Breaking In

Check out some great work from Michael DiTullo.

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

MD: I’m seeing so many portfolios that are merely adequate. They are filled with projects that seem designed to show skills. When I close a portfolio like that I think to myself that this person has everything on the checklist and yet there’s nothing I can remember in the portfolio, nothing that stands out. What I look for right away on a quick flip-through of a portfolio is a project that is memorable and stands out as being exemplary of that individual’s personality, ethic, and philosophy. Is there something that makes me say, “Oh that was the girl who did this…” or something that doesn’t feel like an academic school exercise that was given by a professor? It’s not any one particular thing that I’m looking for, rather something that feels like it came from the root of who the person is.

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Nue Era

As Chief Design Officer of Sound United, Michael DiTullo is passionate advocate as well as experienced practitioner of design. There he is responsible for ethnographic research, product definition, product line management, design strategy, brand positioning, industrial design, and marketing creative for the Definitive, Polk, and BOOM brands. In addition to his work at Sound United he is a contributor for the well-known design resource, core77.com. He lectures at corporations, universities, and conferences on the effect, value, and how-to’s of design. Continue reading →

Check out some great work from Pam Nyberg.

Interviewed while Ms.Nyberg was the Director of Strategy at Thrive, in Atlanta.

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

PN: The portfolios that attract the most attention demonstrate solid design skills throughout the design process and an ability to inform their work with human-centered design research. Being at a consultancy, we never know who the next client will be so we need folks who have a range of skills, everything from masterful sketching skills to knowledge of commonly used CAD programs. We also like to see people who can specifically demonstrate form intelligence, an understanding of materials, and knowledge of manufacturing processes, all of which are difficult to find in more junior candidates. Added candidate bonuses include experience with other cultures and basic business knowledge, even if it’s just based on taking several marketing classes. This exposure to business enables them to have conversations in the language of business, and it sensitizes them to the challenges their business-focused colleagues must address.

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Pam led the design management and research informing multi-platform, multi brand product development for Whirlpool’s new refrigerator platform.

Pam Nyberg, IDSA, DMI is the Director of Experience Design at Humana. She has 18 years of global consulting and corporate experience in human centered design, innovation strategy development, design education and design management. During her career, she’s led research, strategy, product, and platform development projects for employers including Whirlpool, Doblin, Procter & Gamble, Newell Rubbermaid, Thrive, and IDEO. Her design-related client list has included companies such as HP, McDonalds, Microsoft, Eli Lilly, Pepsi, Philips, Steelcase, SC Johnson, Boeing, and SK Telecom. Continue reading →

Check out some great work from Matt Corrall.

Interviewed while Mr. Corrall was Senior ID Designer at Kinneir Dufort in Bristol, United Kingdom.

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

MC: It will depend on what kind of role we’re looking to fill. Some designers at KD [Kinneir Dufort] work mostly at the conceptual, innovation-focused end of the design process, some work mainly on mechanical design and development for manufacture, then there are some that work right across the board. At KD my work is most often at the front-end, so that’s the kind of role I’m more likely to be interviewing for. If I’m interviewing a candidate, I would want to see evidence of certain skills and working process captured in their portfolio. Evidence of innovative thinking and problem solving, the ability to interpret research, empathize with users, and work harmoniously with other disciplines such as engineering. Then in terms of core design skills: sketching, model-making, CAD, and understanding of manufacturing processes.

I also try to get an idea of how this person thinks, what their personal working process is like. Several times in the past I’ve received portfolios which have beautiful finished renderings of design work, but don’t tell me the story behind the design. What I’m more interested in seeing is how the designer arrived at that rendering—I want to see sketches, prototypes, and the design development to really get an idea of how this person works and how they think—not just the end result. I’m really interested in the story.

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Duplo Airport Rescue Truck

Matt Corrall is Lead User Experience (UX) Designer at DNV GL, one of the world’s foremost experts in the field of renewable energy, and is creating the next generation of software products for the wind turbine industry. With a background in industrial design, his broad portfolio includes everything from home appliances, mobile phones and toys, to innovations in smart energy monitoring, low environmental impact packaging and even wearble tech for racehorses. Matt’s work has been featured on Core77, Behance and in Korean quarterly Magazine B.

Matt graduated from the University of Northumbria in the UK in 2003 and moved to Denmark to work as a children’s toy designer for Lego. Over the next three years, he helped bring several successful Lego product ranges to market including Duplo Castle, Pirates and Airport toys. Continue reading →

Check out some great work from Maarten Baas.

AH: Your work blurs the line between art and design. Can you discuss your approach and share an example of challenges that you face in designing for a very niche market?

MB: I don’t design for a niche market. Some products end up in a niche market, and that’s quite a difference. Since I don’t design for a specific market, there are also no specific challenges. This “limited edition” design world is something quite funny. It seems there’s not enough trust or appreciation for things that are defined to be “design,” so the prices often don’t cover the high costs that it takes to create them. I think it’s ridiculous how people stick so much to only a definition. Personally, I like to be a sidekick in this circus, by making a limited-edition grandfather clock, as well as an iPhone app of the same thing available for 99 cents. It’s strategy. It’s the most stupid thing to do, but artistically, the only thing I want, because both clocks needed to be executed in that way.

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SMOKE Chaise Lounge: Pieces of furniture are literally burned, after which they are preserved in a clear epoxy coating. Except for three baroque products, which are reproduced by the Dutch label Moooi, all Smoke products come from the Baas & den Herder studio in The Netherlands.

Dutch designer Maarten Baas was born in Arnsberg, Germany and moved to The Netherlands in 1979 where he grew up. Upon graduating from high school in 1995 he began his studies at the prestigious Design Academy Eindhoven. Baas designed the candleholder Knuckle, which was taken into production by Pols’ Potten, while he was still studying. In 2000 he studied for several months at the Politecnico di Milano, in Milan.

In June 2002 he graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven with two concepts. One of them being the now famous and generally known Smoke series, for which Baas charred furniture and treated the torched skeletons with a coating, turning them into useable pieces of furniture again. Continue reading →

Check out some great work from Paul Hatch.

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

PH: There’s the obvious: looking for a well-rounded set of skills. For the junior designer, we need to see the skills demonstrated, but the most important thing is to see the “right” thinking. The type of thinking that has the ability to explore and find multiple solutions, and chose the right path—the demonstration of using both the left and right half of your brain. The ability to explore and feel your way around a problem, using a certain amount of empathy and a general sense of optimism that show multiple solutions to a problem.

Finding those solutions, whether they are for styling or practical solutions, is a very creative process. Then you’ve got to use the other half of the brain to show rational judgment on how they can be combined and how you can make something better. When it comes down to the portfolio, we are looking for the sort of person who can already show that ability to look at multiple paths simultaneously and be able to use rational judgment to find the best one.

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Bosch Visual Brand Language

Paul Hatch opened TEAMS Design in Chicago in 1998, the first satellite of the German firm founded in 1956. TEAMS Design now has five branches worldwide, over 90 industrial designers and has received over 1000 Design awards. The firm works with many global corporations including Bosch, Chrysler, Honeywell, Jarden, and Bissell. TEAMS Design is known for designing entire product lines and Product Strategies that strengthen brands in local and international markets.

Paul has spoken at many conferences around the world.  In August 2013 Paul was Chair of the International  Conference for IDSA (Industrial Design Society of America), which featured speakers such as Dean Kamen, Jonathan Ive and Microsoft’s Bill Buxton. Continue reading →