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About Pivot Design Group

Engaging our partners and collaborators in the experience of design.

Our Studio

Pivot Design Group is one of Toronto’s leading strategic experience design studios. We specialize in design research, experience design, and strategic visual design—creating meaningful, future-ready solutions that deliver business value.

Our Informed Design process integrates research, systems thinking, and human insight to ensure our work is not only impactful, but built to adapt. By incorporating strategic foresight into our approach, we help clients anticipate change, navigate uncertainty, and design with tomorrow in mind.

We create intentional digital products and services that are innovative, user-centric, and grounded in real-world context. Over the past three decades, we’ve developed a distinct design voice—one that balances creativity, critical analysis, and intuitive thinking through the lens of research, collaboration, and purposeful innovation.

To date, PIVOT has delivered over 2,500 projects for 350+ clients across government, healthcare, and the private sector. Our work goes beyond deliverables—we help define design standards, shape ethical AI frameworks, and clarify organizational purpose.

1998

Opened as Pivot Design
Communications, Inc.
Primary business: print design,
marketing and early web design

2001

Growth through
digital web services

2005

New focus on design
research and user-
centred design

2007

Transitioned to a
User Experience
Design (UXD) studio

2010

DesignMeets
founded

Informed Design
method adopted

2012

Focus on
healthcare

2017

Service Design as
new offering

2020

Launched ArcTrn Group
Data Visualisation studio

DesignMeets pivots 
to virtual events
during the pandemic

2021

DesignEvidence™ 
digital platform 
development begins
 

2023

Life-Centred 
Design becomes a 
guiding philosophy
 

36 DesignMeets 
events to date!

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Human-Centred. System-Aware. Future-Ready.

At Pivot, we ground our work in Human-Centred Design—a practical, empathetic approach that puts people at the core of every decision. It’s how we ensure our solutions are usable, meaningful, and grounded in real-world needs. We go deep into understanding human motivations, lived experiences, and context—whether we’re designing a digital health platform or mapping a complex service journey. We also collaborate closely with the organizations and systems around those people to create impact that sticks.

But we don’t stop there.

We recognize that people don’t exist in isolation. They live in communities, systems, and ecosystems—and increasingly, in a world shaped by technologies like artificial intelligence. That’s why we’re evolving our practice to include responsible AI design principles and life-centred thinking—ensuring our work respects privacy, equity, and long-term sustainability. Our goal is to design with awareness of the broader consequences of what we create.

We see Human-Centred Design as a foundation. But the future of design must be humanity-centred, systems-aware, and deeply responsible—to people, to the planet, and to the technologies we shape.

Culture at Pivot

We believe design has the power to shape communities—and we carry that responsibility with care. That means building a culture where empathy leads, diverse perspectives are honoured, and collaboration is how we thrive—our design practice centres around people, place, and possibility.

We’re committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion as a way of working. It shows up in how we build teams, how we engage with users and stakeholders, and how we create solutions that not only work but also resonate. It’s about fostering an environment where everyone feels respected and heard, and where different cultural perspectives are not only acknowledged but celebrated.

We recognize that design has historically privileged certain worldviews while silencing others. We see reconciliation not as a concept, but as a design imperative. That means acknowledging the Indigenous Peoples whose land we work on, engaging with their stories and knowledge systems, and creating space for multiple ways of knowing and imagining. More on decolonizing the design practice.

As designers, we don’t just respond to the present—we shape the future. So we ask: Whose future are we designing for? And who gets to decide what that future looks like? For us, the answers lie in building a world where many worlds can fit.

Our Values
Empathy
Listening deeply, learning with humility
Collaboration
Sharing knowledge and making together
Inclusiveness
Embracing the differences that shape our collective story
Curiosity
Prioritizing user research and a lifelong learner mindset
Sustainability
Designing for tomorrow, today

AI in Design

We strike a balance between harnessing the power of AI and providing the unique, nuanced perspectives that only experienced UX professionals can offer.

At PIVOT, we recognize that AI represents the next frontier in the evolution of design practices for our clients. Rather than render traditional UX research obsolete, we feel AI is an opportunity and a tool—one of many—to be embraced, to elevate, and to refine user-centred design processes. Through strategic integration of AI, we streamline our workflows to deliver more efficient and effective solutions for our clients. 

From ideation and prototyping to persona generation and research synthesis, we leverage AI to expedite research tasks and enhance data analysis. But we’re careful about it too—we actively assess and look for biases inherent in AI tools, ensuring that our insights remain human-centred and culturally sensitive. 

As members of the Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD), we strongly adhere to their Code of Ethics.

Partnership

ARCTRN translates data into meaningful, actionable stories.

Leveraging the emerging discipline of data visualization, ARCTRN harnesses data to empower participation in and understanding of data. We provide actionable insights and value to clients through our innovative services, applying a user-centred approach to the process of uncovering the human stories and actionable insights inherent in data. The ARCTRN website serves as a key touchpoint for accessing our data visualization services and engaging with our offerings.

ARCTRN.com

In our Community

We’re proud to be part of the Canadian design ecosystem—and deeply connected to the people, places, and ideas that shape it. At Pivot, we believe in showing up: for our peers, our neighbourhood, and the broader communities we work with and design for. Through volunteering, mentoring, sponsorship, and advocacy, we invest our time and energy into supporting initiatives that build a stronger, more inclusive, and more resilient design culture.

Launched by Pivot in 2010, DesignMeets is our homegrown platform for dialogue and connection. It brings together designers, thinkers, and creators to spark conversation, share ideas, and explore how design shapes the world around us. Through events, talks, and partnerships, DesignMeets builds community, curiosity, and momentum. Join us!

designmeets.ca

Our team, including Pivot’s founder, is actively involved with RGD, Canada’s largest professional association for designers. We contribute as mentors, volunteers, and annual sponsors of the Pivot Interaction Design Award in the Student Awards Program. Supporting emerging designers and strengthening the profession is part of our commitment to the next generation of design leaders.

rgd.ca

Pivot is a proud member of WDO, whose definition of Industrial Design aligns with our own: a collaborative, creative discipline that reimagines systems, services, and experiences to drive innovation and social impact. We believe in design as a force for optimism and transformation—across economic, environmental, and cultural contexts.

wdo.org

We’re also members of ACIDO, a professional body that champions Ontario’s Industrial Design community. We support its mission to build a thriving ecosystem—one that promotes best practices, continuous learning, and shared values for the future of the discipline.

acido.info

For over 17 years, Pivot has supported Pencils for Kids, a global charity focused on education, training, and economic empowerment—particularly for girls and women in Niger, West Africa. Through scholarships, farming initiatives, and sewing programs, we’re proud to contribute to work that expands opportunity and builds self-sufficiency where it’s most needed. https://pencilsforkids.com

pencilsforkids.com

Land Acknowledgement

As an important step towards reconciliation, we acknowledge that our studio is located on treaty land of the Mississauga of the Credit First Nation, an area on which the Haudenosaunee, the Wendat, and the Anishinaabe have thrived through time. We respect our collective responsibility to protect and nurture the land and recognize the legacies of colonial histories, and are grateful to share this land as treaty people who learn, work, and live in the community with one another.