Context (Advanced Design)

Today we had a conversation with Industrial Designer Paul Sohi of Autodesk at the coveted Pier 9 in San Francisco, CA. We spoke about his unique transition to industrial design from architecture, his self taught design education, his process and being an early user of Fusion360. Paul was doing interesting things with Fusion and his studio - which eventually caught the eye of Autodesk, which is how Paul ended up working for them. We discussed Virgil Abloh, and the impact he has on art and design, and how we think he’s the modern renaissance man, whether you like his work or not. We encourage you to go out, get around people, visit museums, be immersed in culture, so that you can design with a bigger umbrella instead of being restricted to your bubble. Thank you @fuseps for being so candid and honest. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Spencer Nugent, where we dive into a conversation about the good things about hard things. In the age of instant gratification and intelligent tools, there’s value to taking the long, slow road when creating great things. With these new tools and platforms, ease of production and low barriers to entry can make design more democratic, but without proper restraint, has also made it much more superficial. In this episode, we go deep about keeping it real. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

It was a pleasure to have three amazing and powerful women designers be part of CONTEXT! Thank you to IDSA Chicago for allowing us to interview Nichole Rouillac, Ti Chang, and Morgan Matt during their Women & Design Summit. We interviewed Nichole first; join us as we discussed her journey from a small town in the southwest suburbs of Chicago to the Bay Area to be part of some of the most prolific designs of our time. Ti Chang who revolutionized the sex toy industry with her innovative designs, and Morgan Matt who is changing decades of tradition at Proctor & Gamble by designing women products for the Gillette brand. Follow these amazing women designers on Instagram under their following Instagram handles: Nichole Rouillac: @nicholerouillac, Ti Chang: @designerti, and Morgan Matt: @missmorganmatt. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, (formerly known as ADS Live prior to Advanced Design’s rebrand), send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is David Miller, a recent graduate from the Industrial Design program at the University of Cincinnati, DAAP. David has moved 26 times since starting college, and worked for some of the best Industrial Design studios in the world along the way, but these days you can find him quarantined in his hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana. As a designer, a teammate, and a human, it’s his mission to show up each and every day with curiosity and a positive attitude. David values both breadth and depth in his skillset, and he doesn't believe in boredom — not in a world with so many new things to learn. Above all, he sees design as a platform to build a world that’s more connective and more deeply rooted in diversity of circumstance and lived experience. He knows it’s no small feat, but a little bit of listening, thinking, and doing (in that order) will help us get there. Thank you @davidmiller.id for sharing your story and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Amanda Huynh, a Canadian product and food designer working at the intersections of community-building, social innovation, and sustainable design. Amanda’s design career has allowed her to work across a variety of sectors in Vancouver, Bali, Shanghai, and London. Amanda earned a BDes in Industrial Design from Emily Carr University of Art + Design and worked as a professional designer for several years before pursuing a MSc in Food Design from Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milan, Italy. She is an Assistant Professor of Industrial Design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Thank you @amandahuynh for being on our platform to talk about design. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

We interview the team behind Design Truth - our friends across the pond! Design Truth is a small organization based in London, their objective is to keep Industrial Design connected through their podcasts and live webinars. Design Truth is organized by Brad Harper, who’s an industrial design recruiter that has worked with some of the biggest brands and agencies on the planet, and his counterpart is Drew Kendrick, a Senior Industrial Designer with 15 years of experience with work that has made it to market from Medical Devices, PPE & Safety Equipment, Toys, Sports Equipment & more. In this podcast we talk about their work, design in the UK and generally what they are looking for in 2021! Go follow Design Truth on Instagram at @wespeakdesigntruth. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

SQ1 2019 SPECIAL: Our next guest is Antonio Borja, the Associate Director of the School of Industrial Design at the Academy of Art University (AAU). Antonio received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from AAU in 2004. After launching his professional career as a freelancer, he joined General Motors as a creative designer, returning to his alma mater as an instructor in 2009, to teach Design Drawing, Transportation Design, and Digital 3D modeling courses. Since then, he has led a collaborative class that has been sponsored by companies such as Nissan, Peugeot, and Jaguar. In 2014, he became associate director of the School of Industrial Design, where he works with Tom Matano on many initiatives, including the integration of the latest rapid prototyping and visualization methods into the design curriculum. During our interview, we talked about his time living in Michigan, we chatted about cars, the future of transportation, Tesla, and how hollywood movies influence design. Thank you @borjadesign for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

IDSA IDC SPECIAL: While attending the IDC Conference, we were able to have a quick chat with some familiar faces! We had the pleasure of speaking with Emily Siira, industrial designer at GE Healthcare. Emily grew up in Grafton, WI and originally started out pursuing an engineering degree, but after facing some difficult obstacles with her health she eventually found herself turning to the field of industrial design (and completely falling in love with it). Emily graduated in 2017 from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, where she built up her design skill set by interning at several companies and while adapting to the health challenges she was faced with. Emily took these challenges and crafted a unique lense to view her world through, which eventually fueled by her desire to improve the overall patient experience; Emily’s engineering acumen, design ability, and life experience combined makes her an unstoppable designer. Thank you @eesiira for sharing your experience and design background! We’ll be watching you as you pave the way for the future of design in healthcare! Thanks for tuning in--be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Robert Brunner, who founded San Francisco-based design studio Ammunition in 2007 to communicate ideas through products, brands, and their surrounding experiences. His work as an industrial designer has spawned numerous brand-defining designs over the past three decades. Prior to founding Ammunition, Robert was a partner at Pentagram and led strategic brand consulting and industrial design programs for Fortune 500 companies. Previously, he was the Director of Industrial Design for Apple, where he established its pioneering internal corporate design organization, Apple IDg. Before joining Apple, Robert co-founded design consultancy Lunar. Named one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business,” Robert’s work is included in the permanent design collections of the MoMA in both New York and San Francisco. He is the co-author of the book Do You Matter? How Great Design Will Make People Love Your Company. Thank you @robertdbrunner for being on our platform to talk about design. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Matt Marchand, currently developing outdoor gear as an Industrial Designer with Dick's Sporting Goods in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is passionate about an innovative incorporation of physics and philosophy into products. There is a lot to do, and he is thankful to be a part of the process. He loves to sketch and is always looking forward to a future of collaborations and learning. Thank you @matt.marchand for sharing your story and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guests are a group of design students who attended Offsite’s first cohort. The students include German Monetti, Henry Ripley, Taylor Mau, and Olive Kennington - all student designers who tuned in from different parts of the world to be part of this design experience. For this episode, the students talk about taking a risk and signing up for this program as a way to elevate their skills, they discuss how their skills evolved, how they made friends, and build an amazing community together. Head over to advdes.org/offsite for additional information on Offsite and our next cohort. You can reach out to our students on Instagram: German Monetti (@g3rman11), Henry Ripley (@henryreedripley), Taylor Mau (@tmau.design), and Olive Kennington (@olive_designn) and check out their amazing work! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

