The loneliness epidemic is a design problem

Aaron Troy.

Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to see where this conversation takes us.

Yeah, so by now it's actually been a little more than 15 years, but it was kind of a natural progression where another designer approached me about working on a project together, and one thing led to another. But even before that, I always was fascinated by the concept of how people's environments really impact them in ways that they don't even realize. And that coupled with the fact that I'm artistic, I love being creative, career in design felt like a natural progression, as well as my parents building our childhood home and me getting to watch the entire process. So because of all of that, design was something that really interested me and I felt like Marrying the construction part of building a home with the design aspect was something that really spoke to me. And so when it was time to explore a career, interior design felt like the best match, and it really has been. It's been an incredible ride. I love every day. I love the projects that we get to work on. And it's just been so incredible having a career that. Everyday looks different, but we're really doing the same thing for people.

how do you want to

Yeah, so we actually just launched this course this month and what really got us to explore AI has been all the conversations and seeing the rapid growth of the technology and what it can actually do. So we've been res researching it for years. I've already been exploring so many different programs and creating our own with AI for A few years now, and what I realized was that there are so many designers who are so busy with their work that they don't have the time to explore all the programs. And because we're a team and because we always want to be at the forefront of whatever technology is out there and we want to ensure that we're giving our clients best service and the best outcome, we've been exploring it for a while now. I realized that a lot of designers don't have that luxury. So once we researched it and looked at all the different software that was out there and the different options, we put together TDG AI, which is really what our firm follows. Our designers use it when designing, and it's just ways to leverage AI and bring it into the design process to make it more efficient, to give us More options to allow our creativity to be explored even more. And we wanted to open it up to other designers who didn't have the time to do that. And we're really excited. The response has been incredible. We just launched it this past month and we've already had so much interest and so many people have already started taking the course. And it's very gratifying for me to be able to see that we're helping the next generation of designers and helping people continue to do what they love in the most efficient way possible.

When I think about design, I always like to think of the challenges that come with it, but I believe that those challenges are what pushes us to be innovative and to think creatively. Anytime there's an issue, for example, back orders or a beam or a column where it wasn't supposed to be. Anytime we have to deal with something unexpected that could really look like an issue, that is when we are pushed to think outside of the box, come up with solutions. And that's what I love the most. And I think it's not just in design, it's also in life. Anytime that we push ourselves, that's when we get the best results. And I always tell my team that in design, The challenges are what allow us to explore even more options, even more creativity. And I see it firsthand time and time again, especially when we collaborate together and we all think together, this is when the best ideas come to life.

It's funny that you're asking this question because I it was a recent Instagram trend where I saw so many people posting about having coffee with their younger self and everything that they would tell them. And I remember thinking to myself, I wonder what I would say. Like, what would I tell my younger self? But Thinking about it, what I would say is that we have to embrace every opportunity that comes up. And that's really what I've done. And and I guess what I would say is there were so many doors that opened for me that I never imagined possible. And there were so many paths that I thought I would take. Like if I could. show my younger self where my life went, it would be such a different picture than where I was at the time in terms of where I thought I was going. And it's been an incredible journey. And it's just been so much of keeping my eyes open and allowing those opportunities that came my way and going after them. And I feel so lucky and so blessed, like I said, being in this industry. I never imagined that I would have the opportunity to work across four studios, have projects throughout the US and Canada, have an incredible team behind me. All I wanted to do was be creative and look where look where this path has taken me. So it that would definitely be something that I would tell myself. And I would also tell myself that. Just because we have an idea of where life is going, it's so important to know that it might not go that way, but the way it's going is that perfect way for you. So looking back, there has been so many stops along my journey of how I got here. And each and every one of them has been an amazing learning experience. And I wouldn't trade it for anything.

When we work on any type of project, it's all about giving people the best experience within that space. So to take your question a step further, it's not just the senior living communities, it's not just healthcare, not just office, not just retail, not just hospitality. It really is about looking at who will be using the space and how we can provide those experiences. Through the designs that we're coming up with. And it's so important to really look at why people are in a space and what they're doing there and what they should be doing there. And I say that specifically with healthcare and senior living, there's so much that the environments can bring to these people's lives and to the residents, the families. A big thing that we concentrated on. In these types of environments is bringing people together. When people are together and social, there is that positive energy and that love for life that is usually developed as well as support. So when people are in vulnerable positions, whether they're rehabilitating or they're aging, knowing that they have people around them. And people who can help them and people that will smile at them does so much because loneliness is such a big epidemic, especially as you get older. And now, ever since COVID, we're seeing more and more, especially in the environments that we're designing, that loneliness is a big aspect of people's lives in more ways than it ever has been. And what we want to try to do with the spaces that we're working on is give people that sense of community. And especially with social media, when so much of people's lives is over camera, but not as much of it is experienced in real, we're always trying to give people that back and give the human side to any space by promoting human interaction.

