DOG MODELS WANTED: This Design Media Trend Will Help You Get Published
Planning a photo shoot? Corral some handy pets and people. Shelter magazines have undergone a “shift, a departure from home decor imagery from years past—the bulk of which presented a world without people,” writes online design trade magazine Business of Home in the article “Why the design industry is putting people (and pets) back in photos.” A major factor in the shift is social media. “Amateur images featuring both furniture and people have proliferated across the internet, whether brands like it or not, setting a new aesthetic default,” writes BoH. “According to the performance of social ads, digital ads and influencer content, consumers react more positively to ‘real-life people and real-life situations.’”
Word PR clients experienced some aspects of this trend recently. The Aspen Design House cover story in Colorado Homes & Lifestyles mentioned above includes photos of the family’s dachshund, Pearl, as well as of the daughter interviewed for the story walking past a doorway in the back of the dining room image. And for a recent Jackson Hole photo shoot of a JLF Architects project for an upcoming issue of Sunset magazine, the photo editor requested a volunteer from the interior design team to “stand in on some shots. We typically have a person walking through the frame, for example, on some shots to add life to photos,” she explains.
Of course dogs, especially, in design photos aren’t exactly new, thanks to a number of designers and celebrities who treat their pets like family. Check out this “from the archives” article, 30 Dogs Lounging in Architectural Digest, to see the pets of the likes of Marc Jacobs, Jonathan Adler and Jane Fonda at rest in some glamorous interiors. Or closer to home, look for WRJ’s Rush Jenkins and Klaus Baer’s beloved pair of Newfoundlands, Wolfie and Duchess, in a variety of media, including this Mountain Living article on the firm’s new Jackson Hole headquarters, Stags Landing.
But the social media impact is real, and actually goes beyond the addition of people and pets in photos to embrace an overall less-pristine approach. As Homes & Gardens writes in their January 2026 trend-prediction piece Designers All Agree the Most Stylish Spaces of 2026 Are Far From Perfect, “There’s a growing rejection of showroom-perfect interiors in favor of spaces that feel lived-in, layered, and real. Because the most stylish homes right now aren’t chasing perfection – they’re embracing imperfection, and all the charm that comes with it.”
And the trend extends to the hospitality world, too, where photos of real families enjoying vacation spaces, like those taken by “A Mom Explores” family travel writer Emily Krause, who recently stayed at our client Antlers at Vail hotel with her two youngest, capturing the kid-friendly spaces as only real children enjoying an experience can in Krause’s Ultimate Guide to Vail in Winter with Kids for Non-Skiers.