INNOVATION Winter 2018: Education Review

QUARTERLY OF THE INDUSTRIAL DESIGNERS SOCIETY OF AMERICA

2018 Education Review

WINTER 2018

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QUARTERLY OF THE INDUSTRIAL DESIGNERS SOCIETY OF AMERICA

WINTER 2018 ®

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The quarterly publication of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), INNOVATION provides in-depth coverage of design issues and long-term trends while communicating the value of design to business and society at large.

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2018 EDUCATION REVIEW

IDSA AMBASSADORS

4 IDSA HQ

By Chris Livaudais, IDSA

12 The Value of Lab-Engaged ID: Designing a Fog- Harvesting Harp

3M Design, St. Paul, MN

Covestro, Pittsburgh, PA

5 From the Editor

By Mark Dziersk, FIDSA

7 Book Review 8 Beautility

By Tucker Viemeister, FIDSA

By Brook Kennedy, co-authored by Dr. Jonathan Boreyko and Weiwei Shi

Cesaroni Design Associates Inc., Glenview, IL; Santa Barbara, CA Crown Equipment, New Bremen, OH

16 IDSA Education Honors

Eastman Chemical Co., Kingsport, TN

18 Scholarship Recipients

McAndrews, Held & Malloy, Ltd., Chicago, IL

10 Design Defined

By Kellie Walters, IDSA and Betsy Barnhart

Metaphase Design Group Inc., St. Louis, MO Techmer PM, Clinton, TN TEAGUE, Seattle, WA THRIVE, Atlanta, GA Tupperware, Orlando, FL

2018 Student Merit Winners Charter supporters indicated in bold.

19 Best of the Best

Introduction by Raja Schaar, IDSA

20 Graduate SMA Winners

For more information about becoming an Ambassador, please contact IDSA at 703.707.6000.

28 Central District Undergraduate SMA Winner 30 Central School-Based SMA Winners 36 Midwest District Undergraduate SMA Winner 38 Midwest School-Based SMA Winners 45 Northeast District Undergraduate SMA Winner 48 Northeast School-Based SMA Winners 58 South District Undergraduate SMA Winner 60 South School-Based SMA Winners 66 West District Undergraduate SMA Winner 68 West School-Based SMA Winners

Left: Sketch by Casey Little, IDSA, SMA winner from Columbus College of Art and Design, page 32.

QUARTERLY OF THE INDUSTRIAL DESIGNERS SOCIETY OF AMERICA INNOVATION 2018 EDUCATION REVIEW

2018 Education Review

WINTER 2018

Cover photo: Design by Scotty Paton, IDSA, SMA winner from Western Washington University, page 76.

WINTER 2018

INNOVATION is the quarterly journal of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), the professional organization serving the needs of US industrial designers. Reproduction in whole or in part—in any form—without the written permission of the publisher is prohibited. The opinions expressed in the bylined articles are those of the writers and not necessarily those of IDSA. IDSA reserves the right to decline any advertisement that is contrary to the mission, goals and guiding principles of the Society. The appearance of an ad does not constitute an endorsement by IDSA. All design and photo credits are listed as provided by the submitter. INNOVATION is printed on recycled paper with soy-based inks. The use of IDSA and FIDSA after a name is a registered collective membership mark. INNOVATION (ISSN No. 0731-2334 and USPS No. 0016-067) is published quarterly by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA)/INNOVATION, 555 Grove St., Suite 200, Herndon, VA 20170.

Periodical postage at Sterling, VA 20164 and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to IDSA/INNOVATION, 555 Grove St., Suite 200, Herndon, VA 20170, USA. ©2018 Industrial Designers Society of America. Vol. 37, No. 4, 2018; Library of Congress Catalog No. 82-640971; ISSN No. 0731-2334; USPS 0016-067.

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ArtCenter College of Design Drexel University IDC 2019 IDEA 2019 IDSA/Eastman Innovation Lab Education Symposium LUNAR University of Houston

INNOVATION WINTER 2018

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I D S A HQ

THE VALUE EQUATION

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n this issue of INNOVATION we focus on one of IDSA’s Education core pillars: education. Specifically, on education at the Providing meaningful learning and professional undergraduate and graduate level where individuals are development opportunity. in the early stages of their professional journey. They are honing their foundational skills like sketching, user research and CAD modeling. They are digging deep into theoretical design methodologies and exploring the interconnected Information Advocacy power of cross-disciplinary design. These learnings will Delivering relevant, Connecting the value of prove to be invaluable during their future careers, but what valuable, accurate and industrial design to thoughtful content. business and society. happens in the years come post-graduation? How do industrial designers continue to learn while simultaneously working and excelling as a professional designer?

This is where IDSA continues to fulfill our mission with the delivery of Community It’s this ‘by us, for us’ sustained and meaningful professional Fostering in-person engagement, networking and development opportunities. Most mentality that will drive knowledge exchange. typically, these come in the form of in-person events held throughout the much our future initiatives year in cities across the country. But all in the professional through our history, IDSA headquarters based on experiential learning occasions has supplemented chapter events development space. where knowledge is embedded and with educational content spanning a shared by virtue of participation. It is a wide-range of formats including webinars, white papers, combination of many factors to create a sum greater than case studies, mentorship programs, workshops, design its parts. Just as in a design project, an amalgamation of charrettes, podcasts and more. With each iteration, we several influences is often required to create a single and strive to leverage the vast network of our community in the elegant solution. The same can be said for professional creation of educational programming derived directly from development, where a one-size-fits-all solution likely won’t subject-matter experts. work or a singular program might only hold relevance for It’s this “by us, for us” mentality that will drive much a short window of time before needing a refresh. This is our future initiatives in the professional development space. compounded when the entire arc of a career is considered— One example of this is the in-situation workshops we’ve the needs of a young designer just getting started are vastly conducted as part of our ongoing Medical Design Deep different from those of a seasoned professional who may be Dive event series. These highly interactive sessions, which in search of highly-specialized content. are unique to IDSA, focus on design research techniques In case you were wondering, community, information for studying workflow, task analysis, contextual inquiry, and advocacy join education to make up IDSA’s four-pillar ergonomics, experience mapping and more. What makes architecture. These verticals provide the framework for them a truly valuable educational experience is settings like much of the programming and experiences you receive the Boston Children’s Hospital Simulation Center where as a member of our Society. Our task is in harmonizing participants engage in life-like medical simulations while that content across each pillar to provide you with access learning new skills. Our most recent classes were taught by to unique and valuable career-advancing resources. As BlackHägen Design and IDSA Ambassador, THRIVE. Both the industrial design profession evolves, so too must sessions were sold out. Who better to learn from than those our approach to continuing professional education. We’re who are actively shaping (and breaking) the walls of their learning how to be nimble and adaptive while keeping our design domains? sights set on supporting and empowering our most valuable I believe educational value will become increasingly resource: you.

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—Chris Livaudais, IDSA, Executive Director, chrisl@idsa.org

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FROM TH E EDITOR

DESIGN EDUCATION UNBOUNDED Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school. “ ”

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’m not about to challenge Einstein on that one, or on any idea of his for that matter. But the thing is, for designers especially, once you graduate you use most of what you’ve learned every day. So there’s not too much to forget. Maybe that’s one of the things that makes and keeps designers so motivated—that dense packing of experience and the ability to use what you’ve been taught both immediately and forever. When I went to school, college that is, nothing was more important to me than the fact that I was learning.

And learning meant that every possibility was available to me because I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I was at the University of Michigan, and I had some great teachers in the art school there. One I will never forget is Professor Richard Sears, who was my foundation-year life drawing teacher and an amazing artist himself. A quiet and plain-spoken man, he would walk behind me not saying much, looking over my shoulder from time to time, but if I turned around quickly, I would usually catch him shaking his head, not up and down but side to side in an obviously not pleased sort of way.

That motivated me, and I vowed to learn what I didn’t know so that I could see and draw in a more natural way.

He helped me with small suggestions here and there, and I persisted. One day I finished a drawing and leaned back in my chair to review it. I felt him behind me. I turned around and as he pulled out a hand-rolled cigarette and lit it up I heard him say, “Perhaps you’d better sign that one,” and then he walked away. It was easily the best moment of my first year; in fact, it might have been the best moment of my young life. He was really smart in his approach to teaching me, and it worked. That’s what a really good design educator can do. I felt like I had really learned from him. Another really smart person, Benjamin Franklin, once said, “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” Richard Sears made me feel like he was involved, that we were connected.

It’s an important point because design as a profession is growing at a tremendous rate. Design and art schools are full, some with record enrollment. Staying involved is going to become harder for both students and professors.

Wikipedia says that design education is “the teach-

—Albert Einstein

ing of theory and application in the design of products, services and environments” and that it “encompasses various disciplines of design, such as architecture, landscape architecture, graphic design, user interface design, web design, packaging design, industrial design, fashion design, information design, interior design, sustainable design, transgenerational design, and universal design.”

Wow. It then goes on to make the point that “having a complete design education can lead to professions such as architect, graphic designer, UX designer, creative director, art director, content strategist, web designer, web developer, illustrator, information architect, interior designer, visual designer, service designer, UI designer and wireframe architect.”

Phew. That’s a lot of people and a lot of creative career possibilities. It also points to the tremendous opportunity for growth in front of this profession, but what Wikipedia is leaving out is the larger audience for design that is occurring as well. Business schools and liberal arts colleges are beginning to teach design thinking, which soon will even further expand the bounds of design education.

That’s right around the corner for sure, and the more the merrier should be our outlook. If everybody has a better understanding of design and participates in it in some way, it can only be good for the profession. There has to be a smart way in the future to ensure everyone who wants to be can be involved. For now, we are going to stop at spotlighting some outstanding students from across the country to capture the pulse of what’s going on at design schools and the next generation of designers and the professors who mentor them. Flipping through these pages is a reminder of why we became designers in the first place.

This issue of INNOVATION is dedicated to education. I love the collection of outstanding design we publish in the fall Yearbook. That said, sometimes I like this issue even better because we get to see the sketches and models that led to the answers profiled on each page. I feel involved. And being involved means everything. So, please enjoy this issue and, as they say, never graduate and be loyal to your school and the profession!

Go Blue! ;-) —Mark Dziersk, FIDSA, INNOVATION Executive Editor mark@lunar.com

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CHICAGO 2019

B O O K RE V I E W

WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM: THE NATURAL HISTORY OF INNOVATION

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here Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson is one of my all-time favorite books. It’s not new, having come out in 2010, but it contains a timeless set of observations that with each read I get something new out of it.

Johnson is a prolific author of 10 books, so far, about creativity, thinking, culture and play. Where Good Ideas Come From is about how creative ideas are formed and brought into being to become innovations. Innovations are creativity reduced to practice, in other words, creativity made useful. This book outlines how that happens in seven diverse and interesting chapters. Introduced by an intriguing overture entitled “Reef, City, Web,” Johnson wets our appetite with expert storytelling with Charles Darwin making observations about a reef in the middle of the ocean, a bit on the relative size of animals and a taste of how cities increase in complexity. When he introduces these unrelated elements, you can’t help but wonder where he is going. Trust me, it only gets better.

Chapter 1 is about the adjacent possible, a theory that describes how innovations happen—often in isolation only later to become connected through discovery by individuals and teams. This causes the eventual unlocking of potential and enabling of inspiration as these separate innovations enable new ideas. OK, it’s a little hard to explain in two sentences, which is why you need to get this book.

Johnson expertly explains it while at the same time engaging the reader with new and familiar stories and real-world examples, mostly from the aughts. But the thing is, the seven chapters outline principles that really are timeless. We learn about amazing things, like how a stroll through the zoo in Paris inspired the creation of the hospital incubator used to save premature babies and how the Apollo 13 astronauts were able to get out of their potentially disastrous jeopardy up in space.

Next come chapters entitled “Liquid Networks” and “The Slow Hunch.” These contain equally interesting theories expertly presented through familiar inventions and moments of discovery. Examples here include such amazing vehicles

for understanding how innovation is trafficked at the famous Building 20 at MIT and the creation of the internet. Johnson show us how liquid networks connect people and ideas and promote innovation more quickly. He then shifts gears and explains that “slow hunch” means exactly what you might think: that even what appears to be a quick moment of discovery is often the result of a long period of gestation. The chapters on serendipity, error, exaptation and platforms round out the book, and together all seven serve as a framing tool that Johnson uses to explain, well, where good ideas come from. It’s all brought together in the conclusion with a brilliant summary called “The Fourth Quadrant.”

The book is full of interest and excitement and inventive ideas of note, from the creation of the graphical user interface to YouTube, from Google to Apple, from Sigmund Freud to the aforementioned Darwin, who figures prominently throughout, especially in the ending. What was the formation of that reef about after all? This book ties it all together and makes collective sense out of the fascinating and sometimes unexpected causes of innovation.

Speaking of tying it all together, especially impressive is Johnson’s skillful and exhaustive research. The stories and examples featured in the book are drawn from all sorts of resources and origins, from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention to Howard Gruber’s psychological study of scientific creativity, Darwin on Man. The notes and further reading sandwiched between the appendix and the bibliography are as interesting to read as any of the chapters.

This is truly a unique book—at times part story, part textbook, part theory, but always interesting and informative. Most of all, you will be surprised at how useful and actionable the knowledge is. I have used the book to lead design teams, to make management decisions and to teach as well. As I mentioned in the beginning, I recommend that you read Where Good Ideas Come From and then return to it over and over again. I know that I get something new out of it every time I do.

—Mark Dziersk, FIDSA, INNOVATION Executive Editor mark@lunar.com

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BE A U T I LI TY

HOT & COLD

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from with a scientific approach: hypothesis, experiment e’re super happy about the high profile of design and test (“design science” as Steve Wilcox, FIDSA, says). these days, and it’s good to see so much beauty The designer’s goal is to build real solutions by juggling in the IDEA winners this year! “Perfection is the complex and contradictory ideas (as Robert Venturi and enemy of good,” Chris Livaudais, IDSA executive director, Denise Scott Brown learned from Las Vegas). Entrepreneurs quoted Voltaire in the Yearbook of Design Excellence. I see and designers are lifelong learners, always studying a lot two other enemies to good design. One is what we are of things at once, because the knowledge to make it work learning about the heating of the climate, and the other is the may come from anywhere! Designers have “the eye, energy cold popularity of design thinking. As Larry Keeley warned and willingness to go to the ends of the earth to make some us designers decades ago at Mike and Kathy McCoy’s miracles happen!” says founder of the High Ground conference out in Colorado, Best Made Co., Peter Buchanan-Smith.

“There’s runaway train called ‘innovation’ These new design-thinking capitalists Design thinking is headed down the tracks straight for us,” often have the upper hand and are very and it’s full of businesspeople! articulate and persuasive and powerful.

