Duncan & Miller Design experienced a 117 percent sales increase from 2005 to 2006.

"Why make a point when you can make a question mark?" Duncan & Miller Design uses this maxim in every design to ensure that each project stands apart from the next, and to form a visible distinction between itself and the competition.

The company celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, and Chairman Turner Duncan says the firm has already received several notable gifts. For instance, the Dallas-based firm experienced a 117 percent sales increase from 2005 to 2006. Also, in a February 2007 article, Design Giants, a special issue of Interior Design, named it the second-fastest-growing design firm in the country.

First and foremost, Duncan attributes the company's rapid growth to a collective decision made by partners Kimberley Miller, who has been a partner for more than 18 years; COO Scott Boyd, who joined the firm more than six years ago; and Eric Ullmann, a recently vested partner who serves as president of the company's Shanghai office, to examine market opportunities abroad.

"I think we've always tried to be conscious of market trends and market opportunities," he notes. "When I first started the firm, I only practiced in New Orleans. When the economy was bad in New Orleans, business was bad for me. "I learned how to minimize the peaks and valleys by working nationally and internationally. So, when one market was down, the other would be up, which means your business stability will always be there."

Shanghai Days, Dallas Nights
Duncan & Miller Design opened its Shanghai office in 2005. "Obviously, with Asia being the fastest-growing international market, it's good business sense to become part of that growth and become a player in that arena," Duncan says.

"There is a huge demand in Asia for Western designers. Mainland China is trying to catch up with the world as far as their hotel and residential designs," he adds. "They seem to prefer to hire a Western designer at this stage in the game, anyway."

The Shanghai office opened with four employees run by partner Eric Ullman. Now it has more than 50 employees. In fact, Duncan & Miller Design employees speak 15 different languages between the two offices.

"I think one of the biggest challenges is the language barrier," Duncan notes. "We have folks from Australia, Belgium, Taiwan and France. Their backgrounds, the way they grew up and their design talents are different than the American office. We try to blend those together, although sometimes it's a bit difficult."

Cultural Differences
Duncan notes the architectural design profession in mainland China is different from the United States.

"They're mostly engineers," he explains. "They're not design architects. We have a lot of marvelous architectural design schools in the U.S., but Chinese students have more of an engineering background.

"[Also], the building standards and building materials are different in China than in the U.S." Duncan says having an office in China requires a great deal of international education.

"There aren't any books written that I'm aware of on how to run a design business in China," he says. "You're staffing up; you're hiring people all the time. Basically, your business runs 24 hours a day because they're on a different time clock. Duncan & Miller Design now runs 24 hours.

"In order to exchange communication between the China office and the Dallas office, we have to deal with late-night conference and long-distance calls on the weekend," he adds. "They're back to work on Sunday when it's our Saturday night."

Disco Inferno
Duncan started his design career in the 1970s with Duncan Interiors, a firm that did mostly bar, restaurant and nightclub design. "This was back in the disco era," he says, laughing.

A few years later, Kimberley Miller joined the firm. Although the two had different design styles, they shared a flair for theatrical design. The two soon married and changed the firm to Duncan & Miller Design.

They continued to perform design work in nightclubs and restaurants. The duo started getting national recognition in the late 1980s when Fizz, a Houston nightclub they designed was "posted as a real hot club" by Playboy magazine, he recalls.

"Years ago, we did a club up in Lithonia, Mich., called Tremors," Duncan reflects. "We wanted the design concept to reflect earth tremors you'd have in California. From the entrance, all the way throughout the club, we had this trough built into the floor that was backlit.

"At certain times in the evening, the tremors would come. The building would shake, the floor would flash all throughout the club and smoke would come out of the floor."

ZaZa Galore
When the club scene started to fizzle, Duncan & Miller Design began concentrating on hospitality design. Several of its clients operated bars and nightclubs in their hotels. The firm would design the bar or a club for a client, and then be asked to design other sections of the hotel, such as a restaurant or a spa. Duncan realized that as the hospitality industry grew worldwide, his company could grow in alliance with it. However, finding the right clients was key.

"There is always some degree of drama incorporated into our design that weaves itself through our work," Duncan explains. "We don't like to do anything twice. That's why we don't do any select-service hotels. They are standardized concept designs.

"We prefer clients who are not afraid of drama or color, because we're not afraid to design outside the box. When we talk to clients, that's what their connection is to us. If somebody owns a Holiday Inn and wants to do matching floral carpets and drapes, they don't call us."

Duncan says the best example of "unexpected and atypical design from the hotel side is Hotel ZaZa." The firm designed the hotel's Dallas location, and is currently designing one in Houston. The Dallas hotel has multiple personalities distinctive to each suite.

For instance, the art suite is sleek and contemporary with a plush scarlet sofa, black narrow accent furniture and a giant Warhol print of Jaqueline Kennedy-Onassis. On the opposite of the spectrum, the Asian-influenced Zen Suite is quiet and serene with creamy yellow walls, a pale green sofa and white porcelain bowls accessorizing the antique-inspired wooden furniture.

All About the Lighting
One secret behind Duncan & Miller Design's innovative aesthetic is in lighting details. The company has a three-person lighting design group in Dallas. "We think lighting design is 50 percent of the success in interior design," Duncan comments.

"That's how you get the drama. It's all about the lighting. You can have dramatic fabric on the chairs, but you can't see them when you're sitting on them," he adds. "In a facility like a restaurant or a hotel lobby, lighting can make it totally successful."

