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I Hear Design: the i+s podcast: Daily Summaries Delivered
by interiors+sources
I Hear Design is your source for interior design and architecture news, interviews and opinions.
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- 4 days ago18 min
Product Talk | What Actually Makes a Product Innovative?
New doesn't always mean innovative. This episode of Product Talk explores how designers and specifiers can look beyond the “innovative” label to understand what a product actually changes. Lauren Brant examines examples that expand the function of familiar products, improve performance and material health, respond to human needs, introduce new creative perspectives, and integrate technology into the built environment. The result is a broader view of innovation as something that can happen through technology, refinement, application, design, and cultural storytelling. Companies mentioned: Kvadrat Acoustics Foster + Partners Designtex Shaw Contract KI HBF Textiles Momentum Cisco
- 6 days ago21 min
Beyond the Hype: How AI Is Reshaping Interior Design Practice with Robert Nieminen
Artificial intelligence is quickly moving beyond image generation and into the everyday workflows of interior designers and architecture firms. But as AI becomes more capable, designers are also confronting questions about accuracy, privacy, intellectual property, creativity, sustainability, and how much trust to place in AI-generated information. In this episode of I Hear Design, host Robert Nieminen draws on recent interiors+sources reporting to explore how firms are using AI for visualization, research, data analysis, storytelling, knowledge management, and other design tasks. He also examines what industry leaders are learning about the technology’s limitations, why AI literacy involves more than writing better prompts, and how designers can experiment without losing sight of the people and places their work ultimately serves. The episode includes insights from Gensler, Mattoboard, Spectorgroup, Design Appy, ASID, and other voices examining how artificial intelligence is reshaping design practice.
- 1 weeks ago8 min
ICYMI: Why Firms Are Prioritizing Communication Training for Junior Staff
Technical knowledge and creativity are essential to becoming a successful interior designer, but another skill can determine whether a great idea gains traction: communication. In this ICYMI episode of I Hear Design, we revisit an article by Rachel Robinson, Creative Director and Design Principal at Ted Moudis Associates and Co-Chair of IIDA NY’s In-Studio Committee, examining why firms are placing greater emphasis on communication training for emerging designers. From explaining the “why” behind design decisions to presenting confidently in front of clients and translating creative concepts into business value, Robinson explores how storytelling, mentorship, practice, and structured training can help junior designers become stronger collaborators—and prepare them for future leadership roles.
- 2 weeks ago29 min
Future Ready by Design (Part 3): Sustain It with Mark Bryan
In the third and final episode of the Future Ready by Design series, host Robert Nieminen concludes his conversation with Mark Bryan, chief research and strategy officer at IIDA, about the provocative ideas emerging from IIDA’s Certified Design Futurist program and Futures Readiness Index. Following Part 1’s focus on Prove It and Part 2’s focus on Feel It, this episode turns to Sustain It—a broader look at how design can create longer-lasting value by reducing churn across workplaces, products, retail environments, and the built environment. Bryan discusses the rise of the two-speed workplace, where AI adoption is creating different speeds of work, decision-making, and confidence among teams. He explains why this is not only a technology or management issue, but a design challenge that requires new spaces, systems, and tools for making human judgment more visible, trackable, and transparent. The conversation also explores how repair, refurbishment, take-back programs, deconstruction planning, and circular systems may reshape expectations for furniture and products. Bryan describes repair not only as a sustainability strategy, but as a potential community experience, service model, and new form of engagement between manufacturers, dealers, sales teams, facilities teams, and end users. Finally, Nieminen and Bryan discuss the idea of anti-impulse retail and how physical stores may evolve as shoppers seek calmer, more curated, and more confidence-building environments. Rather than simply driving impulse purchases, future retail spaces may need to help customers verify claims, compare options, and make slower, more intentional decisions. Together, these ideas point to a future in which design value is defined not only by what a space can prove or how it helps people feel, but by how well it supports judgment, repair, trust, and durability over time.