Design thinking is all the rage, great—but that’s not They see their job as pitching ideas, replacing critical thinking. According to how designers think! making bets, trimming waste, fighting the internet: “Design Thinking is a design —Celso Santos regulations and hitting the jackpot. They methodology that provides a solutionhold the power of accounting in their based approach to solving problems.” hands. Their solutions are based mostly on bottom-line It’s a good strategy for businesspeople who are usually business success. Numbers don’t lie to them and figures not answering problems or making solutions (just singleare easy to read (big ones are good, little ones are bad). Of mindedly making money). But that definition glosses over course, designers like to be successful too—we are hoping to the main value of design thinking, which is the design part! create a better world. We measure success by helping others, More than solutions for problems, in learning by making, winning “some victory for humanity,” as Horace Mann said. design creates new things. My Brazilian friend, Celso Looking back to before the Stone Age, the essential Santos, says, “Design thinking is great—but that’s not how ideas of design have evolved from using a plain rock to designers think!” the complexity of rockets in space. As a thought exercise, Design, also according to the internet, is what strategy imagine a rudimentary product as the center of a series of is: “a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major spheres like Russian dolls (or like Dante’s circles of hell); or overall aim.” Strategic thinking is design thinking minus each sphere represents a higher level of design. The original tangible results. Thinking is the first step of the design artifact is embedded under layers of ever more sophisticated process: imagination, thinking ahead. Design strategies value propositions. Peeling back the layers like an onion reflect reality. Learning from modeling and testing of real unwinding down to the most primitive seed at the center stuff with real people is what designers do. shows how the responsibility of our profession has grown.

An entrepreneur used to be just a person who ran Like everyone else at the time, the first designers lived a business—now entrepreneurs are a pushy subset of in caves, and those primitive people didn’t even know what businesspeople who are supercharged and take financial function was when they first picked up a stick to poke risks. Failure is an opportunity that drives change! They something. They could not imagine the concept of progress, take any advantage, leverage any opportunity in their let alone any connection between form and function; the single-minded pursuit. Sharks may seem a little crazy, artifact’s only value was measured by its utility and availability. but that anything-goes entrepreneurial spirit is how good They made things (1) out of stuff lying around: rocks and designers work too. We mix that non-linear attitude of I sticks (2). The big step to the next level of design was when don’t care where the solutions (or even problems) come

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they learned how to manipulate materials, make tools and clothes. Developing craft (3) became the added value.

Fast forward to the Industrial Revolution, another level of technical multiplication when these machines (4) required industrial designers (5) who created better-designed products that were easier (6) and more economical to produce.

Feeding mass production (7) required the products to attract a lot of consumers (8). Embedding human-factors considerations (9) into the artifacts, understanding how to better fit people’s bodies, made the artifacts feel better.

Then feelings became important: psychonomics (10), the way people think about things. Transition from the Industrial Revolution to the information revolution. Marketing wraps on a sphere of meaning (branding (11) and social status) and symbolic messaging (12), or Marshall McLuhan’s massage.

Products join a product family (13) and leverage the rest of the company’s offering beyond supply-chain, basking in the halo effect. Digital technology and interactive screens (14) allow products to transform and communicate with each other: smart IoT products (15). We can see how important a product’s own cradle-to-cradle (16) chain is to

both the product’s recyclability life- cycle ecosystem and its consequences on human health. Now we realize how everything is literally linked. We have learned how seriously everything we do impacts everything, and we grasp how we are all part of a massive interconnected ecosphere (17) of our planet (18).

The point is, design started out small. Then we said we could design anything, and now we have everything on our plate! Designers are professional optimists who are actually learning how to create a better world.

Just like the breeze from the proverbial butterfly’s wings affecting the weather, our designs are warming the earth’s biosphere! Just when we thought we mastered Mother Nature, people are discovering how helpless we seem in defense against the forces of the collapsing environment.

Without a revolution, according to the latest scientific projections, the warming climate will very soon push us back to living with the most primitive issues of survival. We’ll end up back at the bottom of Maslow’s pyramid.

I hope that when we fall back to the Stone Age some designers will survive with our design process intact (Phase 1: Discovery: survey rocks). We are the champions of collaboration. We use the capitalistic system to deliver our products and services; it is the distribution network and the fuel for change. Cranbrook’s Scott Klinker says, “Designers make decisions—to communicate, to solve problems, to beautify. The idea is often the easy part. The decisions about form are the hard part!” In facing the perfect storm of cooling world civility and the warming climate, we need more than just design thinking—we have a lot of actual design doing to do! Put beautility into action!

—Tucker Viemeister, FIDSA www.tuckerviemeister.com

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DE SI G N DE F I NED

A Study on Comfort and Discomfort in the Studio

THE LACK OF WOMEN IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

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t should be no surprise that the field of industrial design is male dominated—but just how male dominated is it really? How many women and men are in industrial design academic programs? Are female graduates moving into industry at the same rate as their male peers?

Currently, this data doesn’t exist. While for decades architecture and engineering have been formally documenting and discussing the lack of women in their industries, industrial design is trailing behind with no official student group for female design students, no mentorship program for female designers and no statistical data on how many women are in the profession.

Searching for Answers This is where Assistant Professor Betsy Barnhart began three years ago, wanting to start a mentorship program for women in industrial design—a sort of “Girl’s Garage” where female students would learn the skills of industrial design from women in practice. When trying to apply for funding and grants, she lacked enough hard data to prove the need for funding. As her undergraduate research assistant during the past three years, I assisted Professor Barnhart and led my own research to assess the current status of women in industrial design education.

As an independent study over the course of my senior year at Iowa State University and under Barnhart’s guidance, I wanted to unpack the environment and culture of the industrial design studio and the effect it has on women. I noticed how few of my female peers were staying late in the studio, making comments during critiques and diving into group discussions. When I would ask my male peers why they thought this was the case, they said it was out of lack of interest, laziness or a preference for styling, fashion, CMF or research—but not industrial design. I was immediately skeptical because when I asked my female peers the same question, they talked about being uncomfortable in the studio, hesitating to speak up and not feeling heard when they did.

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Power Dynamics Power influences communication; the ability to control the topics, direct conversations and interrupt are innately tied to whether individuals in the group are equal to, dominant over or deferential to others. Discourse on gendered nonverbal communication defines “masculine” and “feminine” behaviors to identify these power dynamics in conversations. Specifically, proxemics, territoriality and kinesics describe the power relationship between individuals and whether someone is comfortable or uncomfortable in an environment. Proxemics is the spatial distance between people, territoriality refers to how much space people claim around them, and kinesics, body motion communication, studies how a person responds to who they are talking to.

Masculine communication in proxemics exerts power by claiming people’s personal space, such as drawing near someone or invading someone’s space, while the feminine takes the subordinate position by giving space between people, such as moving further away from others.

In territoriality, masculine communication is exhibited by claiming more of the space around you, such as crossing your legs or placing your bag on the seat next to you on the bus; the feminine subordinate position is evident by occupying as little space as possible.

Whereas proxemics and territoriality look at the power dynamics in a group, kinesics is concerned with whether someone is comfortable speaking in a group and who is dominant in a conversation and predicts how these dynamics will play out over a period of time. Confident and comfortable kinesics, such as an upright posture and sitting or standing close to those you are speaking to, is masculine. When feminine kinesics are exhibited, the speaker sits or stands at a distance from those they are speaking to with their hands and arms held inward, and possibly exhibits a hunched over insecure posture and may touch their face with their hands.

It should be noted that these definitions are not tied to the sex of the person, but rather describe the power

dynamics in people’s interactions. Feminine characteristics are not innately subordinate, nor are masculine behaviors always dominant. The definitions are meant to help define how gendered dynamics are present in our everyday interactions.

These gendered nonverbal behaviors were used to study the atmosphere of the industrial design studio. During a four-hour design challenge, 54 students sophomores, juniors and seniors—19 female, 35 male—divided themselves into groups to brainstorm, sketch, prototype and render together. Each group was observed for five minutes on their gendered nonverbal communication behaviors, the performed gender of the person being observed, what individuals had agency in their groups, the overall gendered communication of the entire group and whether the group was collaborating or not.

The findings demonstrated that groups who were masculine in their communication were problematic for the women in those groups. Out of 12 groups, eight were male dominant and communicated in overtly masculine ways. Consistently, the group leader exhibited masculine proxemics, territoriality and kinesics. These groups were not collaborating, but were working competitively. Group members discussed concepts and vetted them, then the group leader disseminated tasks (deciding who would sketch what idea, who would be prototyping, etc.). Two of these groups had female leaders who took on even stronger

forms of masculine communication by standing, pointing and puffing their chests when speaking. The other women in the groups with female leaders exhibited highly feminine forms of communication and, over time, sunk further away from the table and spoke up less. When the women did speak up, they physically asserted themselves back into the group to add to the conversation, and as they were interrupted they would sink back down.

Four of the groups were female dominant and communicated androgynously—or even skewed toward feminine communication styles. These groups were more collaborative. During brainstorming, they wrote down all ideas and organized them together. When sketching, they helped each other with skills and forms they struggled with and worked off each other’s concepts. These groups didn’t necessarily have a group leader, but instead discussed and worked through their design problem together. All group members—whether male or female—were active at the table, participated in the conversation and held agency in the group discussion.

As a part of this study, Barnhart then interviewed six female and six male senior industrial design students to better understand their experiences in the studio. In general, Barnhart found that women preferred to work from home where they felt comfortable and did not experience judgment from others. “People think you’re lazy if they don’t see you working in studio, but I’m not comfortable sketching here,” said one female student. Female students reported that in groups they are afraid of asking questions because they feel that they are rarely heard or fear sounding stupid.

On the other hand, male students said that if they don’t see someone coming into studio late at night, they will not help them. It was clear that these women were not disinterested or lazy, but preferred to work in different environments out of either discomfort or a struggle to be taken seriously.

Toward a Heterogeneous Industry Although this is one study of a small group over a relatively short period of time with a very specific student base, it begins to document the effect that a male-dominant industrial design atmosphere has on women. If women are fundamentally uncomfortable in current educational industrial design environments, how can we expect them to confidently move into professional practice? The more research we conduct, the more complex we find the problem and the solutions to be.

We have learned that we need to approach the lack of women in professional practice with an empathetic and critical eye, rather than making assumptions about why industrial design lacks diversity. Instead of asking why there are few minorities in the studio, why minorities aren’t advocating for themselves or why minorities aren’t working hard enough, we should be asking why industrial design is so homogeneous.

—Kellie Walters, IDSA, CMF Designer, Newell Brands and Betsy Barnhart, Director of the Institute of Sports and Entertainment Design, University of Kansas; kelliekaydesign@gmail.com and betsybarnhart@ku.edu INNOVATION WINTER 2018

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By Brook Kennedy, co-authored by Dr. Jonathan Boreyko and Weiwei Shi bk70@vt.edu Brook Kennedy is an IDEA award-winning designer and researcher with combined work experience in university R&D environments, design consultancies and in-house. His recent design work draws on biological approaches to managing water with connections to emerging technology, health and renewability. Kennedy is currently associate professor of industrial design at Virginia Tech.

Designing a Fog-Harvesting Harp

THE VALUE OF LAB-ENGAGED ID

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esearch universities often provide fertile conditions for interdisciplinary work between science, engineering, design and other fields. Within these institutions, industrial design programs can play a vital

role translating new discoveries and technologies into useful inventions for both societal impact and commercial benefit.

To date, much has been written about the practical output and educational value of industrial design collaborations in an applied sense through user identification, commercialization and entrepreneurship. But there is also growing evidence that industrial design faculty and students can form worthwhile partnerships with scientific research, as well, to help develop new technology earlier on: by producing lab test mockups, envisioning product applications of discoveries and helping define research goals early on.

Distinct from industrial design in the private sector, this labintegrated industrial design also provides unique student learning experiences: namely, industrial design students can be completely integrated in a research program rather than serving a more traditional translational role later on.

The Fog Harp, a novel fog-harvesting device, demonstrates what an ongoing fully integrated lab-to-product development partnership can be like. The Fog Harp’s invention resulted from a collaboration I developed with Dr. Jonathan Boreyko, a professor of biomedical engineering and mechanics at Virginia Tech. So far, three of eight ID students involved in the project have helped develop an alpha version of the device. In the process, they have contributed to the invention firsthand and have been named on patent applications.

Harvesting Fog Water Fog harvesting is a proven method of collecting drinking water endorsed by the World Health Organization. Recently, it has attracted the attention of international resource agencies for use in regions facing extreme water scarcity. As the global population surges and fresh water sources are

strained, finding new ways to improve access to drinking water have never been more pressing. Fog harvesting can play a critical role in this endeavor since fog is often present in some of the driest regions around the world where water alternatives are not available. Most arid coastal regions have great success with fog harvesting, including Chile, Morocco, Oman and South Africa. Other inland mountainous areas can also be suitable, including Nepal and parts of Appalachia in the United States.

At present, most fog harvesters resemble giant volleyball nets: They are composed of two vertical posts anchored in the ground between which sheets of plastic or metal netting are suspended with supplemental cables, further securing the structure. As fog passes through the harvester’s sheet netting, water droplets get intercepted by the plastic or metal wires and drip down into a reservoir for use. The process is entirely passive—it requires no energy. Fog harvesters of this basic design were pioneered in the 1980s by the Canadian NGO Fog Quest. While crude in design, they have been used successfully in resource-limited locations.

For these use scenarios, design parameters have focused on performance and low cost; the higher the drinking water yield the better.

More recently, efforts to improve the efficiency of fog harvester mesh materials have been explored by researchers from Chile, Germany and the US. In addition to improving water yield, these studies have tackled other issues associated with fog harvesting: Often the devices are delivered to remote locations and must withstand high winds.

Additionally, they must be easily repaired, ideally by the local communities they benefit.

This project would like to acknowledge the support from the Institute of Creativity Arts and Technology at Virginia Tech.

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Origins of the Fog Harp The Fog Harp project began in 2016 on parallel tracks by Boreyko and me. We were each intrigued by fog harvesting. In particular, I was interested in its potential humanitarian impact and its low-tech simplicity. Specializing in fluid mechanics, Boreyko has an interest in fog droplet behavior and the limitations of cross-mesh netting materials. Specifically, he found that when the mesh density is too open, most of the fog passes through without being collected. If the netting material is too dense, it effectively extracts fog water from the air but the droplets get stuck in the holes.

When the nets clog with droplets, the harvester can’t collect as much water. From these observations, Boreyko and I wondered, How do you keep a mesh from clogging?

Boreyko and I also share an interest in bioinspired design. Having lived in California, I witnessed the natural phenomenon of fog drip, which, like fog harvesting, enables some types of coniferous trees (including giant redwoods) to extract moving fog droplets for consumption. However, unlike common cross-mesh netting used in human-conceived fog harvesters, redwoods and other conifers have linear-shaped needle designs that gather water droplets and encourage them to fall to the ground where they are absorbed by trees and other plants. Intrigued, we wondered if these closelyspaced linear needles could be reproduced to overcome clogging. Moreover, could this design also work with the practical site constraints of fog-harvesting installations?

To answer these questions, an undergraduate ID studio project was offered to explore the potential construction of a vertical wire array and experiment with ways to improve the aesthetics and usability of the volleyball net configuration.

Wind turbine farms were offered as an analogy since many fog-harvesting sites have dozens of harvesters on hills.

