Advice from experienced designers often centers on technique. The guidance from Debby Gomulka is different. According to a 2025 CEOWORLD profile, she tells students and interns, “Don’t try to fit in. It’s creative. Creative is abstract.”

The message reflects her own career path. After roughly five years in the furniture industry, she launched her firm in 2000 and built a practice around historic preservation and storytelling rather than a single signature style. Her website describes a goal of translating each client’s story into a space that reflects their lifestyle and travels.

Her profile also notes that she teaches by example. She spent time as an adjunct professor at Cape Fear Community College, and the advice about conformity comes from her experience working with students and interns.

She has also connected modern designers to Renaissance master craftsmen, calling them modern day Michelangelos. The comparison elevates the profession and encourages young designers to see themselves as part of a long creative tradition.

Her firm, Provenance Lee Interiors, reflects that individuality. Each project begins with a client’s personal stories, art collection, and philanthropic causes, so no two interiors are meant to look alike. Clients exploring luxury interior design can see that variety in the featured projects.

That mentoring role adds weight to a career that already includes board service, an ambassador position, and a textile relaunch.

The lesson works for clients as well as students. Rooms that reflect an owner’s personality tend to feel more satisfying than rooms assembled to match a trend, and her emphasis on individuality is a consistent thread from her teaching to her client process. It is practical encouragement from someone who has spent a quarter century building a career on her own terms within a demanding industry.

Her advice may resonate beyond design. Anyone building a career can take something from the idea of standing out. She shares more about her work on LinkedIn and through her Pinterest page.