As we continue our interviews with Offsite students, we are excited to interview the next batch of Offsite alumni. Our first cohort was a careful selection of 52 skilled students representing over 10 different countries on every continent, except for Antarctica. This is by no mistake. There are not many design institutions in the world where upon waking up in the U.S. you are chatting with another student in Singapore who is finishing their day. Design often finds itself siloed by borders, and so we hope to offer students a truly international perspective and broaden the scope of their work. During this episode, we discuss some obstacles our students faced, fears, and the overall experience and how this compares to traditional academia. Head over to advdes.org/offsite for additional information on Offsite and our next cohort. You can reach out to our students on Instagram: Akshay Bhurke (@akshaycreates), Yvonne Lin (@theoreticalrabbit), Josh Delfin (@josh.delfin_), and Ben Chung (@bentherealoha) and check out their amazing work! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

IDSA IDC SPECIAL: We had the pleasure of sitting down with Norio Fujikawa, the Executive Creative Director at Astro Studios in San Francisco, CA for a rapid fire chat about his upbringing in Chicago, his studies at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), and how he made his way to the Bay Area. He interned and worked in the midwest, specifically in Ohio and Minnesota, before he found his way to San Francisco. We also talk about all of the amazing people that have graced the halls of Astro Studios, alumni such as Spencer Nugent, John Muhlenkamp, Hoang and Anh Nguyen, Jordan Nollman, David Whetstone, and Grace Lee, have all been part of this amazing establishment. We also discuss how Astro Studios started in gaming, and have since designed other products for brands such as Shinola, Sol Republic, Nike, HP, and Western Digital. Norio breaks down the skill and mind set that is needed to work in such a competitive design city, so please listen up if you’re thinking of making the move to the Bay Area. Thank you @noriofujikawa for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in--be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

James Melia, founder and director of award-winning Blond design studio. Since 2015, Melia’s London based, strategic industrial design firm Blond has been the go-to brain trust that innovative global brands like Sony, LG, Revolut and Rapha keep in their rolodex for when they need a product to disrupt their market. From water bottles to home tech, future-forward companies keep Melia in their inner circle because they need a product that will be a game changer in their customer’s life. The differentiator between Melia and other design outfits lies in his starting point for a project. He’s a naturally keen observer of human behaviour and has always taken notice of things that most would not. “I was an industrial designer before I knew I was one”, Melia says. When he was a child he remembers going to Amsterdam and marveling at the highly resolved methods of household garbage disposal. “I was fascinated to see how the Dutch households didn’t have typical rubbish bins, they put their waste outside in collective containers within the ground, and then trucks with cranes took them away. It’s these types of simple and innovative solutions that were of interest to me from as early as I can remember.” Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

SQ1 2019 SPECIAL: Our next SQ1 speaker is Mauricio Romano, an Industrial Designer at Facebook. Born in Mexico City, Mauricio is a multicultural industrial designer currently headquartered out of Seattle, Washington. He graduated from Western Washington University’s design program, where he was recognized as IDSA's 2015 Student Merit award for the Western Conference. While still in school, he ventured into entrepreneurship and launched a cannabis hardware company, formerly known as Aura, alongside his closest colleagues. Mauricio has worked for Astro Studios, the Intel Corporation, and currently Facebook’s Oculus team. With the experience of having worked in both corporate and consulting settings, Mauricio's skill-set spans across multiple disciplines including industrial design, graphic design, branding, mechanical engineering, manufacturing, and business management. Thank you @romanomau for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Yanci Wu, a product designer who wanders at the intersection of art and science, stories and realities. She’s an observer, thinker, and maker. Yanci uses strategic thinking to bring clarity to situations and design thinking to bring solutions to life. She thrives at solving business and human problems that are complex in nature. As an advocate for emotional design, she applies what she understands about human cognition to making products and services that are valuable to businesses and pleasurable to users. Yanci’s versatile skill set and contextual design processes allow her to contribute in any environment. When she’s not working, you’ll likely find her growing a tropical jungle in an apartment, studying fungi in the forest, watching a documentary, or having a philosophical conversation with friends. Thank you Yanci for sharing your story and inspiring so many, please visit her website at http://yanciwu.com/ and check out her work! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

We’re incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to talk to Joey Zeledón on this podcast. Joey has recently transitioned to a new position as Design Lead at HP in Barcelona, Spain and has previously worked at Steelcase Health, Smart Design, Continuum, and Clarks Originals. We talked about his little accident with his dominant hand, TOUCHY FEELY, his obsession with footwear, and the future of Industrial Design. To checkout Joey’s work and follow his journey, follow him on Instagram under the handle @joey.zeledon. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, (formerly known as ADS Live prior to Advanced Design’s rebrand), send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

We had an amazing interview with Rotimi Solola, head designer at So Design, who is the Communications Chair on the IDSA Chicago Board of Directors, Instructor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and all around kind human being! We talked about his journey through school, his humble beginnings at Design Integrity, MNML and Motorola, and now running his own design studio at So Design. Rotimi gave us advice on portfolio building and how to keep pushing forward when things begin to slow down, check out this CONTEXT interview. Rotimi was a SQ1CON Speaker, and was an instructor last summer at our sketching workshop, we’re super grateful to have him be a leader in the design community in Chicago! To checkout Rotimi’s work and follow his journey, follow him on Instagram under the handle @rotimi_solola and @so.dsgn. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, (formerly known as ADS Live prior to Advanced Design’s rebrand), send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

