Breaking In

Check out some great work from Jerome Mage.

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

Number one, they should be short. Everyone is very busy these days. I’d like to see a lot of hand sketching and things that are a bit different, whatever different means. Could be the project the person has worked on, the way it’s presented, something that shows a personal conviction. At the end of the day, there are more and more designers, more and more design schools and I don’t think they do a good job at filtering people that are going through.

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Friends Headphones: A new statement piece in women’s accessories; turn the sidewalk into a catwalk with this over-ear headphone.

At 20 years old Jerome Mage left france to come to live indefinitely in Los Angeles, California where he quickly found himself in charge of the creative direction of a major action sports eyewear company, Spy Optic. An expert in mixing fashion and technology, he founded his design agency, Mage Design, in 2001. Since then, he has built a client list of devoted action sports, eyewear and luxury good companies including Burton, IVI and March la.b. Continue reading →

Check out some great work from Brian Ling.

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

It depends on the position level of the designer applying for the job. At the junior to mid-level, I would expect to see portfolios that show a lot of the designer’s thinking process. You really don’t have a lot of time to get to know a candidate as most interviews last an hour, so you can’t really tell if they are completely up to par. However I’ve found that designers who can articulate their thinking process make good hires. I’ve found that the thinking is the most important characteristic.

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Brian Ling is an award winning design leader, specialising in strategic design and realisation programs that drive successful organisations such as Fairchild Semiconductor (USA), AIS Telecom (Thailand), MOS Burger (Taiwan), Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR, Singapore), Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (Singapore), Dell, Philips, GE, and Hewlett-Packard.

Brian is an expert in Design Strategy, Design Thinking, Design Management and Industrial Design. His 18-year career spans in the creation, management and leadership of global portfolios of products and services in multiple domains such as consumer electronics, healthcare service solutions, websites, homewear and cutlery, stationary, domestic appliances, whisky bottles, retail solutions and best in class service experiences. Continue reading →

Check out some great work from Matthew Paprocki.

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

My first impression is always based on what I see visually. How do their final designs look? If it catches my eye, then I look deeper for innovative and appropriate features and functionality. How smart are their designs? How will people use the products? How will the designs communicate their value at retail and through marketing? I look to see if a designer can tell a story with their designs and demonstrate how they could live in the real world.

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Soundfreaq Pocket Kick

Matthew Paprocki is the Founder of Goodhatch, a product and brand incubator that collaborates with partners to launch new businesses. Goodhatch’s initial ventures have focused on the consumer electronics audio space with Soundfreaq, G-Project and Capello.

In November 2010, Paprocki co-founded and launched Soundfreaq, a critically acclaimed wireless speaker company. Paprocki serves as the Creative Director of Soundfreaq and leads design and development of the product and brand experience. His knowledge and experience in the consumer electronics space has helped Soundfreaq launch a line of award-winning Bluetooth speakers that have been included in WIRED magazine’s “Gear of the Year” and been honored as “Best in Show” at CES from iLounge in both 2012 and 2013. Continue reading →

Check out some great work from Mike & Maaike.

Interviewed before Mike and Maaike was acquired by Google.

What motivated you to open your own design studio?

We wanted to create an independent and experimental design studio that works on a broad range of subjects. Prior to starting Mike & Maaike, we had both worked for industrial design firms and gained a lot of experience. We were excited to combine this experience with an optimism and energy that we had both maintained through our careers.We also wanted the studio to be very personal. We didn’t want to just churn out as many projects as possible and do whatever we were asked. For this reason, we named the studio Mike & Maaike. Having your name attached to your work makes you think differently about the work you produce and makes everything more authentic.

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Designed by Astro Studios in collaboration with Mike Simonian of Mike and Maaike.

Mike Simonian is the co-founder of the progressive industrial design studio Mike & Maaike and was recently named in Fast Company’s 2012 list of 100 most creative people in business. With true California spirit, Simonian brings a progressive perspective to design, marked by experimentation, substance and conceptual narratives as natural elements of his work. He spearheaded an alternative consulting formula that has shaped Mike & Maaike as a design laboratory where self-initiated projects and client projects inform and influence each other. Mike & Maaike have recently joined forces with Google where they are building an industrial design team and interpreting new technologies. Continue reading →

Check out some great work from Boombang.

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

The first thing that catches my eye is usually the craft. Traditionally, in industrial design there is some type of form giving, so the ability to create a visually compelling and well-crafted presentation certainly catches my eye. Then, I move pretty quickly to understand their motivations, strategic process, and rationalization frameworks. If, upon first glance, I see poor sketching, renderings, or form development it’s a turnoff. However, if they are applying for a research or strategy position, then I would reverse the order of importance.

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Bringing radical innovation to the $10 billion X-ray industry.

Tylor Garland, Founder and CEO of Boombang, an Innovation Agency / Venture Incubator based in Los Angeles, California, has spent his career developing a proven, deeply integrated methodology to launching products, brands and business strategies, which translates as well in boardrooms as it does in creative war rooms. His work has been featured in Wired, GQ, and Fortune Magazine, and has been on display at the MoMA and the Whitney, receiving numerous awards including recognition from IDSA and Red Dot.  Continue reading →