Intersection of Dementia + Design

If you are thinking about designing for Dementia, I highly recommend this course, it's worth attending.  I thoroughly enjoyed the course, and learnt so much.  I am using those skills in my designs today.  The course is run by University of Sterling.

Written testimonial in 2019.......

Designing wall-coverings and murals for the care home sector is an area ATADesigns have been exploring for the past two years. To help realize this project, Award-winning surface design specialist, Annette Taylor-Anderson (ATADesigns) and Gareth Wyn Jones founder of Wallsmiths (printers), an expert in the field of wallpaper printing have joined forces to collaborate on this project. We exhibited our first wall-coverings and murals collection for care homes at the ‘Dementia Care & Nursing Expo, Birmingham’ last year. This proved to be a huge success, with very positive feedback. We wanted to learn more about designing for care homes and dementia, so we booked ourselves on the ‘Intersection of Dementia + Design’, 2 day course at Stirling University (2019).

Before signing-up to the course, both Gareth and I did lots of research. The ‘Intersection of Dementia + Design’ caught our eye. We heard good things about the course from an interior designer who attended the course a few years ago. We also read good things about the course and liked that it’s an accredited course run by DSDC. After speaking to Ailidh Aikman (Business Support Officer) who explained the course in more detail, we decided to book the course and couldn’t wait to get started.

We weren’t sure at first what to expect from the course, so we went with an open mind and embraced whatever the course had to offer. The course was welcoming and it was great to network and meet with companies from other disciplines.

The course encouraged us to learn from each other, working together as a team through well-presented workshops. This include problem-solving, working through scenarios and decision-making. Some of it was quite challenging, but we managed to work things out together as a team.

Our business is designing/printing wallpapers and murals, so it was very useful to see that the course covered all aspects of design. From new build, interior design, lighting, outdoor space and the garden. Learning about regulations and guidance etc.

When designing wall-coverings and murals for care homes we have now learnt to look at the space in a different way, bearing in mind the types of things to consider before starting a design.

We are currently working on a couple of care home projects implementing our newly gained knowledge. We feel that we are able to ask the right questions, share and advise our findings with the client. For example, having to consider the type of resident more closely, deciding what designs will work in a space, and to consider the tonal colour values in a room.

Learning about the colour tonal values was a big eye opener for us on the course, so we are pleased to have gained this kind of important knowledge that we can use in business and in our own personal lives. Especially as more and more of use will know someone with Dementia.

We learnt so much over the two days, the presentations and workshops were excellent and who better to learn from industry expert speakers themselves.

We at ATADesigns and Switchscene aim to create wall-coverings and murals where the residents, family and staff can feel at home in a well-being and safe environment. Working with familiarity, we like to bring the outside into our designs.

Annette Taylor-Anderson (Creative Director/Designer – ATADesigns)

Gareth Wyn Jones (Founder of Switchscene)