By the project’s end, it was clear that balancing performance, aesthetics, usability and cost was a hefty challenge.

After considering existing sculptural netting harvesters by other designers to gain inspiration, technical experts advised that few promised to improve performance or lower costs. Focus, therefore, switched to a bottom-up design

approach looking at the netting rather than the harvester.

It was determined that not only were the wire diameter and pitch critical in harvesting more fog water, but the repetition of these simple elements offered potential structural and visual benefits, as seen in the work of artist Gabriel Dawe.

After the studio’s conclusion, students Josh Tulkoff and Mark Anderson continued with the project as an independent study to explore and test the wire arrays.

Concurrently, Boreyko and I focused on quantifying the efficacy of the Fog Harp’s vertical wires. To test the hypothesis, Anderson and I designed and fabricated three 5 cm-by-5-cm miniature harp prototypes. Each miniature harp used different metal wire diameters and wire spacing pitches based on recent work at MIT. All three were constructed with a laser-cut plastic frame with holes to space the wires at the intended pitches. Two threaded rods with nuts were attached on each half of the miniature harps to tighten the wires. Next, drains were designed in CAD and 3D printed to direct the collected water from the wires into a measurement dish. An upper drain removed water from the area above the wires to a location away from the measurement dish so this collected water would not be counted in the measurement.

After the harps were completed, each drain was treated with a water-repellant coating so the droplets would not stick.

Finally, each Harp’s performance was compared with cross meshes with comparable wire diameters and spacing.

Testing equipment was used to simulate moving fog conditions. The equipment included a stream humidifier and an airtight humidity chamber in which the tests would be performed. Harvested droplets were collected in a dish placed underneath the harp (or mesh), whose mass was measured every half hour. Formal scientific tests produced surprisingly significant results (published March 2018 in Applied Materials & Interfaces). The harp with the smallest diameter wire and closest wire spacing pitch outperformed the cross mesh with a comparable wire diameter by a factor of three. Not only did these results surpass expectations, the data helped raise additional funding to build a full-scale Fog Harp capable of yielding enough drinking water for human needs.

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B E S T E D UCATI O N PAPE R 2018

Above: Schematic aluminum 1-square-meter prototype Fog Harp with a water pipe to divert collected water to a central cistern. Left: Student Josh Tulkoff wiring the first harp on a spinning frame.

Constructing a Full-Size Prototype Next, the team sought to build a proof-of-concept 1-squaremeter Harp. According to Fog Quest, a 5,000-square-meter fog-harvesting site in Chile yields a yearly average of 3 liters of water per day per square meter. The total harvesting surface yields an average of 15,000 liters of water per day— enough to support the drinking water needs of a community.

In keeping with the standard size of fog harvesters, we set out to build the first full-size Fog Harp prototype to measure roughly 1 square meter using the wire array that produced a threefold increase in water yield. Given these parameters, the team projected that the Fog Harp should produce on average roughly 9 liters per 1 square meter given the same conditions as the Chilean fog harvesters. This loosely translates to providing drinking water for two adults and a child, according to the National Academy of Medicine’s water intake standards.

The Fog Harp’s leading challenge was scalability and mass manufacturability comparable to the Chilean installation. While plastic and metal netting can be purchased at hardware suppliers around the globe for fences and other purposes, sheets of vertical wire arrays are not available.

To create a 1-square-meter proof of concept, we had to figure out how to produce a custom wire array. The vertical

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wire material had to be quickly and cheaply produced to compete with the low-cost cross-mesh alternatives. While precedents in robotically automated wiring and laser cutting sheet metal were considered, these approaches would be costly and impractical for near-term deployment. To ensure that the Fog Harp could help communities needing drinking water, the vertical wire arrays need to be mass-produced and knocked down for economical transport to the desired location. As a result, development of the full-scale Fog Harp was divided into two interdependent design activities: to build a proof of concept for evaluation and to identify manufacturers to mass-produce the vertical wire arrays.

From here, Tulkoff and I devised a quick means of constructing a 1-square-meter harp by hand. After considering various options, including laser cutting two slotted blocks between which the wires would be wound taut, threaded rods from McMaster-Carr provided an off-the-shelf alternative. Later, the team created a spinning frame to facilitate winding the harp’s wires.

The first full-size prototype was created using two-byfours and threaded rods. Three of the rods penetrated the two-by-fours and were tightened in place with nuts and washers. The fourth rod was fixed in a slot so that the wires could be tightened later. The wires were then wound around the threaded rods, a process that substantiated the feasibility of building a full-scale harp. It also demonstrated how the wires behaved at full scale.

Next, student Tom Van der Sloot and I designed and built a second prototype using brawnier aluminum

Above: Early concept modular harp system (pipes/collection jugs not shown). Right: Close up of full-scale field test harp showing fog droplets in the Virginian Appalachians.

U-channel construction and thicker rods. This harp was produced for demonstration purposes, media inquiries and fundraising for subsequent development steps. Coincident with the construction of the wood and aluminum Fog Harp prototypes, the team also explored possibilities to massproduce sheets of the wire arrays such that they could be rolled up or knocked down for transport. Some existing manufacturing technologies show potential to be adapted for the Harp. Other proprietary designs and manufacturing methods continue to be explored.

Field Testing Current efforts to fund the Fog Harp’s development are underway for three stages of on-site testing. First, as stated before, mass-producing the wire arrays are in progress.

Second, when complete, these wire sheets would be affixed to a frame in tension in order to be tested in the Appalachian Mountains. The full-scale Fog Harp geometry would be tested alongside a control: steel cross mesh and plastic Raschel mesh (used widely in Chile). Scientific data will be collected to confirm that it performs as it did in the lab. A second goal will be to test a second scientific hypothesis: that tension of the wires could impact how quickly the water droplets are purged from the wires. The third stage of development will test multiple 1-square-meter Fog Harps in existing fog-harvesting zones where local communities need potable water. Ideally, the same design would be tested in three separate regions: one mountainous, one coastal and perhaps an island location.

So far, multiple inquiries to test Fog Harp have been received from NGOs, investors and universities. Additional areas of design investigation will include exploring improvements to the volleyball-net form factor, accommodating shifting and high winds, investigating further efficiencies, and optimizing water storage and retrieval. In the next phase, finding a balance of performance, appearance and cost will be investigated.

As the Fog Harp advances into field testing, iterative design development of the wire material and device will continue. The team is optimistic that the wires will perform, even in windy conditions, and is especially excited to see the Fog Harp deployed where it can help communities facing water shortages.

Looking forward to the promise of Fog Harp and back at its development, we encourage more industrial designers to collaborate with scientific researchers, especially in universities with abundant opportunities. As this case study has demonstrated, early-stage lab-integrated industrial design projects offer students unique learning opportunities that take them beyond a late-stage role in a research project and allow them to contribute meaningful research from the program’s inception. The tangible results these partnerships bring should be welcomed and supported. n This paper was presented at the 2018 IDSA Eastman Innovation Lab Education Symposium.

It is reprinted here in a condensed and edited form.

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I D S A E D UCATI O N HO NO R S

Adam Feld, IDSA, 2018 IDSA Young Educator of the Year Award

EDUCATING THE ENTIRE STUDENT

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n recognition of his years of scholarship and dedicated instruction of students at the undergraduate, graduate and PhD level, Adam Feld, IDSA, has been granted the 2018 IDSA Young Educator of the Year Award. He was officially recognized at this year’s IDSA International Conference in New Orleans, LA, just down the road from where he teaches at The University of Louisiana at Lafayette as the assistant professor of industrial design. “Teaching is still what gets me up in the morning,” Feld shares. “I love seeing progress from the beginning of the semester to the end and over multiple semesters. I feel that I am challenged daily by students and am compelled to do the best I can for them.”

Feld, an Ohio native, earned an associate’s degree in visual communication from Sinclair Community College in 2007 and a bachelor’s degree in industrial design from The Ohio State University. He went on to achieve a master’s in design with a focus on industrial design from the University of Cincinnati, where he taught for the first time as a graduate assistant under Associate Professor Dr. J.A. Chewning and Associate Professor Emeritus Gerald Michaud. Feld then followed the path of design education to central Louisiana, where the core of his teaching is currently based in the junior-year studios.

Feld’s decision to teach at UL Lafayette was made with the knowledge that he would be working in a challenging pedagogical environment. “To understand the level of achievement that Adam has reached requires an understanding of his context,” says his colleague Benjamin Bush, IDSA, who adds that the recent cuts to Louisiana’s collegiate-aided funding have caused tuition to rise dramatically.

With more and more UL Lafayette design students winning awards and landing competitive internships each year, it’s clear that Feld is determined to overcome these obstacles.

“Adam’s achievements,” Bush adds, “are not a product of his environment, but of his drive, resourcefulness, amiability and passion to see his students succeed.”

Since the beginning of his career in design education, Feld has been proactive in his creative teaching efforts.

Feld, who also served as the IDSA Vice Chair for Louisiana

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for the past three years, takes every opportunity to expose his students to the world beyond the classroom. He regularly invites programmatic advisers from all around the country to visit his program, connecting his students to industrial design on a national level. He also recently secured funding for UL’s first subsidized studio; sponsored by RedBull, it focuses on providing hardand soft-good artifacts for BMX Flatland bicycles. “My goal,” Feld shares, “is to educate the entire student, starting with the design skill set and ending with independent critical thought. I strive to create studios where each student receives a professionally competitive skill set, the most personalized attention possible and the ability to discuss projects in a collaborative environment.”

As the IDSA faculty advisor, Feld regularly advocates for professional engagement at conferences and events, encouraging his students to seek out collaborative relationships with other IDSA members. Believing earnestly that teachers should embody the same traits that they wish to see reflected in their students, Feld organized and executed the Geaux Design Conference in 2017, which was the first IDSA regional conference of its kind. Dr. Adam Cline, interim program coordinator in industrial design at UL Lafayette, says: “Adam introduces a professional rigor that benefits our students as they begin to transition from their roles as students to their roles as professionals. … [His students’] professional engagement is … a direct result of Adam’s efforts to advance our program’s goals and provides muchneeded direction toward achieving the educational mission of our program.”

On the future, Feld says that he will continue to challenge his students to see themselves not just as design students but also as men and women who are capable of solving the world’s problems through innovative thinking.

“Future industrial designers,” he says, “must have a mastery of every part of the profession, starting with the user and ending with a product that is market ready. My primary teaching goal is that my students leave my studios with a greater confidence and skill, ready to begin their next level of study or professional career in industrial design.” n

Karen Hofmann, IDSA, 2018 IDSA Education Award

HELPING STUDENTS FIND THEIR VOICE

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hroughout her teaching career, Karen Hofmann, IDSA, has been instrumental in the maturation and creative development of young designers. In recognizing her continued commitment to design education, IDSA granted Hofmann the 2018 Education Award, tendered officially at this year’s International Design Conference in New Orleans, LA. This announcement was made just four short months after Hofmann—who has served as ArtCenter College of Design’s chair of product design for the last nine years—added the role of provost to her already impressive CV. She is the first woman to hold the position in the 88-year history of the college.

Working in design education for over 15 years, Hofmann has had a profound influence on the next generation of product innovators. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in psychology with an emphasis in industrial psychology from California State University, Northridge in 1990 and her Bachelor of Science in product design, with honors, from ArtCenter seven years later. Babette Strousse, IDSA, a faculty member and senior strategist at ArtCenter, recalls crossing paths with a young Hofmann: “It was evident, even back then, that Karen’s talents, attitude and passion for industrial design were far greater than those of most other students and that she was destined to have a successful career in design.”

Entering ArtCenter as an instructor for the first time in 2009, Hofmann eagerly accepted the challenge of directing ArtCenter’s Color, Materials and Trends Exploration Laboratory. Using this platform, Hofmann launched DesignStorm, an educational project model focused on color, materials and trends with an emphasis on sustainability and emerging technologies. This endeavor connected Hofmann’s product design students with representatives from a number of prominent companies, including Adidas, Disney, Microsoft and Volkswagen.

As chair of the Product Design department, Hofmann established a multidisciplinary culture that prioritized collaboration and community engagement. She encouraged her students to look beyond the borders of their field

and to educate themselves on the different shades of design on display at ArtCenter. Hofmann hopes that this pedagogy will inspire her students to consider their projects from an integrative perspective. Fred Fehlau, a colleague and retired provost at ArtCenter, says, “Karen maintains a deep commitment to industrial design and its relationship with other art and design fields. She encouraged her students— and students from other departments— to find their voices within a rigorous and expansive set of design opportunities, often working with them to create their own pathways to successful careers.”

Beyond the classroom, Hofmann has revolutionized the nature of ArtCenter’s Product Design department by hiring a diverse body of faculty that better represents the expanding role of product design in the industry. Hofmann serves as co-chair of the school’s Council for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and led the first ever Women in Industrial Design Forum, which brought students, faculty and alumnae together to share their lived experiences as women in the industry. “[Karen’s] process in education and leadership,” says her colleague Fridolin T. Beisert, MS, “is defined first and foremost through diversity and inclusion. In the classroom this has translated into design projects that solve problems across gender, ethnic and socio-economic boundaries, many of [which] have earned the prestigious IDSA awards.”

Hofmann’s integrated transdisciplinary approach has also led to the development of an innovative study abroad program with the INSEAD international business school.

In addition, she has developed fruitful partnerships with CalTech, UCLA and Portland State, and dedicates much of her personal time to serving the Martin Architecture and Design Workshop as a board member in support of technological craftsmanship in the arts and design.

Hofmann was recognized by DesignIntelligence as one of the Most Admired Educators of 2010 for her commitment to design education. She has contributed personally to her department’s extensive list of accolades, including those from IDEA, CORE77 and Spark. n

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S C H O L AR SHI P R E CI PI E NT S

Kristi Bartlett, S/IDSA, University of Houston 2018 IDSA Gianninoto Graduate Scholarship My interest in industrial design was awakened in 2014 when my daughter was born with serious medical problems. Though I had no medical background, I was forced to learn to perform medical procedures and use complicated medical equipment to care for her at home. It was then that I came face-to-face with the fact that good design is more than simply good engineering.

As a high school student, I excelled in math and science and was encouraged to study engineering in college.

In my undergraduate studies in engineering, I learned how to solve problems and make things work. In the majority of my engineering classes, I worked on problems for which there was only one right answer. But in industrial design there are many right answers. It takes a deep understanding of the user to find the best design solution. Medical products that will be used in the home can’t be designed identically to medical products for the hospital because the user is completely different.

In studying industrial design, I have learned to value things that I never learned about in engineering classes but that are critically important to medical design, including user research, the importance of a product’s appearance and the emotional aspects of design and user testing. With my master’s degree in industrial design, I plan to work for medical product companies to design products while taking into account these critically important areas. I hope that the products I design will help families have a better experience when caring for a loved one with medical needs.

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Peter Keun-Hyun Yoo, S/IDSA, Virginia Tech 2018 Design Foundation Undergraduate Scholarship I did not grow up in an ideal environment for becoming a designer. The competitive Korean culture of my childhood placed high value on intense study of only the given school subjects with the goal of attending a well-known university in the hopes of being hired by a big corporation that pays well. What I wanted to study never mattered; it was more important to satisfy my parents and teachers.

