Alumni Spotlight: TIEK BYDAY Led by LSU Design Grads
TIEK BYDAY Founders. Photo by Kim Meadowlark.
LSU alumni-led team TIEK BYDAY are transforming spaces in South Louisiana and beyond. Their approach is decidedly interdisciplinary: as a collaborative team of architects and interior designers, they work together to create designs that seamlessly integrate the many aspects of the design process.
Interior design studio Tiek and Co., led by mother-daughter duo Cindy and Bridget Tiek (BID 2014s), and Byday, an architecture firm founded by Hance Hughes (BArch 2014), merged into TIEK BYDAY in 2023. This November, the design firm unveils its new office in midcity Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
TIEK BYDAY is responsible for many recent renovations of popular restaurants, businesses, and private residences around the capitol region, and has been featured in Architectural Digest, Southern Home, inRegister and more, recognized for its creative vision that pushes the boundaries of traditional Southern aesthetics.
They each came to design from different backgrounds. Cindy, who first studied chemical engineering at LSU (Class of 1983), returned to the university in 2009 to study interior design. At 49, she “made a total life change” and decided to fully embrace her creative side by enrolling in the LSU School of Interior Design alongside her daughter, Bridget. Despite its “sensible appeal, the engineering field had left her feeling disconnected, prompting her to explore more creative pursuits,” she shared with House Beautiful. Hance, once on a pre-med track, returned to college to study at the LSU School of Architecture. (Hance and Bridget had known each other since middle school, before crossing paths again as designers.)
We sat down with them to discuss their memories of LSU, and love of design.
Q&A
Q: Any notable memories from your time at LSU?
Bridget: Many long nights working in studio on campus. I had a pillow there for a reason.
Cindy: 24 hours of no sleep, working on design projects on deadline.
Hance: All my memories go back to studio. It’s where [design students] spent so much time, where you meet all the people.
Bridget: You were with your classmates for so long. It’s unlike any other degree that I’m aware of. No one else on campus spends that much time together. We still keep in touch with our former studio mates, designers we went to school with who are now all in different places in the field, all over the country. It created a tight-knit family for us all.
Studio space. Image courtesy of Bridget Tiek.
Q: What do you love about design?
Cindy: The most satisfying aspect for me is seeing the design process come to fruition. How people respond to a transformed space – they are transported. I love the moment when people see their home for the first time, walk in and say, “oh my god!” It’s the culmination of all the work that went into the project.
Bridget: It’s amazing how much your environment affects you, how much better your life is when your surroundings are more peaceful, more beautiful, more functional.
Hance: That’s very real. As an artist and creative, there are rewards in creative things: executing a painting, the pleasure at the heart of design. It’s making an idea, a thought, a reality.
“It’s a mutual passion for all three of us: we are here to help clients realize dreams they didn’t know that they had. They never thought it could be as great as it is for them to have their spaces reimagined. There’s nothing else like it.”
Q: How do you all work at the intersection of the design disciplines?
Cindy: We are collaborating on projects together from the beginning – it should all happen in tandem for the best result. Oftentimes people assume that interiors are the aftermath, but it should be woven in together. We also work in tandem with landscape architects. Ultimately, it’s the team approach: architects, interior designers, graphic designers, landscape architects, everyone working together.
Hance: Today’s design process is not the traditional idea of architecture. In conceptual hospitality, the line is not really clear. I’m also a licensed interior designer, though Bridget and Cindy are the experts in the industry. The line isn’t clear in the workplace and is reinforced in the studio environment how we work collaboratively doing “non-traditional” work.
Bridget: We’re working in one big studio environment right now, not spread out and so we’re always consulting each other, weighing in on the architectural decisions. The architects weigh in sometimes on the interior and vice versa. The comprehensive team approach leads to the best outcomes. Communication leads to beautiful outcomes, so we don’t just silo in a bubble away from each other.
Q: What advice do you have for current design students?
Cindy: The internship experience is so important. To be able to try so many different paths for creatives, see different types of firms – do many directions, and get out an experience it. In smaller firms like ours, you get to see everything. I recommend researching firms and trying new things. It’s different than it used to be: nowadays, you can change course easier when you find what you love the most.
Bridget: Yes, there is so much opportunity in the design world. Go and intern for big and small firms, try something new like product design – you can go really niche into furniture or fabric, whatever interests you. Find what you love.
Hance: As a student, it’s about getting experience in the real world. It’s so important to reach out to people who do what you want to do. This career is so tactile, so it’s important to get in front of the real people doing the work in the field. You have to push to get where you want to go.
Q: Anything else you would like to add?
Cindy: It’s never too late. I went back for a second degree when I was 49. If you want to do something different with your life, you can still do it.
Bridget: With our firm’s growth over the last few years, we are excited to welcome new opportunities and projects in the door. We’re ready to travel, to expand our reach and creative influence not only in Baton Rouge, but across the gulf south. We’re willing and ready.