Susie Frazier wrote, designed and produced the Designing For Wellness® books, videos and multi-year online content strategy, which helped establish and grow the wellness design movement as we know it today. For her work in bringing evidence-based wellness design principles to the consumer market 5 years before the interior design industry recognized wellness design as an enormous trend, Susie received the prestigious Next Frontier of Design Award from the International WELL Building Institute in 2023. Here's how she did it...
INTERIOR DESIGN PROJECTS:
Between 2010 and 2023, Susie oversaw and executed a steady flow of interior projects in which she designed either the entire space, a specific wall feature, or a custom furniture element. The client work usually involved architecture and interior design projects for new construction, like a multifamily model suite design for The Edison at Gordon Square in Cleveland, OH and for The Edge 1909 in Pittsburgh PA, shown below.
Under the Designing For Wellness® brand, Susie Frazier also created high impact, mind-calming wall art with integrated biophilic design elements that have been scientifically proven to reduce anxiety in humans. With her background as an artist and product designer who's deeply embedded in Northeast Ohio's maker community, Susie often collaborated with master welders, woodworkers, glass blowers, lighting specialists, and upholsterers to execute her concepts and document the process on social media.
CONTENT CREATION:
Leveraging her background as an Emmy-winning producer and on-air TV and radio personality, Susie developed a social media activation for the Designing For Wellness brand that included the creation of short-form reels that were also shared to a YouTube Shorts playlist.
CLIENTS:
Susie's innovative wall features and one-of-a-kind design interior products have been commissioned by companies like Sherwin Williams, Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, Hilton, Westin, Case Western Reserve University, Baker Hostetler, and Squire Patton Boggs (as shown below).
Read the full story in Business Insider.
RETAIL SHOWROOM:
As a practical way to test her design ideas with the public, Susie Frazier built and operated a retail showroom for 12 years as the anchor tenant on the first floor of 78th Street Studios.
Here inside the largest arts complex in Ohio, Susie Frazier's calming, earth-minded product mix, merchandising style and musical vibe was an inspiration to the public and to many of her design industry peers in both the architecture and retail sectors. The Susie Frazier Showroom closed in October of 2023 after 11 years as an iconic cultural destination. ![]()
CUSTOM PUBLISHING:
What started it all was Susie unknowingly living with ADHD and generalized anxiety until her late 40s. It wasn't until she learned her sensory experiences around visual patterns, textures, light, and sound were similar to the experiences of many children being diagnosed with ADHD and autism, that she realized a collection of design tips for how to "curate your own calm" was desperately needed in society.
In 2018, Susie wrote, designed, and self-published her first book called, Designing For Wellness®. The hard copy edition (available here) and her interactive, media-rich edition (available through Apple Books) went on to win 5 global book awards and became a valuable platform for Susie's active brand partners looking to gain greater market share in the $438 million wellness real estate sector.
PR CAMPAIGN:
Employing a PR firm to assist with the reach of the Designing For Wellness® brand, Susie Frazier developed a multi-year plan to increase visibility through TV interviews, public appearances, and articles written by her. The result was a flurry of press that drove website traffic, book sales, and new opportunities.
With a satellite media tour and a three-year brand ambassador contract with Mont Surfaces and Destination Cleveland, Susie appeared live at many TV studios across the U.S. including CBS San Diego, FOX Houston, and NBC Cleveland. She delivered public talks at conferences and trade shows in Chicago, Washington D.C., and Cleveland as well as design showrooms in Cincinnati, Detroit, and Indianapolis.
See the NEWS section of this site to see all of Susie's written and visual content as it was featured in Thrive Global, Business Insider, Pyschology Today, and Organic Spa Magazine among many others, who were granted permission to republish, in order to elevate their own foothold within the wellness design movement.
Organic Spa Magazine publisher, Beverly Maloney Fischbach wrote a direct quote featured on the back of Susie's book, stating that readers can use Susie Frazier's book, Designing For Wellness, as an easy "road map to calm their spaces and calm their minds." She believed in the cause so much that 5 years later, she changed the name of her publication from Organic Spa to the Art of Wellbeing.
In early 2023, Susie obtained in-depth knowledge of the science behind the global WELL Building Standard by studying and passing the exam to become a WELL AP (accredited professional) and a WELL Faculty member. For over a year, she played an active role on the committee for Neurodiversity and Design, helping to shape the current industry thinking around best practices for sensory health as it relates to the design of built environments. Susie then secured national news coverage in U.S. Today for the 2023 WELL Conference, bringing these important concepts beyond the corporate workplace and into mass media, so the public could be more informed and inspired to integrate these healthy practices into their own homes.
