Tamara Gould

Waking State Design is a full-service creative branding and graphic design studio.

Our authentic branding solutions work because we discover and allow our clients’ own magic to take life through logical and intuitive exploration. Our full-service graphic design studio specializes in visual branding, storytelling, graphic design for marketing and online media, signage and wayfinding, and illustration.

WSD’s open-minded approach traverses through myriad industries, people, clients, and circumstances. We love this, because we love to learn about people, how they function, how they see themselves and their businesses, and what makes them tick. We are inspired by the diversity we encounter with each opportunity and everyone we work with.

Waking State Design bridges art and communication in creating visuals that speak across cultural, educational, language, age and economic differences.

We are 100% woman-owned, located in Topanga, California.

Find our Capabilities Statement here.

Butterflies artwork

Why Waking State?

At Waking State Design, our consistent design excellence, responsiveness, accessibility, and positive spirit of collaboration and communication, combined with our expansive knowledge of design and how to visually communicate effectively, stands us apart. Our clients love working with us because we are dependable, consistently meet all deadlines, provide them with excellent work, stay on-brand, and provide exceptional customer service.

We become an extension of our clients’ teams, a solid resource that knows and understands their brand, their business, their visual communications needs. We are able to quickly get to the core issues of the projects at hand.

Notable clients of ours include Gensler, Killifer Flammang Architects, Westfield Corporation (architects and developers), University of California, Los Angeles, University of Southern California (higher education), the Koret Foundation, and Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (non-profit).

Drive the Dream event branding, Lucky Dragon Hotel & Casino signage, Goldwyn Apartments wall graphics

A Collaborative Approach

WSD works collaboratively with a core group of designers, writers, web developers and marketers. All individual professionals whom we pull from as needed for any given project. Continuity is maintained throughout via open communication between Tamara and the team members and our clients. Meet our Team!

Tamara Gould

Tamara Gould, Owner & Founder

Tamara is a multidimensional creative designer and visual communications specialist with a wealth of experience, as a sole proprietor, as well as having worked closely with some of the most esteemed design visionaries of our time.

First an artist, Tamara took an unconventional journey into the professional world of branding and art direction. Her comprehensive Fine Arts education at UCLA prepared her to enter the realm of design and architecture at an advanced level. After obtaining her Bachelor’s degree from UCLA, she studied at the Santa Monica College of Design, Art and Architecture, an experimental art and design school, led by globally notable artists, graphic designers and architects. Her first employment after this innovative program was as marketing and public relations director for Eric Owen Moss Architects; then as public relations, archivist and some-times graphic designer for Sussman/Prejza, Inc., where she worked very closely with Deborah Sussman; and as Associate and Graphic Design Director for The Jerde Partnership International, Inc., a global cutting-edge architectural and development firm.

Tamara’s education and practice as an artist informs Waking State’s aesthetic, search for authenticity, and open-minded approach to each situation.

In 2003, she launched Waking State Design, a full-service, boutique design practice in Los Angeles, specializing in branding, publication design and signage and wayfinding. Research, open communication, intuition, and an organic process, are key to her work in the creation of meaningful visual languages that span across all media for her broad range of clients and projects.

Tamara serves on the Board of the Association for Women in Architecture Foundation in the capacity of Secretary, and is has been a member of the Association for Women in Architecture + Design since 2018. She is also a member of the National Association of Women Business Owners, Los Angeles chapter, as well as the Women’s Business Enterprise Council West.

Tamara is still practices as an artist, living and working in magical, inspirational, Topanga Canyon, with her husband, artist, Juan Rojas Aguilar, and their daughter.