Nonetheless, I became curious about industrial design because it is not just a field of study; it is a lifestyle. The world around me is soil and fertilizer; what I see and feel becomes the source of my designs. My interest in industrial design continues to grow because the more I study, the more intimately it engages in my life.

Industrial design is absolutely honest. This holds true for both the design process and designers’ careers. The more time and effort spent, the better the result. There is no shortcut and no way to produce a great design without failing countless times. This always motivates me to be diligent and stay focused. I may not have been born with great talent, but if I work hard, I can still produce a good end result.

Above all, I love industrial design because the deep thinking and processes sit behind the scenes. Good designs influence and enhance users’ lives without being conspicuous. The fact that I could benefit someone’s everyday life without directly interacting with them is humbling.

THE BEST OF THE BEST

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he annual Student Merit Award competition is an opportunity for IDSA to recognize and honor the best industrial and product design students in America. Each year students participate in a rigorous presen-

tation and review process. Many begin their journey through an in-school selection process, a public presentation to regional professionals and finally competing against their peers at the District level. Through this process we are able to identify those who represent our most talented, creative and forward-thinking design students.

While in the past the Student Merit Awards have been held strictly at the undergraduate level, this year we piloted the Graduate Student Merit Awards, which was held entirely online and juried by educators and professionals from across the country. The nine Student Merit Award winners recognized in this issue of INNOVATION are evidence of the current state of our teaching and give us a glimpse into the future of design, design thinking and design research. Our students at both levels are fearless and interdisciplinary in their approach to problem-solving. This year’s winners demonstrated impressive skill in tackling challenges that touched on social stigma, education, health and technology.

As the IDSA Education Director, it’s my honor to introduce to you the 2018 IDSA Undergraduate and Graduate Student Merit Awards winners.

—Raja Schaar, IDSA, IDSA Education Director

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M I D W EST

Jacob Rynkiewicz, IDSA | Graduate SMA Winner | University of Illinois at Chicago

SUBVERSIVE SUSTAINABILITY

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ood people recycle. That’s often the beginning and end of the conversation when it comes to sustainability. But why is recycling the only solution to the issue of global waste? Why do we believe the

pollution of the earth is entirely the fault of everyday citizens?

It wasn’t always this way. In the late 1960s, one of the core focuses of the counterculture movement was to put an end to pollution. Movement leaders organized protests targeting corporations that produced waste, not the people who simply consumed it. To improve their image, corporations helped fund a public service announcement from the antilitter organization Keep America Beautiful. The ad featured a Native American man distraught at the sight of trash being carelessly disposed of on his native land. The purpose of the ad was to make viewers feel guilty about the pollution they “caused” and at the same time obfuscate the role of the corporations who originally produced the packaging waste.

Reinventing Waste After thoroughly researching the current state of waste culture in the US, I gave myself this challenge: Would it be possible to leave the world a better place by encouraging people to throw something away? If so, I knew that whatever I choose as my ideal disposable material would need to not only biodegrade itself, but potentially neutralize any toxic materials that disposable object contains.

The ideal material I arrived at is fungus, specifically the mycelium growth of oyster mushrooms. Mycelium is the root structure of a mushroom, and it can be utilized to bind fine materials very tightly together. When dried, it stops growing and creates a solid structure. This discovery led me to explore the properties of a material produced by a pioneering company in the biomaterials space named Ecovative.

Ecovative produces a chipped corn stalk material that is inoculated with fungal mycelium. The material arrives in its dry and dormant state and is then revitalized with water and a bit of baking flour. Through a series of experiments, I discovered several unique properties to this material: It is very lightweight and has a high strength to weight ratio; it has great insulative properties; it is possible to grow the material into structures, like cardboard, to create a strong composite; and it will digest dyes and coloring in the process of growing.

Targeting Pollution One Product at a Time Once I learned that fungus can digest pigments and dyes, I thought about how to apply this to a commonly discarded household item: ink cartridges. Over a billion ink cartridges are discarded every year, and less than a third get recycled properly. Not only does the plastic stick around for up to 400 years, but the leftover ink leaks out and contributes to toxic leachate in landfills. By analyzing an existing printer, I developed a method to dispose of the ink in a way that is completely harmless to us and the environment.

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Imagine you have an ink jet printer, and you’re going to replace the ink cartridge. You open the top of the printer, pull out the spent plastic cartridge and then throw it away.

With my concept, the cartridge is now made of two parts: a reusable print head and a disposable ink pouch. The ink pouch is pulled from the cartridge with a gentle squeezing action that breaks open a small liquid capsule inside the pouch and starts the fungus growing. Then all the user must do is toss the pouch in the trash. The pouch will decompose in transit to the landfill.

My next target was discarded cigarettes. I was surprised to learn that the filters of cigarettes are made from cellulose acetate, which is derived from the cellulose found in wood and many other plants. Cellulose acetate is biodegradable, but for it to work in a matter of weeks or months instead of years, it needs very specific conditions: a source of enzymes that will dissolve the material.

I was lucky enough to find the work of a budding mycologist Alex Dorr who published a book in 2017 called Mycoremediation Handbook. In it, Dorr outlines several of the techniques he has used to remediate the toxins found in many common disposable products, including cigarette filters. Through a selective cultivation technique, Dorr created his own strain of fungus that grows quickly in the cellulose acetate found in cigarette filters and neutralizes its harmful properties.

With this in mind, I created a quick proof of concept to show how this could be applied in a real-world scenario.

Earlier in my research, I proved that mycelium can be grown into paper products. My solution for the cigarette utilizes the fungus strain found in Ecovative’s material and grows it into a thin paper that is wrapped around the cigarette filter. When the filter is discarded in the environment, ambient moisture would activate the fungus and begin the biodegradation process with no further action from the user.

My final pollution target was disposable cups, which

many of us use daily for coffee, tea and soft drinks. Many consumers know there are health and environmental risks associated with the use of Styrofoam cups, and they are aware that Styrofoam is one of the least recyclable materials produced. But few consumers know that most paper cups are not recyclable or compostable. Paper cups are coated in a plastic film that is bonded strongly to the paperboard, making it impractical to separate the two for recycling, making them non-compostable. These cups mainly end up in landfills. This is confusing for many consumers, some of whom are diligent about separating materials into different bins, some of whom mistakenly put the whole assembly into the recycling and some of whom just throw the cup away.

I wanted to make a cup that is disposable even if it is thrown in the trash. Using the material from Ecovative, I grew a simple cup form out of mycelium and coated it with a waterproof layer of cellulose acetate. The resulting test product is waterproof and insulates the user’s hands from hot liquids, specifically freshly made coffee. When you are finished with your drink, all you do is throw it away. Then when the cup is crushed on its way to the landfill, ambient moisture will activate the dormant fungus and decompose the cellulose acetate.

A Blueprint for the Future All of this adds up to what I’ve dubbed subversive sustainability. Why subversive? Because in these proposed scenarios, the responsibility for the global buildup of waste is shifted away from consumers and placed in the hands of waste producers . What changes is how designers and producers design and manufacture disposable products, knowing that what they hand over to consumers will eventually end up in the landfill—but now it will no longer harm the environment.

It flips the conventional idea of sustainability on its head and could be a blueprint for the green movement of the future.

—Jacob Rynkiewicz, Designer, Concentric LLC, jake@designconcentric.com INNOVATION WINTER 2018

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NORTHEAST

Xiaoyong Wang, IDSA | Graduate SMA Winner | Pratt Institute

DESIGN IN A CARING MANNER

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majored in marketing during my undergraduate studies, but I am, unfortunately, a bad liar. Studying consumer behavior and meeting demand are essential for marketers, but if a product is poorly designed and

does not genuinely benefit the end user, then it is impossible for me to tell a good story about it. In the process of delving into behavioral studies, I grew interested in R&D and design, so studying industrial design at the Pratt Institute became an inevitable choice.

During my graduate studies at Pratt, I developed a strong interest in topics such as medical issues, social issues and sustainability. I had a chance to explore different design fields and various topics, helping me define myself as a designer.

Medical Design In a medical design prototype class with Professor Jeffrey Kapec, IDSA, I reexamined the design of the cervical collar. With help from Joseph Itzkowitz, an instructor with Emergency Care Programs of New York, I acquired insight into both general EMT procedures for using cervical collars and how the current designs could be improved.

To safely transfer a patient with trauma to the head or neck to an emergency center, paramedics typically use a cervical collar combined with a long spine board and head blocks to stabilize neck vertebrae. Due to the negative outcomes of using the long board, however, the November 2015 update to the New York State Spinal Injury Protocol removed the long board and head blocks. The Protocol made no other change to the general procedure or to the design of the cervical collar to achieve sufficient spinal immobilization.

I designed a new pre-hospital cervical splint, Enreco, by integrating the supporting features from the eliminated long board and head blocks with the existing cervical collar.

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Enreco will improve spinal immobilization by upgrading the typical cervical collar to a cervical splint. But it will not affect current emergency practices; no major procedures need to be changed. Enreco’s one-piece symmetrical design and minimum string and strap enable intuitive operation and quick application by paramedics. It is made from flat-sheet polycarbonate and can be processed by die cutting and heat forming. Enreco would therefore be inexpensive and easy to make. Considering that pre-hospital cervical collars are disposable and usually have large purchase orders, this design will be helpful to both practitioners and the manufacturer.

Social Issues In the Design for the Mind class taught by Professor Alex Schweder, students were tasked with creating a series of home products and accessories to help those suffering from memory loss caused by Alzheimer’s. Presented at the ICFF trade show in May 2017, the Design for the Mind project was a collaboration between the Pratt Institute, the Cooper Hewitt Museum and the nonprofit organization CaringKind.

I examined the phenomenon of an aging society and the increase in the number of people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, which has neither a cure nor a way to slow its progression, and designed Mirror Table to address this issue.

Mirror Table is an activity station designed for home caregiving for those with Alzheimer’s disease. Through my personal experience with my grandmother, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s a few years ago, I had an emotional connection with this topic. Seeing my grandmother forget everyone she loves and knowing she can no longer perform simple daily tasks is heartbreaking. Therefore, my design focused on preserving people’s dignity and restoring their ability to act independently.

Mimicry is the foundation of learning. A study about voluntary motor imitation published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience suggests that Alzheimer’s patients in the disease’s early stages are still able to mimic motor behavior. Similar to the way children imitate in order to learn new skills, Alzheimer’s patients may benefit from mimicry, relearning voluntary functions by watching others. I designed Mirror Table based on this concept, providing caregiving through copying. The design pays attention to two major parts of daily life: grooming and dining. It utilizes a table and a frame that mimics a mirror to bring the caregiver and the patient closer together. The patient and caregiver sit across from each other with the frame sitting between them.

As the caregiver goes through the process of grooming or eating, the patient copies the movements, giving the patient a chance to perform simple daily tasks again; for the caregivers, this intimate experience is an opportunity to readjust their feelings, mostly weariness and frustration.

Sustainability During my study at Pratt, I participated in a Global Innovation Design exchange program at the Royal College of Art. This study abroad experience broadened my interest in incorporating sustainability into my design practice.

I worked on a project named Ellon with designer Jie Qian, creating a solution that addresses the overuse of disposable utensils in public dining.

We designed Ellon with the goal of finding a simple way for everyone to adopt a new habit and live more sustainability, and we wanted people’s good intentions and actions to be noticed and praised in public. Carrying our own utensils is not new, but it is difficult to execute on a daily basis because of our fast-paced lifestyles and the facilities around us are not designed for us to do so.

Ellon has two parts: a washer and an adjoining box that dispenses both reusable and disposable utensils, together serving as a transitional design that assists and guides people’s behavior. The washer instantly cleans both the provided silverware and self-carried utensils and is compatible with many different types of utensils. The adjoining box is arranged to limit access to the disposable utensils on the left side, to accentuate the reusable silverware in the middle and to enhance the visual focus of the utensil washing device.

When approaching this issue, we wanted to challenge the perception that living a sustainable life is inconvenient and slow paced. We wanted to map cool and fun factors to the user experience because we believe cool is sufficient incentive for people to start a new behavior and because fun is the reason it will eventually evolve into a habit. With this in mind, we borrowed the form and mechanism of a typical electric pencil sharpener. The fun churning action that cleans the utensils became our key design idea for easy adoption and a shorter learning curve.

I truly appreciate that I had the chance to work on many topics focused on the humanities and the environment at the Pratt Institute. This has allowed me to think about design in a caring manner. The strong hands-on approach and in-depth discussion of each topic empowered me with confidence about my design and thinking process. My designs after this design education will not just remain on paper; they will have the capacity to turn into real products for the market.

—Xiaoyong Wang, Industrial Designer, xw.xean@gmail.com

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Wen Hua, IDSA | Graduate SMA Winner | Georgia Institute of Technology

A JOURNEY TO BECOMING A DESIGNER

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was a master’s student at Georgia Tech majoring in industrial design for three years. My first semester was also the first time I was in the United States. I experienced two phases: At first I felt excited and really

learned a lot, but after a while I started to feel confused and lost.

From Excited to Confused The first phase was happy and short. Everything was new and exciting. I even searched for questions on Google like “How should I respond when people say ‘How is everything?’ or ‘What’s up?’” to help myself blend into the new culture more quickly.

There were a lot of good classes to choose from like interactive product design, interface prototyping, universal design and service design. My favorite one was the studio class because it allowed me to solve real problems. In addition, there was no restriction in the format of outputs.

The final deliverable could be either a physical product or a mobile application.

What’s more, there were a lot of resources at Georgia Tech. I was finally able to use a laser cutting machine, 3D printer, new DSLR camera and CNC machine myself. I was so excited that I wanted to shoot a video, 3D print something and make something real for every side project I was involved in.

Besides the classes, I also learned a lot from my classmates. They had very diverse backgrounds. One of them had a bachelor’s degree in theater. The way he demon-

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strated an idea and persuaded the audience was amazing.

I wished that one day I could present my designs like him.

Another classmate was good at 3D modeling and cared about every detail. When I asked him a simple question, he always tried to help and explained from the very beginning to the end. I was impressed by how he could capture every detail that people would normally ignore. These are only two examples. Classmates were really close together in our program. There was always so much to learn from each other.

Then things changed quickly. People around me started talking about UX, UI, UE, UCD, IxD and HCI. In 2015 I knew nothing about these terms. I also started to learn new things like animation, video making, mobile application design, Arduino and web development—things I thought I would never learn as an industrial designer. I started to question why should I learn all these things.

In the meantime, my roommate switched from humancomputer interaction to computer science. More friends were transferring from industrial design to human-computer interaction. They even started to persuade me to follow the trend. In their opinion, with my engineering background, it could be a shortcut to finding a good job. I spent a lot of time

thinking and considering.

During that time, I felt lost and disappointed in myself.

Thanks to my professors, who kindly shared their experiences with me. They told me that industrial design is challenged and influenced by new technologies all the time. This was a fact that I could never change. However, as a designer, I should constantly learn new things to adapt to the changes.

