The expansive world of design, real estate, and entrepreneurship shaped by Nina Magon.
Nina Magon is a visionary force in the worlds of luxury design, real estate, and entrepreneurship, renowned for her bold, daring designs and strategic business acumen. With an unparalleled ability to blend artistry with functionality, she has redefined industry standards and earned global recognition for her unique aesthetic. From award-winning projects to groundbreaking collaborations, Nina has become a global ambassador for design excellence, shaping not only spaces but also the future of the industry. Her innovative approach and unwavering commitment to her craft have garnered admiration from clients, peers, and leaders worldwide, solidifying her status as a trailblazer in her field.
What inspires your bold and daring aesthetic, and how do you balance timeless modernity with cultural influences in your designs?
I think that part of my design aesthetic comes from me traveling the world. At a very young age, I was lucky enough to travel all over the world, from India to London to Japan, to Hong Kong, and so all these worldly influences have influenced my design aesthetic. I decided from a very young age that I wanted to be in creative but also in business. And so I thought it was going to be fashion design, but it ended up being interiors. And I think that the bold aesthetic comes from all of the travel and me wanting to be more forward thinking.
How do you approach creating spaces that are both luxurious and functional, especially for high-profile clients?
First of all, we love our clients. We’re very blessed to have some of the best, most influential clients in the world. Every client has a completely different aesthetic. Just as each one of us is so individualistic, so are our clients. So, one of the main things that we do is we look at the architecture of the space and see if the architecture can stand alone without even one piece of furniture in it. Because, we are interior designers, we are not decorators. So you give us an empty space, and we create the personality for the space which is very reflective of the clients.
As an entrepreneur, how do you balance your creative vision with the business side of running a global design studio?
It’s hard. I’m actually an economics and finance double major and I come from an entrepreneurship family. I think business has been ingrained to me at a very young age, and being creative is something else I’m very interested in. So to be successful in any field you have to understand business. For anyone who wants to be in a creative field, you have to think with both the right and left side of your brain so that you can have a business that is not a charity business, and it’s actually a business where you’re growing.
What lessons have you learned from managing real estate projects worth over $500 million, and how do you apply them to your design business?
Managing projects in general is very difficult, especially when you’re managing projects that belong to clients, whether they be high rise condo buildings, hospitality projects, whatever the project may be, even when it’s product development, you’re managing a project that they’re trying to sell for a high dollar amount. For instance, high rise residential, you have to design a feeling and a sensibility for the building so that it can attract the right clients to come and live into that building. And so there is a big balancing act, because sometimes when you’re working for one client, you’re actually essentially working for the client’s clients. And so everything that we’re designing has to have an emotion to it, because these clients are coming to us with their most precious possession, which is their residential home, and the homes that we work on are worth 10 million, 12 million, 15 million. And so they’re putting these projects in our hand and saying, ‘Hey, listen, we want you guys to design our house for us in the way that we want it, in the way that we want to live in it.’ And so, it’s very difficult to schedule these projects. Right now, we’re running 40 projects at the same time, and every single client is extremely different, with a very different personality. And sometimes it’s difficult for us as a team to put our own feelings aside and our own likability aside, and we have to hone into what the client wants.
You’ve collaborated with major brands like Bergdorf Goodman and Cosentino. How do you approach these partnerships to ensure your vision aligns with their brand identity?
A lot of these partnerships came about because we order from them. They’re one of the main people that we buy materials from, like Cosentino that basically creates prefabricated stone. So I found that a lot of our clients wanted to put Carrara marble, which is probably one of the most beautiful materials in their kitchen countertops. And you know, me also being Indian, to put Carrara marble in a kitchen where you have turmeric and spices and all this stuff, it’s not the right fit, and that marble will be destroyed extremely quickly. And so with Cosentino, we were able to find a problem, which was, hey, we need to create materials that look like real marble, but they’re not porous and they can be used in heavy duty type kitchens. And so, we were able to create Onirika, which is a collection that I created for them that looks like real marble. Sometimes you have to find the problem and then find the solution. With Bergdorf, it’s a dream for any designer to have product at Bergdorf, because it is the upper echelon of retail, and their clients are one of a kind clients. We created a marble collection they didn’t have in their offering. I was able to go to Bergdorf and see what’s really missing, and that was a marble collection. So I created a marble collection, I presented to their team, they ended up loving it, and it’s being sold there now. So as a designer, we have to find what is the problem and how can we create a solution.
What inspired you to launch your real estate development brand, MAGON, and how does it differ from your interior design work?
