My name is Nicole Monaco, and I am an interior designer with ThenDesign Architecture. I received my Bachelor of Arts from Kent State University, and I also have my masters in business from Ursuline.

I have been at TDA for four years now doing educational design. And luckily in my background, I’ve had a chance to explore different options, from residential to restaurants and health care. And ultimately, I feel like educational design is what I enjoy doing the most, just because the children are our future. And I think designing spaces that inspire them might help put them in a different direction or change their path. And it might inspire them to get into the architecture interior design field.

I enjoy interior design because it allows me to use my creativity and problem-solving, and I think it’s just fun coming in and being able to do a different design every day.

When people think of interior designers, typically, they just think of paint, flooring, and furniture. But in these large spaces, it goes a lot deeper than that. We’re actually involved in the drawings, so we help lay out the spaces. We think of the building more holistically and as an end-user approach. So, even just looking at color theory and seeing how different colors relate to other people’s emotions and maybe how they’ll make them feel in the space, different tactile experiences like the texture of the furniture, or how the floor navigates through the space. And is it helpful, or does it hinder?

And I think always doing research and staying up to date on the trends that kind of parallel with educational design I think are very important. It’s a lot more than just your paints, finishes, and fabrics.

I think that interior design and the process here at TDA is very collaborative. Interior designers and architects will sit together and kind of look at how the different spaces should be adjacent and how they function next to one another. So, a lot of the input that we give the architects helps us in the long run when we go to put casework and furniture and finishes in the building. Those classrooms and collaborative spaces will be laid out in the most functional way.

I think one of the most important aspects of the design process is when we work with the school districts and the superintendents. By collaborating with what the district wants to accomplish in the future and what the design needs to do, I think we set the students up for their best chance for success.

We are able to help create environments that can help foster their growth and their educational planning delivery.