What I needed to do was open my eyes, learn new skills and stop thinking so much.

Creative Technologist Of course, as designers, we want to have a dazzling portfolio to present our hard work, and we have different choices for presenting ourselves digitally. I chose to code my own website. The process of building my portfolio was also a journey of understanding myself, learning from other talented peers and, in the end, improving myself. The first version took me about two months.

With the first version of my portfolio, I was very lucky to receive my first internship as a UX/UI intern at Electrolux.

Even though my title was UX/UI designer, I worked more like a creative technologist. I was able to utilize different skills, just like what I did in school. I helped design an oven user interface, designed and developed the foot-triggered fridge using Arduino, and developed an internal web UI document. It was also the first time I got to know the term “creative technologist.”

Instead of a UI/UX/IxD designer, I became more willing to describe myself as a creative technologist. And thanks to

LinkedIn and Electrolux, I could connect to people who had similar skills as mine. I still remember how I felt when I first saw the portfolios of creative technologists. When I saw their projects, I knew we were the same type of designer.

After the internship in Electrolux, I worked as a research assistant in the 3D Body Scan Lab at Georgia Tech, where faculty and students can use 3D scanning facilities and equipment for developing body fitting and creative design projects. In the lab, we studied body shape variations of individuals to create better-fitting products that improve the quality of human life. I learned how to operate different 3D scanning devices and process 3D scan data. My professor was Roger Ball. I also did my master’s project with him.

The objective of my master project was to explore an automatic modeling method for generating a custom-fit eyewear model based on 3D scan data. The model is a 3D-print-ready file. With this automatic modeling tool, a new retail service will be designed involving 3D scanning, generative design and 3D printing. The project was inspired by my experience in the 3D Body Scan Lab, and I conducted all experiments there.

The New Journey Now I work in Shanghai at Huawei as an interaction designer specializing in artificial intelligence. Everything is at a brand new starting point again. I feel excited and nervous and may get confused and lost sometimes in my future journey; however, I think I will never be afraid any more.

—Wen Hua, Interaction Designer, Huawei, 1002105452@qq.com

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Ryan Cunningham, IDSA | Graduate SMA Winner | ArtCenter College of Design

THE CERTAINTY OF CHANGE

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ow can students and educators prepare for an unpredictable future? Change provides designers the opportunity to expand their influence; however, it also presents a challenge for design education to

prepare future designers for the unexpected. Presumably, most participants in design education, students and faculty alike, are aware that drastic changes will continue to challenge designers throughout their careers.

I believe this preparation must include habits of lifelong learning, effective communication skills and the conscious cultivation of empathy.

Striking a Balance Traditional design skills cannot be sacrificed to a reliance on technology, but successful designers will need the ability to continually learn new tools. A balance between traditional skills and the new technologies is necessary for future designers. Traditional design skills, although highly time consuming to develop, provide valuable insight into proportions, surfacing and many other pivotal aspects of design. Using and building on these skills gives future designers a strong foundation they can rely on regardless of the industry they are in.

Although software is a powerful tool, overspecialization places designers at risk of both becoming irrelevant and limiting their creativity. Designers need to be open to discovering new solutions that allow them to realize their vision. Educators must recognize the need for integrating new technologies with the design process while pushing students to remain curious, seeking out new ways to communicate their solutions.

In the modern business world, designers must be flexible and adaptable with the skills and roles they play within teams. Designers are increasingly working in multidisciplinary teams with members who bring many different perspectives. Students should be prepared to understand the goals of others and adapt their approach. Educators should train

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designers to evaluate their own strengths, the needs of the team and the path to success. In design education, “multidisciplinary” can mean a product designer working with an entertainment designer. In the work environment, “multidisciplinary” can mean a product designer working with a marketer, a financial professional or a supply chain specialist.

Communication with clients and within teams has become a requisite skill for designers. The ability to express oneself not only through design but also through both written and verbal communication is crucial. Designers must ensure that the value of their designs can be understood, both how they will benefit the consumer and how they will create profit for the business. Because of this, verbal and written communication skills are becoming increasingly important. The ability to pitch an idea and sell it confidently can be the differentiating factor.

Creating Value with Empathy Empathy, possibly the most powerful ability designers have, also happens to be the most versatile. Fostering empathy and a human-centered approach must be at the center of any design education. Empathy drives design and maintains its relevance. In order for designers to continue having

a positive impact on both business and the people they design for, empathy is imperative.

Harnessing empathy is a difficult task, one that relies on a high level of analytical ability. Design research focused on the implicit needs of people adds a large amount of value within design education. By understanding implicit needs, designers are able to garner unique insights that create meaningful change. Design education must continue to invest in this area to create consistent results. The ability to empathize safe from leaps in technology sustains the value of designers regardless of region or industry.

Although change looms over the design industry, it represents an opportunity for design to continue to grow.

Communication and empathy are two keys for the success of future designers. Empathy to create meaningful solutions that meet real needs and communication to ensure that the perspective of design is both heard and considered.

Educators provide future designers with the skills they need to face change and the confidence to seize the opportunities before them. Predicting the future is impossible.

Preparing for it, however, is not. Design education has and will continue to adapt to the changing role of design—passing on this flexibility and resiliency to future designers.

—Ryan Cunningham, Student, ArtCenter College of Design, rrcjcp12@gmail.com

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Olivia Wilmink, IDSA | SMA District Winner | The Ohio State University

COLLABORATION AS THE KEYSTONE

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Cincinnati native, IDSA Central District Student Merit Award winner Olivia Wilmink, IDSA, credits her passion for industrial design to the summers she spent in her father’s graphic design consultancy as a young girl.

Brimming with arcade games and rubber band guns, her father’s workplace combined productivity with entertainment, opening Wilmink’s eyes to the kind of jobs that were available to designers. “At the time, I was so busy cutting out pictures from magazines at the production table that I hadn’t realized my dad not only got to do what he loved every day but he also found his own ways to make it fun.”

Wilmink’s design process was profoundly impacted by the emphasis her father’s company placed on collaboration. A firm believer in the value of personal support systems, Wilmink hopes to encourage other designers, particularly female designers, to reach out to others in order to obtain their goals. “‘It takes an army’ is a saying that can be applied to just about anything today,” she says, “and as designers we are certainly no strangers to this idea. I think that my love for collaboration could be used to help others achieve their goals as well.”

Upon arriving at The Ohio State University to study industrial design, Wilmink was happy to learn that the collaborative process was already a fixture of the school’s program. This pedagogy, she says, has continued to positively impact her career. “I think being able to learn about the design process in a small community of driven designers has helped me find confidence in my own work and build deep connections that I will carry with me.”

The small, intimate nature of the program helped foster an environment of mutual respect and cooperation and went a long way in pushing the designer past her fears. “In my early years in the design program…I would become discouraged for not having the outcome that I expected of myself, despite all of the time and effort spent on the project. But if there is one thing that OSU has instilled in me, it’s the value of failing quickly.”

Though Wilmink encourages designers like herself to collaborate with peers and instructors in the design world, she also recognizes the importance of seeking inspiration from other sources. IDSA, she says, has made this process

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much easier, connecting her with men and women with different skill sets and interests. “IDSA was the first website I visited to learn about industrial design. In school, it exposed me to opportunities beyond the classroom, allowing me to step outside of my tight network of colleagues.”

Being exposed to individuals beyond design, she says, comes in handy when the success of your project depends upon how well you understand—and empathize with—the intended user. “Empathy goes a long way in the design process,” explains Wilmink. “I think having a very clear understanding of the people and environment you are designing for can give a lot of insight into the challenges they face with the current products, systems or spaces.”

Understanding the specific challenges of her users has helped Wilmink bridge the gap between her passion for creativity and her more pragmatic ways of thinking. “I think for a long time I was at ends with my love for creativity and my desire to make meaningful things. Product design became a clear choice for me when I realized it wasn’t just about making things. It was about making things in order to fulfill a need in a creative and systematic way.”

Wilmink’s portfolio includes a number of projects that attempt to balance aesthetic and practical application, including a lightweight Yeti-inspired life vest for kayakers that protects valuables and eliminates the excess material found on other mainstream life vests; Sprout, a renewable toy made from recycled bio material that when planted produces a small container garden; and her senior capstone project, On Aid, a customizable bandage dispenser meant to eliminate the frustrations of locating, applying and storing bandages in non-medical environments. Taking place over two semesters, On Aid was largely self-guided, which made the experience that much more rewarding for Wilmink. “I think that freedom allowed me to explore areas for personal growth, especially when it came to sharing my vision through storytelling.”

The IDSA Central District Student Merit Award winner plans to continue collaborating with others as she moves forward, perhaps by building what she hopes will be “a support system for other aspiring creatives and entrepreneurs.”

Asked what advice she has for young designers, Wilmink counsels diligence, even when doing so risks disapproval.

“Never stop asking how you can make something better.

Use older students, professionals, and even friends and family outside the design community...Being able to communicate your idea is crucial, and the only way to practice that is to be constantly open to criticism.” n Olivia Wilmink is currently working for Wittrock Healthcare; oliviawilmink@gmail.com

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Lynnaea Myers, IDSA | Cedarville/ International Center for Creativity Winner

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hen I began college, I majored in journalism because of my passion for listening to people; understanding their world, their joys and their struggles; and telling their stories. Although empathy is what drove me to journalism, when I switched to industrial design I realized that design is a fuller expression of the same empathy needed for journalism. In studying industrial design, not only was I able to listen to and understand people; I was also being equipped to design products and systems that could help people by alleviating their pain, meeting their needs and affecting their lives for good. Good design must be guided by a deep understanding of the user’s needs. Being able to express my passion for people in this way is what drove me to the profession of industrial design. —Lynnaea Myers, Marketing and Communications Designer, Sundberg-Ferar, lynnaea@sundbergferar.com

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Ryan Featherstone, IDSA | College for Creative Studies Winner

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s a kid I spent the majority of my free time outdoors enjoying the freedom of limitless creativity. I’d build and imagine weird and exciting things. As I grew older and entered high school, I was able to express some of that creativity through art classes; I enjoyed visualizing and creating. That’s when I discovered I was a visual learner and communicator, but life took me in a different direction at first.

I started my college career in the medical field but after a few semesters discovered it wasn’t for me. That’s when I took a step back and contemplated what to do with my life.

I wanted a career that would become a lifestyle, something different. That’s when industrial design found me.

I stumbled on a pamphlet from the College for Creative Studies describing what product design is. I read it and knew I needed to become a designer, so I transferred to CCS and started my new life. I had no idea what I was doing at first, but I pushed myself and developed my skills, which made me love it so much more.

As I progressed as a young designer, the reasons why I pursued design changed. I wanted my designs to reflect empathetic new experiences; I needed a deeper meaning to the products I was creating.

—Ryan Featherstone, Junior Industrial Designer, Newell Brands

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Casey Little, IDSA | Columbus College of Art and Design Winner

I

started my college career as a graphic designer; I had never heard of industrial design. After a few of my professors noticed that I enjoyed working with my hands and that my work as a graphic designer always seemed to gravitate toward products, they suggested I look into ID.

I found it much more fulfilling to be solving problems and taking designs from ideas in my head to sketches on paper to something I could physically hold. While I am currently working in graphic design, I hope to get back to marrying functionality and aesthetics as a product designer.

If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing. I tend to bite off a bit more than I can chew and focus in on even the smallest of details, but I love a good challenge. Some people aren’t motivated by stress, but I thrive under a heavy workload. Don’t assume that high stress within a work environment is negative; try embracing the pressure and letting it motivate your work. And understand that every aspect of a design is important.

The most important lesson I’ve learned over the past couple of years is that the design way of thinking can be applied anywhere to any problem. Our talents are no longer specific to products and manufacturing. And while my current interests are within the world of sports equipment and technology, I would love to use the design process to change education, energy and maybe even government systems and campaigns.

—Casey Little, Graphic Designer, State Auto Insurance, Clittle.1@go.ccad.edu

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Taylor Axdorff, IDSA | Kendall College of Art & Design Winner

I

n the future, design will be integrated into more curriculums and become well known as a creative profession like advertising and marketing are. Many people do not realize the potential of design and the future it could bring, both individually and collectively.

The value of design will also increase. I currently work at a company that is transitioning to a more design-led approach, as opposed to something slapped on at the last minute. As long as companies continue to see the profit that can be made with good design, design will continue to become even more prevalent.

The implementation of design will be increasingly led by technology with less emphasis on the physical, and there will be more digital opportunities that are ripe for design.

This not new; it is happening now. For design, the future is always now. —Taylor Axdorff, Junior Industrial Designer, Gentex

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Abigail McInturf, IDSA | University of Cincinnati Winner

A

designer’s role in society is quickly transforming.

We no longer focus on simply making things look pretty, but instead are becoming future decisionmakers and innovators. Today, design is about seeing opportunities to improve the world, specifically by making products that are designed to be more accessible, safer and easier to understand.

To do so, we are responsible for helping create innovative solutions to seemingly impossible problems. Designers are also harnessing a new superpower: predicting the future. We are tasked with not only understanding how we interact with our world and the products within it but also projecting how that interaction might change over time.

Today, design requires a combination of all these skills: problem-solving, user-centered thinking and empathy. In

the future, with the rise of artificial intelligence, virtual reality and data integration, people from outside the field will likely be trained to think like designers. Because of this, I believe that design will begin to produce thought leaders, who will determine the vision for the ecosystem in which these product systems live.

In the future there will be a huge amount of opportunity for current designers and non-designers alike. What remains to be seen, however, is how our generation will utilize emerging technology and tools to address some of the major issues of our time: fostering genuine human interaction, creating a more sustainable world around us and developing more ethical products to enhance the lives of users of all backgrounds and cultures. —Abigail McInturf, Designer, Cincinnati Bengals; Co-Founder, Personal Best, abby.mcinturf@gmail.com, www.abbymcinturfdesign.com

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Call for Papers IDSA is accepting papers for peer review and presentation at the IDSA/Eastman Innovation Lab Education Symposium in 2019.

All papers should be submitted by March 25, 2019.

Learn more at IDSA.org/callforpapers

M I D W E ST

Lydia Swedberg, IDSA | SMA District Winner | Purdue University

A MELDING OF CREATIVITY AND LOGIC

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DSA Midwest District Student Merit Award winner Lydia Swedberg, IDSA, spent much of her childhood outdoors hiking the White Mountains or swimming in the rivers and lakes near her home in the rural outskirts of New Hampshire with her parents and two siblings. A natural athlete—she now accredits her competitive spirit, leadership skills and persistence to sports—Swedberg was an artist from an early age. “I loved to draw and enjoyed any opportunity I had to get my hands dirty. I had always loved art, particularly drawing and ceramics. I took art classes all throughout school and was always sketching as a kid.”

Swedberg, who went on to serve as president of the IDSA student chapter at Purdue University for two consecutive years, says that her artistic pursuits in high school were balanced by an engrained passion for geometry.

After attending a brief session at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Swedberg understood what path she needed to take in order to accommodate her two passions. “The

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camp helped me to learn more about industrial design and to decide if it was the right program for me…I felt industrial design was my bridge between my creative side and my more logical side.”

