Courtney Sloane Biography Through the world of design, Courtney Sloane celebrates life…and mixes it up. Design is her tool to tell people’s stories and project their identity and dreams within a space. It’s no surprise that this intuitive, personality-driven approach attracts entertainment and media world heavies—Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs, Jay-Z, Queen Latifah, Sony Music, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, and Disney are just a few of her clients. But in Courtney’s view, every one of us has a powerful story waiting to be translated into three dimensions. Her clients look to her for an aesthetic that reflects our modern world. She calls it culturefuse, and everything is fair game. People, nature, history, and traditions influence colors, materials, textures, spaces, and objects. She samples from life, then spins it into our surroundings. Currently, as host of the new television show Material World on TLC, Courtney brings the world of design to the public in a whole new way. Now everyone can have the Courtney Sloane Experience. Founder of the award-winning interior design firm, Alternative Design, and her new breakthrough concept in design service, Courtney Sloane Designs, she will also be debuting a line of functional, high-design products in late 2005. Courtney has been featured in national publications such as The New York Times, Vibe, Harper's Bazaar, O, Elle Décor, and Marie Claire, and as a contributing editor of Essence. She has also been on the cover of New York Magazine as one of the top “99 New Yorkers of 1999”, House Beautiful named her "one of the nation's top 101 designers" for three consecutive years, and the Washington Times declared her to be “way ahead of the pack...truly a designer for the millennium.” Awards and Honors Courtney Sloane has been recognized both for her extraordinary talent and her work for the community. She received the Emerging Designer Award from the Design and Decoration Center in Manhattan, and the award for Important Women in Design from Moore College of Art and Design. She won “Best Lobby in New York” from New York Magazine and was recipient of the 2004 Design Award from the Bridge Street Development Corporation in Brooklyn, to which she was also recently elected as a board member. Courtney has also served as the Chairperson of the African-American Design Archive of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, in New York. Giving Back True success for Courtney is continuing to open doors and help others along the way. She looks to broaden the philosophy of her design service by helping people translate their dreams for their lives into reality. She has participated in numerous DIFFA events to benefit AIDS, and was chosen to design the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health Award, which honors contributors to sports, health, and humanity. Most of her work is done directly with those whom she calls “My Kids”: talented students of color in design schools across the country, primarily Parsons, Pratt, and Kansas City State University. Remembering how difficult it was to break into such a closed industry, Courtney wants to make it easier for students today. She wants to be the mentor she never had, and help students realize their dreams. Courtney organizes internships at her studio and design firm, in which students become immersed in every part of her process. She also works with corporations to encourage them to offer design internship programs that are open to people of color. Most of all, she makes herself available to young people of all backgrounds who are interested in the design industry. My Style I don’t have any one particular style. I see my style being like music—it’s fluid, it has lots of movement, and it is constantly changing. Everywhere I go, everything I do, everything I see, inspires me and influences my design. If I had to identify a common thread that runs through my work, it would be open spaces, and a touch-and-feel, tactile, engaging environment that is infused with different cultural and ethnic influences. Visual Author Design is for me a visual representation of identity. I try to help people find their own style by bringing out the complexity and individuality of their experiences. I listen to both what is said and unsaid, then I actualize it all into a threedimensional space. When I work, I become who my clients are, I infuse myself in how they see, in what they love and in how they want to feel. While it's THEIR story I'm telling, I think of myself as their visual author, their muse and guide, helping them bring their dreams and narrative to life within and around the places they live and work. I think of buildings like stages, of thresholds and doorways like chapters and scenes. So that, after I'm done with my work, they can look around in their cherished space and say, "Yeah, this is ME." Am I blue I have had to finally admit that I see the world through a blue-colored lens. It would be fair to say that in every project I’ve ever done you will find a blue, even if it’s mostly hidden. There is always a blue secret. And there is a blue for you.