Breaking In

Check out some great work from Robert Arko.

Interviewed while Mr. Arko was the VP and Creative Director at Coalesse in San Francisco.

What kinds of portfolios get your attention these days, and what brings in a product designer for an interview?

There’s always the random portfolio that’s really inspiring based on a philosophical view of design. Designers work across a broad spectrum and you see that in portfolios. People can be strong in methodology or strong in a skill or strong in a vertical. Furniture design is one vertical. It’s one type of product and in a scope of that vertical one of the things that sets furniture design apart from some other forms of product design is the complete integration of engineering and expression. You cannot separate the two. It’s not a packaging exercise, it’s closer to architecture than other forms of product design.

Then there’s our focus on human-centered design, so people who have strong methodology or background in user-centered practices, where they are taking insights from the real world and translating them, stand in contrast to more formalistic design activities. Of course, they’re both important but I’m looking for that breadth of methodology and experience.

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Robert Arko resides in San Francisco, California where he is a partner at A+O. He focuses on helping client organizations amplify their creative resources and processes to deliver brand narratives, offerings, and experiences that engage customers and transform their business.

Robert joined Coalesse as a founding member in 2007 acting as as the Vice President of Design and Creative Director until his departure in 2014. In that role he was responsible for guiding strategy, brand and all design activities with the goal of transforming three former Steelcase Design Partnership companies into a global brand focussed on the intersection of work and lifestyle serving both commercial and consumer markets. Continue reading →

Check out some great work from Ken Musgrave.

What kinds of portfolios get your attention these days? What brings in an industrial designer for an interview?

The caliber of the portfolio has gotten better and more sophisticated in the last eight to 10 years. It’s truly remarkable how much progress has been made. Most people need to understand that when they are doing their schoolwork, much of the work that they are doing is not just to satisfy the requirements of their university, but also to be able to compete in a global marketplace. Probably 20 years ago you only needed to demonstrate a couple of skills to get your first entry-level job. In fact, back then it was about sketching and, in some sense, about form development. Now we are looking for a lot more demonstrable capabilities in these portfolios, and one of the reasons why we rarely hire someone straight out of school is because we are looking for diversity and experience. Diversity can be solving design problems for a variety of different types of user needs, maybe a variety of different industries, and in a variety of different manufacturing processes. They need to demonstrate that they have experiences that are broad enough to be able to bear the challenges that we have.

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Ken Musgrave has been building and leading Dell‘s Experience Design Competencies, including industrial design, visual identity, and usability. Ken has lead the development of a design competency and design culture at Dell by shifting the strict focus on growth through operational efficiencies. This also included seeing Dell move from being a U.S.-centric manufacturer of computers to being a global source for great product experiences. Ken has been a tireless advocate for the company’s attempt to make sure its products were sustainably designed and responsibly recycled, launching the Re-Generation sustainable design competition that encouraged design pros and educators to explore the trade-offs and contradictions involved in trying to achieve sustainability. Continue reading →

Learn more about Dr. Mark Breitenberg.

What would be your advice to somebody who is considering pursuing industrial design or who is just breaking into the industry fresh from college?

What I hear from employers around the world who are hiring industrial designers is a shift toward the importance of critical thinking and communication skills, as well as having a broad knowledge. They’ll say, “We will teach them the new software, we will teach them the new technical skill, what I really want is someone who is a great thinker and a great communicator in language and in visual media.” Again, that reflects the more diverse, expanded field of areas in which industrial designers can now work. So my advice is to study the liberal arts and sciences as an integrated part of your design education, which is exactly what a good design curriculum should promote.

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Dr. Mark Breitenberg is the Special Assistant to the President of Art Center and Co-founder and Executive Chairman of The Design Accelerator, Inc. He leads Art Center’s new ventures in business and entrepreneurship, plus programs in China. Prior to this post he served as the Provost of California College of the Arts in San Francsico.  Continue reading →

Check out some great work from Rachel Gant and Andrew Deming.

You have had a successful Kickstarter campaign not too long since graduating. Can you talk a bit about that experience and how you see it affecting your long-term goals?

Kickstarter was a natural way for us to put our story out front and convey the personal inspiration that led to the creation of our company and our initial product offering. As a platform, Kickstarter is excellent at tying products to their makers and giving backers a sense that they are investing not just in a product, but in people and in a belief.

Although our first product was a bag, after Kickstarter we began working to offer a much wider range of product categories. In that sense, Kickstarter served as an initial spark, a means of introduction. It also provided some real momentum that helped us break through numerous manufacturing and logistical barriers to get the product into the hands of our first customers.

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Ceramic French Press in Cream

Rachel Gant and Andrew Deming founded Yield in late 2012 in San Francisco. The two met at California College of the Arts (CCA) and launched their brand shortly after finishing school. Rachel completed her degree in Industrial Design after previously studying Architecture at Cal Poly and Andrew received an MBA in Design Strategy after undergraduate studies in Graphic Design. Their complementary skills and experiences allowed the two to design every touchpoint of their brand: from designing and building their ecommerce shops to the design, manufacturing, packaging and logistics behind each individual product.

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Learn more about Craig Vogel.

Can you talk a bit about the benefits of having an internship while in school?

We do not admit students by portfolio. We use the university admissions process of academic performance. In high schools today there aren’t a lot of classes one can take that would necessarily be a good preparation for design. There aren’t many art classes. There aren’t many shop classes or architecture classes in high school. Our students have come in with a very high academic standing. We run them through a very rigorous first two years to prepare them to go out and do co-op. We make sure that they can go into a professional setting and make a contribution. That required us to accelerate the content of our foundation and second-year courses to include more than other design programs. The program takes five years to complete.

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Craig Vogel is the director of the Center for Design Research and Innovation in the college of Design Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP) in the University of Cincinnati (UC). He is also a professor in the School of Design with an appointment in Industrial Design. He is a Fellow, Past President Elect and Chair of the Board of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA). He is co-author of the book, Creating Breakthrough Products, Financial Times, Prentice Hall, with Professor Jonathan Cagan, and he is one of three authors of the book on innovation and organic growth, Design of Things to Come, released in June 2005. Continue reading →