The small, intimate nature of Purdue University’s Industrial & Interaction Design program was especially beneficial to Swedberg, who works best in close working environments. “The small size makes the program feel like family. We establish really close bonds as a class, which makes working together enjoyable.” The connections that Purdue has with other design professionals and companies, particularly in Indiana and Chicago, also establishes a strong network for students, which Swedberg argues is vital for young designers like herself.

IDSA also provided Swedberg with opportunities to meet and maintain relationships with other designers.

“IDSA provides so many resources for designers and a vast network of professionals and students. [It] has allowed me

to learn about different areas of design, which has helped me find my own passion…Being able to talk to practicing designers, ask questions and gain feedback has helped me to grow my design sensibilities.”

Swedberg’s decision to minor in anthropology while attending Purdue University had a significant impact on how she planned to contribute to the design world. “I believe that the role of the designer today is changing,” she offers.

“Designers are asked to be innovators, but innovation is not simply improving products or creating new technologies; innovation is about solving real-world challenges.” These challenges, says Swedberg, can only be solved when individuals see themselves not only as product designers but also as “critical thinkers, empathetic researchers and ethical innovators who can respond to the urgent issues society is facing.”

Swedberg’s ideology translates to her emerging portfolio, with several of her projects designed specifically for Muslim women balancing sportswear with traditional values (shown above). These projects include, among others, a workout-compatible hijab with integrated technology that allows women to track their progress and fitness goals; an athletic top with an easily removable hijab fitted with wearable technology that tracks the user’s progress and transmits the data to a mobile app; and a larger, more expansive activewear collection for Muslim women wanting to expand their fitness routine while retaining their modesty.

Though geometric lines are a clear mainstay of Swedberg’s work—fostering designs that seek to render both simplicity and symmetry—the Student Merit Award winner sometimes finds it difficult to marry her passion for mathematics to the subjective nature of design. “I think my logical mathematical side struggled with this [subjectivity] at first because I was looking for a singular solution to multifaceted problems. People have different styles and approaches to problem-solving, and there is always going to be someone who does not like something that you do.” Over time, Swedberg realized that the subjective nature of design is what helps make it so special. “Unlike other fields, design is unique because it requires human emotion, empathy and compassion,” she says. “Everything that we design is somewhat personal. It has a little bit of the designer in it, and I think that is really beautiful.”

Swedberg began a six-month internship at GROHE in Düsseldorf, Germany, in July. She is excited to immerse herself in the German culture and, she adds, to “gain new and varying cultural perspectives on design.” Wherever her future takes her, Swedberg is excited to continue broadening the scope of industrial design using a multidisciplinary approach—one that incorporates the fields of anthropology, psychology, engineering, business and anthropology.

“The designer,” Swedberg insists, “is a catalyst for social change… I really just hope that 10 years from now I’ll be able to feel like my work is having a valuable and positive impact on our society.” n Lydia Swedberg is currently an industrial design intern at GROHE in Düsseldorf, Germany; swedberglydia@gmail.com.

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Kellie Walters, IDSA | Iowa State University Winner

W

hat first interested me about industrial design was how broad the field is, and once I learned that it also encompasses a combination of critical thinking and aesthetics, I was all in. Even simply the process of industrial design was a natural draw.

Growing up I was always interested in research, writing and problem-solving through making and drawing. When I started my industrial design education, sketching, prototyping, physically working through ideas and critically thinking through a myriad of materials was a natural way for me to work. When I had the opportunity to continue my writing while developing my own personal research agenda and publish my work internationally, I saw that I had the potential to make a difference in the field and have an impact greater than myself.

Now that I am working in professional practice, I’m becoming even more interested in how designers perceive, interact with and aesthetically understand the product— what about form, material and color changes how we perceive objects, become emotionally connected to them and physically interact with them. It’s interesting how behavioral trends, like the increased use of smart devices in the home, directly leads to a growth in the use of soft-goods textures on consumer electronics.

Industrial design is a field where I can grow and learn throughout my career. I look forward to continuing to explore possibilities in professional practice, conducting research and writing theory to contribute to the field both functionally and theoretically.

—Kellie Walters, CMF Designer Newell Brands, kelliekaydesign@gmail.com

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Thuy Khuu, IDSA | Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design Winner

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experienced my quarter-life crisis in my late 20s. Yes, apparently that’s a thing. After taking a few design classes after work, I learned about the field of industrial design. Immediately, I was inspired by how ID can improve life, especially for the elderly and disabled, who are often neglected.

Becoming a college student again to pursue ID was one of my toughest decisions. As the eldest child of workingclass Vietnamese immigrants who could not speak English and lacked institutional know-hows, I felt a keen sense of responsibility toward my family. However, with industrial design I discovered a purpose beyond my family, and with their support, I received a second chance at finding joy and purpose in work.

During my internship at Marquette University, I interacted with stroke survivors and learned how hard they struggle with the things I take for granted, like putting on socks.

I believe every person is entitled to a sense of autonomy and safety within their own home, so after the internship I created a product to achieve that. I designed an apron that reduces the risk of injury for stroke survivors as they

navigate their kitchen, the second-most accident-prone area in the house.

Currently, I want to gain more knowledge and experience in design, particularly in the areas of product, spatial and user-experience design. I hope to one day bring good design to people across all social groups, because good design is a quality of life that should be enjoyed by all, regardless of age, gender or income. —Thuy Khuu, Freelance Designer, thuykhuu@gmail.com

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Anthony Bux, IDSA | Southern Illinois University Carbondale Winner

I

fell into my major by accident. After high school, like most students, I had no idea what I wanted to do. But I did know that I wanted to affect people in a positive way. All through my schooling, I excelled in many spheres of art, but everyone told me that I could not make a living drawing all day. Fortunately, I stumbled across industrial design when I was exposed to the latest inventions in the magazine Popular Science. I always wanted to create something that can bring joy to people. This eventually led me to look deeper into the field.

When “industrial designer” came up on a Google search, it turned into an all-night binge to figure out how to start on this career path. While at SIU, I gravitated toward designing sustainable products. My senior-year projects were all based on prototyping concrete products that use waste products from coal plants and unrecyclable plastics to strengthen the concrete blend for future mass produc-

tion. Industrial design allows me to constantly solve new problems using an unrelenting creative mindset while also bringing joy to people’s lives.

—Anthony Bux, Product Designer, IntoConcrete Chicago, anthonybux62@gmail.com

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MIDWEST

Araceli Martinez | University of Illinois at Chicago Winner

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’ve come a long way from when I started design school.

I’ve learned a lot about who I am, not only as a designer but as a person. The personal values and traits that shape who I am are often conveyed in my projects, but I also find that they represent some opportunities in my work.

When working on Sonance, a pod that helps those who are deaf and hard of hearing enjoy music through soft vibrations, I reached out to the hard of hearing community and found that many of them retained their hearing into their adult life. These are the people who have been most affected because they had to learn to live life differently.

Because I have been hard of hearing all of my life, I was in a unique position to assist with their needs because their experiences and struggles were related to my own. Design should be used as a tool for independence to tap into an unmet need. I use design as a tool to empower those who are like me.

When you understand the struggles and experiences you’ve been through, you are put in a position of power to create a better world for people like you. We should be designing for people who are like-minded. Design research for user needs only goes so far, unless you are one of them.

Having first-hand experience puts you in the highest level of empathy. Understanding the world and understanding myself is what design is for me.

—Araceli Martinez, Associate Visual Designer, Morningstar, Inc., martinezaraceli27@gmail.com, chelydesign.com INNOVATION WINTER 2018

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Jian “Peter” Zu | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Winner

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wish to reform, re-create and redesign daily objects and environments for people. I hope that my designs will not only make people’s lives easier and happier but also give them experiences they have never had before.

My initial approach to design is the same as a lot of other designers: start with a problem. However, I have my own way of approaching the solution. I like to start with a blank slate, freely use my imagination to re-create the object.

I don’t like to restrict myself to the archetypes of daily objects in people’s mind. I love to reform objects as well as to reform the use scenarios of those objects. But first I must empty my cup in order to fill it up again. I have to free up my mind and clear out the stereotypes in my head about existing products and experiences before creating something new, innovative and revolutionary.

—Jian “Peter” Zu, Master in Interior and Product Design, Scuola Politecnica di Design (Italy), peterjzu@gmail.com

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Loren Chen, IDSA | University of Notre Dame Winner

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eaningful design is driven by our sensitivity to culture. Culture can be understood not only on an immediate contextual level but also through our investigation of cross-cultural relationships and the ways people of different backgrounds respond to the environment, forms and experiences.

It can be easy to lose sight of the unique influences that come from cultural diversity, especially in a world where technological advancements increasing bring about uniformity across the language of products and services that are consumed by millions of people. However, there is so much that can be learned when we take the time to observe, understand and empathize with diversity. The same product can live in many different homes across the world, but the way each person uses that product, adapting it to their lifestyle, can differ vastly based on upbringing and values.

Identifying and understanding those differences brings about a meaningful lens through which we can discover and apply new opportunities.

Celebrating culturally sensitive and responsive design is more than paying lip service to our differences. It is about recognizing and absorbing our unique traditions, practices and mannerisms and embracing what can unite us. I hope to continue to broaden my perspectives, observing the subtle nuances in our interactions with everyday objects and services and deepening my grasp of how I can affect a diversity of people through design. —Loren Chen, Associate Industrial Designer, Newell Brands, loren.chen56@gmail.com INNOVATION WINTER 2018

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Kevin Wruble, IDSA | University of Wisconsin-Stout Winner

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e live in an amazing time. The continuous advancement of new materials, technology and digital innovation is happening at a phenomenal rate. Industrial design is the profession that will ensure that these new technologies are presented in a digestible and responsible way to consumers.

While the invention and development of rapid prototyping machines, intuitive CAD systems and do-it-yourself design services are available to the average citizen, designers will still need to become involved to help consumers see the possibilities. It is uniquely within the capacity of industrial designers to design holistic experiences within and around products. Most people don’t know what they want or need until they see it; it’s only then that it makes sense to involve consumers to personalize those experiences for added meaning and delight.

Because technology and big data will become an essential part of everyday life, the ethical treatment of that power must remain meaningful to all. Our roles are as important as we can make them; it is up to us to make good use of our design abilities to create and implement technologies

that are benevolent guides to happier, healthier humans. In a world of constant connectivity, industrial design is a critical participant in orchestrating a world where the emphasis can shift from digital interactions to promoting genuine human connectivity and using artificial intelligence and big data to create that change. —Kevin Wruble, Industrial Design Intern, 3M Company, wrublekevin@gmail.com

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N ORTH EA S T

Lily McClure, IDSA | SMA District Winner | Drexel University

DEEP SIMPLICITY

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DSA Northeast District Student Merit Award winner Lily McClure’s undergraduate career at Drexel University was a multidisciplinary one, shaped by the designer’s many passions. “I’ve never been someone able to work on simply one thing at once, and while at university there are so many possibilities,” she says. “At one point I counted and realized I’d taken classes in nine out of the 14 colleges at Drexel.”

In addition to earning her BS in product design at Drexel University, McClure also contributed to food research and recipe development in the Drexel Food Lab, worked with Drexel Smart House and did research for the university teaching hospitals. While these were rewarding experiences, McClure learned over time the importance of focusing on what mattered most. “There are only so many hours in a day, and I only have so much emotional energy to put for-

ward. Things turn out so much better if I put more of myself into fewer things than a tiny bit into a million things, no matter how much they get me jazzed up.”

McClure’s creative pursuits are due, in part, to her parents. “I was incredibly fortunate to be the child of two massively creative people,” she shares, “who knew not only the importance of design and beauty but also the joy of messing around with materials.” McClure herself was a daily witness to her parents’ artistic abilities and was raised from an early age to understand that innovation is often born from experimentation. “When [my parents] would come downstairs to find I’d broken into the tape drawer again on an urgent mission to tape together a handful of fake gemstones, they taught me how to divert that energy into useful pursuits.”

Her decision to pursue product design in college was an extension of this engrained ingenuity. “It wasn’t until I was

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touring accepted schools that I realized that I didn’t have to choose between a ‘making stuff/engineering’ type major or a ‘people person’ major or a ‘creative type’ major. I really could have them all in one place.”

That one place was Drexel University’s Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, an environment that McClure says was ideal for young designers like herself.

“The Drexel product design studio space is a gift that cannot be overstated. We’re given access to some crazy making spaces and then encouraged to experiment.”

As McClure is quick to point out, however, the best programs can only take the designer so far. “Academia gives you an amazing wealth of learning opportunities, but sometimes the challenges you face…don’t reflect the outside world.” IDSA, she says, exposed her to the world of design beyond academia. “Through the ability to present my work and the exposure/networking at conferences, I’ve been able to learn so much about the actual world that designers exist in, rather than just the theoretical limbo that you experience while in university.”

A combination of theory and practicality produced a design portfolio that McClure claims prioritizes simplicity over aesthetics. “I believe in simple controls with obvious use,” shares McClure, “so my work tends to be extremely simple from the outside.” Many of McClure’s products are designed to encourage the user to think more deeply about certain

issues. One project, entitled Memento Mori Armoire, is a fully compostable casket made entirely out of post-consumer waste and plant/algae bioplastics; it is intended to encourage users to think more sustainably when funeral planning. Other projects include Aerogrow, an aeroponic growing system that allows the user to observe its roots and branches; Metla Whisk (left), an angled whisk designed to counteract the tremors of Parkinson’s patients and the elderly; and Paper Pulp Chickie Bank (above), a fully customizable piggy bank kit that teaches kids healthy spending habits. “I very literally want to create the world around me,” McClare says. “Whether it’s on the micro scale with the art and models I hide around the design studio or the macro scale of mass manufactured designs, I want to know that the little pieces of myself I put into my design are out there and doing some good.”

Looking forward, McClure says that she hopes to continue contributing to the medical industry in some capacity.

“I love the medical field because every time I’ve worked in it I’m forced to constantly learn and detangle dilemmas every step of the way. There are so many wild puzzles to solve when you’re working with biology, regulations … that every step of the way a possible solution is a victory.” Ever the innovator, McClure nonetheless looks to a future that has yet to unfold. “I sincerely hope that the career I have in 10 years isn’t something I’ve even heard of today. The most exciting opportunities are the ones you never see coming.” n Lily McClure is currently a research assistant at Drexel University; lmm454@drexel.edu.

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CHANGING THE FUTURE OF DESIGN, ONE STUDENT AT A TIME.

PRODUCT DESIGN AT DREXEL UNIVERSITY drexel.edu/westphal

GRADUATE ARTS ADMINISTRATION

Congratulations, Lily McClure Winner, IDSA Student Merit Award

NORTHEAST

Rachel Thompson, IDSA | Kean University Winner

D

esign is in everything you touch, smell, taste and see. You can find designs in nature, products and buildings. All these examples have been created to make a user’s everyday routine easier. When it comes to designing a new product or building, it is a designer’s job to put a user first and think of the environment.

