After spending twenty-five years designing aircraft interiors, I’ve come to believe something I didn’t fully understand early in my career.
You can learn a surprising amount about an organization’s culture by the role design plays within it.
Not because designers are more important than engineers, technicians, or salespeople.
But because design sits at the intersection of all of them.
Every department naturally sees design through its own lens.
Leadership often sees cost.
Sales sees a way to win projects.
Production sees another layer of detail.
Engineering sees constraints.
Design isn’t simply choosing colors, leather, or stitching patterns.
It’s deciding how people will interact with those choices every single day.
It’s shaping how people experience everything the rest of the organization creates.
A business jet is an extraordinary collection of engineering and craftsmanship.
Design asks a different question.
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How should someone feel the moment they step aboard?
How should a seat welcome them after a long day?
How should light, texture, and proportion quietly work together without demanding attention?
The people who often understand this best aren’t designers.
They’re the owners.
Most couldn’t explain why one cabin feels calm and timeless while another feels busy or dated.
They simply know how it makes them feel.
That’s the power of design.
Not because it’s seen.
Because it’s felt.
Organizations also reveal a great deal about themselves by when they invite design into the conversation.
Some bring designers in after the important decisions have already been made.
Others bring design in from the beginning, while the owner’s vision is still taking shape, before the scope is defined, a proposal is written, or materials are ever considered.
Those are two very different ways of thinking about design.
One asks design to finish the project.
The other asks design to help define it.
As our industry continues pushing the boundaries of engineering and manufacturing, I wonder if the next competitive advantage isn’t simply building better aircraft.
It’s creating better experiences.
Because in the end, owners won’t remember torque values, certification documents, or production schedules.
They’ll remember how the aircraft made them feel.
Perhaps the true measure of a design isn’t what people notice.
It’s what they remember.