The ZaZa Hotel lobby in Dallas is a two-story open structure with a customized, ornate iron railing sandwiched between two floor-to-ceiling panels of red and black patterned fabric, while an enormous crystal chandelier shines overhead. The chandelier gives off an iridescent purple glow, which is reflected on nearby walls, providing a sharp contrast between the two dark fabric panels.

"Theatrical lighting design is a real big part of our firm," Duncan emphasizes. "One restaurant project that we are really proud of is Citronelle in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., owned by celebrity chef Paul Richard.

"We did that restaurant probably eight years ago, and it's still rated among the top-10 restaurants [in the area]," he adds. "We installed a long, huge glass wall that gradually changes colors from pastels to greens to yellow, which subtly changes the ambience and mood of the restaurant throughout the evening."

Duncan & Miller Design also uses its innovative lighting designs in the casino industry. "That's a good example of how our background has continued in that same arena as far as drama and theater," Duncan says. Currently, the firm is working on projects for the Harrah's and MGM casinos in the United States as well as three hotels and a Venetian Casino in Macau, China, which will be the second-largest casino in the world at 12 million square feet.

Hotel Resurrections
Duncan & Miller Design is also recognized for its work on historical restorations. Recent projects include the Hamilton Hotel in Washington, D.C.; the Baltimore Radisson in Baltimore; the Stephen F. Austin Intercontinental in Austin, Texas; and the Warwick Melrose in Dallas.

"We recently opened up the Skirvin Hotel in Oklahoma City," Duncan adds. "This was a $54 million historical restoration. The hotel had been boarded up for 14 years.

"After a two-year renovation, we brought back the old history to the building. The lobby and the ballroom on top of the building were restored to their original condition with modern amenities.

"The rooms are totally renovated, but we did retain a lot of the materials like beautiful mosaic tile work that we found under the plaster in the hotel's restaurant. We brought all that back to life."

Presently, Duncan & Miller Design is designing the renovation of the Yantze Hotel in Shanghai. The hotel was originally built by the British in the 1930s. "It is one of the few remaining historic structures in the ever-changing Shanghai skyline," Duncan says. "The owner and our client is the Chinese government, and they want to restore the hotel to its original heritage and beauty."

No Place Like Home
Duncan says Duncan & Miller Design is following a trend in the hospitality industry toward a more residential feel. "I think the biggest thing that's happening over the years in the hotel sector is that hotels are finally accepting the fact that their guests want a feeling of comfort, or a feeling of home - not that hard-edge commercial feeling," he says.

"More and more influence is on a residential feel, which is difficult [to achieve] because you can't use residential furniture and fabrics. This is outside of resorts, because resorts have always done that. "But, there's no reason why a four-star hotel cannot have a resort feeling to it. It doesn't have to look like an airport hotel."

Lavish Resorts and Spas
Duncan also notes the fast rise of hotel spas. "Everybody in the industry is totally aware of the fact that there has been a huge growth in hotel spas," he comments. "The interest goes back again to the guests' demand for personal comfort. That's probably been the biggest and most positive change in the industry.

"We have four spa [projects] right now in various sizes. The Mandarin Oriental spa in the Cayman Islands is [going to be] huge. We're also doing a spa at the Taj Hotel in Surat, India.

"A 10,000-square-foot-spa would be an average-sized spa. Many of them are going up to 45,000 square feet. That's almost a freestanding, independent business. I mean, that's a big business."

Duncan & Miller Design is also designing more projects for elite resorts. It is working on several vacation resort projects in Florida with both the Hilton and Marriott chains. The firm is also under contract for a vacation resort in St. Thomas for the Ritz Carlton hotel chain.

"The amount of resort work we're doing internationally is increasing," Duncan says. "We're doing a lot of resort work in China. The Indian market is very much in demand for design firms such as ours. Right now, we are working in India as well as Dubai, but we're trying not to grow too fast for fear of losing our unique design touch."

Hungry for Talent
Duncan says the firm's biggest challenge to date has been finding cultured people to join its international staff of talent designers.

"If I could find the right design talent, our company could be three times the size it is today," he states. "The design business is driven by talented people, but that's a hard commodity to find.

"It's just like trying to find a good writer or a film actor. On 'American Idol,' obviously some of them get it and some of them don't. Not everybody is gifted. "Our ideal is to hire somebody who is internally traveled," he adds. "If you've traveled - of if you've been fortunate enough to be exposed to travel as a child - you are exposed to so many wonderful design influences and different ambiences in life."

A Good Reputation
Duncan says that 68 percent of the company's work comes from reputation and not from marketing. "One thing that I'm proud of is the fact that 68 percent of the work we do every day is long-standing clients and referrals," he notes. "Our clients are the same firms that we have designed for over a span of many years, or they're clients we've been referred to. As they've grown, we've grown with them."

Unique Objectives
Aside from an innovative lighting concept, repeat clients and a knack for following market trends, Duncan says the company retains a demure approach to its sales growth and international reputation.

"Interestingly enough, we've never approached our success as far as where we are on the ratings scale," he notes. "We've never approached the business like that was the object. So if you asked, 'Do you want to be No. 1?' I don't know. 'Do you want to sell X amount of work?' I don't know. We don't approach it that way," he adds.

Instead, he says, the firm takes a more thoughtful approach. "It has always been [our goal] to have an opportunity to design exciting projects, enjoy our client relationships and have fun," he explains. "We've earned that through the years."