(1) How do designers
work? In teams? Alone? For large companies? For themselves?
Designers work in
many different environments: sometimes alone, mostly in teams (both
small and big.) Each design job is different and which means that
each requires a different cast of characters.
- Laurene Leon, Designer, Principal [what is your preferred title?],
Boym Studio, New York City
Talking, thinking
, sketching, detailing. The "team" school project is rarely
repeated in the working world. Your team becomes you (the designer)
a marketing person, an engineer and QC or purchasing.
- Judy Riley, Design Manager, Timex Corporation
(2) What kind of education produces the best designers? Where are
the strongest programs?
Programs having a
large faculty that include adjunct (part-time) practitioners are usually
the strongest. A thorough emphasis on materials and processes (production
methods) is also a plus.
- Nancy Perkins, President, Perkins Design Ltd.
I don't think the
"school" produces the best designer. No matter where they
study, students still need to graduate with great sketches, good reasoning
and problem solving ability, a good attitude and a burning desire
to design something!
- Judy Riley
(3) What should be in a portfolio?
I like portfolios
that are quite plain from the outside, sized 11"X14". This
can be a zero degree vernacular fake leather thirty dollar job. It's
great to open one and find a jewel.
Contents for portfolios
vary. If it's your first design job after school, any reasonable employer
will expect documentation of four completed school or internship projects.
The projects you choose to display should emphasize your process,
creativity and skills. Portfolios with only photos of finished models
leave your prospective employer clueless.
A really good portfolio
project would have contents like this:
-Not more than 2 pages of documentation
-A clear picture of your finished model
-A dimensioned mechanical drawing of several different views of your
model (computer drawings are ok)
-Good photos or photocopies of 2D & 3D sketches
-Additional research, color copies of presentation boards, if applicable
A really good general
design portfolio would have contents like this:
-A tabletop object
-An animated sequence describing the interface for a web site
-A solar powered car (group project)
-A modular display system made of green materials
-A universal design series of garden tools
The perfect candidate
for a position at my office would offer this:
-Macintosh-literacy. Fluency in Adobe Illustrator, Quark XPress, Ashlar
Vellum and Adobe Photoshop.
-Creativity. Unusual solutions to problems. Alluring application of
materials. Use of high and low technology
-Common Sense
-Good form vocabulary
-Design with an economy of means
- Laurene Leon
(4) Job market: What and where are the best jobs for recent grads?
A company with on-site
manufacturing is a plus right out of school. Products that interest
the individual will be the most fun and will spark one's creativity.
- Judy Riley
Organizations where
a variety of skills can be learned from a variety of people. Where
you can participate at many levels of the organization's programs
- (as opposed to being segregated.)
- Nancy Perkins
(5) Reading list for industrial designers?
Abitare, Business
Week, Contract, FX International, I.D. Magazine, INNOVATION, Machine
Design, Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry, Metropolis, OZ Graphix,
Visual Merchandising & Store Design.
- Nancy Perkins
Anything but design
magazines and books! In my family of industrial designers, that can
be post-structuralist philosophy, cultural theory, fashion magazines
or good fiction. Reading should go beyond books. Explore nightclubs,
watch TV, work out and go to museums regularly.
- Laurene Leon
Raising Your Spirited
Child offers good insight into the reasons for certain behaviors.
Visual references are a must: ID Magazine - not much inspiration anymore,
Car Styling - still good, HOW, Wired, interior magazines.
- Judy Riley
(6) What are the particular challenges that face women designers
in the male-dominated field of industrial design?
I think clients are
more willing to hire female designers than ever before. The women's
movement helped design, too! I think at work and interoffice relationships
there are different codes of behavior for male and female designers.
Male bosses tend to be harsher on women designers with sexist jargon,
for example: she's not good at detail work!
Bad design has no
gender! If anything women are better and more observant consumers
than men--being the traditional caretakers of tribes, households and
families. They can contribute to better product analysis, greater
ideation skills, purer form !
- Laurene Leon
Boring meetings?!
We have one man and five women designers in our office so I don't
know the answer to that question anymore!
- Judy Riley
(7) What should the public understand about industrial design?
Design is a constantly
evolving profession. Because of new technologies , boundaries among
types of design practice are more blurred than ever before. There
are graphic designers designing exhibitions, architects designing
furniture, fashion designers designing perfume bottles, and industrial
designers designing web sites.
- Laurene Leon
When they purchase
a product they encourage the proliferation of like products.
- Judy Riley
