Breaking In

Check out some great work from DesignworksUSA.

Interviewed while Mr. Brooker was General Manager at frog in Austin, Texas.

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

If I’m looking primarily at automotive designers, then I’m looking for someone with flare in styling capabilities as opposed to product design capabilities. Someone who understands form language, someone who understands how highlights travel across the vehicle, someone who understands interiors and how that whole thing comes together. There is a little bit of different thinking that you’re looking for in someone coming in-house, as opposed to someone coming into the consultancy where you’re looking for a little bit of the flash in the presentation capabilities to win over a client. There are subtle differences, depending on the side of the fence you’re sitting on.

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Singapore Airlines First Class Cabin Design from BMW Group Designworks on Vimeo.

Neil Brooker serves as Global Director at DesignworksUSA, Inc. Prior to joining DesignworksUSA, Mr. Brooker served as General Manager of frog design in Austin, Texas. He was also COO and Managing Director at Ken Okuyama Design and President of T3 Motion. Prior to that, he was the Head of Planning, Operations, Modeling and Development Programs at Porsche AG. During his three-year tenure he initiated and implemented the strategy for expanding Porsche’s client design consulting business to the west coast and worked on advanced Porsche concept vehicles and production programs. Continue reading →

Check out some great work from Designit.

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

If they are right out of school, then we are only looking for talent. It doesn’t matter if they have experience or not, talent matters the most. We have a philosophy in hiring people at Designit that transcends everything, and that is our employment mantra: chemistry, chemistry, competence. To us collaboration is everything, especially because we are so globally dispersed—just in Denmark we have two offices. We need to be able to work across cultures, across time zones, across language barriers—so the chemistry has to be right. We need to have a perfect chemical balance between the people. That’s more important than anything, than talent, than experience.

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Will we be immortal in the future? from Designit on Vimeo.

Designit was founded in Denmark in 1991 by David Fellah and two fellow industrial designers with a common vision: to deliver new solutions to old problems, and to help businesses rethink, transform and improve the way they create business value. Designit specializes in translating user needs into compelling products, services and experiences. Now Europe’s largest strategic design and innovation company, Designit has 12 studios in nine countries across Europe, Brazil, China and Israel, and a long list of design awards to its credit. Continue reading →

Check out some great work from Moray Callum and his team at Ford.

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

I think what’s changed a lot is people’s abilities in terms of skill levels and different techniques. Obviously, it’s not just looking at sketches but has a lot to do with their ability to create those in 3D and ability to use additional programs. There is a technical level we look for and flexibility within that level. We don’t want a person who can just do one thing, we need a range of abilities.

We are looking for creativity and new ideas. I like to see a chronology through the portfolio. If they’ve been in college for three or four years, I’d like to see where they’ve started and how they’ve developed throughout these years. You can tell a lot about a designer through the range of improvement, and it’s also kind of interesting to look at. The appropriateness of design is also important. A lot of designers tend to design for themselves and they need to realize you’re not designing a car for yourself. You’re designing not just for a specific brand, but for specific clientele and the tastes that they have. It’s an ability to put themselves in their customer’s shoes and those of the employer they may be working for—the ability to design appropriate to the customer and appropriate to the brand.

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Moray Callum is vice president of Design at Ford Motor Company. In this capacity, Callum leads the design of all concept and production vehicles for the Ford and Lincoln brands globally. He reports to Raj Nair, group vice president, Global Product Development. Since 2006, as executive director, Design, The Americas, Callum has had overall responsibility for the design of all cars and trucks created in Ford’s North and South America studios and the new Lincoln products. His successes include the new Ford Fusion, Explorer, Mustang, EcoSport and Lincoln MKZ. Continue reading →

Check out some great work from Anton Ljunggren.

As you’re looking to grow your team, what kinds of industrial design portfolios would get your attention? What would bring in an industrial designer for an interview?

As a start-up with a smaller team, we look for multifaceted individuals who can play different roles at different stages of the process. In contrast to a consultant, we define our own projects, plan our own product pipeline, and set up our own timelines. That means there are great opportunities to affect the direction of the business, which in turn means a lot of responsibility. We look for all the basic skills of the trade such as research, sketching, and most importantly, the ability to identify an opportunity, understand any potential challenges, and solve for them through great design. Passion, curiosity, and self-motivation are other essential qualities as we look to grow our team.

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Anton Ljunggren is a designer with a passion to optimize the way we interact with the world around us. Anton has created strategy, branding and product design for fortune 100 companies and startups alike. He’s designed over 100 products more than half of which have successfully gone to market, earning him more than a dozen utility patents and numerous design awards including Red Dot, FastCo, IDSA, iF and Core77. An industrial designer by training Anton applies a user centric design methodology honed over hundreds of ethnographic interviews conducted in the US, Europe, Asia and Africa. Continue reading →

Check out some great work from Cathy Karry.

Interviewed while Cathy was the Director of Career and Professional Development at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

Industrial design is such a broad field with many options. How would you suggest students best prepare their portfolios for the job they want?

Prepare a list of companies they aspire to work for, research what is important to a company, the types of projects showcased on their site, and the skills requested on job postings. Then, revisit their portfolio to determine if there are any gaps in skill sets. Showcase relevant personal projects, the projects that show ambition and passion, while making sure the craftsmanship is just as stellar as school studio assignments.

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Cathy Karry has 20 years of experience in corporate recruiting, industry relations and career development with proven results in creating deep industry partnerships.

Cathy was previously the Sales and Operations Manager at a Fortune 500 global recruitment firm, and for the past 14 years, served as the Director of Career and Professional Development at Art Center College of Design and the Director of Career Services and Educational Partnerships at Detroit’s College for Creative Studies. Continue reading →