Ave Smith

Photography, Fashion + Design

In college, Ave discovered PLOW through a mutual connection and when she decided to make the leap from the world of corporate design to something smaller, she reached out to Brit to get involved. “When I met Brit, there was this feeling of a magnetic connection. We just have a lot of similarities,” recalls Ave. 

Aside from her design work at PLOW, today, Ave runs a number of her own successful side-hustles: she’s a lifestyle + wedding photographer; she manages The Sibling, a high-end digital retailer & styling service for women; and every now and again, she solo travels abroad for R&R.

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“For me, design is an expression of self-indulgence. It’s truly fed so much in me.”

A creative from an early age, photographer and designer Ave Smith was born and educated in Oklahoma and competitively danced throughout her childhood.

While in college, Ave fell in love with the field of design which allowed her to “marry” her need for structure with her affinity for creative expression. She studied interior design and architecture at the University of Oklahoma while cultivating a mixed bag of creative talents and businesses.

After graduating, Ave worked in a number of powerhouse firms, including Kelly Wearstler and Gensler, and in 2020 she joined PLOW.

“I’m really enjoying a smaller studio where I feel like I can push the boundaries and be more authentic to my ideas. There's more purpose and responsibility in working for a smaller team, too, because you have your hands in so many different areas,” she muses.

We can’t imagine a PLOW without Ave’s fantastic sense of humor, exhaustive knowledge of pop culture, and her excellent taste.

Why is design or creativity important to you?

I'm a creative person, and design has allowed me to be myself and to exercise that part of me. For me, design is an expression of self-indulgence–it’s truly fed so much in me. 

Another reason why it’s important to me is that through my creative outlet, I’ve been able to help other people express themselves too. Clients who are going to invest in this service clearly care about it, but maybe they don't know how to do it themselves. That's where we come in to help people feel good about themselves and feel great about their space. I find it really interesting and important to help people figure that out for themselves.

What was your turning point as a creative person?

I was a competitive dancer throughout my entire life, and the dance world is a very structured, disciplined environment. When I went to college I had to decide if I wanted to dance for a living or do something else. It was such a turning point for me to reinvent myself and leave the dance world. Honestly, I was pretty burnt out so it was both freeing and terrifying to try something new. 

Because my vision was to do something creative that could also make an actual living, I started exploring A&D. I think I fell in love with the world of design because it allowed me to marry structure and career with creativity and freedom.

Which values most inform your work?

honesty & authenticity

I know it’s a bit of a cliche, but honesty and authenticity are values I try to align with as much as possible. In design, you can actually do quite well in copying what’s already been done, but I feel like every project is an opportunity to be as honest with myself as I possibly can, and to then design and create from that place.

These values really fleshed out for me many years ago when I started my videography and photography businesses. I was huge on Instagram, but I was constantly posting to keep the business going. It didn’t feel authentic at all. When I stopped marketing my work in those ways, what that gave me in return was a smaller amount of clients and more authentic relationships. Now, I only have clients that I love to work with and so it never feels transactional. 

Also, the Midwest often gets stereotyped as this lame, tumbleweed-ridden place, but I've always loved Oklahoma and Southern culture. I founded The Sibling to showcase that people here do have good taste and that there is a need for high-end, sustainable fashion. I decided not to move somewhere like New York to open my shop but to stay authentic to my roots and do it right here in my home state. 

“I love lived-in spaces that are doing their job well.”

Describe a space that has created a profound impact on you or your work.

For me, a space is more influential when it is purposeful. I love lived-in spaces that are doing their job well—non-curated spaces like Grandma’s house, if you will, just seem to work for everyone.

Apartamento magazine is a great example of this approach to design. You see a living room on there and go, ‘Oh, that’s how my living room looks sometimes,’ and I find that refreshing.

So lately, the space that has had a profound impact on me is Brit’s home in Santa Rosa. I’ve been staying here for the past week and it is such a gem. I’m a huge indoor-outdoor girl and with this house, you feel like you're outside even when you're inside. It was designed really well and it just works for me. When I get home, I'm going to figure out a way to incorporate these concepts because I've had such a good experience waking up and working here.

Where do you find inspiration?

I’m very inspired by Aurora James. She’s the founder of brother vellies, a high-end, sustainable luxury shoe brand that focuses on the craftsmanship of traditional African artisans. Her work is really interesting because she has been able to ethically and sustainably make luxurious clothing while challenging major retailers to pledge 15% of their big shelf space to Black-owned businesses. 

She also has a subscription service called Something Special in which you get one surprise artisan-made piece delivered to your house each month. The proceeds go back to helping these artists stay afloat during COVID and I just love that. I got this amazing lava-made mug from Mexico that I use daily, and every single thing I get I find to be so useful.

How do you nurture creativity?

I think I have several ways that I nurture my creativity. Obviously, there's design and my clothing business. While those all fulfill me creatively, at the end of the day they are things I functionally need to do. 

Something that just fills me up is hosting dinner parties. They keep me fun. They keep me alive. So, I curate a dinner party around once a month at my place, and it's really just my creative moment to splurge on my friends and buy nice things for my space. 

I love thinking about the guests and what will make everyone feel connected. For Christmas, we threw a holiday dinner and I made everyone wear red. We called it the Hudson House Red Dinner. So I had each guest bring a traditional family dish, and they had to write who usually makes it and why it's their favorite.

I love curating these moments, these fantasy worlds–it’s definitely where I thrive.

What does being productive look like for you?

I’m literally always asking people what their morning routines are because I want to know what people are doing and what works for them. If you know me, you know that my lifelong mission is to figure out how to have a good morning. When I start my day out right, I believe everything else is going to come from that place. 

When I began working for Brit, I asked her what time she usually wakes up in the morning and I remember her saying, like, “Oh, I haven’t set an alarm in years. I just wake up when my body tells me to.” I've been doing that for about a year now and it’s helped me to kind of let go of being so regimented and I love that. 

My friends call me “Goop-ey” about this, but another thing I’m doing these days is having a glass of lemon water first thing.

What are your three favorite objects and why?

My first favorite object is my phone. I'm not even gonna lie to you, it’s an iPhone 13 and I love it. 

My second favorite thing is the ethically designed noor jacket by Grön Kulle. It’s a very lightweight fleece with a big yin and yang sign on the back. I sell it at The Sibling and it's honestly my favorite piece. It's so unique and people always want to know where it's from.

I also love my dining room table. My mom made it, which is so unique; not very many people's moms are making their tables. It's a very simple, farm-style table. While it’s old and the slats are warping a bit, I love its imperfections.

What’s your hidden superpower?

I don’t really feel like I have any but if I did, I feel like I'm really good at reading people. I love the psychology of figuring people out (I actually really want to start a matchmaking side hustle). So, I’m great at reading people and seeing both sides of everything and I think that's my strength. On the flip side, my weakness is that I'm always going to be neutral. I’m always going to play devil’s advocate. 

My mom is white and my dad is Black and so I joke that being middle-grounded is my literal being manifested.

How are you leveraging design or creativity to create change?

I want to be realistic about our profession and not sugarcoat anything. For me, even getting through college was not easy, nor was finding a normal 9-5 career. According to the Directory of African American Architects, the percentage of Black architects in the United States has remained flat for more than 30 years, I believe at 2%.

Being a female of color working in architecture and design, it’s important to me to be a face for representation in the industry. So, I try to be on boards at the College of Architecture at OU and to stay in tune with things that are normally not my vibe. I’m working on my licensure and plan to stay in the industry to help create generational change.

Connecting with Ave…

Check out her photography online / Peruse The Sibling online and on IG / Follow Ave Smith on Instagram