One way to check if a design is on track is to answer the following questions: Will the design of a product/building help the user work more efficiently? Will it bring more comfort to their lives? Will the user want to buy more of it?

If a you can answer yes to all the above, you have a successful design.

As a designer, I find inspiration for my designs in nature

and human-made environments. It blows my mind that everything around us was once an idea sketched on a piece of paper or grew into a tall tree from a very tiny seed in the ground. I have the same feeling when a user is holding my design in their hands admiring what I perfected over the past few months.

I strive for my products to make users happy and satisfied because I love being an industrial designer. Every day there are new obstacles to face, and I admire the challenge of solving the problem. When I successfully solve all the problems in a project and release the product to the world, my emotions range from relief to excitement for next project to come.

—Rachel Thompson, Designer, West Pharmaceutical Innovation Center, raymariethompson@gmail.com

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Sarah Nault, IDSA | Massachusetts College of Art and Design Winner

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y passion for design started as a child when I spent days creating and building random objects like toys to test and play with. Unfortunately, that was put on hold when I got sick and had to spend time in the hospital. But this experience taught me how seemingly simple objects can have a significant impact on a person’s life.

There was a day when I needed my blood drawn, and after several tries, the nurse could not find my vein. By then I had gotten so used to being poked and prodded that it wasn’t the needle that bothered me; it was the rubber band tied around my arm constantly pinching my skin. For the fourth try, the head nurse took over. Without a word from me, she untied the rubber band and replaced it with a woven strap that did the same job, but without the constant pinch.

During recovery, creating continued to be my escape.

When it came time to choose my major, I reflected back on my childhood and knew I wanted to be able to make a difference in people’s lives like the nurse did for me. After learning about industrial design, the thought of pursuing the field gave me a sense of purpose.

Industrial design starts with defining the why. It combines empathy and creative thinking to enhance an experience, often in unexpected ways. It allows me to develop new ideas and use my natural curiosity to help others. Each project is an exciting journey. I can’t wait to discover what’s next.

—Sarah Nault, Industrial Designer, Octo Product Development

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Tarika Jain, IDSA | Parsons (The New School) Winner

I

believe design has no single definition but a variety of perspectives that can be defined by the problem we are trying to solve. Design has allowed me to constantly explore beyond the field itself, which has been extremely valuable.

The demand for intensive research and its analyzation has opened my eyes to surprising systems that follow a product so designed. The life cycle of products and services is of high interest to me since they are affected in some way by them.

Therefore, as industrial designers we have the power and responsibility to weigh all the ramifications of a product with the maximum benefits toward the environment, the economy and society. Being calculative about each resource we use in our creative processes provides us with rare design opportunities that have the ability to make not only a different product but a product that can make a difference as well.

By considering the materials, manufacturing techniques and the end of life of the product before it is even designed, a positive domino affect can lead to a healthier, more efficient society and economy. The moment we take a concept to an actual product, an array of questions need to be answered, and as designers, we design one moment at a time. I am not sure if I can change the world, but I can contribute to the spark that might lead to a positive change. —Tarika Jain, Industrial Designer, Nelipak Healthcare Packaging, tarika.jain@gmail.com, www.tarikajain.org

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Jemal Kurbanova, IDSA | Pratt Institute Winner

M

y design philosophy? Dumplings, am I right?

They are the perfect design. These small pouches, whether it is dim sum from China, samosas from India or manti from Central Asia, have consistently contained the right amount of nutrients encapsulated by the perfectly sealed and easily transportable form. Dumplings are universal.

For me, to design is to understand social context and to create solutions that are applicable to any setting. The bridging of resources with user experience creates design that not only acts as a tool but colors our memories as well. I think of design as an extension of space and oneself, as oppose to an implant. With material experimentation, execution of form and sustainable production methods, I pursue and create efficient yet playful responses to every-day life.

Psychology and cultural studies scaffold my design approach toward involving emotion. By appealing to all five senses, one can familiarize oneself with a product—a designed language. Pocket foods have enriched cultures, supported the nomads in search discovery and benefited the development and growth of many. Similarly, I aim for that. —Jemal Kurbanova, Art and Design Instructor, Independent Bonn International School, Germany, jemal.k.t@gmail.com, www.jemalkurbanova.com

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NORTHEAST

Kaia Bolland, IDSA | Rochester Institute of Technology Winner

A

s daunting as it can be, every design problem lives in a context that we need to understand before we start creating. Everything we design and put out into the world is part of a messy, tangled, mind-boggling bigger picture. As an industrial designer, I find it most rewarding to focus on the people in that bigger picture. We designers are, first and foremost, advocates for the users. In my view, the users are not only the people purchasing and using our finished products, but every person touched by our design choices—from the employees on factory floors manufacturing our designs to the retail workers stocking and selling our products in stores to future generations who will live with the environmental consequences of our work.

Empathy is the most important tool a designer can use. My best work happens when I get out of the studio and speak directly with the people for whom I’m designing, from a mother of a premature newborn to a teenager who struggles to stay awake in early morning classes to a CNC operator working through a backlog of orders.

By focusing on and listening to the people within each design problem, not only can I deliver a more effective and inclusive solution, but I am also inspired to work hard to better serve each person who will interact with my design. —Kaia Bolland, Packaging Engineering Associate, Newell Brands; kaiabolland@gmail.com

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Julian Stonehouse King, IDSA | Syracuse University Winner

A

s an industrial and interaction designer I have always thought about design in regard to the different dimensions in which it is utilized. Typically, many think of industrial design as a very 3D-oriented discipline and interaction design as more 2D. As long as interaction design is confined to the screens we keep both in our pockets and at our desks, this will continue to be the case.

What excites me most is the emerging field of 3D interaction design. This is a subsector of design geared toward mixed, augmented and virtual realities. What makes this technology so exciting is that it is 3D design that utilizes interaction design paradigms. Within the next decade, I believe we will see much of our daily digital interactions transition from our phones to head-mounted displays. Currently, one of the biggest challenges within this field is the lack of definition around how users will inevitably navigate such technology.

As designers with an understanding of both physical interactions and digital products, we are uniquely qualified to begin applying our combined knowledge of these fields to this new technology. We are on the verge of one of the greatest shifts in technological interaction since the iPhone, and as designers, we have the skills necessary to facilitate that transition.  —Julian Stonehouse King, Freelance Industrial and Interaction Designer, jsking01@syr.edu

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Matthew Selnick, IDSA | Thomas Jefferson University Winner

D

esign has been and is continuing to ground itself in the foundation of the world’s newest developments. Not just as an important invested stage that is brought up at marketing meetings but as the thought process from beginning to end—the method through every aspect of making it come to life, whether on the shelf or in your neighbor’s garage.

This needs to continue in the future, and I believe that the future of design will need to involve a lot of systematic progression, more than we’ve ever seen or felt that we’ve needed. The bread-and-butter methods of production need to leave, and more of what is designed for the future needs to set its foundation beyond the soil we’ve been using since design began growing.

—Matthew Selnick, Associate Product Design Engineer, Crane Payment Innovations

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NORTHEAST

Taehoon Park, IDSA | University of Bridgeport Winner

M

y design philosophy at this early professional stage is thoughtful user-centered design and remaining open to team discussions during the design process. I am pushing myself to execute my design projects based more on end-user research to understand their needs and to discuss any ideas with the design team during brainstorming to achieve better creative solutions.

As far as I understand it, customers these days are smarter and desire better products based on their own experiences. I believe users, including us designers, are not simply looking for an aesthetic or simplicity in the product’s design, but rather want more clever solutions. Product development needs time in order to achieve good design, but it is often our job to complete projects within tight timelines and budget constraints. This is our endless assignment as industrial designers.

When I was an ID student, I was focused just on aesthetics and individual project execution rather than a teamwork approach, because it was more comfortable for

me. After interning at Stanley Black & Decker, I realized the importance of a team-based approach. As time goes on, I know my design philosophy will become more refined, adjusted by my experience. I am very excited to see where things will go in the future. —Taehoon Park, Jr. Industrial Designer, Veloce Engineering, LLC, parkth0216@gmail.com, www.taehoonpark.com

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Shane Mastronardi, IDSA | University of the Arts Winner

W

ith everything I design or create, my focus is not on changing the world but rather on improving the life of at least one person. While in school, I designed an assistive device that allowed a boy to be able to drink independently for the first time. That may not have changed the world, but it changed the world for that boy and his parents. For my senior project I designed a wearable device that helps to prevent the leading cause of death among search and rescue dogs: heat exhaustion. Being able to protect the life of one dog may be able to save the lives of many future disasters victims.

I have been lucky enough to start my career at JLG Industries, where every day I get to use design to help keep the men and women responsible for building the framework of our society safe. One day I hope to use design to help protect the lives of first responders and members of the military. Changing the world starts by solving the smaller problems. It is those solutions that lay the groundwork for even greater change. I look forward to using design to improve the lives of others and to solve the smaller problems that allow change to grow. —Shane Mastronardi, Industrial Designer, JLG Industries, Inc., shanemastronardi@gmail.com

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NORTHEAST

Sydney Meyers, IDSA | Wentworth Institute of Technology Winner

I

grew up with a love for science experiments, often flipping through the stack of books on my kitchen shelf until I found a project I hadn’t yet done. Every experiment had instructions explaining what you should build, how you should build it and what the outcome will be. The science book clearly stated, “If you mix the vinegar with the baking soda, it will explode.” Still, I inherently wanted to know if it actually would.

We feel the need to test our assumptions about the outcome we are told to expect—to see if what we’re told is what is real. In the same way, design gives people the ability to hold an assumption, build a way to test it and experiment to see whether or not that assumption holds true. Except that there is no book stating the outcome; that comes in the form of systems and existing businesses and that person mumbling, “That’s how it’s always been done!” Design lets you challenge and push what exists today so you can explore what else is possible. You get to test the assumption and ask, “Is this really the best way?” You get to create what’s written in the book. And you get to continuously and limitlessly prove it right or wrong.

In my science book, I’m using design to improve healthcare, to make it more accessible and challenge the assumption that it won’t change.

—Sydney Meyers, Designer, Innovation Team, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, syd@sydmey.studio

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Jonathan Seto, IDSA | SMA District Winner | University of Houston

A PATH INSPIRED BY PASSION

J

onathan Seto, IDSA, never imagined he would be accepting this year’s IDSA South District Student Merit Award. In fact, he didn’t think he would be a designer at all. “If you [had] told me in high school that I would be in design school and winning a very prestigious award like the IDSA SMA, I would have said you were lying.” Having grown up in the small rural town of Jackson, MS, Seto was on the path to graduate from the University of Houston with a degree in accounting, though the internships he acquired during his studies proved stifling. Seto’s brother, a fellow University of Houston student with experience collaborating with the school’s industrial design department, suggested that he explore it a career choice. “I always questioned which direction I wanted to choose,” he says. “The choices [were] the safe route, a regular desk job or [to] follow my creative pursuits.”

A first-generation college student and the son of immigrant parents from Hong Kong, Seto says that he and his brother were always encouraged to follow their passions.

“My parents always …reminded us to ‘do what you love,’

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not like the typical mold of ‘you need to be a doctor’ or so on.” For Seto, this meant a childhood of discovery and experimentation. “I always had a curiosity for taking things apart and putting them back together or creating new things from miscellaneous parts.” This curiosity, it seems, followed Seto into adulthood, giving him the push he needed to pursue his own creative interests through industrial design.

“When it came down to choosing between accounting…and design, I went back to my upbringing of ‘do what you love.’”

Seto’s time as a student of industrial design has been deeply impacted by his peers at the University of Houston, men and women who, like him, are dedicating their lives to doing what they love. “The University of Houston provides a very diverse culture and environment of many different ethnicities, and hearing their personal stories and approaches for why they design inspired me the most.” Seto points out that spending time with his peers and instructors has developed his own talents considerably and has helped clarify his own unique place in the larger design world. “The University of Houston…allowed me as a designer to discover what I

am good at and what I am not and allowed me to improve in those areas and become a more well-rounded designer with a various set of skills.”

These skills, says Seto, require listening attentively to the opinions of others and modifying his designs accordingly. “My process is primarily focused on understanding the problem and the people behind it because behind every problem there is a user.” Innovation, he insists, is dependent upon recognizing the needs and tendencies of the men and women using his designs. “I hope to truly understand people’s wants and needs and solve problems that occur in our everyday life.”

Seto’s aesthetic, as evidenced by his portfolio, explores the relationship between simplicity and implied intention.

“If you look at a lot of successful design, the aesthetic can play a pivotal role in a user’s interaction. I truly believe less is more.” Seto’s projects include, among others: Bistro (above), a streamlined Bodium-inspired electric kettle designed to reduce the waste of cumbersome mass-market kitchen products; Dynamic, a reimagined lint roller made from rein-

forced thermoplastic featuring a nested housing and pivoting head; and Torque, a faucet inspired by Speedform designed to communicate speed and transition. “I hope to one day walk into a store and look at a product knowing that I had a part in making an impact on someone’s life and leave the world a better place than it was before,” shares Seto, “whether that product helps someone or simply puts a smile on someone’s face solely just on how it looks.”

Having graduated from the University of Houston in May, Seto continues to “do what he loves.” Looking forward, Seto hopes to contribute positively to the design world in whatever ways are available to him. “As long as I’m making a difference, and inspiring our future generations of designers, that will be my ultimate goal. Whether that’s teaching, owning my own business, etc.” What advice does this year’s IDSA South District Student Merit Award winner have for designers of the future? “Never stop learning, fail early, be open to listening, and take risks. But ultimately find what you love to do. It will truly define you not only as designer but also a person.” n Jonathan Seto is currently an industrial designer at LSI Industries; jxseto@gmail.com

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Jacob LeBlanc, IDSA | Appalachian State Winner

A

s our generation reacts against the expectation of consumption, individual relationships with our belongings become more distinct. We don’t want more products; we want products that have a more meaningful existence. The things we invite into our lives should be helpful to use, lovely to behold and justifiable in their existence.

As a designer, the focus should always be on nurturing the symbiosis between a product and its user. We must focus on creations that help ease human workloads and promote physical and mental health without resorting to superfluous exploitation of our world’s limited resources for the sake of comfort. With this in mind, we can avoid designing products just for people to love and instead design products that help them love life.

—Jacob LeBlanc, Designer, SBFI, jacob@jacob.gallery

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SOUTH

Elizabeth Boyd, IDSA | Auburn University Winner

I

didn’t originally choose industrial design—it chose me. I came to Auburn as an English literature major, and after a very long conversation at a Chipotle, I dropped all of my planned spring semester classes and changed my major.

I love being a designer because I get to empower and inspire people to be the heroes of their own stories—and that empowerment of people is what makes design truly capable of changing the world. We get to harness the power of design to make products, experiences, systems and services more equitable, accessible and enjoyable for all people.

—Elizabeth Boyd, Student, Auburn University, emb0038@gmail.com

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Sally Todd, IDSA | James Madison University Winner

S

ince starting work in August, I have been training to become a certified web accessibility specialist so that I can include best practices for keyboard users, color-blind users, screen-reader users and low-vision users into my UX/ UI designs. Until I started studying web acces-

sibility, I never realized just how detrimental simple design choices like using images with text and type with bright colors or buttons instead of links (and vice versa) can be for those who use assistive technologies to navigate the web.

