The Journey to Designer Guide

How FIFTEEN YEARS OF EXPERIENCE Converged Into One Vision.

In Paris, I lived on coffee, photography, and the joy of turning wanderings into travel guides.

Then came Paris.

What began as a year abroad — while still running my design firm remotely — quietly became a turning point.

In Paris, Designer Guide was born.

Not as a business.
Not as a brand.
But as a daily ritual of inspiration.

Each day, I walked the city photographing hidden cafés, architectural details, ateliers, and galleries — curating one image to share. It became a visual diary of discovery.

Then one day, Instagram featured the account.
Overnight, THOUSANDS OF followers arrived.

What followed was rapid expansion — city guides, a website, curated recommendations not only for Paris but for Copenhagen, Lisbon, Stockholm, and New York.

But back home, burnout surfaced.

Running a design firm while growing a fast-scaling platform stretched me thin. Without the tools I have today, I pivoted — stepping into marketing leadership roles where I could blend strategy, storytelling, photography, and brand building in a new way.

Boot Café, Paris. My downstairs neighbour during a year that changed everything.

IN 2015, I couldn’t have articulated what Designer Guide would become.
But every chapter of my career led me here.

I have always been deeply affected by my surroundings. As a highly sensitive child, I felt the energy of a room, the softness of textiles, the way light shifted across a space throughout the day. While other kids staged fashion shows with their Barbies, I was asking my mom to sew miniature bedding so I could redesign their house instead.

By grade five, I had written in my journal: I want to be an interior designer.

That instinct never left — but it did take a detour.

In high school, I chose marketing over design and enrolled at the University of Calgary. MARKETING felt practical. Strategic. Responsible. I stacked my electives with art and PSYCHOLOGY and told myself I could hold both worlds.

After my second year, I saved every dollar from two full-time jobs and backpacked across Europe for two and a half months. That trip reawakened something foundational in me. I returned to finish my degree THE NEXT FALL — but made myself a promise: when it was done, I would go to design school.

At 22 — feeling much older than I was — I enrolled in an intensive program at the Art Institute of Vancouver. I graduated with a Best in Show portfolio and began my career in hospitality design, dreaming of international projects and faraway spaces.

Three years later, I took a leap and founded my own firm, Bryony Wright Design. For four years, I led MY OWN residential projects and collaborated with some of Vancouver’s most respected designers. The learning curve was steep, but I loved the momentum of building something of my own.

My first headshot for Designer Guide, taken at the Palais Royal in 2015 — sitting amongST the iconic Colonnes de Buren.

That path led me to a multinational designer flooring company, where one assignment unlocked a new vision: planning an international design tour for our top architecture and design clients.

I curated an immersive journey to Amsterdam, Lucerne, and Milan — weaving factory visits with architecture tours, gallery visits, and evenings at the opera.

Watching designers come alive in those environments planted the first real seed of what Designer Guide could one day become.

Then, unexpectedly, my mentor — the champion behind those tours — passed away. His belief in meaningful, experiential brand building left a lasting imprint on me — one that continues to shape my vision for Designer Guide today.

Around that same time, the pandemic brought international travel to a halt. I also began working with a lighting designer, deepening my understanding of product design, storytelling, and brand positioning within the industry.

Momentum slowed.
The world paused.
And I turned inward.

During that chapter, I studied yoga and integrative wellness and began hosting retreats on a small island in British Columbia. Through that experience, I rebuilt my confidence, clarity, and creative capacity — this time from the inside out.

By 2024, everything began to connect.

Brand strategy.
Experiential travel.
Creative leadership.
And the wellbeing required to sustain it all.

The path was never linear. It was bold, challenging, expansive, and deeply formative.

Designer Guide is not a pivot.
It is a convergence.

A natural evolution of everything that came before.

And this is only the beginning.