This is the first time we have a guest designer host another guest designer. Thank you Cesar Idrobo for interviewing our guest and your neighbor, L.A. based design researcher Meghan Preiss. We talk with Meghan about her anxiety and fears, getting her on this podcast and live on Instagram was something she needed to overcome - this is something that we all face, and we don’t talk about it as much as we should - let’s humanize failures and fears, be open about ourselves, and love who we are. Meghan has accomplished so much in her young career, and she won’t let anything in her way - a positive attitude is one way to overcome! To checkout Meghan’s work and follow her journey, follow her on Instagram under the handle @meghanpreiss_. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, (formerly known as ADS Live prior to Advanced Design’s rebrand), send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Danielle Chen, a Senior UX Designer at EY Design Studio where she creates user-centered, intuitive and delightful experiences across different industries including insurance, finance, and government services, etc. She considers play as an essential part of learning and creating deeper connections in our work and life, and is invigorated by expanding people's ways of thinking by exposing them to new and unique perspectives through the lens of play. She actively speaks about important social issues including through her social platform as well as a podcast she co-hosts called “Push&Play” where she discusses the intersection between design and social issues. Prior to joining EY, Danielle worked as a product designer in both the toy and healthcare industries. She holds a Master’s in Integrated Product Design from University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor’s in Product Design from Drexel University. Thank you @dchen.play for sharing your story and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Jeffrey Jones, an LA based freelance industrial designer and professor with over a decade of experience developing mobile consumer electronics such as smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and fitness bands. From 2008-2012 Jeff worked at Samsung’s Mobile Design Lab in Los Angeles, where he designed a wide variety of mobile phones such as AT&T’s Rugby 3 and Galaxy Mini, which sold more than 10 million units globally. From 2012-2019 Jeff worked for Samsung Design America in downtown San Francisco, where he was the lead designer for countless category-creating and line-up products such as the Gear Fit series, Gear S2, Galaxy View and the “Edge” design language for Samsung’s flagship smartphones. Jeff has a passion for finding beautiful, simple and iconic solutions for the complex challenges involved with bringing useful and manufacturable products to market at scale. As a freelance industrial designer, Jeff brings innovative form and functional ideas through analog and digital sketching, 3D modeling in NX and Solidworks and rendering in Keyshot. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest Jeff Smith, an industrial designer and Cloud Adoption Specialist at Autodesk. Jeff has a rich product design and development history, and prior to joining Autodesk, he worked for more than 20 years as design director of Reflex Design, Inc. - a Florida based consulting group serving a range of domestic and international clients. The diversity of products included fitness equipment, medical, industrial, consumer and kitchen products. Jeff also spent eight years as adjunct faculty at the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale. While there, Jeff taught Solidworks, sketching, product design, personal watercraft design and design for manufacturing. Thank you @blaster701 for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

The conversation continues! We are interviewing Betsy Barnhart, the Program Director of Industrial Design at the University of Kansas. Betsy is focused on providing a connection between academic institutions and private practice to tackle large-scale, complex design problems. Prior to joining KU, Betsy was an Assistant Professor at Iowa State University where she led multi-disciplinary sponsored studios with a focus on market disruption and innovation. During our conversation with Betsy, we will be talking about the state of design education, and how we need to re-write curriculums to help underrepresented students succeed in the classroom. There's still a gender gap in design, inequalities, and it begins at the design education level - so where are the design educators? Why aren't they standing up for change? Go follow @betsy_barnhart_id to see her amazing work! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our second CONTEXT podcast session is with our Canadian friend Dominic Montante, industrial designer at Umbra - who has designed for Volume Studios and Motorola. We discussed design and failures - had a lovely conversation about aesthetics, visuals, form development, and how to filter good and bad design. To follow Dom’s design work and journey, be sure to follow him on Instagram @dom.design. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Yuliya Veligurskaya, the Creative Director of Studiocult, based in New York City. Studiocult is a brand specializing in clever jewelry, and accessories. All of the pieces are inspired by everyday objects and crumbs of shared memories. Guaranteed to turn some heads, their accessories are made for those who want to wear something expressive and out of the ordinary. They can create one of a kind bespoke pieces of jewelry for individuals as well as design a range of products including jewelry, handbags and accessories for businesses. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

WE STARTED AT THE BOTTOM AND NOW WE HERE. We’re super stoked to have had Craighton Berman, Industrial Designer, educator, illustrator, cool dad, and design entrepreneur with us on CONTEXT. We talked about how he created Manual, a housewares brand that designs objects that celebrate slow food. We were also able to discuss his service to the community, home life, professional life, teaching, his work permanently installed at the Art Institute in Chicago, the roller coaster ride that Kickstarter is, the future for him, and NO COMMERCIAL VALUE. The context is rich, so tune in! To checkout Craighton’s work and follow his journey, follow him on Instagram under his handles: @craightonberman, @m_a_n_u_a_l, and @no_commercial_value. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, (formerly known as ADS Live prior to Advanced Design’s rebrand), send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Chris Granneberg, an Industrial Designer based in LA. Chris studied Industrial Design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NYC where he graduated in 2004. Soon after graduating Chris joined Karim Rashid's studio in NYC where he was promoted to Product Director in 2009 managing the global Industrial Design projects and team. At Karim's, Chris collaborated and led hundreds of projects with brands including Samsung, LG, Asus, 3M, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Alessi, Orrefors and BoConcept. Leaving Karim's studio in 2013 Chris was recruited at the PepsiCo Design Center as one of the CDO's initial hires. At PepsiCo, Chris managed the Industrial Design component of global structural design projects for both foods and beverages for 3 years. In 2016 Chris relocated from Brooklyn to Los Angeles to launch his design studio. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Hannah Fink, a San Francisco-based designer with a background in metal and woodworking. Her process is rooted in exploring form through physical model making and prototyping. A recent graduate of Pratt Institute’s MID program, she draws her inspiration from her former scuba diving and marine research career and hobbies like surfing, welding and weightlifting. Fink has her B.A. from Vassar College and her Masters of Industrial Design from Pratt Institute. Thank you @therealhannahfink for sharing your story and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

We had the pleasure of having Paul Hatch of TEAMS Design on our podcast. Paul has won many awards for his designs, but also for service to the design community. He was recently inducted into the prestigious IDSA Academy of Fellows, and we’re blessed to have him based out of Chicago. During this CONTEXT podcast, we talk about Paul’s undergraduate journey at Northumbria University, and how Jony Ive set the standard at Northumbria, prompting all of his professors to say “be more like Jony, design more like Jony” - which made his design education a bit funny and noteworthy. To checkout Paul’s work and follow his journey, follow him on Instagram under the handle @paulhatch1. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, (formerly known as ADS Live prior to Advanced Design’s rebrand), send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

