Healthcare Design - January/February 2020 - 22

GREAT

on healthcare and, to date, have designed a
plethora of product types: woven upholsteries, vinyl, glass, carpet, solid surface, quartz,
plastics, and furniture. As the founder and
creative director, my role is simply put: "the
chick that gets it done!" I lead all aspects of
our projects from programming to visioning,
design ideation, and on through product storytelling and launching pieces. I also want our
manufacturers to have successful outcomes,
so I work closely with their marketing and
sales teams to ensure all closed loops.

HEALTHCARE DESIGN: SHARE
A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
A N D W H AT D R E W Y O U T O A
CAREER IN DESIGN.

Tara Rae Hill: In a nutshell: I love design.
It solves issues and provides people with
happiness. It's magical! My design beginnings were underway in early youth, thanks
to my dad, who's an architect. I was exposed
to construction sites, ink drawings and
drafting boards, and blueprint machines.
I also had a thriving ceramic business as a
kid. Beginning to draft before graduating
high school, I made a natural transition to
design school. I graduated with a Bachelor
of Fine Arts degree in interior design. Then,
I pursued a career practicing full-scope interior design.
HOW DID YOU BECOME
INTERESTED IN PRODUCT

DESCRIBE THE FIRST TIME YOU
WORKED ON A HEALTHCARE
P R O D U C T. W H A T D I D Y O U
L E A R N F R O M T H AT P R O C E S S /
EXPERIENCE?

TARA RAE HILL ASID, IIDA, RID

DESIGN, SPECIFICALLY?

After 16 years of many stressful, fast-paced
interior projects, with many late nights/
weekends spent at the studio, I was acutely
aware that our time expenditures and professional successes foundationally rested
on locating the perfect product offerings.
I'm committed to the human experience and
operational requirements of space design.
Those requirements can only be answered
with appropriate product choices. Searching for products combined with wanting expressive color applications, my journey with
designing products has been a long-standing
practice of sleuthing ways to satisfy manufacturers' custom quantity requirements to
then redesign their running-line products
for my space designs. Slowly, I became wellknown as the "tinkerer of products."

Position: creative director, founder, LittleFish Think Tank
Location: Atlanta
Years working in design: 27
Years in current role: 12
Product categories: textiles, furniture, solid surfaces
Market segments: healthcare, corporate, hospitality,
residential

HOW IS HEALTHCARE DIFFERENT
FROM OTHER SECTORS?

The biggest challenge with all design projects,
and heightened in healthcare, is the need to
strike the perfect balance between securing
the objective functional needs and still delivering subjective experiential elements. The
human touch points are what users feel, see,
and respond to. This could be as tangible as a
chair's comfort or more abstract as the joy of
a color palette, the soft touch of an upholstery,

TELL US ABOUT YOUR CURRENT
ROLE.

LittleFish Think Tank, by design, is a highly collaborative boutique design firm. We
design in all market segments with a focus

J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0

My introduction to health-related products for formal market launch began with a
surprise call from Dupont Building Innovations, which resulted in their Healing Colors
Collection of solid surfaces for healthcare.
Dupont's primary goal was to be the "go-to
solid surface resource" for healthcare specification. Their proposed scopes were dreamy
and included designing with color's contributions for health (I have a strong background in color theory) and evidence-based
design tenets. Dupont taught me the power
of master planning and knowing where you
want to land and that well-designed products do not sell themselves-they require
well-executed, uniquely timed, and fashioned marketing and sales initiatives.

H C D M A G A Z IH
NC
ED
. CMOAMG A Z I N E . C O M

http://www.HCDMAGAZINE.COM

Healthcare Design - January/February 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Healthcare Design - January/February 2020