Recently, I was discussing with a family member how, in my opinion, people become 'old' when they believe they're old. What I mean by that is when a person begins to think they're old, they start acting in a way which old people are supposed to act in the eyes of other people. They dress, move, think and behave like an old person is expected to... Effectively, they adopt their social stereotype and accept their place as an old person. I genuinely believe the quicker a person believes they are "old", the quicker they die. 

The conversation moved onto people of my age (early to mid 30's) who do something similar. There comes a time when apparently "it's time to grow up and settle down". They accept their place, fit neatly into a stereotype, get married, buy a dog, have children and start dressing for comfort over style as soon as humanly possible. Sometimes it's peer pressure, fear of being left on the shelf, anxiety that society will question why they aren't following the accepted path for a person of their age. There is a willingness to comply regardless if it's what they truly want or not. I have often been told by friends (who will remain nameless!) that they're "jealous of my freedom" which seems absolutely absurd to me. 

The world has become a smaller place, but despite us all having more access to one another and an insight into everyone's lives social stereotypes and “judging a book by its cover” not only seem to be alive and well but stronger than ever. Despite having more freedom of speech and more global forums to express our passions, people seem increasingly more willing to run toward stereotypes, not away from them. It begs the question... Why?

I know social media gets the blame for most of the evils in society nowadays but I think we have to view it as both a huge success and a colossal failure simultaneously when it comes to bridging gaps in society and connect people. Socially, we make friends and connections all over the world (that was the point), but it’s often exclusively with people who fit similar stereotypes with the same interests and opinions.

Due too the inherent nature of social media, the whole point for most users is to gain likes and followers so it becomes purely a numbers game. Our perceived success and failure as a business or person on social media is entirely down to statistics and in the majority of cases, it is absolutely nothing to do with quality of content. 
These platforms give us complete freedom of speech and expression but it comes with the pressure and expectation to seek validation and approval which is almost a conflict in purposes. Anyone who tries knows it's a very difficult thing to do both! In a nutshell, the more individual you are, the less likely it is you will be successful at the 'game'. Less likes, less followers, less people see what you do and who you are.
Given that the lives of most younger generations now revolve around social media there is an enormous incentive to fall in line, do and say what you know is going to win the approval of as many people as possible. 
Prejudice only seems to have increased, willingness to understand and engage with differing opinions and lifestyles seem to have decreased and good looks are increasingly held in a higher regard than a personality. The ability tolerate and respond to conflicting arguments has all but disappeared and we just unfollow or block them instead... Problem solved!
Not many individuals are breaking the mould but are more keen to copy their idols and mimic the perceived success of others as that's a guarantee of approval. Social media is a very effective machine for creating, reinforcing and perpetuating stereotypes.

As you probably know by now, I'm a designer working primarily in interior design, an industry filled with as many stereotypes and suffering from as many stigmas as any! You can appoint some of that blame on the media and television and you could also say a lot of it is rooted in truth. It is that perceived image of an industry which attracts a particular type of person to it, and so the stereotypes continue…

I know full well that when I tell people I work in interior design, the initial response or thought is that, as a man, I must be gay or a little bit "sissy". I'm not surprised by that in the slightest and I understand people looking at my industry from the outside are forming a judgement based on stereotypes and common (mislead) opinion. The media would often have you believe that interior design is exclusively for flamboyant, aloof, 'arty-farty' people who lack substance. Even worse than that, a lot of people within the industry seem to do their best to adopt those stereotypes!  
To me, design is design, whether it’s interior design, automotive design, fashion design or industrial/product design is irrelevant. The design process remains almost the same, yet it seems the actual thing you’re designing can and does sway a person’s opinion of you as a human being.

Of course, I knew what the common opinion of interior design was before I chose this route and it didn't sway my decision in the slightest. Why would it? Who am I trying to please? Should I not do something which I have a talent and a passion for? Choose a safe profession and appease other people with a limited perspective? We all know that's an almost certain recipe for regret and yet so many of us do it.