It’s been a busy day for us - super fortunate to have so many people here in Chicago this weekend, and all dropped by our CONTEXT podcast to say hi! We sat down with two of our advisors - Emily Engle, Editor at Core77 and Pedro Montalvo, Designer at TURF. We talked about the awesome things they’re doing and their impact on the design community. To follow their design work and journey, be sure to follow Emily and Pedro on Instagram under the handles @_peddz and @notemilyengle. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Jo Barnard, the founder and creative director of multi award-winning design and innovation consultancy Morrama. Having set up Morrama in 2015, just one year after graduating, she has worked with startups across the globe bringing a range of products to market from tech to luggage to cosmetics. A champion of female empowerment within design and of the role of sustainability to create a better design industry, Jo has established an incredible understanding of all things design, from the idea curation phase right through to manufacturing and distribution as she continues to push the boundaries of innovation with Morrama on a day-to-day basis. Thank you @barnards_jo for being on our platform to talk about design. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest Liana Thomson, an Accessories Product Developer at EQ3 where she leads design for the brand’s tabletop, decorative, and other accessories. In addition to her role in developing accessories for EQ3, Liana leads the packaging task force, working to ensure EQ3’s packaging standards are eco-friendly ensuring products offerings are sustainably enhanced and consciously created. Liana holds a Bachelor of Environmental Design from the University of Manitoba with a focus in architecture. While at the University of Manitoba, Liana edited the Faculty of Architecture’s annual journal and contributed to the City of Winnipeg’s annual Arts + Architecture Competition On Ice. Thank you @lianathomson for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Matt Carr, VP of Design at Umbra. Matt is an integral part of the Umbra design team since 2001, Matt has contributed countless designs to their product line. His work has been featured multiple times in The New York Times, The Daily Telegraph, Surface Magazine, I.D Magazine, Met Home, Monocle, and Living Etc. Matt is compelled to create products that balances business and imagination. Subtle details, an appreciation for imperfection, and the reinvention of traditional objects are distinguishing features of his designs. As VP of Design, Matt oversees a global design department headquartered in Toronto. Thank you Matt Carr for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

SQ1 2019 SPECIAL: Our next guest is Sean Missal, a Lead Designer at Astro Studios. Sean comes from Western Washington University where he earned his Bachelor Degree in Industrial Design. Born in the 90s, Sean is truly a child of the tech age. Sean interned at Astro before he was snatched up full-time, Astro is quite proud of how the young man has turned out. Although relatively new to the commercial design game, Sean is laying down heavy design and knowledge for some of Astro’s top clients. Before designing, Sean was a pro-gamer with lighting thumbs and smoldering retinas. He turned that couch loving energy into a take no prisoners design machine. As long as Astro translates the design briefs into first person shooter scenarios, Sean excels every time. Thank you @seanmissal for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Jonathan is a hardware and experience designer based in Toronto, Ontario. After 5 years of working in San Francisco as a core part of frog's industrial design team, Jonathan moved to Canada in early 2020 to pursue a new adventure with e-commerce powerhouse, Shopify. His experience as a design consultant spans across leading brands and start-ups in the tech, retail, automotive, government and healthcare industries. As a part of Shopify’s budding hardware division, Jonathan works at the forefront of commerce innovation, bridging the gap between digital and physical in the retail arena. We speak to Jonathan about the pressures of being first generation, making your parents proud for all of their sacrifices, and the legacy we are building as designers for future generations to come. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Super fun to have our friend and Industrial Designer Ricky Biddle on CONTEXT. Ricky has a rich resume, worked at TEAMS, then Whirlpool, ACCO Brands, Steelcase, Newell Brands, and now at Argenta Park. His knowledge of design is marvelous - and you can see it in his thought process. He shared with us a project he was on, re-designing the classic Sharpie. To checkout Ricky’s work and follow his journey, follow him on Instagram under the handle @riddickuliss. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, (formerly known as ADS Live prior to Advanced Design’s rebrand), send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

We welcome Spencer Nugent back to our platform to talk about objects that we find polarizing. We question why we’re so attracted to brands that take risks to produce products that have us talking; such as the Tesla Cybertruck or the Playstation 5. Is this on purpose, or is this truly innovation? As humans, it’s natural for us to have biases, so when these disruptive products launch, we have debates and pick our sides. Spencer gives us his take with a critical lens on how he approaches these conversations. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Ara Acle, a Bay Area native currently based in Oakland, CA. After graduating from San Jose State University, Ara spent some time at many of the top San Francisco design consultancies including Mike & Maaike, One & Co, and New Deal Design. He also spent 4 years at Frog where he designed for clients in sectors ranging from consumer electronics, AR experiences, medical products, and environment installations. Ara is currently a Senior Industrial Designer at Casper where he is helping the brand build sleep products that bring a sense of joy and comfort to consumers. Thank you Ara for being on our platform to talk about design. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

We had the opportunity to sit down with this young rockstar designer: Elisa Payer, an Industrial Design student at the Academy of Art University, and currently a design intern at Whipsaw. Elisa is gifted, having racked up many design awards and still has a year left before graduating from school. Thank you Elisa for being part of CONTEXT, we look forward to working with you in the near future. Please follow Elisa’s design work and journey on Instagram under the handle @elisapayer. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, (formerly known as ADS Live prior to Advanced Design’s rebrand), send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Fran Wang is a graduate of Dartmouth College and has been at frog for the last 4 years. Prior, she worked at New Deal Design and Skycatch, a UAV startup. As the Associate Director of Mechanical Engineering at frog, she has had the unique opportunity to work on interdisciplinary teams designing holistic experiences, in addition to working on technical projects focused on engineering. Her work at frog includes the Magritte AR gallery at the SFMOMA and the Yona Care project. During our dialogue with Fran, we dive into her path to working in the Bay Area, and life as an engineer in one of the most competitive design markets in the world. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Dave Joseph, an Industrial Designer who is a material fanatic, design thinker and all-around wonderful human being. Dave comes from a long line of product designers and entrepreneurs. It really is in his blood. Making significant contributions to product design across many brands including Milwaukee Tool, McDonalds, and Contigo, Dave has continued his family’s heritage of excellent design and innovation. After working on the Lunatik brand at MNML in Chicago, Dave launched his own industrial design studio before co-founding a Chicago based tech startup called Ovie. Thank you @davejosephid for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Timothy Seward, the Lead Industrial Designer at Bird. He has been one of the key influencers in advancing the process of Industrial Design by blending multiple disciplines from ID to Motion over the past decade working with top design firms like Y-Studios, Lunar, Huge, and Whipsaw. He helped kick start the look and feel of SONOS in becoming a household name, along with creating stunning products and visuals for major brands such as Nike, Scion, Hitachi, Chrome Bags, Samsung, Fools Gold, Chromeo, A-Trak, Google, Icon Aircraft, Freebord, and Intel. His stance on design and incorporation of motion has helped pave a new path into what it means to be a modern Industrial Designer. Thank you @tkseward for being on our platform to talk about design. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Andi Osana is an industrial designer and aspiring toy designer from the Philippines. She graduated with a B.S. in Industrial Design from De La Salle-College of St. Benilde, being most inspired by dinosaurs, comic books, and popular culture. She values a childlike playfulness and curiosity in her work, and this is reflected the most in her ideation and storytelling process. Her penchant for learning and seeking new experiences has influenced her body of works, which bring to the forefront human connection and interaction. Most recently, she was a part of Offsite’s Summer 2021 Cohort 2, where she discovered a community of like-minded individuals that share a passion for their endeavors. In her spare time, she enjoys drawing and making comics, playing video games, and building models and jigsaw puzzles. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is design educator Josh Owen, a Distinguished Professor and Director of Industrial Design at The Rochester Institute of Technology. Josh is also an award winning, internationally renowned industrial designer and author. His studio’s work is produced by significant manufacturers in the US and Europe, and the projects are featured in many permanent museum collections around the globe. Because Owen’s varied roles are in high demand, he is selective about the commissions from industry that his studio accepts. They work on fewer projects but focus on building quality relationships over quantity, accounting for the attention and accolades given to their work by the media, industry, and cultural sectors. During our conversation, we talk about the evolution of his work, how he got started, and the future of design education. Thank you @joshowendesign for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

