Growing up in the Midwest, David Hawkins always thought he would be a carpenter. When the time came, he selected a vocational high school to study carpentry. Upon graduation, he received the Craftsmanship Award for his newly acquired skills. The day after graduation, he started building homes and improving his craft. Four years later, David felt the desire for more. College was the obvious choice, but what field of study? Aptitude test results indicated the best field for David a career in interior design. He selected Kent State University and earned his degree in design.

For more than forty years, David’s passion for design, art and construction have rewarded him with a diverse national client base. His travels as an interior designer have taken him all across the country, doing fun projects and meeting interesting people. During his forty years as a professional designer, he has won several national awards for excellence in lighting and retail design and been awarded two United States and Canadian patents for product design.

David has a design studio in a century-old farmhouse and barn in the Highland Square Arts District of Akron, Ohio, where he lives with his wife, Wendy.

About the Illustrator

George Chaney was born about the same time as David and grew up about thirty minutes away from where David grew up. He shared the same Midwestern, “Leave-It-To-Beaver” childhood, the same middle-class type of neighborhood, and the same public school education. While David had a knack for numbers and investing, George was more interested in anything else. His idea of investing was to spend whatever money he earned on whatever he could afford.

Although George and David’s investment strategies were quite different (David had a strategy, and George had a 1972 Gran Torino), they had similar career paths. George and David are committed to design as a profession and have collaborated on many successful projects. This book was something both David and George had envisioned for years but had never discussed. David’s vision is what you see here, while George’s vision had something to do with hedgehogs and national security. Maybe that will be the next book.