Breaking In

Check out some great work from Robert Brunner.

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

That’s a good question because we do see a lot of portfolios and after you interview a lot of people you can pretty quickly decide if it’s someone you want to see or not. I really just glance through and I know if this person has a possibility of working within our group. There always is a certain base level of skill and ability [we need to see]. The ability to present a piece of work comes through in a portfolio and, for us, there’s also a certain range of aesthetic that we look for that fits within our philosophy. Then it really has to do with a combination of innovative thinking and sophistication. You see a fair number of people developing innovative ideas—something that’s new or different. The ones that are more rare have a sophistication about them that comes through. It’s more than just a crazy idea. It’s progressive and they’re thinking about the context of its use and so forth. We look at the baseline of skills and if there is an aesthetic that makes sense for us and the quality of the innovation. You can see, if you’re going through four projects that someone has done, those threads. Typically then we’ll invite them to talk to us.

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Beats Solo

Robert Brunner founded San Francisco-based design studio Ammunition in 2007 to communicate ideas through products, brands, and their surrounding experiences. His work as an industrial designer has spawned numerous brand-defining designs over the past three decades for clients including Adobe, Beats by Dre, Barnes & Noble, Polaroid, Square, and Williams-Sonoma, among others. Continue reading →

Check out some great work from Laurene Leon Boym.

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

The right portfolio and candidate for us is probably not a typical T-shaped design school graduate, but rather someone who possesses a broad foundation: a technical expertise in a very broad range of skills that we don’t currently have in-house on our team. I call it the A-shaped designer because we are looking for someone who can clearly see conceptual opportunities skyward, then follow the design process to completion because of what they bring to the table when they walk in the door.

I want to knock down the idea that the designs in the portfolio are the only criteria anyone bases their hiring decisions on. We are looking for complementary partners on our team, based on what our clients are requesting. Of equal importance, the individual’s thinking should be fresh and unique to that individual, and not some retread from design magazines, blogs, and trade fairs.

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Vitra Showroom in Chicago. This fast low-budget installation was commissioned for the Neocon presentation at Chicago’s Merchandise Mart.

Laurene Leon Boym was born in New York City in 1964. She earned a BFA from School of Visual Arts in 1984, and a MID from Pratt Institute in 1993. Since 1995, she has been a part of Boym Partners Inc. She was the Designer in Residence at Cooper-Hewitt in 1993. In 1993, her work was the subject of the groundbreaking exhibition Mechanical Brides at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Continue reading →

Check out some great work from Marianne Grisdale.

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

During the height of the worst recession, about a year ago, we had placed an ad on Coroflot and we got over a thousand responses. Part of it was because the ad was for a junior designer. Unfortunately, in our field people like to hire someone with a little bit more experience, so a position available for a junior designer was very rare, and they all jumped at the opportunity. That meant I had to figure out some way to wade through all the applicants because we don’t have a human resources department.

The first thing that I do is to actually read the cover letters. I’m looking to see if the person has enough writing skills to be able to correspond with our clients and kind of understand the intent. You’d be amazed at how poorly written some of these things are. I’d get things that were more like text messages where they don’t capitalize their I’s, they write things like “LOL.” I also look at their résumé. I got some résumés where they put everything they’ve ever done into a résumé that is literally 10 pages, even though they’ve never held an actual design job. I reject that sort of craziness right out of hand. Basically, even before I get to their portfolio, I’ve weeded some people out.

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Working with Mr. Coffee, TEAMS design developed high capacity machines and single serve machines, machines that make an old-fashioned cup of Joe and make specialty coffee drinks.

Marianne Grisdale added over 20 years of experience in consulting design to TEAMS Design’s Chicago office starting in 2007.  TEAMS Design 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. Continue reading →

Check out some great work from Max Burton.

Interviewed while Mr. Burton was Executive Creative Director at frog in San Francisco.

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

For me it’s a very instant read. I know pretty much immediately if it’s in or out. I can do a fairly quick sort of 20 portfolios, narrowing down to the three I like in just a few minutes. I’m looking for work that’s original and beautifully presented. Since I am an industrial designer, the physical form has to be amazing. For what I call the “first read” or the “instant read,” the design must be iconic and memorable. Then there’s the second read, which is where I really get down into who I might choose, and that’s when I dig into their process–making sure they’ve done research and identified a user and a need. Ideally, I like to see an insight discovered during the research phase turned into a solution. This shows a good process and the candidate’s inclination towards empathy. For the third read, I like to see that they’ve demonstrated all the necessary skills and knowledge to be an invaluable industrial designer. This is where I look at prototyping, drawing, rendering, and 3D CAD skills, as well as choices they made on materials and manufacturing techniques.

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Abode Home Security System

Max Burton founded MATTER in San Francisco in 2012. His company focuses on experience design and product innovation. Max has worked as a product, interaction and experience designer for more than two decades with much of his recent career delivering new consumer products and services enabled by emerging technologies. Prior to forming MATTER, Max was the Global Lead for Product Design at frog, the Creative Director for Tech Lab, at Nike, and the VP of product at Smart Design in New York. Continue reading →

Check out some great work from Curt Bailey.

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

I get tons of résumés by email—I’d say 10 to 20 a week, particularly this time of the year around graduation. I try to look at all of the résumés and I do my best to respond to everyone, but I usually get busy on something else and stop responding as they pile up. The good ones I keep on file, the rest I trash.

There are a couple of things that I look for in a portfolio. First of all, there seems to be a rash of irrational aspect ratios in portfolios. What I mean by that is that they are not sized to fit on my computer screen. Instead they are tall and skinny or wide and flat. Consequently, I’m constantly zooming in and out and sliding back and forth. Frankly if I get one of those I usually just trash it right off the bat. Occasionally, I want to print a portfolio so it needs to fit nicely on letter-sized paper.

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Curt Bailey’s three favorite subjects in high school were Art, Auto Shop, and Debate. His guidance counselor thought he would be great at haggling over the price of his paintings in front of a gas station. Instead he chose a career in product development.

Curt is the president of Sundberg-Ferar. Founded in 1934, Sundberg-Ferar is among the world’s first, and longest operating, industrial design consulting firms. SF is a multi-disciplinary team of creative, talented, status-quo-questioning people.  Their energy is focused on the design and development of uniquely differentiated products and experiences. Curt and Sundberg-Ferar have a proven track record of helping customers accomplish their business objectives.  Through the design of great products, they liberate companies to increase profit margins, gain market share, and ultimately build and enhance strong brands. Continue reading →