The Story of BLLIS

Several years ago, as the VP of Branding for the world’s largest after-school franchise, I was finishing up a design project for a new, 18,000 square foot corporate HQ in Toronto AND working on a redesign/refresh project for 2,200 learning centers across North America (that would impact over a half a million students, instructors, and parents). Both projects were all about creating environments that brought out the best in people – emotionally, physically, academically, collaboratively – along with making every dollar, minute, and resource spent worth the investment. My team, partners, and I did this successfully.

• The ~2,200 centers were collectively reaching record lead and enrollment numbers and I was receiving inspired feedback regarding the impact the simple changes like flow, intentionality, cleanliness, decluttering, and recognizing those who spent time in the space had on their business and their personal experiences from the franchisees.

• The new corporate HQ became a place staff chose to hang out in even after work – something that didn’t happen in the previous space that nobody wanted to leave because they loved it so much.

Fun fact: The #1 thing employees loved most, when surveyed, wasn't the custom furniture or the high-end lighting in that multi-million-dollar project, it was a bamboo plant from IKEA, in an IKEA drinking glass, surrounded by IKEA rocks, on a gold IKEA coaster, that everyone got on their desk the day we opened the space. Simple. Alive. Accessible. Little did I know this insight would be backed by science.

• Then there was my space, an old loft with very little light, that wasn’t officially on my project list…    

To set the stage, I LOVED my team, my partners, and everything that was unfolding within the spaces at work but when I got home I was physically and mentally maxed out and my space added to my overwhelm. I was travelling more than I was home. I wasn’t feeling balanced in life. And all I wanted was to come home and recharge. Instead, I was in a cycle of buying, purging, buying, rearranging, rearranging, rearranging, trying to get my space to feel right. Not to mention, the wall I painted black and white was staring back at me every time I entered the space giving me the ick. 

I needed change but I didn’t know what to do next.

One new year’s day I gave myself a creative challenge to see how I would get out of it — I threw white paint on the floor to start the process of creating a beautiful, rose garden, mural. And I don’t know how to paint. 

I added a couple of colors follow the white paint to see if the ability to paint a gorgeous rose shot through me. To (only) my surprise, it didn’t. It looked like scribbles.

Then I had oh sh@$ moment(s)... 

I took some deep breaths and found a pattern I used for inspiration.

Then I thought to make a secret garden door with beautiful flowers. While I didn’t know how to paint flowers yet I did know how to measure well, tape, and watch stain dry so that’s what I did. 

Then I got distracted, my black and white wall had to change right then and there. 

I stopped the floor mural and starting to paint my wall. 

Side note: After I started painting my wall I realized it was the same color as the painters tape... I was in deep. I fell in love with that mossy green color without even realizing it.

Over the next month, I continued to tape and stain and dream about painting a beautiful garden coming out of the “door” on my floor. I marked "tape stars" on the floor where the flowers would go one days once I learned how to paint them (or when I found someone who could paint them the way I was envisioning). 

My neighbor Alex checked in often to keep me from pulling the tape too soon. (My curiosity sometimes trumps my patience)

While waiting for stain to dry, my inner carnie/inner child/pure Lyndsay kicked in and my mind started thinking and exploring a game to create.

When Alex came over and told me I could finally remove the last bit of tape, he was the expert on stain dry time, I removed it, started rolling and scrunching the tape into balls, tossing them around the “game,” and that's when Tapeball was born....

TAPEBALL

Main Goal = SHOOT FOR THE STARS

Land on Tape Star = Automatic win and you get your name on the floor.

New rules were made up along the way and Tapeball became a legit game – I would play it with friends and neighbors.

Tapeball brought life and love and connection into my space that didn't exist before. I connected to myself in a way that felt true and I connected with neighbors I hadn't talked to after five years of living in the building.

A simple, made-up game, in a little apartment, brought people together. Those who had their name on the floor bragged about it, those who didn't couldn't wait for their big day. My space felt alive and so did I.

Tapeball shifted something - something inside of me which changed everything around me. And the shifts continued to flow and happen all throughout my space.

I got a beautiful chandelier full of color (game-changer!) 

The wall color wasn’t working anymore so I painted it from that painters tape green to cream with gold streaks in it (another game-changer – the light color brought in even more light!)

I got plants. 

I got rid of stuff. 

I got more natural textiles.

More candles. 

More flowers.

My entire space felt lighter and brighter and so did I. 

I even moved my bed from my loft to my living room because WHY NOT? It was my space. 

I felt empowered and seen. I could see myself in my space and it/I was pretty cool. 

I’ve been curious on how to quantify and replicate impactful designs for YEARS and I posed a question to myself while I was feeling my way through all the changes happening within me/my space: What is the shortest path to a feel-good space?

My hypothesis: Bring Life Into Spaces. 

Bring friends, family, movement, flow, nature, games, creativity, laughs, memories, connections… emotions into spaces. I even Bring Life Into Spaces in braille (with circular felt pieces) on my wall to remind myself it’s less about how something looks and more about how it feels.

Then I had an internal debate: Is it LIFE or it is LOVE?

My revised hypothesis: Bring Life Love Into Spaces. 

I was ready and curious for a new adventure. So I left my job and travelled the world.

I became a certified Biophilic Designer. I led the build-out and design of a flagship yoga studio during the pandemic, as CEO. I volunteered with an organization designing spaces for people transitioning out of homelessness. I became a certified Feng Shui practitioner. I helped a leadership team build a program educating suppliers to some of the biggest brands in the world — Mars, PepsiCo, Disney — on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Then I moved to Lisbon, Portugal, and started exploring BLLIS. And neuroarts. And neuroaesthetics. And science-informed design. And lighting. And gardens. And Tapeball 2.0.

I was experiencing NeuroAesthetics without even knowing it.

Neuroaesthetics studies what happens in your brain when you look at something beautiful — whether it's a painting, a song, or the layout of a room. Scientists use tools like brain scans to see it happening in real time. The term was coined by scientist Semir Zeki in 1999, and studied today by the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins.

I was experiencing NeuroArts without even knowing it.

Neuroarts is the science of how art changes our brain, body, and behavior. It studies things like painting, music, and design — and how they can be used to help our health and wellbeing. It's a growing field of research, led by scientists at Johns Hopkins and the Aspen Institute.

I was experiencing Biophilic Design without knowing it.

Biophilic Design comes from the word "biophilia" — bio=life, philia=love. Popularized by E.O. Wilson, who discovered that humans have an innate love of nature. It's in our biology. Biophilic Design simply means designing spaces that bring nature back in — because we need it to feel our best.

And I feel better because of these experiences.

I also feel empowered to take control over my own mental and physical health by engaging in the arts, aesthetic experiences, and integrating nature into my spaces know I can positively change how I feel within moments.

There’s a science to our spaces and creative expressions — proceeding with an elevated awareness, intentionality, and curiosity just may be the key to our collective health and wellbeing.

We spend 90% of our days indoors. What that does to us is no longer a mystery — it's measurable. Here's what a few small, intentional changes did for people who experienced BLLIS: 

• “I feel different. And maybe at the end of the day, that’s the most important thing actually, because in therapy my nervous system regulates their nervous system.” - Kathleen and her psychotherapy space

• “It took a while to absorb the concept, but then it all made sense, the flow started, and the changes were finally happening.” - Ana and her family home

• “When I got rid of that big credenza, I felt like I was pushing it off my chest” - Abby and her apartment

Spaces change lives. I'd love to help you find what changes yours.

With love,

Lyndsay