From
Our
Founder

My path to the world of interior design was rather unconventional. I’ve always been obsessed with beauty and quality. You could say that I have been a high level perfectionist to a fault in my younger years. While I very briefly and quietly explored the idea of fashion design in my early teens, it didn’t exactly mesh well with my athletic pursuits and commitment to sport. Rather, it made sense to find work in the construction industry. I started as a ranch hand in southern Alberta, which naturally evolved into framing houses. But even at that time, I saw the beauty in a job well done, and took a lot of pride in every swing of the hammer. More than this, I received an invaluable hands on education about how structure works…something that I still pull from today.

I started my own small landscape construction company as I studied business in University, which quickly evolved into exterior and interior renovations. While I took a great deal of pride in the work that we were doing and the quality of our trade, I was not often pleased with the designs and designers that we were having to work with. Out of sheer frustration, I began offering my own design ideas to clients, and before long, people were paying me for this service.

Fast-forward a decade or so, and I had a budding interior design firm and construction company, but I saw another hole in the market. While we were producing great designs, and were able to execute them to a very high level, I was not happy with the products and furnishings that were available in our local market. So I scoured the globe on a quest to find the most beautiful architectural products and furnishings in the world. Thus spawned the formation of our Alberta based showroom The Shop. Treasure Hunting for the most beautiful products lines and artisans in the world became a passion that I still obsess about today. I also became very knowledgeable about what Europe and other parts of the world had to offer, along with a crash course in
logistics, production techniques, language and cultural nuance, among many other things.

After almost 30 years in construction, design, and high end product procurement, I have witnessed the evolution of the homeowner and their tastes. Today, clients are much more sophisticated than they once were. They have refined tastes, and they know about products from the other side of the world. They have seen and experienced incredible environments on their own. They have access to incredibly inspiring designs on social media and via their own travels. AI is now enabling the average person to visualize concepts themselves, without any training…

As such, the designers role is shifting. On one side, you have the true artist in design. And a true artist is irreplaceable if you want their art. These artists are rare, and come at a price with limited supply (if this is what you are after, feel free to reach out to our design studio Shaun Ford & Co. ). For to be an artist, you must treat every project as its own unique canvas. To do otherwise, is just production work. Which leads to the other (and much larger) side of the spectrum. In production design, the only real way to make a living in the field is to be efficient, and to produce some level of volume. Which is fine for some, but if you are looking for something special, this is not the formula to do it.

Hence the formation of The Design Code . I have created this product and method with myself as the client in mind. I am not formally trained in design. I do not have the ability to draw or draft (very poorly anyways). I didn’t go through an academic training in the field. But I do have an eye. I have great taste. And I’m not afraid of a little hard work. Over the course of the last 30 years, I
have surrounded myself with a world-class team of professionals in the field of architecture and design, but the driving force behind our projects is my eye. The Design Code offers you our method, access to my team, and the ability to allow your eye and taste be the driving force behind your own project.

THE DESIGN CODE

is the fusion between ever improving technology and the artisan. A great deal can be done with technology on its own, and that will only improve more in time. But technology is only as good as the inputs that it receives…which is where our method and our team come in to set you on the path to success. I truly believe that this is a game changer for the field of interior design, and we are set to lead the path to revolutionizing the world of interior design as we see it today. I hope you can join us in this quest.