As an Allied ASID interior designer, I am required to continue my education in the field to maintain my accreditation. The American Society of Interior Designers is a “leading professional organization of interior designers, industry leaders, educators and students who employ design to improve lives where people live, work, play and heal.” Their role is to advance the interior design profession and communicate the impact of design on the human experience. Presently, ASID is cataloging these ways to improve lives against the corresponding trends impacting interior design.
For those who love to decorate and want their homes to be beautiful and functional, I thought it might be interesting for you to see how the world of designers and our changing world aligns. Over the years, people have been identified in generations: the Baby Boomers (1946-1964), Generation X (1965-1980), Millennials (1981-1996), Generation Z (1997-2012) and Generation Alpha (2013-2025). Designers have been mindful of these generational divisions because they affect the wants, needs and lifestyles of their clients against the background of social change as they lived it.
As a designer for over 50 years, I have worked within the framework of these changes to attempt to provide the best possible home and work environment for each generation’s needs. Today designers are living and learning from Generation Z, a generation whose priorities and experiences are different from prior generations, yet the same in basic ways. Their world has seen a pandemic, racial, political and social upheaval, gun control and school shootings, natural disasters and war. They seek genuine connections and they will be occupying a strong sector of the consumer culture along with past generations that want comfort in spaces, fostering comraderies and real connections.
Designers, like myself, are emphasizing spaces in the home that provide for gatherings such as kitchen islands, patios open to extend living and entertaining areas, and blending spaces such as den and dining room to increase ease and flow of entertaining.
Because pets have now become so much more a part of our families and fill a specific need for comfort and connection, they have been included in many more areas of our home. Now, pet friendly and durable products have been introduced to a larger extent and have become part of the design decision equation.
Part of today’s design equation is also a return to creating spaces for fun family activities and “comfort food” entertaining. So – it seems that while the design world is ever-changing in style and color, the basic needs of people are the foundation of it all.
Next time – Health and Wellness in Design!
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