We had the pleasure of chatting with footwear designer Matt Walters of CODDI, a footwear company that focuses on telling stories through the comfort and longevity of the shoe. Matt was kind enough to tell us his experience as a student, a young professional, the do’s and don'ts, and the process and excitement of creating a brand on his own. We’re super proud, Matt radiates positive vibes, we hope nothing but the best for him! To follow Matt’s design work and journey, be sure to follow him on Instagram @_m.walt and @coddi.footwear. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, (formerly known as ADS Live prior to Advanced Design’s rebrand), send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Brittany Pierone, the designer behind DI PIERONI, a luxury goods brand grounded in high taste. With a focus on utility and minimalism, these fashion necessities are premium and functional for life and travel. The brand seeks to speak to culture and timeless aesthetics and be useful to a range of lifestyles. Her team is focused on designing modern products, by honing the relationship between timeless materials and modern design lines. The brand’s mission is to partner with non-profit organizations to raise awareness and means to support those in need. During our conversation, we talked about her humble beginnings at Arizona State, graduating with a degree in Industrial Design in 2014. Early on Brittany knew she had a love for making and building - from building a scale model of the Hindenburg blimp out of toothpicks to job shadowing her high school pole vault coach at Nike. Design matched her DNA. While in college Brittany interned for Nike, designing shoes in Women’s Training and Golf. Upon graduating, she returned to Beaverton to join the Nike Running design team. She spent a year working on color design and special projects before being promoted to Nike Field Sports team. International travel with Nike, exposed Brittany to living conditions all over the world, that both broke her heart and inspired her. In search of more meaning, Brittany quit her beloved role at Nike to go to Africa to work with women and children battling HIV in Ethiopia. Motivated by the joy of giving back and the freedom America provides, she returned to LA to build what is now her brand called DI PIERONI. Founded on the definition of compassion, Brittany was able to marry both her passions. Today, she continues to push the boundaries in product design, while raising awareness and funds for people in need all over the world. Thank you @b.pierone for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

As we continue our interviews with Offsite students, we are excited to interview the next batch of Offsite alumni. The students include Morgan Wolfe, Maria Mu, Joshua Hoffeld, and Chris Ference - all student designers who tuned in from different parts of the world to be part of this design experience. Given the nature of the pandemic, classes took place online. The central hub of our school is our Slack, which features all of our discussion boards and auxiliary content. Courses take place over Zoom, and are recorded for those unable to attend in person. For this episode, the students dive into their current situation and why they decided to apply for Offsite, and how community in design education is important, now more than ever! Head over to advdes.org/offsite for additional information on Offsite and our next cohort. You can reach out to our students on Instagram: Morgan Wolfe (@morgan.wolfe.design), Maria Mu (@mu.designs.stuff), Joshua Hoffeld (@jhoffeld), and Chris Ference (@chris.ference) and check out their amazing work! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Natalia McLean, the Head of Design at leading Ecuadorian architectural development firm, Uribe Schwarzkopf. Based in the vibrant city of Quito, Natalia brings an encyclopedic knowledge of interior design to luxury residential projects throughout the city. Uribe Schwarzkopf is distinguished by its collaborations with major international architecture and design companies, including Bernardo Fort-Brescia’s Arquitectónica (Peru-Miami), Tatiana Bilbao (Mexico), YOO (London), Philippe Starck (Paris), Marcel Wanders (Amsterdam), Carlos Zapata (Venezuela-Miami), Jean Nouvel (France), Moshe Safdie (Canada-Israel), Bjarke Ingels, and BIG (Denmark). Natalia’s role involves liaising with these international firms to achieve the interior aesthetic they have planned while engaging local craftsmen, materials, and design. Natalia McLean is passionate about the culture, history, and design sensibility of Latin America, and brings a deep respect for traditions and heritage to her work. Originally from Medellin, Colombia, and after traveling the world for many years, Natalia moved to Quito nearly two decades ago, and has made her city her home, working to promote the growing metropolis as a center for design, and championing arts and culture in the community. We’re excited to give you a different perspective on design with this interview with Natalia McLean as we cover architecture in Latin America. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

We had fun with our friend and upcoming SQ1CON 2019 keynote speaker Miguel Harry, an Art Center graduate and Industrial Designer at Google Pixel. We had a lovely conversation about design in Latin America, family, and how design drives us to be the best us we can be. We look forward to dropping some SQ1CON details in the coming weeks. Please follow Miguel’s design work and journey on Instagram under the handle @abstractmaterial. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, (formerly known as ADS Live prior to Advanced Design’s rebrand), send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Samantha is a multidisciplinary visual artist and designer from Humboldt Park, Chicago. She has a BA in Fine Arts from Columbia College Chicago with a minor in Arts Business. Since 2019 she has worked independently as an installation artist, fabricator, graphic designer, and illustrator, with a focus on set-design installations for music concerts, events, and video production. She currently works as a Color Designer for Nike on the women’s footwear team at the global design level. In tandem with her design work, she co-hosts Sistematic Podcast with her twin sister - the show about politics and pop culture with an emphasis on the stories of women at the intersection of race, gender, class, and ability. Samantha is also a professional stunt woman and member of SAG-AFTRA- as well as part-time community organizer whose work revolves around issues including gentrification, criminal justice reform, immigration, and self-determination for Puerto Rico. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

We always have fun interviewing one of our own. Araceli “Chely” Martinez talked about how she got started in design, why she’s a part of the AD team, and how she leverages her Industrial and Graphic Design education to her professional work. Please follow Chely’s design work and journey on Instagram, follow her under the handle @chelydesign. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, (formerly known as ADS Live prior to Advanced Design’s rebrand), send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Named “one of the most creative people in business” by Fast Company, and “one of the most influential designers working today” by Graphic Design USA, Debbie Millman is also an author, educator, curator and host of the podcast Design Matters.