Some of the greats in fashion design have been 'straight' men (Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren etc) but they’re in a minority and I have never understood why. I do not believe for a second that there aren’t thousands of young men with huge talent and potential for fashion design. I know many, many straight men who are obsessed with fashion yet never even dreamed of being a fashion designer. Why is that? Well, I think we all know why… Fear of ridicule and social perception that “it’s just not what straight men do”. Isn’t that pathetic? These prejudices and stereotypes are drilled into kids from a very young age and so they continue.

Ironically, when a rapper gets into fashion design, no questions are raised. Pharrell Williams has designed clothes for years (and recently bought the G-Star brand) and many hip-hop stars have their own branded clothing lines (Rocawear, Sean Jean, Shady etc etc). 
Kanye West gets into "high fashion" design and suddenly every macho rapper wants their own catwalk collection. This is entirely down to, once again... Stereotypes. A successful rapper is not the archetypal image we have of a male fashion designer and therefore what he does is judged in a different light. I haven't heard anyone question if Kanye West is gay because he started designing clothes and accessories!

When people spend time with me and understand my methods and outlook they get it. I've said it before and I'll say it again... I'm not necessarily a 'fan' of interior design and never was. I'm a professional. To be honest with you I don't even have a favourite interior designer and I purposely avoid spending too long looking at the work of other designers. I prefer to generally look at trends and fashions across consumerism, retail, art and design. For me, the worst thing a true creative can do is to become too influenced by other people's work or too aware of what's in fashion in one industry. That can, and often does, result in designing to please popular opinion, not expressing what you truly believe in.

Interior design specifically was never a hobby or passion before it was my career. I'm a designer in the truest form, not a decorator, not a glorified personal shopper. The image of being an interior designer or anyone's opinion of it was absolutely irrelevant to me.

My passion is developing concepts and aesthetics from scratch, solving problems and working to a brief to find an original, effective solution. Not merely making something pretty. In my opinion that is not designing, it's often just configuring beautifully designed things into a pleasing arrangement. Please do not take this as criticism of other interior designers or the industry in general. There are many incredible interior designers who's work I have huge respect for. I just think the term "designer" is thrown around far to easily especially in the residential sector!
Ideally, I would design every item on a project from scratch to meet the concept. Furniture, fixtures, fittings, soft furnishings... Everything. A singular vision. Creating something from nothing and stamping my own ethos and philosophy onto it.

I don't view any project as an 'interior designer' because I find that limiting. I view it as a designer. Full stop. I use lateral thinking, knowledge of engineering, architecture, product design and manufacture to get from A to B with no thought of the rules of interior design or how another designer would approach it. Creativity is not limited or linear and I refuse to put a label on it. Maybe that is an unusual mindset for an interior designer, I’m not sure!
Remember what I said at the start people acting "old" because they think like an old person? Being a designer is no different. If you only see yourself as an interior designer, think like one and solve problems like one... Your solutions will be limited. You'll design within a stereotype.
 

The point I want to make about stereotypes is that when we try to fit one, we immediately limit our perspective and progress. I feel I'm good at what I do because I refuse to do just that.
If you take a look at some of the most successful, iconic and loved people in any industry you'll see they break stereotypes, using their perceived weakness as their advantage and that becomes their strength.

To name a few off the top of my head; Tiger Woods, Eminem, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, the Williams sisters, Lewis Hamilton etc etc... They didn't fit the standard mould and if they had allowed the fear of ridicule or prejudice to cloud their ambition, where would they be today?

I think to accept and conform to a stereotype is to almost accept mediocrity and your place in the crowd, happy to be judged not on your own but as a group. Maybe it's safety in numbers, not leaving ourselves open to criticism or putting ourselves out there and making decisions which people might not understand or approve of. Maybe the ability for everyone to be an armchair critic and the access to our lives they have scares us to death so we play it safe. We all know social media is often more trouble than it's worth!

Maybe we need to conveniently pigeonhole each other to make everyone easier to deal with. It's less effort to discover what makes a person tick on an individual basis rather than just assuming they're the same as other 'similar' people we have met.

