As the founder and principal of Nina Magon Studio, Nina Magon specializes in luxurious residential, commercial, and hospitality projects. Her bold aesthetic incorporates vibrant elements inspired by worldly cultures to deliver unique experiences to her clients using bold elements, color, and modernity.
Nina combines her Economics and Finance degree from Southern Methodist University with her postgraduate studies in Architecture and Design from The Art Institute to blend business with creativity. She currently manages real estate projects worth over $500 million. Her career launched with NBC’s American Dream Builders and progressed through collaborations with esteemed brands like Cosentino and Bergdorf Goodman. Her first interior design book, ‘EVOKE’ was released in 2023.
Nina has global recognition, such as launching a collection with Bergdorf Goodman, receiving honors including “Entrepreneur of the Year” by the United States Asian Chamber of Commerce, being the U.S. Ambassador to Maison Et Objet Paris, and the Noble Distinction Award from Spain’s Ambassador. Nina’s clients range from millionaire and billionaire residential clients to large brands which include Saks Fifth Avenue, Martha Stewart, and Balmain Paris, in addition to a large number of developers all over the globe. Her work has featured in prestigious publications such as Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, and Forbes, highlighting both her creative design flair and strong business acumen.
Her Agenda: What inspired you to pursue a career in interior design?
Nina Magon: I’m an economics and finance major from SMU, and I went into interior design because I wanted to be in fashion. I thought that it’s so interesting to use the creative side of your brain and create things that are kind of unimaginable. I think that’s really what pursued me. I really wanted to do something in the creative field of business, and that’s how I got into interior design.
Her Agenda: What challenges have you faced as a woman in the design industry, and how have you overcome them?
Nina Magon: I’ve had a lot of challenges. Not just as a woman, but also as a business owner, being in the field that I’m in, it’s already difficult, because it is a pretty saturated market in interior design. Specifically, being a woman in interior design we’re trying to get these large projects…multimillion dollar buildings and it’s always difficult because there are other companies and our potential [competition] owned by men. For some reason, even in our industry today, they’re still favored over a woman-owned business. But I think that the way we have overcome it is that we’ve tried our best to stay on top of design and show uniqueness to our designs. I think that’s really what’s set us apart, is how we can be the best design firm out there, regardless of who the owner is.
Her Agenda: What role does sustainability play into your work?
Nina Magon: Sustainability is very big in our world right now, because everyone is interested in reusing things and having some kind of reusability factor. Some of our clients are very interested in it. But more so than sustainability, I think people are more interested in wellness now, and how their home can become what we call a ‘well home,’ which means that everything in their house is optimizing health and wellness. So people are putting oxygen pumping through their house, circadian lighting, and things like that, which has become more of a larger trend than just sustainability.
Her Agenda: How do you see the future of interior design evolving in the next decade?
Nina Magon:I’m worried. I’m not going to lie. AI has taken over a lot of interior design. But that connectiveness with a client cannot be overtaken by AI. Personal interaction with clients will always be there and will become more prevalent in the future, because there’s an emotional component to interior design, especially when they’re designing their own house. So, no matter how much AI will take away from the actual studios and the work of the studio, I think it’s actually going to be a benefit for interior design firms because we don’t have to do all the difficult work, which is the drawing of the plans and all that busy work. We can actually focus on the creative part and that intellectual connection with the clients.
Her Agenda: How do you integrate cultural aspects and diversity into your designs?
Nina Magon: I am Indian, so we [did] a show house back in 2019, and that’s when I was introduced to Feng Shui or Vastu Shastra, which is a little bit different from Feng Shui, but it definitely determines the energy of the home. Since wellness has become such a prevalent part of interior design now, part of wellness is actually the energy of the house and where things are located. So we have tried to learn Feng Shui and Vastu Shastra to understand where things should be located to really create better energy in the home. No house in the United States can be 100% Vastu, but you can achieve a lot of things by having things in the right area. If you’re interested in wealth, then there’s a certain way your house should be positioned. There are certain places where toilets can never be. Some clients are very interested in this, and some clients do not care at all. It really depends on the client, but these are some cultural aspects that we’ve had to incorporate into a lot of our projects.
Her Agenda: How do you handle gender and design, where some people want their rooms to look feminine or masculine?
Nina Magon: I don’t necessarily call it feminine and masculine. It’s a design preference. We don’t like to use gender at all in interior design; I think it’s a preference of design. Do they like pink? Pink can also look masculine. Black can also look very feminine. So we don’t use the term gender. We call it an aspect of design that’s important for that client.
Her Agenda: How do you handle criticism and different opinions?
Nina Magon: Being in a creative field, we get criticized a lot, because design is so subjective. Some people might love you, some people might hate your design style. So we’re open to constant criticism on a daily basis, by clients and by peers. You have to have very tough skin being in a market like this, because it’s not like we’re in finance, where one plus one is two. This is all subjective, and so I have trained myself. I used to be very offended early on, but now I’ve trained myself to understand that people are different, just as design is different. A traditionalist may never love our design style, but we may never love traditional design style. So you just have to have tough skin and move on.
Her Agenda: What advice would you give to young women aspiring to enter design?
Nina Magon: I would tell them that you have to be true to whatever your design aesthetic is. For example, I was one of the only ones 12 years ago when I started design in Houston, Texas, which is a very traditional kind of state, and we started doing modern design, and bringing modern concrete design to Texas. There was a lot of pushback at first, but, because of my love for this style, that’s what brought us to where we are today. You just have to do whatever style you love, and people will catch on eventually. Don’t change your style for someone else. You have to love what you do, because if you don’t, you’re in big trouble.
[Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]