As the founder and host of Design Matters, one of the world’s first and longest running podcasts, Millman has interviewed nearly 500 artists, designers and cultural commentators over the past 14 years. Design Matters won a 2011 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award, in 2015 Apple designated it one of the best overall podcasts on iTunes, and in 2018 the show was honored by the Webby (WEB-BI) Awards. In addition, Design Matters has been listed on over 100 “Best Podcasts” lists, including one of the best podcasts in the world by Business Insider. The show is about how some of the world’s most creative people design the arc of their lives, and Debbie has interviewed guests including Tim Ferriss, Malcolm Gladwell, Marina Abramovic, Steven Pinker, Shepard Fairey, Laurie Anderson, Barbara Kruger, Amanda Palmer, Alain de Botton, Brene Brown, Hamilton Director Thomas Kail, and many, many more. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Very productive morning chatting with our friend Mark Weiser, who’s an awesome Structural Package Designer at Microsoft. We talked about the awesome things he’s doing at Microsoft, their impact on the design community, and their work around inclusion. To follow Mark’s design work and journey, be sure to follow him Instagram under the handle @meiser. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Once in a while, someone tells us to shut up about politics. If you want to avoid trouble, stay away from politics. Politics is a hot potato. You can’t sell things to people that are disagree with you. But then again, what is wrong with an industrial designer going out and taking a stand for sustainable products or methods? Or other things like education, healthcare, etc. If you can not agree, you can not work with them. Design is change. Change needs courage. All design is political. 

Today’s podcast we talk with designers Michael DiTullo and Spencer Nugent, who have both worked at big organizations such as Nike and Vivint Smart Home to small studios like frog and Astro Design - they have managed and interacted with all walks of life. Is design political - or do we just lay low?  Given that our country elected a new president, what does this mean for design - and how are we affected? Tune in to hear Michael and Spencer talk about their experiences in the industry and how we need to stand up for what’s right.

With roots in Mexico and the United States, an idea to combine these two identities was born from the need to express ourselves and our points of view through functional objects that we share everyday life with. Los Objects is a brand dedicated to the exploration of ideas through physical products. They are a team of two individuals with different backgrounds, but one of the things they have in common is their background as Industrial Designers. At Los Objects, they approach every product using the design process: they become curious about a topic, research it, brainstorm and sketch ideas, prototype, iterate, test, and make the final object that you get to experience. Their priority is to be curious, to experiment, and to create moments that make our everyday life a little more beautiful. Los Objects was founded by Angela Sevilla, Footwear Material & Color Designer at Nike, and Dustin Le, UX Designer at Collective+. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

SQ1 2019 SPECIAL: Our next guest is Kristine Arth, the founder and principal designer behind Lobster Phone. She is known for building brands that carefully balance timelessness with distinct visual expression. Arth has designed identities for global brands such as PayPal, Nivea, Western Digital, and SodaStream, in addition to start-ups such as Love Wellness, Cresco, Loliware, Ori Systems, and Eva Tech. Her work has earned awards from Red Dot, IDA, iF Design, IDSA, SPARK!, GDUSA, IDEA and The Dieline. Arth has juried The One Show, SOTA, IDSA and ADAA; was a keynote speaker at First Round, Brand New, and AIGA. She’s been a featured designer and ongoing host for Adobe Live by Behance. Lobster Phone has been named one of the best design studios for start-ups by TechCrunch. Prior to founding Lobster Phone, Arth was the director of brand at fuseproject, the eponymous design studio founded by Yves Béhar. During her 6+ years at fuseproject she built the brand practice from the ground up and led a team of international, multidisciplinary designers. Thank you @arthkris for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guests are the brothers, Hoang & Anh who founded Creative Session, a design blog dedicated to ideas between the two. Currently, they head design at Playground building brands and products. Playground is a venture firm that partners with entrepreneurs working at the intersection of atoms, bits, and AI to build the companies of tomorrow. The brothers believe building great products begin with developing lasting brand visions, these values are the foundation for strong companies and innovative products. Collectively they have a diverse body of work, designing for companies such as: Amazon, Google, Samsung, Nike, Kanye West, Versace, Audi, Microsoft, Shinola and more. They think the best part about design is the unfamiliar fields you’re thrown into. Currently they’re geeking out with robotics, quantum computing and aerospace. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

“What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.” - Albert Pike. This is essentially what our conversation was about with Spencer Nugent, Principal Designer at Vivint Smart Home in Provost, Utah. We’re super grateful to have had Spencer come in and do a Master Class after the live podcast. To checkout Spencer’s work and follow his journey, follow him on Instagram under the handle @sketchadaydotcom. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, (formerly known as ADS Live prior to Advanced Design’s rebrand), send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Professor Stephen Melamed, an industrial designer and design educator at the University of Illinois at Chicago; he’s Clinical Professor & Founding Chair of the Industrial Design program at UIC. With over four decades of design experience in consulting, manufacturing, corporate, and not-for-profit sectors., and consulting, Stephen engages with and interweaves multiple disciplines to create a culture of innovation. An apprentice to the Bauhaus designer, artist and author Werner Graeff and his son, the architect and designer Roberto Graeff, Stephen also studied with R. Buckminster Fuller for World Game. Stephen was honored as the 2011 IDSA Midwest Educator of the Year and selected for New City Magazine’s annual Design 50: Who Shapes Chicago. In 2016, he was inducted into the IDSA Academy of Fellows. He’s been named as the inventor/co-inventor on 60 design and utility patents. Thank you Professor Melamed for being on our platform to talk about design. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Mona Sharma, an Industrial Designer based out of the UK. She’s a designer interested in creating products that are honest, simple and enjoyable. Mona seeks opportunities to experiment with manufacturing techniques, whilst tapping into user perceptions - always with the ambition of pushing boundaries wherever she can. Tune into our conversation with Mona, as we explore different topics in design such as women in design, transitioning from school to industry, and sustainability! Thank you @mona_dsgn for sharing your story and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