Well, picking backing on the last question, health and wellness is a huge trend right now. And it's so important. And I couldn't be more excited about the different ways that I'm seeing it being brought to life. There is a real emphasis on taking care of people, both physically as well as emotionally. And it's really, really important that we put ourselves in these environments that Enable us to grow, enable us to be productive, enable us to love what we're doing. And so much of that is influenced by our environments. And that's why whether we're working on a school where we want to promote learning, we want children to be encouraged to think, to ask questions, to learn. There's so much about that that can be introduced. through different psychological factors within the environment. So we're always looking for ways to do that. We're always trying to think out of the box, come up with innovative solutions to really push people to be the best they are in the places that they're at.

What surprised me was how long a course can take to do. It probably took us over a year to develop. And it was interesting because we already knew the different programs that were out there and things are changing so fast. So we were worried that by the time it came out, there would be so so much new out there, and there is. However The premise is the same and what we really tried to work with was existing softwares that do not cost money. so working with Different systems that had entry tier levels that wouldn't incur high fees for the designers who would want to use it. But we wanted to teach it in a way that would allow the designers to learn as they were doing the course. And for the material that we were trying to give over, we wanted it to be. something that they could actually use and it would be something that could really help them. So just coming up with the syllabus and then figuring out how to give over that information took a little bit longer than we originally anticipated. As well, we wanted to work with developers who had experience and people who had the expertise of being able to give over a concept in a way that people can understand it and implement it.

That's a really good question. But I'm not that type of person that looks back and says, would have, should have, could have. I'm very much about going through an experience and saying, Okay, what can we do in the future? So I would say that every single thing that happened That didn't go as planned was a stepping stone to our next opportunity, to our next sector, to our next project type, to our next hire. And really, there has been so much of that throughout my career. And for example, COVID. When COVID hit, we were really all working together in the same office. And all of a sudden, all the designers had to go work from home and There was kind of this fear and panic of, my God, like, are we gonna be able to continue doing what we love? Will there be space for us to continue designing if we cannot work together? Because so much of what we do is collaboration and working together. So that caused us to figure out how to work remotely. And And we have expanded our team exponentially as a result of that, because we're able to attract and retain talent that doesn't necessarily need to come into any of our offices. And it's been so incredible to see the growth, to see the talent, and to see the work that we're able to put out now, as well as use those same concepts when we're working on projects that we're not. Right next door to. So being able to work on a project that's in a different city or in a different neighborhood than where we are, we've been able to put all of that into practice only because of COVID. So I like to look at every challenge like that and every learning curve as a way to take those lessons and grow from them. And learn. And I would say the same thing with AI. You know, so many people are so worried about it. I have people calling me all the time asking me if I'm worried that I'm not gonna have a job. And I keep telling them what AI is doing for us is incredible. It's making our job so much better and so much richer. And if we learn how to use the tools, our impact could be that much greater. And It's amazing to see the exponential growth of the options that can be created. And it's only going to get better. So it's really amazing to see. And I love watching where it's all going. And I'm also a very curious person. So I want to keep learning. I want to keep understanding what's out there and how we can best bring in those practices so that we can give our clients the best. possible outcome for their spaces.

we have so many plans and so many ideas. We're always looking to increase our impact and to continue our growth. We also have several charitable initiatives that we're really passionate about, and we want those to continue to grow. And like our motto, it's designing with purpose, creating a better world. That's really what it's all about for us. We want to keep doing that, and we want keep growing and keep making a difference and keep giving people better experiences in their environments.

They can go to website. It has our different social channels on it, as well as a contact page. So our website is thedesignersgroup.com. And we're that's our handle everywhere actually. So you can always just check out thedesignersgroup.com.

Thank you. Thank you so much. This was great. Really enjoyed talking to you.