: I have been enjoying my time in the studios, working with the city or working within the university. The project explores the history of the College of the Arts, the history of Atlanta, and the history of the three schools in the College. They're all spatially separated right now, and I have been drafting designs to figure out how we can be a center for the arts Downtown. I interviewed Dr. Ethan Tussey, Dr. Susan Richmond, Michael White, of course, and the Interim Dean of the College of the Arts, Dr. Chester Phillips, to get very interesting insights.
WSAD: What do you value in design and what is your goal when you approach a project?
PHO: I usually ask myself, what does this building want to be? What is the place telling me that's already there? I think design, or design in general, is so subjective that I don't know. You can hate it or you can love it, but it's a lot about your personal approach. I try to validate whatever I'm doing aesthetically with whatever is already there.
What did the architect want for this building? What was the purpose of this building? And then I would honor that. But then still try to implement a timeless design that would still be up to date 20 years from now. We have so much out there already built. Repurposing honors the history of a building while still adapting it to our current needs.
I also like to think about the whole experience, not just the building. How do I enter the building and explore inside? Where do I open the door? Where does the door swing? Because of that, I also want everything you see and touch to be authentic and pleasant.
WSAD: You described your decision to come to Georgia State as a bridge to further develop yourself as a designer. What would you like to do after Georgia State?
PHO: It's a question that I'm still exploring right now. I think there is a certain beauty in that. I would like to add to the next generation and could see myself educating. But I definitely would like to proceed in some kind of interior design career. I would still like to support my partner in his business and work on an idea we are playing with introducing hospitality into a design studio. Having work by local artisans and really incorporating a sense of place but on a high-end level.
I could also imagine myself doing more research in retail design because I think there's still so much to explore quickly about how we want to shop in the future. We thought that the retail business would be completely dead by now, and yet here we are. Retail stores are still investing more and more money into spaces because, in the end, we still want to be close to other people.
For Peter’s portfolio and design website, visit: https://hmannonline.com/work