When it comes to the world of pool and outdoor living design, there are few who have come close to the success and recognition that Danny Wang has achieved. Based in Orange County, CA, his firm DW Design & Build has established a reputation as one of the leading design firms. Racking up award after award for his over-the-top luxury pool and backyard designs, Wang’s ability to help homeowners conceptualize their ideal outdoor living environment is unprecedented.

With an uncanny ability to envision complete outdoor living design concepts on-the-fly, Danny Wang is almost a household name in the pool design world. He seems to possess a rare ability that gives him near-instant insight to look at a home and see the potential for a complete redesign in his head before ever putting pen to paper.

“I’m not freestyling it but it’s almost like when I go walking into someone’s backyard an image of a project literally pops up in my head and I see it,” said Wang, “I don’t know how else to describe it. Usually, by the time I’ve walked through the yard and talked to the homeowner, the designs are done within 5 to 15 minutes.”

“It’s probably based on all my experience. You build so many pools, that you kind of know what goes where and what can and can’t go on in the design,” said Wang.

“Lately, when I’m approached for a design the homeowner just lets me do my thing,” said Wang, who admits he’s looking to work with clients who allow him free reign to create them an over-the-top design for their backyard. “That’s kind of how we screen our clients to know if they’re going to be very involved in the process. I mean, that’s okay, but more and more what we like are folks who know they are hiring me to build them an award-winning pool and know that I’ll get it done right,” he explained.

“I don’t think every designer could say that confidently. We’re building a very complex pool, so there are only a few people that can execute at that level. This is why a lot of times we build our own projects,” said Wang.

“Of course, it’s not my house, so what we have to do is still take into account what they want and need. We take those elements from discovery and incorporate those into a design around that,” said Wang.

Wang says he draws inspiration from what other folks like Paul McClean are doing in the field of architecture. “I think pushing that boundary is important, seeing what’s possible both technologically and artistically. What have people not seen before? I think that part really motivates me to be creative and innovative in the design and build aspect. That, makes it more fulfilling and kind of drives me,” said Wang.

“I get a lot of inspiration from just looking at different places. I would look up resorts in Bali, Mexico, and other various parts of the world and try to understand their different design language,” explained Wang, “looking at things globally and saying ‘well what are these people doing in different parts of the world?’ and then taking inspiration from that and combining elments into what we’re designing for our clients.”

Things didn’t always come so easy for Wang, who let us know that the moment he started to become known, he made a typical mistake many design firms make. “I think in 2017, at that time, I had a lot of business. I made a mistake, as a lot of people do, and took on way more than I could chew. I think at that time, I had about 50 projects backlogged, and I was doing about 30 projects at once. It was brutal, and we were losing money left and right,” said Wang.

In order to regain some sanity, Wang said that he was forced to take a break to complete the projects he had in backlog. “I couldn’t build for like two years because we just had so many in backlog,” explained Wang, “I did have time to do design, so what I ended up doing was I was doing my projects during the day, and at night, I would go home and design for other people.”

“That was roughly the same time that I started doing social media. People see would see our designs on social media and it just kind of took off from there,” said Wang.

Wang’s visionary designs are clearly not only appreciated by the pool industry but by the general public as well. Having amassed an enormous social media following, he has plans to leverage his brand in new and exciting ways.

“Our content is entertaining and also educating people. There’s a lot of stuff we can learn now through social media, where we have a worldwide audience. I didn’t know that there were so many different types of building techniques and different elements used throughout the rest of the world. So that’s really eye-opening, and I learned a lot. I also see other people learning a lot from the content that I’m producing and that’s very interesting to me,” said Wang.

Often eager to show off the latest design trends, we asked Wang what’s trending with his social media audience. “I think bigger and crazier water features. We’re using a lot more lighting versus just the traditional on-and-off people are used to. We’re doing smart lighting where we can control the water feature lighting and that creates a whole new element of the design. DMX lighting where the water features change color with the music. LED’s can have patterns and the pool almost becomes like a musical stage.”

By the millions of likes and shares his content is getting, it’s clear that folks are excited about what Wang is doing in the backyard. “You just don’t see these types of things happening in your ordinary backyard,” said Wang.

It’s clear Wang’s portfolio of over-the-top luxury resort-style swimming pools continues to grow almost as quickly as his social media following. Wang said he has every intention of turning the brand into a household name. “We’re kind of getting into product development. Right now we’re talking with tile and fire pit manufacturers. We’re also going to start developing our own indoor and outdoor product lines. So lots of exciting things going on,” said Wang.

Listen to our entire conversation with elite pool designer Danny Wang on the Pool Magazine podcast.

The post One on One With Elite Pool Designer – Danny Wang appeared first on PoolMagazine.com - Get The Latest Pool News.