Personally, I love the fact that if I didn't tell anyone what I did professionally, they would never guess. It tells me that I'm being true to myself as an individual, I'm not a stereotype within my profession and I'm not allowing opinion and perception to change who I am, how I look, what I do or how I do it.
When people get to know me, they see what I do in a different light and their preconceptions of what a male interior designer 'should' be are soon irrelevant. I'm proud of that.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m at a point in my life where I just don’t care and I have nothing to prove to anyone. As a teenager would I have had the same outlook? Probably not. Unfortunately by the time some of us reach a point in life where we no longer care about winning approval, we're already settled into a different life to the one we wanted as a youngster.

I guess the point of all this is, and what inspired me to write it, is that I'm shocked how the majority of people are more swayed and attracted to stereotypes than ever in 2016 and are actually regressing in their views.
Men grow beards, get tattoos and become as physically big as possible, often to convince others they're a "real man", which seems like a desperate reaction to society's emasculation of the modern man if you ask me. We change to match a more favourably perceived stereotype by the people we want to attract. Our actions, standards and principles make us a man. Our role and influence in society dictates if you're an "alpha" (if that even exists any more), not your appearance. We don’t decide if we’re a leader as a conscious choice. That’s for others to decide based on the qualities we exude as a human being.

It's almost hard to believe that Britain had a female Prime Minister in my lifetime and it genuinely feels like we’ve regressed. The suffragettes must be spinning in their graves at the fact 'sex appeal' is still the main currency for success if you're a woman in modern media or entertainment. Why is that still the case? Why haven’t we advanced as a society and learned to appreciate others based purely on character and talent? 
How are we supposed to surprise each other, progress, push society forward and change perceptions if we're still so easy fooled and influenced by prejudice and preconceptions? We’re so quick to adopt a predictable, safe persona to appease people and avoid rejection it's ridiculous.

Make no mistake... It is only when people think outside the box, question the way things are and move outside their comfort zone when original, exciting and progressive things start to happen otherwise we're just repeating the same things. Our actions inspire other people to follow our example and it's therefore critical that people take risks or we move absolutely nowhere.

Extrapolate my point as far as you like... What if Da Vinci, Columbus, Darwin and Galileo had taken the safe route for an easy life? Where would mankind be today if these people hadn't risked ridicule, insult and persecution to follow their own truth and passion? We would still be in the dark ages quoting religious scripture by candle light, afraid to sail off the end of a flat planet. That's where.

We're relying on future generations to break boundaries but these young people are often educated on the ways of the world and social interaction via the internet. Let's be honest, if the idea of multi-billion dollar social media corporations was to make the world smaller and increase understanding between different races and social groups it's failing miserably and will continue to do so. It's beginning to look like a clever advertising and data collection tool disguised as social interaction (most cynical thing you've read all day?)

As far as I can see, it is only strengthening the thirst for stereotypes, division in society and gives a forum to prejudice and ignorance. It enables people to actually avoid integration and understanding with people outside of their own way of thinking. We don't even have to read news we don't enjoy any more.
 
Don't get me wrong, social media is a phenomenal tool for connecting with people, especially in a professional sense. Only on rare occasions have I seen it used to break and question social boundaries but more so acting like a controllable comfort blanket where only familiar and complimentary views are welcome. We're all clinging onto stereotypes and it can't lead to anything good.

All I can add to finish is that I'm a normal guy. I like sport, women (not all of them...), lifting a few weights, cars, technology, gadgets, I drink occasionally, I've been known to use bad language, I have a passion for business, economics, anything expressive and creative and I also just happen to work in interior design without it defining my entire character (that was a long sentence).
I can comfortably discuss cushions and curtains without questioning my sexuality or position in society as a grown man (I know… It’s mind-blowing. Visionary almost)
If people still struggle to comprehend that can be possible in 2016 or shy away from their passions because of what others think... I have no clue how we ever managed to land a man on the moon in the 60's. A selfie on the moon would get a sh*t ton of likes, though.

 
                                                                          

                                                                     Paul Hancock
                                                           (Founder/Director)