SQ1 2019 SPECIAL: Our next guest is Sam Carr, an Industrial Designer from Raleigh, NC living in San Francisco, CA. Most of his creative energy comes from an internal gnawing for learning and discovery, and usually manifests itself in the form of obsessive internet searches, sketching, 3D modeling, and weekend trips into the mountains and along the coast. When he’s not working on design projects or doing any of the above, you can typically find Sam putting up shots at the nearest basketball court, reading in a coffee shop, or playing pool with a shitty beer in hand. During our conversation, we talked about Sam’s undergraduate journey at North Carolina State University, and the things he learned that got him prepared for real industry projects. Sam has been an Industrial Designer at Dolby Laboratories since 2016, and he discusses what it’s like being part of a small team in a large corporation, and how that hinders collaboration. We talk about how our well being is more important than your design work, and how not to underestimate your mental health, because we are human first. Thank you @sahmcarr for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Anna Lee, is a technical co-founder of Lioness, the women-led sexual health startup that built the world's first and only smart vibrator that improves understanding of sexual pleasure and body through biofeedback data, recently featured at CES 2020, a finalist at Last Gadget Standing, Engadget Best of CES 2020, Refinery29 Best of CES SexTech.  Anna was previously a mechanical engineer at Amazon, launching the Amazon Dash Button’s original concept and the Kindle Voyage Page Press Technology.  She has spoken at top universities like UC Berkeley and Chalmers University, SXSW, and CYFY India, and most recently named 2020's Forbes 30 Under 30 as well as Paper Magazine's Asian Women Creators You Need to Know. She is a big advocate in Lioness’s mission to expand understanding and research in sexual health, and destigmatize female sexuality. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

We had so much fun on CONTEXT, we hope you did too! We wrapped up 2018 by interviewing a couple of the AD designers, answering questions, talking about the future, and getting a bit personal about design and our talents. We have some awesome things in store for 2019, you better be ready! To checkout their work, hit up their Instagram handles at the following - Bethany Chan @bchan.png, Hector Silva @hectorius_, Betuel Benitez @betuelbenitez, and Michael Diaz @mdiazdesign. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, (formerly known as ADS Live prior to Advanced Design’s rebrand), send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

There are too many barriers to accessing the education and experience required to become a footwear designer in the sports industry. Rather than waiting on higher education to solve some of those obstacles, we created a solution to this problem by building a new pathway for creators to pursue a career in footwear design: S.E.E.D. (School for Experiential Education in Design).

S.E.E.D. is a 2 year program at the adidas Brooklyn Creator Farm in partnership with Pensole Academy that acts as an alternative to a university education for Footwear Design. The program is an Open-Source education model meaning that we tap industry experts inside and outside of the adidas brand to teach, guide, and mentor students while they work on developing Leadership and Design skills through working on real products that will go to market.

For today’s episode, we welcome the leaders behind adidas S.E.E.D. — Liz Connelly and Cheresse Thornhill-Goldson. A bit about Liz, her career has been focused on identifying high potential talent from non-traditional pipelines and designing programs, processes, and experiences to help that talent reach their full potential. She began her career innovating recruitment and talent development strategies in small business within both the sports and food industries. She joined adidas in 2016 as a part of the Talent Acquisition organization. In 2019 Liz co-founded adidas S.E.E.D. (School for Experiential Education in Design) and moved to Brooklyn to launch the program. Liz now consults on various talent related projects and continues to lead all talent and brand initiatives for SEED in her most recent role as the Senior Manager of Education and Growth for adidas. A bit about Cheresse, she has been in the footwear industry over 13 years. Her career began in Beaverton, OR at Nike where she was a footwear designer for 10 years before moving back to her hometown of Miami, FL to teach design at both the high school and college levels. In January 2020, Cheresse made the move to Brooklyn, NY to lead the adidas S.E.E.D. Program as the Design Director. Cheresse is part of the team that’s transforming the footwear industry and cultivating the next generation of diverse design talent.

Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

This Context episode is a special edition collaboration with Advanced Design and Sebastian Gier of DesignDrives.  During our conversation, we talked about how Hector Silva launched Advanced Design to bring value to the design community; from a summer workshop to now a nonprofit and design community with a large following on social media, but also a team that drives initiatives like conferences, events, podcast and more. We discussed the future of industrial design education and the disruption of education in the digital age. We also talked about the founding of DesignDrives, and how Sebastian’s journey and experience helped him create this great initiative. Thank you @designdrives for being amazing and inspiring to so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

We had the pleasure to sit down with the amazing women leaders of Women in ID Chicago - Mallory Evans and McKayla Barber, both kick ass designers in Chicago who are changing the paradigm and making great strides in our field. We talked about their young careers and the successes and fears that come with breaking into the industry. We also chatted about some important topics affecting all of us, the sense of urgency to help our planet, as designers, being involved - whether it affects you or not, and most importantly, the value of diversifying your team, your life, your circle with women, it’s an obvious recipe for success. Instead of sitting on the sidelines watching people change the world, be a part of it, change human history, have no regrets. Thank you @wiid_chi for being so candid and honest. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guests are Jeremiah Robison, Founder and CEO at CIONIC and Daniel Zarem, a Senior Industrial Designer at Fuseproject - who both worked on the VOX Ventilator. Fuseproject, in partnership with CIONIC, a medical device and technology start-up, and several independent mechanical engineering (ME) consultants, banded together to respond to the open innovation challenge. More than 200 teams from 43 different countries submitted their concepts, and our submission was selected as one of seven to build working prototypes for the final round of judging. The final design, dubbed VOX, is a rapidly deployable, pneumatically driven ventilator that prioritizes modularity, uses off-the-shelf solutions, and is optimized for a Covid-19 healthcare context. VOX costs less than $1,000 to produce and can be assembled in under 4 hours. Thank you @fuseproject and @jerobiwan for sharing your story and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

We had an awesome conversation with Industrial Designers Elvin Chu and Alex Ortega, they’re both working on some amazing projects and have some awesome things in the works! Elvin works full time as an industrial designer at Ammunition, and noun studio is his side hustle. Alex works as a designer at Volkswagen, and is working on some cool things (that we’ll let him announce). These two young rock stars are an inspiration and we look forward to working with both of them on future endeavors! Please follow Elvin and Alex’s design work and journey on Instagram under the handles @nounstudio and @alex.ortg. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, (formerly known as ADS Live prior to Advanced Design’s rebrand), send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Today we go live with IDSA’s Executive Director Chris Livaudais! His passion for design education and outreach within the community led him to a position on the board of the Atlanta Chapter of IDSA for the past eight years. He earned a short school certificate in experience design in 2012 from Domus Academy and a bachelor's degree in industrial design from Auburn University. At IDSA's 2016 International Conference in Detroit, Livaudais spoke on Objects that Talk Back. We had a great conversation about design education, the evolution and future of IDSA, and meaningful relationships. Thank you Chris and IDSA for always supporting what we do! Please follow Chris’ design work and journey on Instagram under the handle @givinggravity. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, (formerly known as ADS Live prior to Advanced Design’s rebrand), send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

For today’s episode, we welcome the leaders behind the Office for Product Design. Nicol Boyd began his training in design at the Glasgow School of Art. After completing his undergraduate degree in 1999 he moved to Italy to work for Alessi, where he developed products for among others Achille Castiglioni, Alessandro Mendini, Alberto Meda and Michael Graves. He returned to the UK to continue his design studies at the Royal College of Art, graduating in 2004. The following years saw him working at IDEO, first as a resident in their San Francisco and Palo Alto offices, and later with the Munich and London offices. He also spent a year at Nokia’s design department in London, before establishing himself as a freelance designer. This period saw a renewed collaboration with Tomas Rosén and ultimately led to the formation of the Office for Product Design in Hong Kong in 2007.

