Growing up just around the corner from Endicott, Tyler Belanger ’24 M’25 began his interior architecture journey long before he ever set foot in a college classroom. As a kid, he was constantly reimagining his bedroom—pulling furniture from one corner to another, swapping out colors, and creating makeshift layouts to see what felt right.
“My mom has always loved to decorate the house in any way she can, and make everything look as pretty as possible,” he said. “I learned from her.”
That early spark carried him through his undergraduate years at the Nest, where he put his creativity to work across residential and corporate spaces as well as furniture design, discovering through internships which areas truly energized him.
But even before graduation rolled around, he was ready to take his skills from the studio into the real world.
He jumped into a role at AG&Co Interior Design in Beverly, an all-inclusive firm specializing in residential and hospitality interiors, diving into hands-on projects from day one and immediately finding his footing in the field.
As he launched his career, Belanger kept his sights on further growth, enrolling in Endicott’s Master of Business Administration (MBA) program. Following the advice of his mentor at AG&Co, Regan Couto ’14, he chose to focus on project management, building business knowledge to complement his design background.
“When you're working with residential clients, it’s important to know how to budget things and make sure that everyone is happy at the end of the day,” said Belanger. “I definitely think it was an important direction for me to go in.”
In his day-to-day work, no two hours, and often no two days, look the same. One moment, he’s pulling fabrics and materials to craft the perfect client presentation; the next, he’s building renderings, walking job sites, or roaming showrooms for inspiration. His weeks unfold as an energizing mix of hands-on design, client conversations, and industry events, creating a constant rhythm of creativity, problem-solving, and real-world discovery.
Inspiration is everywhere. “We love Pinterest,” he joked of the AG&Co team, but Belanger also finds ideas in the world around him: a pattern on a passing building, a color combination spotted while grabbing lunch, a texture in a boutique window.
Belanger’s work goes beyond design. He wants people to feel something the moment they enter a space, and that feeling shifts depending on the client’s vision.
“I want them to feel joyful, most importantly, but I also want a client to feel what they intended it to feel like. If they wanted to walk into a space and have their jaws hit the floor, I want them to feel that way,” said Belanger.
And like any creative, he knows design blocks come with the territory. But for Belanger, the industry’s constant evolution keeps ideas flowing. New products, textures, fabrics, and materials hit the market constantly, giving him a variety of tools to work with.
Belanger’s love for fashion also influences his work and inspires him to explore bold textures, patterns, and color palettes, especially in boutique interiors and fashion-inspired projects.
“Right now, color is coming into play. Even though color is not really a big part of my personal design style, I really like to play with it, especially when it’s for a project,” he said. “Getting to look at something that's not necessarily my style, and putting it somewhere in a client space is really cool.”
He even dreams of combining these passions one day, redesigning a space like the Metropolitan Museum’s fashion exhibit in New York.
From crafting a small bar area in his brother’s house to overseeing a complete basement renovation for his parents, Belanger continues to design for his personal projects, which he calls “Designs by Ty.”
“It’s cliché to say, but … all of those errors that I made, and all of those things I learned, all led me to sitting here and being the designer that I am today,” he said.