Our interior design work is for anyone who’s looking for something out of the box, not normal, somebody who’s looking for creativity. Those are the clients that usually become our clients. Now, when you’re doing your own development, the first development that we started, which is 19 luxury townhomes, I am the client now. Now working for so many developers, I understand that there are very strong budgets that have to be put in place, especially when you’re trying to sell the product to an end user. So the designs had to be tapered down in our own development, and we’re trying to sell them for profit. And so even though it still has our design sensibility, it might not be as much as we would like it to be, only because of the clientele that we’re trying to attract for that product.
Yeah, and how are you enjoying?
I love it. I think interior design is fashion plus real estate equals design. I think that we’ve been able to master what it is to be an interior designer, because we understand and we know how to do everything in house.
What challenges did you face in your journey so far, and how did you navigate them?
Every possible challenge. I’ve been doing this for 12 years now, so there have been so many challenges. We’re kind of learning as we go. We don’t know that when you punch a hole in the wall, there’s going to be some other problem, and we’re going to find some other issue. And so that has been a huge learning experience. When we do remodels, we always tell the client that there is a point in this journey with you that you’re going to absolutely hate us, where you’re going to be wondering, why did you move forward with this project? Why did we tear your house apart to remodel it, and then all of a sudden you see the rainbow at the end. So we had to go through the process to learn. Every type of project has different issues, and we’ve probably gone through every issue possible. This particular field of work is extremely filled with problems. We are problem solvers, and you have to have that personality where you are thrown an issue every single day and you have to resolve it.
Your coffee table book, EVOKE, was released during NYFW. What was the inspiration behind the book, and how does it reflect your design journey?
So the book is actually like a monolog of my life in design. Evoke was released in 2023 during New York Fashion Week with Balmain, the fashion brand. It’s how I became a designer, my travels around the world, in addition to how fashion has really inspired me and how I translate fashion into interiors, and that’s really what the book is about. It’s published by Monacelli press out of New York, and it’s done really well. It’s me opening up every chapter with the fashion image of me in an outfit by some major fashion brand that I love, and then it talks about how that is influenced the design of what is proceeding in that chapter. I’m very blessed to have a book, and it’s really like a diary of my design life. The reason why I called it Evoke is because the whole point of designing interiors is to evoke a feeling because if we’re not creating a feeling for someone when they enter into the space, then we’re not doing our job properly.
How do you manage the pressure of working with high-profile clients like celebrities, athletes, and luxury brands while maintaining your creative integrity?
Being in my world is an extremely difficult world to be in. I have a team of 22 people, but many of the celebrity or high profile clients, they want me there. So to balance that and be one person and attend to all these meetings has been extremely difficult for me. We have to inform the clients that we have a fantastic team who is trained under me and they can handle your project. But I think one of the most challenging things is when they want me to be in every single meeting. I cannot spend 90% of my time in design meetings, because I’m also the visionary. I have to also create the goals and see where we’re going. It’s very difficult but it’s something that I have such a strong passion for that I don’t know how to do anything else, because I love what I do.
What that one piece of advice you wish you had received earlier in your career?
When I was younger, I didn’t have a lot of confidence, and I would always self doubt. I spent years of self doubt thinking why do I like modern design? Is it something that I really want to do? Should I do real estate? Should I do something else? I wasted so much time doubting myself and having a lack of confidence that I really wish that I had more confidence at a younger age. I do have a daughter, and I hope that whatever decision she makes in her life, she starts it off with confidence, not matter where it takes her. I had to build that confidence through validation, which is not necessarily the right thing to do.
As a successful entrepreneur and designer, how do you maintain a work-life balance, especially with such a demanding schedule?
I love what I do. So what I do is my hobby. So if I’m looking on Pinterest, if I’m looking at other designer’s designs, if I’m researching product, it’s fun for me. But if I don’t want to be on my computer at all, then I love watching movies and just relaxing.
Rapid Reflections
Your dream project – Ritz Carlton Hotel
If you could design a space for any historical figure, who would it be? – Abraham, Lincoln. Probably a modern log cabin,
Modern or vintage – Modern
Luxury or practicality – Luxury
City life on countryside – Citylife
Favorite quote or mantra – Every man dies, mot every man really lives from Braveheart.
Your favorite award or recognition – The 500 women’s honoree for Inc Magazine.
Your favorite food or cuisine – Pizza.
Favorite fashion brand – Dolce & Gabbana
Your guilty pleasure – Ice cream.
Favorite place you’ve traveled to – Dubai. That’s like my place.
Your favorite movie or series – Game of Thrones
PQs
“We are interior designers, we are not decorators. You give us an empty space, and we create the personality for the space which is very reflective of the clients.”
“Everything that we’re designing has to have an emotion to it.”
“Our interior design work is for anyone who’s looking for something out of the box, not normal, somebody who’s looking for creativity.”
“The whole point of designing interiors is to evoke a feeling because if we’re not creating a feeling for someone when they enter into the space, then we’re not doing our job properly.”
