This Client-Designer Conversation Isn’t Happening Enough

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Summer doesn’t come with much of a break for Brooklyn-based designer Little Wing Lee. Between being the design director for Atelier Ace, the founder of the interdisciplinary global network Black Folks in Design, and the principal of her own practice, Studio & Projects, there’s always a deadline to be met. I caught up with her during NYCxDesign, where she was launching her latest Lighting with RBW, and discussed her singular path to design—and how her intuition continues to shape her career.

—Mel Studach, Editor, AD PRO

Mel: Before making the shift to interior design, you worked in documentary film production. What led to the pivot?

Little Wing: I worked on a TV series about death and dying with Bill Moyers, which was an incredible experience and the impetus for my switch to design. I worked on that project for two years, and it had me re-evaluating my own life. I’d always been interested in design, so I listened to my mom finally and enrolled in the career discovery program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

We were in the studio, hearing from amazing architects, visiting beautiful buildings, going to the design library—I just fell in love with it. Working on that [documentary] project changed my trajectory. I’m more intentional about the projects that I want to work on. It’s both painful and aspirational knowing that we’re all going to pass away one day, and so we should at least try to do what we love.

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