Furthermore, I recognized that there are almost no guidelines within the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 to ensure maximum usability for charts and graphics among these users. This means that keyboard users and screen-reader users often have to manually sift through large data grids to infer important information that would otherwise be represented through, for example, a bar chart.

Now I am working independently alongside other industry experts to draft standards for optimizing data visualization on the web. Our hope is to propose these standards to the W3C for its next WCAG iteration so that all users, including the 20 percent of Americans who live with some form of a disability, will be able to read charts, graphs and other valuable information without a separate or a lesser user experience. —Sally Todd, UX/UI Designer, Visa, saltodd3@gmail.com

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Esmerly Simé Segura, IDSA | Savannah College of Art and Design Winner

Molly Zacher

F

or years, we, as designers, have kept the beauty and value of design strategies to ourselves. Today, we are seeing this behavior slowly fade away and allowing our voice as designers to be heard in other forums. Our society is facing critical challenges in the political, social and economic sectors that will redefine our collective tomorrow.

This is where we, as designers, will step in.

We are on a path that will launch us into an atmosphere of multidisciplinary interactions. Today, we are seeing designers developing and acquiring new skill sets across all different types of design disciplines to bring more richness to the products, services and experiences we deliver.

However, how we deliver these products, services and experiences can become a major pivotal point for tackling society’s current and future challenges in a refreshing and collaborative manner.

I envision that we will shift from creating solutions just within our capabilities and expertise to reaching out and collaborating with multiple experts from other industries, yielding a true cross-functional practice of design for society’s tomorrow.

—Esmerly Simé Segura, Industrial Designer (Intern), Kohler Co.; User Experience Designer, Ancestry, esmesise@gmail.com

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Annalise Saucier, IDSA | University of Louisiana at Lafayette Winner

T

he future of design lives in teams of people making creative platforms, devices and products that become more and more user friendly and intuitive than we ever could have imagined. In the next 50 years, as our landscape of careers and day-to-day activities change, designers will be at the forefront of innovation because we listen to the users.

We work with real individuals to create things that interact seamlessly and beautifully with their lives: a flexible solar-powered shirt that charges your phone, a safe autonomous vehicle that brings a child to school or takes you to a meeting, a small affordable research satellite accessible to individuals and schools, a drone that beams internet connectivity to remote villages and cities.

As new needs are born, we must be ready to design sustainable and scalable solutions, and to be—at our cores—collaborators. If over the next decades we maintain our passion for people, we will continue to realize that any person willing to contribute can contribute to design and that on some level we are all designers. The best thing we can do is to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and the design mind at an early age. The future requires teaching children that a conversation is key in everything they do.

In that vein, a positive future only exists if we are willing to take risks, remove waste and speak to the very people our designs will impact: the people of the future.

—Annalise Saucier, Designer in Residence, Radley College, UK, annalisesaucier@gmail.com, www.asaucier.com

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Daniel Perry, IDSA | Virginia Tech Winner

D

esign will only grow and become more responsible for being ethical about the products we make—but not only in a physical sense. With advancements in AI, virtual reality and computer systems, we can’t think of our profession as solely curators of purely tangible objects and experiences. Designers must choose either to continue along the path of this ever-growing IoT and digital environment or to resist and focus on preserving the genuine nature of real face-to-face human interaction and communication.

As designers gain more control and influence inside the professional world, we must be cognizant about the future and how our role impacts not only the physical environment but also the psychology of our consumers. Designers have always been adaptable in their efforts to understand and advocate for users, but now more than ever, we must be aware of our growing responsibility for the societies we are designing for.

—Daniel Perry, North American Design Lead for Built-In Ovens, Whirlpool Appliances, Instagram: dp_id

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WEST

Charlie Hodges, IDSA | SMA District Winner | ArtCenter College of Design

A CHOREOGRAPHY OF REFINEMENT

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DSA West District Student Merit Award winner Charlie Hodges, IDSA, came to industrial design circuitously, having dedicated his life to studying the art of ballet at the age of 10. Traveling across 30 nations and five continents in pursuit of professional dance, Hodges performed extensively with Twyla Tharp, im’ij-re and the Sacramento Ballet, earning the Best Male Dancer at the European Critics’ Choice Awards (2013), Best Male Dancer on Broadway (2010), and L.A. Weekly’s Person of the Year (2014). Despite these acclaims, Hodges found he could no longer ignore the physical consequences of a professional dance career. “Ballet was the codex through which

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I learned about life. As rewarding as my career was, however, I paid for it in broken bones, torn ligaments and three hip replacements.”

Hodges transferred from Columbia University to the University of Washington to study architecture, which he saw as a logical next step from ballet. Far from hanging up his dancing shoes, Hodges chose to apply his skills to the medium of design, saying, “In order to connect with an audience, a performer must be honest and trustworthy. I believe the skills required…are the same as those required to empathize with the human condition to produce effective, impactful solutions to everyday objects and interactions.”

Graduating summa cum laude from the University of Washington and working for an architecture firm in New York, Hodges quickly grew discontented with the stifling bureaucracy of his field, a limitation that diverged from his own passions for dance and adaptive design. “My designs integrate transition and transformation. As life changes and dancers move between poses, I believe engaging objects do much the same.” Hodges realized that product design would give him the perfect medium to continue dancing, be connected with an audience and, in his own words, “highlight the sheer thrill of what it means to be alive.” With these objectives in mind, Hodges enrolled in ArtCenter College of Design, majoring in product design with a concentration in Designmatters in social innovation.

When reflecting upon how he came to win this year’s West District Student Merit Award, Hodges is quick to point to the positive influence of his instructors at ArtCenter.

Beyond teaching him the fundamentals of product design (he points to manufacturing, generative research, design theory, sustainability and prototyping, among many others), his instructors taught him how to pursue his own agency through the medium of design. “My time at ArtCenter has put me in front of the most generous and patient teachers who daily guide my hand, mind and eye.”

Very different from what he calls the “shut up and dance” mentality of the professional ballet world, ArtCenter illustrates how essential communication and engagement are to the design process. In his own work, Hodges often produces several prototypes based on data implemented from mock-ups and interviews, a process that he says is reflected by his own history as a performer.

“It is not unlike dance, rehearsing the same sequence over and over and over, learning more about the finest barely visible details and nuances.” This process, which Hodges identifies as a sort of “refinement process,” is a systemic one, not relegated solely to the arts. “It works for nature via evolution and bio-diversity. Why shouldn’t it work for creativity as well?”

Hodges also recognizes the benefits of sustainable design and acknowledges the role designers play in providing consumers with inexpensive environmentally friendly products. “I believe that designers are at a point of greatest potential to make a powerful and positive impact on the lives of everyone, not just the wealthy, while protecting the planet on which future generations depend.” Hodges has

produced a number of designs, both individually and in team settings, that attempt to capture this aesthetic and others, including Sandbox, a portable all-in-one system that scans, prints and recycles materials without the waste or expense of traditional 3D printers; Pirate Pachinko, a handheld pinball game that encourages impulse control and conflict resolution in kids; and Baublocks, a 3D interactive building block system that teaches the alphabet kinesthetically.

Looking to the future, Hodges says that he hopes to benefit those communities that are often overlooked by other members of his field. “Through industrial design, I want to make the world a better place and draw attention to the brilliance of what it means to be alive.” In order to do this, Hodges says that he has to be willing to stand up for what he believes in, even when that stance is met with skepticism. “I have made it a point in my studies to lean into intimidation. The only plan worth having is to dive in headfirst and see what becomes of natural talent and a will to survive.” n Charlie Hodges is currently building a company around taking his tiny toy house to market while contracting with JPL and working as a professor for the Design of Dance at CalArts. chunk29@gmail.com

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Elisa Payer, IDSA | Academy of Art University Winner

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y design philosophy is to design products that enable people to live a better life. I strive to define the gray area between black and white. My will always has been to provide humanity with something that has not existed before. The pure purpose of my work is to help humanity evolve.

We, as designers, develop ideas to open our eyes to the unseen and bring subjects to life. Design needs to open up our hearts and establish an emotionally positive relationship.

We are on earth to create our desired life and become better people. By designing products with positive impacts, we also have the ability to support others.

We must remind ourselves of the wonder of our existence and our role within humanity. Users are the essence of our designs. Our designs need to tell stories. And the stories need to touch us in emotional ways. We focus on creating emotions and interactions between products and users.

Deep connections are being built into not just the products but also the intention behind their conception. Human factors should be the core part of all design processes, and minimalism plays an important role because less always is more. The underlying purpose of a product is what matters most.

With my designs, I want to have a positive impact on life, help people and inspire them. I love to express the freedom of art and mind, empower cultures and enlighten the love and beauty within ourselves. My dreams are huge, and I am striving to make them come to fruition! —Elisa Payer, Industrial Design Student, Academy of Art University, epayerdesign@gmail.com

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Nicholas Cyr, IDSA | Arizona State University Winner

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esign is intention. With enormous amounts of research at our fingertips and an arsenal of tools to gather more—all of which can be attained in seconds—there is little reason for products and experiences to be poorly executed. As developers, it is also our duty to intend where and how raw materials are collected. If it is not our intention to damage the global ecosystem, our products and experiences deserve better than becoming pollution. As industrial designers of the future, we must upcycle the lack of intention of our predecessors. The greatest opportunity in any industry has presented itself to us: intend a future for people and the planet.

—Nicholas Cyr, Associate Industrial Designer, Target Corp.

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Ryan Colindres, IDSA | The Art Institute of Portland Winner

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believe that design is our most potent process for solving problems, particularly the wicked problems.

However, the design process should not be reserved just for the problems related to products and communication. We can use design thinking to take on humankind’s most pressing issues. Whether it be the state of education in American or the situation we face with the environment and our world of inequality, design thinking and its process can be the tool to overcome the great obstacles humanity faces. Design must benefit the most people possible and transcend all social, political and economic arenas. Design is conscious. Design is honest. Design is for the people. —Ryan Colindres, Industrial Designer/Operations Manager, RapidMade, ryancolindres@gmail.com

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Edward Michael Lopez Jr., IDSA | The Art Institute of Seattle Winner

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y design philosophy is to bring forth design solutions that are easily understandable yet conceptually innovative. When considering a creative direction for a design, I find myself thinking about the underlining logic behind the user experience. By doing so, I am able to home in on a specific set of problems and explore various creative solutions for that design. In the end, I hope to invoke a sense of purpose for the design in tandem with an aesthetic beauty brought on by the simplicity of the design. —Edward Michael Lopez Jr., Shop Manager, DCEH AI Seattle; Intern of Digital Sculptor, HugeMini, EdwardLopezDesign@gmail.com

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Dhruvee Tyagi, IDSA | California College of the Arts Winner

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grew up in a busy household, as most of us do. In our actives lives, every moment matters, even the moments you spend opening your door, looking for keys—everything. The objects we surround ourselves with can make these moments delightful, inspirational or simply easy. I believe industrial design is powerful. That’s why I chose to pursue this field. In practice, I enjoy the process of collaboration and collective brainstorming the most. The energy and creativity that flows in a group brainstorm is my favorite part of the design process.

—Dhruvee Tyagi, Industrial Design Intern, Aruliden, dhruvee.tyagi@gmail.com

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Benjamin Martin, IDSA | San Jose State University Winner

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s more borders and barriers are taken down, diversity swells. In a time when we are so connected to one another, the future of design lies in the harmony of multiplicity and collaboration. Designers always held the shared goal of improving and bettering the human experience, so when you throw in the fluidity of the internet, we see ideas and innovations exchanged to achieve that common cause. It’s not until designers with different perspectives and paths in life step into the design platform that you achieve innovation through a wider scope.

Does that mean the collaborative savvy might lean into a design-by-committee mindset? Maybe. But I think as more designers come together, we’ll see a better understanding, respect and appreciation for design that spills out of the typical design circles. It is when we have inclusive collaboration among designers with all types of backgrounds that we, as people improving and bettering the human condition, can achieve designs, products and experiences that can truly cater to everyone at a holistic and comprehensive scale. —Benjamin Martin, Industrial Designer, Whipsaw, bm6390@gmail.com, Benjamin@whipsaw.com INNOVATION WINTER 2018

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Zach Meyer, IDSA | University of Oregon Winner

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ike many others, I found myself in product design after a short stint in architecture school, thinking that becoming an architect was the only way to apply my creativity and fulfill my desire for hands-on work. I was drawn to the breadth of applications and focus areas that the field of product design is comprised of and fell in love with the uniquely interwoven lens that industrial designers see the world through.

Moving into professional life, I hope to create waves and change human experiences through my focus on design for life in motion, utility-driven solutions, processbased innovations and my commitment to filling the world with truly conscientious goods. —Zach Meyer, Product Designer and Developer, Open Prosthetics, zachmeyerdesign@gmail.com

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Jazmine Hoyle | University of Washington Winner

APIS Goalie Glove project team: Jazmine Hoyle, Emma Boyle and David Duyker

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reating and creativity have always been a part of who I am; however, industrial design was a passion I hadn’t realized I was searching for until I found it. I was aware that the objects I use every day had been created, but I always questioned who had made those decisions and why, and how I could become that person too. I found myself pursuing art, which often led me close to design, but it lacked the constraints and challenges I did not realize I desired.

Entering college, I discovered industrial design was the path I wanted to take, and since then that path has grown from a love of simply creating to a love of creating solutions and empathy. After becoming immersed in industrial design, I realized it is more than just problem-solving; it is about exploring the human experience and connecting with people through form and function. The products we get to create as designers become a part of people’s lives, for however long or short that may be, providing us with an opportunity to help them.

As I start my career as an industrial designer, I am excited to contribute to those solutions and continue to be challenged in creating products that will be impactful in people’s lives.

—Jazmine Hoyle, Industrial Design Contractor/Intern, Microsoft, j.hoylez412@gmail.com

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Scotty Paton, IDSA | Western Washington University Winner

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ince I was too young to know what design was, I have had an unending curiosity about how things work and why they are a certain way. My interest in design came from my experiences taking products apart, fixing things when they broke and ultimately working alongside my father. He brought me onto his construction sites when I was old enough to swing a hammer, and I have spent many summers working on custom building projects, learning the fundamentals of how to make things that work and stand the test of time.

I am fascinated by the way that a well-designed object can improve someone’s life, whether it be a tool for construction or a software interface. As a graduate of the Industrial Design and User Experience program at Western Washington University, I developed a skill set that allows me to pursue a variety of projects involving products, user experiences and interfaces, websites, graphics and more.

For me, the field of industrial design involves more than just creating products. It involves applying curiosity to the world around you, which serves not only as one of the coolest foundations for a career but also as a mindset that enhances nearly every part of your life. I look forward to a future in this ever-changing profession, and am excited for all of the creative projects and people I will meet along the way. —Scotty Paton, Freelance Designer, scottypaton@icloud.com, www.scottypaton.com 76

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