As far back as memory permits, Thom had artistic talent and could draw well—skills he’s used throughout his professional career that have been invaluable for crafting spaces with an artistic approach, and have become the core of his work. Since he grew up in Detroit, Thom’s other early passion was cars. A self-styled “car guy” who was always drawing what his family described as futuristic cars, Thom turned his hobby into a tangential design specialty in school when he graduated from college with a degree in transportation and industrial design. All those years of drawing cars gave him the skills to draw 3-dimensional objects that would enhance his later work with interiors.

Thom began his career in industrial design, developing exhibits for auto companies in world fairs and international auto shows, where his knowledge of industrial and interior design came into play as he worked on product and lighting design, graphics, and intuitive space layouts. Ever since, he’s lived by the basic premise that all design is a problem-solving process—whether it be architecture, interiors, or industrial design—through an artistic lens. For those reasons, Thom’s career made a natural transition from exhibit design to interiors, starting with Workplace and expanding into Hospitality, Residential, and Museum work. But to this day, when he’s working out a design problem, he often takes a mental break by drawing cars, which sometimes make it into his sketches for clients. The habit led one of his clients to ask, “Why is there a car in my restaurant?”

OUR PERKINS EASTMAN

As a Principal, Thom looks forward to collaborating with and mentoring colleagues in the Mumbai, Shanghai, and Singapore studios, where he helps them enhance their design across Perkins Eastman’s Asia practice.