- 3 weeks ago11 min
ICYMI: Design Innovation at Salone 2026: Embracing Resilience, Sustainability, and Digital Fabrication
What can the world’s largest design fair tell us about where interior design is headed? In this ICYMI episode of the I Hear Design podcast, we revisit the trends and innovations that stood out at Salone del Mobile.Milano 2026 based on an article published by interiors+sources. The show reflected an industry increasingly focused on longevity, material integrity, sustainability, and technology that works quietly in the background rather than demanding attention. We also explore the rise of computational craft, where digital fabrication and emerging technologies are being paired with traditional making, as well as the growing influence of international markets on materials, products, and design thinking. Listen in for a closer look at what Salone 2026 suggests about the evolving priorities shaping commercial interiors—and what designers should be watching next.
- Aug 31, 202632 min
Future Ready by Design (Part 2): Feel It with Mark Bryan
In Part 2 of the Future Ready by Design series, host Robert Nieminen continues his conversation with Mark Bryan, chief research and strategy officer at IIDA, about the ideas emerging from IIDA’s Certified Design Futurist program and Futures Readiness Index. Following Part 1’s discussion of proof, accountability, and outcomes-based design, this episode shifts into the theme Feel It: how the built environment supports the way people feel. Bryan discusses loneliness as a spatial issue and explains why simply adding lounges, shared tables, or collision zones is not enough to create meaningful connection. He also explores the need to design for purpose, programming, identity, and choice so people can show up more fully without feeling exposed or pressured. The conversation then turns to catharsis and emotional release, asking whether future workplaces, homes, hospitality environments, and amenity spaces may need to move beyond quiet rooms and wellness spaces to support safe ways of expelling stress. Bryan also discusses sound as an active design medium, sleep as an emerging amenity, and the opportunity for designers, manufacturers, and owners to define which emotional outcomes they want their spaces and products to support. Together, these ideas point to a future in which design value is measured not only by what a space looks like or proves, but by how well it helps people regulate, recover, connect, and feel.
- Aug 25, 20261h 14m
Product Talk | Designing Lighting for Wellness with Robert Soler
Lighting can do more than illuminate a space—it can influence how people see, feel, focus, interact, and respond to the passage of time. In this episode of Product Talk, Lauren Brant talks with Robert Soler, founder and chief scientist of BIOS Lighting, about what wellness-focused lighting actually means and what designers should consider when specifying it. They discuss circadian lighting, daylight integration, individual differences in energy rhythms, glare and visual comfort, controls, sustainability, and how lighting needs vary across workplaces, healthcare, hospitality, and education. Soler also shares what designers should ask manufacturers about wellness claims, spectrum, application, and performance—and why the future of lighting may require moving beyond the quiet ceiling toward lighting that more intentionally supports the people in a space.
- Aug 24, 20268 min
ICYMI: How Hendrick Designed Synovus Place Around Community, Change, and Employee Experience
In this In Case You Missed It episode of the I Hear Design podcast, we revisit an article from interiors+sources that explores how Hendrick designed Synovus Place, a 122,000-square-foot downtown Columbus, Georgia, headquarters, around community, change, and employee experience. The project brought several locations together under one roof while using workplace strategy, change management, interior design, and environmental graphic design to help employees navigate the transition. The design centers community as both a spatial and cultural framework, with flexible work settings, transparent connections, quiet areas, social spaces, biophilic elements, and amenities that support comfort and choice. Brand storytelling, color, materials, and graphics further connect Synovus’ culture and local roots to the workplace experience. Listen in for a closer look at how Hendrick approached workplace transition, community, flexibility, employee well-being, and brand storytelling to shape the Synovus Place headquarters—and how those strategies come together to create a more connected workplace experience.
About I Hear Design: the i+s podcast
I Hear Design is your source for interior design and architecture news, interviews and opinions.
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