Designing the Future with AI and Nostalgia
Michael Cleghorn describes himself as a design futurist, a title that an AI tool assigned him after analyzing his body of work in interior design and trend forecasting. He embraced it, finding that it captured both the academic rigor and creative imagination behind his practice. With AI integrated into his workflow, he has transformed his process. What once resulted in two forecasts a year has now become 24, offering clients a wide-ranging vision of how styles might evolve across homes, hotels, and workplaces.
AI, he says, doesn’t replace creativity but enhances it, providing a canvas to visualize ideas quickly and consistently. The real work lies in the edit, in shaping raw concepts into coherent aesthetics. For Michael, forecasting isn’t just about color swatches or textures—it’s about showing how trends live across the built environment, from kitchens to corporate spaces. His career path, beginning in retail and product development and culminating in consulting, gave him the credibility and experience to structure forecasting with research filters that ensure accuracy and commercial relevance.
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