NICE TO MEET YOU!
Aleks Furman designs the kind of spaces people talk about long after they leave — the bar where the light hits just right, the restaurant where the room feels as intentional as the menu, the office space that makes you actually want to leave your house.
FLEX DESIGN STUDIO
As Founder and Principal of Flex Design Studio, she has spent her career shaping environments that balance atmosphere, brand, and operational reality — bringing together architecture, lighting, materials, and storytelling to create experiences that are as functional as they are unforgettable. Located in New Orleans, the most hospitality-obsessed city in the country, she couldn't be better placed to do it.
THE FLEX APPROACH
“My work begins with a deep understanding of how my clients move through, experience, and remember a space, and ends with an atmosphere that is functional and impossible to forget.”
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Born in Kyiv, Ukraine and raised in Chicago after immigrating with her family, Aleks grew up between two worlds — absorbing the cultural richness of a diverse immigrant community while spending years immersed in one of America's great architectural cities.
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“Chicago shaped my vision, work ethic, and understanding of how great design operates at every scale, from a neighborhood bar to a global corporate headquarters. New Orleans claimed my heart with its layered architecture, saturated color, and creativity.”
-Aleks Furman, Founder & Principal- Flex Design Studio
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EARLY CAREER | NATIONAL EXPERIENCE
The foundation laid by her early work sent her into some of the most demanding design environments in the country — delivering workplace and commercial interiors for global clients including Google, Brunswick, Zurich, and The Pritzker Organization, working within the integrated teams at CannonDesign and VOA/Stantec where technical rigor, large-scale coordination, and exacting documentation standards were non-negotiable. It is the kind of experience that doesn't show up in a mood board — it shows up in how a project gets built.
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Her path into hospitality and experiential design deepened in Chicago working with firms such 555 International, an award-winning design-build studio specializing in hospitality, retail, and branded environments and Interform, where as Creative Director she led the firm through explosive growth, scaling from five to twenty-two employees while overseeing concept development, interior architecture, branding, and experiential design across a nationwide portfolio. These roles gave her something most hospitality designers lack: a command of every layer of a project, from the quality of light on a bar top to the construction documentation that makes it buildable on budget.
LAISSEZ LES BON TEMPS ROULER!
New Orleans was the natural home for this work. Claimed by the city in 2014 and rooted in the Bywater and Marigny, Aleks found in New Orleans a place that takes hospitality as seriously as any city on earth — where the quality of a room, a bar, a dining experience is a matter of civic pride. In 2024, she relocated Flex Design Studio there in partnership with Raven PMG, drawn by the city's layered architecture, saturated color, and a creative and culinary community that sets the standard for the rest of the country.
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“I approach projects the way New Orleans approaches a good meal — with intention, with craft, and with a deep respect for the culture it inhabits.”
A founding board member of the Bywater Marigny Business Organization and a board member of the Women's Professional Council, Aleks believes great design doesn't just serve the client. It becomes part of the neighborhood and community.