This article is part of an ongoing profile series spotlighting IIDA industry members.
Meet Joseph White, Director of Design Strategy for MillerKnoll.
What core values are most important to you as a leader, and how do you ensure they are embedded in the company culture?
The values that matter most to me are curiosity, resolve, and compassion.
I define curiosity as an endless search for understanding, paired with the humility to recognize that one human can only know so much. Resolve is a clear vision for a better future and the persistence to overcome obstacles along the way. Compassion is an awareness of and advocacy for the experience of others, grounded in the belief that our lives and outcomes are deeply interconnected.
Culture isn’t shaped by proclamations, but by countless small actions we take every day. I try to embed these values by listening before speaking, speaking with intention, and creating space for others to be heard, even — or perhaps especially — when it’s frustrating or inconvenient to do so.
Can you share a pivotal moment for you in your career?
In 2015, as Director of Strategy for Rapt Studio, I moderated my first panel discussion, Designing for the Senses, which reflected some of our most advanced studio work at the time. By weaving together expert perspectives and audience participation into a shared narrative, I found my voice as an advocate for the deeper meaning of design. That experience not only set the course for my work in sensory engagement and neuroaesthetics, but also shaped my approach to strategy: uncovering, synthesizing, and elevating the best insights across diverse perspectives.
Joseph White, Director of Design Strategy, MillerKnoll
What is the legacy you hope to leave?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve taken pride in being a good steward. Finding ways to make the most of what’s on hand brings me a profound sense of purpose, satisfaction, and even joy. For over a decade I’ve found strong alignment between that personal aspiration and MillerKnoll’s purpose: design for the good of humankind. Together we strive to improve people’s lives and leave the world better than we found it.
What big goal have you or (company name) set for the next 3-5 years?
One of my goals for the next three to five years is to help expand public expectations for what good design should accomplish. While the ADA established important standards for physical accessibility, emerging research and practice in neuroaesthetics is revealing how the built environment also affects our psychological and social well-being.
At MillerKnoll, we're working to make decades of research, product innovation, and real-world learning more accessible so people can make better decisions about the places they create. Ultimately, I hope we move beyond seeing environments as collections of objects and begin recognizing them as living systems that shape identity, relationships, health, and community. After all, a chair is never just a chair, it’s a seat within a social context, a position, a statement of how you see yourself and how you relate to the world.
What’s one big inspiration — or passion — that you think everyone should know about?
It’s important to understand how things are made. You don’t need to know everything but find something you care about and go deep. The value lies not only in understanding our world more fully, but in creating the conditions for flow, those moments when time disappears and self-consciousness fades away. In that state, insight often emerges.
I find my flow state most reliably through weaving. Exploring fiber production, yarn spinning, looms, and woven structures brings texture and meaning to my appreciation of textiles. As a bonus, some of my best professional breakthroughs have happened at the loom. Whatever your passion is, find something you can lose yourself in completely. Your mind will reward you in the most unexpected and delightful ways.
Joseph White is the Director of Design Strategy at MillerKnoll, where he integrates planning, sensory engagement, and behavioral insights to help create places that support people. His work focuses on scaling design knowledge and driving insight-based innovation across research, product development, and brand teams. A self-taught hand weaver, White views design strategy as “weaving with ideas instead of fiber.” He holds a Bachelor of Science in Interior Design from the University of Tennessee and has led teams in strategy roles at Rapt Studio, Herman Miller, and now MillerKnoll. His credentials include NCIDQ certification, IDEX certification, and LEED accreditation. He has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Interior Design, Metropolis Magazine, among other publications.
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