Co-Founder and Principal Designer – Élan Design House
Background
Alison Green is a co-founder and principal designer of Élan Design House, bringing a background in construction, architectural details, and residential design to the San Diego based studio. Unlike business partner Kilian Camp, who entered design later, Alison discovered the profession while she was still in high school.
Growing up in Southern California, Alison became interested in interiors after her parents purchased a builder grade home. She and her mother began watching design shows, visiting paint stores, selecting colors, and choosing furniture as they looked for ways to personalize the house. Through that experience, Alison realized that interior design could become a profession.
Knowing what she wanted to pursue, she attended design school directly after high school and earned her BFA. She was drawn to a program that allowed her to become immersed in design courses immediately rather than spending her early education primarily on general requirements.
Alison entered the profession around the time of the 2008 recession, when opportunities within the industry were limited. She secured an assistant position at a design build firm and saw the entry level role as an opportunity to begin gaining experience. She remained with the company for approximately ten years, progressing from assistant to junior designer and eventually senior designer.
The design build environment gave Alison experience working closely with architects, contractors, and project managers. She learned about construction, architectural details, materials, and how design decisions move from drawings into built spaces. While the experience provided an important professional foundation, she eventually felt she had reached the highest design position available to her within the company.
During the pandemic, Alison also began reconsidering the type of professional environment she wanted. She moved to a smaller and more flexible firm, where she met Kilian and Katie. The change gave her greater exposure to furnishings, decorating, and soft goods, expanding a background that had previously focused more heavily on construction and surface materials.
When that firm later closed, the three colleagues found themselves considering their next move. None had necessarily envisioned becoming a business owner independently, but former clients were already reaching out with potential opportunities. With complementary experience and an established working relationship, they decided to take a leap of faith and establish Élan Design House.
Approach
Alison’s construction background continues to influence the way she approaches interiors. She values projects where the design team can become involved early and collaborate with architects before major decisions are finalized. For new construction and whole home renovations, that early involvement allows the interiors to be considered alongside the architecture rather than adapted to decisions that have already been made.
Her ideal project continues through every stage of the home. Élan Design House prefers to become involved from the earliest planning through the final furnishings and accessories, creating an opportunity to consider how individual decisions work together as part of a complete environment.
At the same time, Alison believes successful design requires balancing professional expertise with the client’s perspective. The architecture and style of the home help establish an appropriate direction, while conversations with the client reveal how they want to live and what they are drawn to aesthetically.
“I think it’s just a good balance of listening to what they want, but also putting our aesthetic in there too.”
That approach allows Alison and the team to introduce possibilities clients may not have considered while still respecting that the finished space belongs to the people living there. Sometimes that means pushing a client’s comfort level slightly, but the objective is not to impose a predetermined studio aesthetic.
Relationships are equally important to Alison. As Élan Design House has matured, the partners have become more intentional about working with people who respect the process and are enjoyable collaborators. Repeat clients and referrals are particularly meaningful because those relationships are built on an existing level of trust.
Collaboration within the studio is evolving as well. During the first several years of the business, Alison and Kilian primarily led separate projects while Katie concentrated on business operations. After adding assistants to support their growing workload, the designers began moving toward a more integrated approach.
For Alison, becoming more involved across projects means the team can support one another more easily while also maintaining a stronger connection to the creative process. It allows Kilian and Alison to draw from their different strengths rather than requiring each designer to handle every part of a project independently.
Beyond Design
Music plays an important role in how Alison moves through both creative work and everyday life. Her listening changes depending on her mood, but when deadlines or stress begin to build, worship music helps her feel grounded and reminds her of her purpose. On other days, she may turn to rock and roll. Rather than one particular genre defining her, music helps establish the tone she needs for the day.
Time outdoors offers another form of perspective. Hiking allows Alison to step away from the immediate pressures of projects and business. Reaching the top of a hill or mountain and seeing the larger landscape helps put the challenges of work into context.
That perspective also informs the advice she would give her younger self. After experiencing long hours and intense expectations earlier in her career, Alison has learned not to allow every design problem to become overwhelming. Delays happen, materials become unavailable, and projects change. Experience has taught her that clients are human and often understand those realities more than a younger designer might expect.
Her professional life has taken on additional meaning through motherhood. Alison grew up with a stay at home mother and values that experience, but she is proud that her own daughter sees her maintaining both a career and a family.
For Alison, that example is about showing her daughter that professional ambition and motherhood do not have to be mutually exclusive. Owning a business has allowed her to experience a level of balance that she did not always see in earlier professional environments.
“You could do anything. You don’t have to limit yourself.”
Alison also credits the studio’s wider professional community with helping Élan Design House grow. She specifically remembers Catherine, a former Ferguson representative, as an early supporter who connected the studio with an important builder relationship. Relationships with representatives, vendors, builders, and other collaborators have continued to become an important part of the studio’s development.
Now five years into the business, Alison is looking toward a new stage for Élan Design House. After building the studio largely through its work and relationships, the partners have begun investing more intentionally in visibility. They hired a public relations firm for the first time, with projects, stories, and potential publication opportunities beginning to develop.
For a designer who never originally pictured herself owning a business, the evolution of Élan Design House has created room to bring together the different parts of her professional experience. Her construction knowledge, expanding creative perspective, commitment to collaboration, and desire for greater balance have all become part of a practice that continues to evolve alongside her.
