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Meet David Garcia of Statue of Design in San Antonio

Today we’d like to introduce you to David Garcia.

Thanks for sharing your story with us David. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I am a native Texan born and raised in Laredo Tx. I relocated to Orlando in 2001 and worked for Disney as a lifeguard intern that was short-lived. I worked several retail jobs before ending up in a car accident that left me out of work for six months with a broken leg. The quickest job I could find was delivering flowers for a large scale event production company called Greenery Productions.

Greenery Productions specializes in large scale weddings, hotel floral decor, interior plantscapes and holiday decor installations. Within a few months of assisting in various projects, I was soon promoted to Floral Designer. I handled the floral designs for hotels such as Hard Rock Hotel, Rosen Shingle Creek, Disney Resorts, The Peabody, Gaylord Palms, and Universal Resort. Working with Greenery gave me creative freedom to explore the new industry that I literally fell into.

Within four years, I had an itch to explore and moved to Chicago. I was 24 years old. It was here where I learned the true meaning of a hard knocks for freelancing. As a freelancer, I was hired at several large scale design companies. I was naive in thinking that I would be able to sustain a set income. I didn’t take into account how severe weather impacted the seasons, I was so used to Florida. Not in Chicago, once the weather turned cold, freelancer are not needed as the event industry slows down. Just as I was beginning to figure out what I needed to do next, a tragedy struck back home and my aunt passed away. I took a bus home for the funeral and asked my family if I would be allowed to produce her funeral flowers. This was before social media took off so my family had never seen any of the work I had been producing. They were all in shock and couldn’t understand how I learned the skillset so fast. My mother, a business owner herself, acknowledged my abilities and offered me a gold ticket to move back home and start my own business. I flew back home and packed my bags. I was home two months later, and four months later, Statue of Design was created.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It was not the smoothest road by any means. But I am a firm believer that the bumps are what built my character and business what it is today. Struggle number 1, the recession hit. People were not spending money like they normally did. Floral is a luxury not a necessity. 2. I was a new face to the city and had to create a name for myself and my design style. It was a struggle trying to showcase my work and covert brides and clients from the traditional designs of Texas and show them a more modern and avant-guard approach to floral. It took about four years to finally feel like my efforts were paying off.

Please tell us about Statue of Design.
Statue of Design is well known for our avant-guard design work. We have created a brand for ourselves that can easily be identified out in public. It’s common for people to know our work just by sight. We are told that we have a certain look to our design work. Our proudest feat is our largest client that is Hotel Emma at The Pearl. Hotel Emma is a boutique hotel that was designed from a run-down brewery. They converted the property and hired a high-end design firm to structure and brand the property to have an old-world feel with a combination of masculine and feminine elements. We were brought on board to the project before the property opened up to bring our “touch”. Since then the hotel has celebrated several accolades and is named one of the top hotels in the world. We play a small part in that with our designs. When we began the project, we were instructed to not fall into the category of expectation when it came to florals. We thought it was best to not distract from the property and interior design of textures but rather blend. We scoured assorted vintage stores, antique stores anything that we could use for containers for the property that looked like it was left behind there from the hay days, When it came to florals, we decided on combinations of native elements like thistle, cacti, airplants, combined with long-lasting luxury florals like proteas, orchids.

We have also had the honor to design their holiday Christmas decor. We customized all the holiday decor from ornaments with photos of the muse herself Emma Koehler, Cactus, hand-welded rose wreaths, dried fruits and lush peonies. People wait in long lines that spiral through the hotel on weekends in order to take family photos with our trees. It’s a huge compliment.

What sets us apart from other designers in town is our creativity and ability to design concepts first and then structure our florals around them. I consider myself an artist first, designer second, florist third.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My favorite memories from childhood are going to the movies. All-time favorite is Labyrinth. Jim Henson is my personal hero. His creativity led him to brand himself and impact the world with his creations.

As an adult, I can remember what movie I saw, and who I saw it with. Movies were an escape for me growing up. I actually considered going in to film all the way up until college. I took a few courses and decided I enjoyed watching films rather than pursuing it as a career.

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Kat Rullo Carey – DARKROOMFOTO

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