The woman who turns spaces into feelings
From www.susanamejia.com
“I need to create what doesn’t exist yet. That’s always been the drive.”
From pixels to places
Susana studied Fine Arts and Graphic Design at the University of Costa Rica. For years, she worked in the world of digital — project managing campaigns for Heineken, McDonald's, Dell, and General Motors at US-based offshore agencies. It was polished work. Important work. But something felt missing.
The turning point came unexpectedly. She volunteered to redesign a dull, warehouse-like office — a grey, lifeless space nobody wanted to be in. Her solution was simple and bold: a central social area with plants, art on the floor, and color that breathed life into the room. People started gathering there. Conversations happened. The space transformed.
That moment lit a fire. "I realized I needed to work in three dimensions," she says. "Something tangible. Something you can feel."
Learning to push through
In 2011, she helped create Café de los Deseos in San José — a pioneering hybrid café-bar that didn't fit any existing category. It wasn't a loud bar. It wasn't a stiff, formal café. It was warm, conversational, and unlike anything the city had seen. People needed time to understand it, but once they did, they loved it.
That experience taught Susana a lesson she carries everywhere: new ideas face resistance. Bureaucracy drags its feet. People are skeptical of what they don't yet recognize. The only answer, she says, is patience and relentless persistence.
“Every truly new concept gets pushed back at first. You have to be resilient enough to wait for people to catch up”
A brand as alive as the land
When it came to designing the visual identity for Blue Marble Acres, Susana refused to reach for the obvious. No clichéd greens and browns. No generic "farm aesthetic."
Instead, she looked at the farm itself — at the extraordinary diversity of colors in the soil, the produce, the life growing there. She drew from Costa Rica's exuberant tropical palette. And she centered everything on blue.
The blue is a direct nod to the famous "Blue Marble" photograph of Earth from space — our planet as a single, connected living thing. The farm's logo reflects this too: a grid that represents a global network of people, farms, and ideas. A web of energy. Seeds and thoughts exchanged across borders.
Logo explained: The isotype represent 1) Interconnection (energetic grid across earth to create change), 2) Earth (First picture of Earth from 1972 by Harrison Smith), 3) Colors (Love collaboration and collective mind), and 4) Growth (Tridimensional cooperation and abundance)
Designing for new energy, not nostalgia
At Blue Marble Acres, the main farmhouse is being renovated under Susana's direction. She's clear about what this project is — and what it isn't. It's not a restoration. It's not about preserving the past.
It's about new energy. The classic outer shell of the building stays; the soul inside gets completely reimagined. Fresh colors, thoughtful furniture, and a layout designed to make everyone who walks in — whether they're a visitor or a staff member — feel equally valued and at home.
That last detail is important to Susana. She deliberately blurs the line between staff and guests. A space, she believes, should wrap around every person in it the same way.
“A great space doesn’t ask who you are before it makes you feel welcome.”
How she actually works
Susana's process defies rigid planning. She collaborates closely with architects and builders — but she doesn't follow blueprints like a checklist. She walks into a space, feels it, and adjusts. Plans evolve. Materials change. The emotional destination stays fixed; the path to it stays flexible.
She also leads with her hands, not just her vision. When navigating permits, wall inspections, or the unglamorous realities of construction, she shows up. She digs in. Because you can't guide a team through a space you've never truly touched.
What's next
After years of restaurants, offices, galleries, and now a farm, Susana has one project left on her dream list: designing her own home. It seems fitting. The person who has shaped the way so many others feel in a space has yet to do it for herself.
When that day comes, you can be sure of one thing: it will be colorful, warm, and absolutely unlike anything that existed before she imagined it.
