CHICAGO — The International Interior Design Association (IIDA) is excited to announce the launch of the IIDA Certified Design Futurist program – a first-in-class educational opportunity, expanding the forward-looking nature of design into a core foresight capability that provides significant value to designers, firms, and their clients. The dynamic CDF curriculum was developed in an exclusive partnership with the Future Today Institute. FTI Founder and CEO Amy Webb, a world-renowned quantitative futurist, as well as FTI Senior Foresight Manager and IIDA Futurist-in-Residence Mark Bryan, collaborated with IIDA on a program based on FTI’s research-backed, proven methodologies.

“Designers behave like futurists every day,” says IIDA Executive Vice President and CEO Cheryl S. Durst, Hon. FIIDA. “They anticipate client needs and create spaces that serve humanity not just today, but for years ahead. But how do you quantify the incredible value of forward-looking design thinking, and create a real skill and capability around it? With this new certification, designers and firms gain a new capability with concrete business value, while the industries they serve benefit from research-backed foresight that enhances the investment in their spaces.”

IIDA’s commitment to advancing the profession of interior design and creating growth opportunities for designers, firms and the entire industry is well-served by a partnership with FTI. The world’s premiere strategic foresight consulting firm, FTI’s proprietary strategic foresight methodology enables organizations to plan for unpredictable futures with certainty.

“Strategic foresight is an important capability in every business intent on navigating a rapidly evolving future,” says Amy Webb. "Designers who learn to apply and adapt strategic foresight, and firms that develop company-wide capabilities, will ensure that projects anticipate and proactively address future challenges and opportunities for clients, and for the community."

Strategic foresight has become a critical skill for businesses and clients of all kinds. Designers, product developers, real estate brokers, managers, researchers, executives, entrepreneurs, manufacturers, dealers, and sales teams can all benefit from knowing how to practice strategic foresight. This course has been designed with each of these roles and aspects of the design industry in mind, backed by a rigorous evidence-based-research methodology that has been deployed by companies around the world.

Course participants can expect to bring meaningful change to their organizations—to help see and shape the preferred future of the business. Clients will benefit from the CDFs’ ability to generate long-term insights that can lead to decisions that drive success.

The curriculum development and testing is already underway with the beta cohort expected to wrap by fall 2024. The program will accept its inaugural class in early 2025.

For more information please contact CDF@IIDA.org.