Til Death We Do Art
Berries was founded by husband and wife team Brooks Atwood and Gianna Wurzl in 2020. It was born during an uncertain time when the world was quiet, but we were not. Gianna had just left a company she started, Brooks was laid off from a big architecture firm, the government was writing checks and so there was space. Deeply in love and bursting with creativity, we just started making. First, a wild avant-garde house in Bombay Beach (IYKYK). Then an art nouveau hotel project in San Diego. Then an actors house in Los Angeles. Then an experiential book. Then original drawing on clothes. Then poetry and painting. Then a TV show. Then we made the ultimate expression of our love…a baby!
Paid design/architecture projects became the focus. The call for more Money. Moola. Dinero. Our other forms of artistic expression took a back seat. Now that dancing disco ball with wings that doesn’t care what people think is singing opera from the back seat of our spaceship.
So, Berries comes full circle back to where it started, steeped in art without rules. This is a place for making art that shows love.
All architecture and design projects are run through BTA Design.
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Brooks Taliaferro Atwood
Brooks Atwood is an award-winning designer, tv show host, and educator who has attained international success in the fields of architecture and interior design. In 2020, Brooks co-founded Berries where the projects range from a boutique hotel in San Diego, a startup bed-for-bed program with Stay Open hotels to help the homeless crisis, an artist retreat “airbnb-style” house in Bombay Beach, CA for emerging artists to a glamping campsite in Pennsylvania with housing and community events. Brooks was the lead designer on the Clayton Children’s Museum in Los Angeles, the award winning Woodlark Hotel in Portland, OR and a cutting edge workspace design at Hudson Yards in NY for BCG DV.
Brooks was named one of six emerging designers in 2013 by the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City and has headlined popularTEDx talks including
“Collaborative Opportunities are Everywhere” and “Design LikeYou Mean It!” As a professor at The New School’s Parsons School of Design he led collaborative teams that brought together technologies, designers, community and business leaders into a common space of possibility. At the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), he served as assistant director of the Idea Factory, a think-tank for developing innovative approaches to healthy buildings, materials, and products. Atwood’s own designs for chairs, lighting and cutlery have won numerous awards and his Ripple Mirror is sold at the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City
Gianna Wurzl
Gianna Wurzl is a serial entrepreneur, strategist and experience designer. In 2020, Gianna co-founded Berries with her husband Brooks Atwood, where the projects range from boutique hotels, to interiors for several high profile residences in Los Angeles and custom designed furniture. Gianna is passionate about using her knowledge creating community spaces and thousands of experiences to the array of projects and products for Berries.
Gianna spent the first half of her career in advertising and strategy. Working with international brands like L’Oreal and GM. She was always an entrepreneur at heart and co-founded her first company, One Roof, in 2014 while living in Melbourne, Australia. One Roof’s purpose was to reimagine work and community spaces for women. It is currently the leading community for women in Australia.
Her second company, Quilt, was born in 2016 using technology to facilitate more meaningful experiences and connections offline. Quilt has thousands of users and raised over $10million in VC funding. Today, Gianna advises a number of startups and spends her days innovating the way we design. Leading with the feeling you want to elicit first.
