In 1984 I visited Disney’s EPCOT Center in Florida and was introduced to my design future. I was awed by its elegant visual identity and efficient way-finding system. I was inspired by the theme park’s vision that a better future could emerge from creativity, innovation, and effort. And I left believing that I could help make that future happen. I doubt many other nine year-olds adopted these themes in the way that I did in 1984, but from my EPCOT Center experience I discovered what has remained the driving force that informs my design philosophy: through design, I can make a difference.

I believe design exists to serve people and to make their daily lives better. It can make abstract concepts easier to grasp, and can reveal deeper, unexpected meanings from simple ideas. With design, communication that would be otherwise confusing or dull can make sense or even add beauty into one’s interaction. In so many ways, design enhances and clarifies the way people interact with their worlds. It is my passion to be part of making those connections by adding clarity to the world around me through my work.

The genesis of my design process always starts at the end, with the receiver/user. Whether it’s work for business or for the public sector, designers should understand the people and environments where the solution will be used. This user-centered approach is most common in interactive and industrial design, but it shouldn’t stop there. Foreknowledge of cultural, political, and historic climates informs successful design concepts, content, and aesthetics drastically, across all disciplines of design. As designers, our work can be most effective in serving the people for whom we design when we design with the end in mind.

It seems EPCOT Center in 1984 was a pivotal moment in my life… and I thought I was on vacation. But I am thankful for its message that the future and the well-being of people is in all of our collective hands. Designers have a large part in that work, and my passion is to shape the future with the people living there in mind. To quote the theme song from the EPCOT Center pavilion, Horizons: “If we can dream it, we can do it.”