Originally launched in 2022, Kimball International created UpStar to address a gap in connection and development for emerging designers. It has since evolved into a strategic investment in the A&D industry's future, with a growing network of participants and alumni across markets.
It is a year-long, nomination-based experience, with participants selected by firm leadership for their potential and influence. Through a combination of in-market experiences and national programming, participants engage in meaningful design discussions, peer exchange, and relationship-building that support leadership development and career growth.
Design Dialogues, a core component of the program, brings participants together around evolving design drivers, future-focused thinking, and individual points of view. The program connects designers from leading global A&D firms and top regional practices, creating a network that reflects the industry's scale and diversity of thought.
The July 2026 UpStar Design Dialog session, Human Sustainability; Designing for the Whole Human Experience, explored Human Sustainability through a future-focused design methodology.
Participants examined how changing human expectations, workplace pressures, technology, well-being, autonomy, and connection are reshaping what people need from the environments where they work. Rather than treating Human Sustainability as a trend to observe, participants were challenged to consider how these forces may influence future decisions about the spaces, experiences, and communities they design.
Working from a future scenario, participants then practiced a structured foresight methodology designed to bridge a common challenge in design: translating insights into action. Each group worked to identify the signals that made the scenario believable, determine who would be affected and why, and explore how changing human needs could reshape design priorities.
The final step was Material Expression. Participants translated their thinking into physical form, creating trays that expressed how their scenario might look, feel, and sound through materials, products, textures, and artifacts. This exercise demonstrated how designers can move from emerging signals and future possibilities to tangible design responses.
Participants learned how to move from future signals and emerging insights to meaningful design responses through a structured foresight methodology. By collaborating with peers, participants gained hands-on experience applying research, reframing challenges, and translating future possibilities into design action while broadening their perspective beyond day-to-day project work.
About Kimball International
Kimball International is a leading commercial furnishings company with deep expertise in the Workplace, Health, and Hospitality markets. We combine our bold entrepreneurial spirit, a history of craftsmanship, and today’s design-driven thinking alongside a commitment to our culture of caring and lasting connections with our customers, employees, and communities. Since 1950, our brands have seized opportunities to customize solutions into personalized experiences, turning ordinary spaces into meaningful places. Our family of brands includes Kimball, National, Etc.,Interwoven, Kimball Hospitality, D’style, and David Edward. Kimball International, based in Jasper, Indiana, is a business unit of HNI Corporation.
For additional information contact:
Abby Troutman
Communications Manager