Julie Palm

With prices rising the past couple of years across virtually every category of goods and services, consumers are tired of paying more and more for the same thing — or, in the case of shrinkflation, paying the same amount for less product.
That makes receiving a small, unexpected gift from a company especially delightful right now.

The CEO, principal and creative director of Savvy Interiors in San Diego, hadn’t worked on a space that met guidelines emanating from the Americans with Disabilities Act. So, she did what she always does when faced with a new challenge: She read everything she could, reached out to medical experts, consulted with design colleagues who’d worked on such spaces and, of course, talked to the teen and his parents about his unique situation.

Interior designers interested in earning the new certification will take 25 sequential, hourlong online classes, or chapters, focusing on biophilia, color contrast and intensity, fractals and other topics related to the “evolutionary inheritance” that affects how humans recognize and respond to beauty and good design, Peterson says.