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In this very first episode of the Northward podcast, Ian Chalmers, a respected figure in Canada's design world and founder of Pivot Design Group, shares his ideas about how taking a thoughtful, people-focused approach to design could significantly reshape the country.
Ian describes Canadian design as "ideas influenced by people, landscape, weather, culture, the arts, sports, fiction, Aboriginal experiences, and stories." This broad and inclusive view reflects Canada’s diversity and suggests design here should truly capture our country's unique multicultural and geographic identity.
Reflecting on his own journey, Ian highlights the transformative role design played in his life. Starting in visual design at an advertising agency, Ian grew frustrated and wanted an opportunity for more creativity, ultimately getting fired.
"Sometimes you need a kick in the pants. You need somebody to tell you to stop doing something if you won't listen to yourself."
This realization inspired him to create Pivot Design Group - one of Toronto’s leading strategic experience design and communications studios, giving him the space to foster creativity, empathy, and real human connections. Through this work, he’s experienced firsthand how powerful design can be having worked on a huge variety of projects in healthcare applying people-centric design solutions for researchers, scientists, physicians, and institutions.
Ian is frank about the current limitations he sees in Canada's design community:
"We certainly must have a lot of great stories to tell about our designers. Why aren't we publishing these? Why aren't we putting them out there?"
According to Ian, Canada has plenty of talent but lacks storytelling and ambition. As a longtime admirer of the Design Council, he strongly supports the idea of establishing a “Canadian Design Council”, to integrate design into national strategies and initiatives. In his eyes, a council could travel the country, listening to its citizens to unite diverse voices, set clear objectives, and enhance Canada's economic, social, and environmental well-being.
As an educator at George Brown College in a post-graduate Interdisciplinary Design program, Ian also sees the need for Canada's design community to embrace broader, systems-based thinking and life-centred approaches as jobs evolve:
"These tactical jobs are going to disappear. What I'd like to see, what I'm not seeing, is this workforce learn to be more creative, use their imagination, prototype, innovate."
Looking ahead, Ian paints a hopeful vision for Canada's future, a place where collaborative, community-driven design approaches help solve key national issues. He emphasizes the importance of listening deeply to communities, particularly Indigenous voices, to create inclusive and sustainable solutions:
"The answers are actually in our country. We just have to listen to people and tell that story."
Ian’s insights highlight design’s potential to play a crucial role in shaping Canada's future. By embracing bold ideas, strategic vision, and empathy-driven innovation, Canadians have a chance to rethink their nation, not just as a global leader in design, but as a cohesive, thoughtful society ready to tackle the challenges ahead.
This podcast was recorded just before Ian hosted a DesignMeets event on Canadian identity through design featuring a screening of Design Canada.
Ian Chalmers is a design entrepreneur and principal of Pivot Design Group, an experience and systems design agency in Toronto. He’s also the driving force behind DesignMeets, an event platform that promotes the sharing of information, ideas, and different points of view on critical design topics, and a founder of ARCTRN Group, an experimental initiative exploring the process of uncovering human stories and insights in data.
With more than 25+ years of design and design research, Ian is acknowledged as a business leader, mentor, creative director, and solutions provider across Canada’s business landscape and in the academic community.
His recent project has focused on the healthcare vertical, through Pivot Health, applying people-centric design solutions for researchers, scientists, physicians, and institutions. Through DesignMeets, he has explored the relationship between design and topics such as climate change, artificial intelligence, and the circular economy.
Ian is also a committed community member, serving on the board of Pencils for Kids, a charity that provides scholarships for young women, farming programs, and sewing programs for young women in a small community in Nigér, West Africa. He’s a former member of the board of directors of the Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD), teaches a Post-graduate Interdisciplinary Design program at George Brown School of Design. He is a graduate of the Design & Visual Communications Program at OCAD University.
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