This is a design from 2017 about how to age as happily and healthily as possible. I looked at some of my fears about the ageing process, and my own old age, and what I could do to give myself the best chance of a happy and healthy old age.

I did this design in my early sixties, in response to the emotional space I was in regarding my age, the quality of life of my very elderly father, and the death of my aunt, from Alzheimer’s disease. Over the past few years, I’d become quite negative about myself in relation to the ageing process, feeling unaccepting of changes that I was observing, feeling slow and unfit, dreading losing my independence, or being incapacitated by degenerative illnesses, and fearful of living in poverty as an old person. I wanted a design that would give me the best chance of living healthily and happily to a ripe old age. I used Looby Macnamara's Design Web as the framework.

This is my second design. I did it in 2017 at a time when I was not very engaged in the diploma process (having started in 2011). I have only recently (July 2021) decided to publish it, hoping that it might be useful to others going through a similar crisis of ageing.

Designer:

Cath Johnstone

Practical Solutions Categories
Staying well
Stage of design
implemented
Design PDFs
hhll_for_publication_pdf.pdf
Date of design