Tomas Rosén originally studied philosophy at Stockholm University before completing a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at Linköping University. Scholarships from the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and the Marcus Wallenberg Foundation led him to pursue additional postgraduate design studies at the Royal College of Art in London, where he graduated in 2004. Having previously worked on design projects for Volvo and Scania in Sweden, he joined Nokia’s design department in London in 2005 and subsequently went on to co-found the Office for Product Design in Hong Kong with Nicol Boyd in 2007.

Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Gavin Ivester is a hybrid product and brand leader with roots in Silicon Valley industrial design and extensive European lifestyle and tech experience. He specializes in driving profitable, responsible growth through the power of design and brand. Gavin recently exited the role of VP Design at Bang & Olufsen after wrapping up an aggressive product portfolio upgrade. Coupled with new strategy, the company has returned to profitable growth.

As Senior VP/General Manager of PUMA’s global Footwear division, he drove growth of over 400% to €2billion, and led PUMA’s watches and eyewear product lines. Gavin designed the first-ever PowerBook at Apple, headed Nike’s Global Footwear Design team, served as Gibson Guitar’s Chief Creative Officer, and led a turnaround of Under Armour’s Footwear Division. As an entrepreneur and consultant, Gavin has advised on brand and growth strategy for Grammy-nominated music artists and companies in healthcare, banking, beverages, digital media and sports fashion. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

SQ1 2019 SPECIAL: We had the pleasure of speaking with Tati Ferrucio, a Graduate Student at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and Industrial Design intern at General Electric (GE). Prior to studying at RIT, Tati had professional experience working in Brazil, designing products for Indio Da Costa A.U.D.T. During our conversation, Tati talks about her experience at SQ1, the diverse lineup of speakers, the design culture in San Francisco, and how design organizations need to re-invent design conferences. She also shares her perspective on how international students carry a sense of urgency and experience a unique dynamic with their study abroad programs. Thank you @heytati_id for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

IDSA IDC SPECIAL: We had the pleasure of speaking with RIT Industrial Design Professor Alex Lobos, who was in town for IDSA’s International Design Conference. Alex started his career in graphic design, but was always a maker at heart, and eventually moved to industrial design. Born and raised in Guatemala, he qualified as a Fulbright Scholar, which led him to attend the University of Notre Dame for graduate school. Alex has interned at Whirlpool and worked at General Electric after graduate school. After his time at GE, he worked as Visiting Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he met Hector Silva, who he inspired to also become an educator. After UIUC, Alex found his calling at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), where he is now a Full time Professor of Industrial Design, Graduate Director, and Fellow-In-Resident for Autodesk. Alex is a one-of-a-kind educator, and we hope our listeners will get an opportunity to meet him at one of our events! Thank you @lobosdesign for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in--be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

SQ1 2019 SPECIAL: Our next guest is Sean Miller, a Design Team Leader in Industrial Design and Soft Goods at COSMO. Sean is looking to collaborate with other inspiring and talented people to share experiences with while building something great. As a designer he believes design is a necessity in order to create meaningful products to properly shape the world. These experiences influence how we function, feel and think about ourselves and our surroundings. Everything around us can be special while also being useful. During our conversation, we talk about COSMO, and the services and relationships they have with the design industry. Thank you @seanvmiller for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

SQ1 2019 SPECIAL: Our next guest is Howard Nuk, a Canadian industrial designer, entrepreneur, inventor, speaker, and co-founder of Palm Ventures Group, Inc. Born in Toronto, Canada, he lived there until his family moved to Ottawa at the age of 11. Nuk studied Industrial Design at Carleton University, School of Industrial Design, Faculty of Engineering. After graduation, Nuk was hired by the global design and innovation firm frog,  based in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he began working under renowned designer Hartmut Esslinger who famously designed the Apple Macintosh SE with Steve Jobs from 1983-1989. Over the next 11 years, Nuk would become Creative Director and lead frog's west coast design teams. Nuk also worked at Ammunition as Vice President of the Industrial Design Studio. There he worked with partners Matthew Rolandson, Nuk's former frog colleague, and Robert Brunner, former Apple Design Director who famously hired Jony Ive. During his time at Ammunition, Nuk designed products for Beats by Dre, Square, Nook by Barnes and Noble, Adobe and Sky. In 2012, Nuk joined Samsung Design America where he met Dennis Miloseski, a fellow designer and his future co-founder. At Samsung Design America, Nuk and Miloseski provided leadership in the definition, design, and development of products that live within the mobile and home IOT ecosystem. Under the leadership of Nuk and Miloseski, SDA is credited for developing the wearables category at Samsung, including both wrist-worn and audio-based smart wearables. Notable products include Samsung Gear Fit, Samsung Gear S, Samsung Gear S2 among others. Nuk and Miloseski co-founded the San Francisco-based startup Palm Ventures Group Inc in late 2016. Palm secured global exclusive rights to the original Palm brand—made famous in the mid-90's from the launch of the PalmPilot—from TCL Corporation, one of Palm's strategic manufacturing partners and seed investors. TCL Corporation had purchased the Palm brand assets from Hewlett-Packard in 2014. Nuk and Miloseski also brought on 3-time NBA champ, 5-time All-Star, the first unanimous MVP basketball star Stephen Curry as a strategic investor and advisor to Palm. Palm launched the new Palm brand and their first phone also named "Palm" in November of 2018, in an exclusive deal with Verizon. Thank you @howardnuk for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Last ADS Live in San Francisco with the one and only Joe Bowers, also known as @the.well. He shares his story on how he found Industrial Design, his past design experiences, and life at Levi’s. His advice to AD:  live everyday to the fullest, don’t waste time, as it’s something you can’t get back. Thank you Joe, thanks for being real and we hope to continue this collaboration! Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, (formerly known as ADS Live prior to Advanced Design’s rebrand), send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

SQ1 2019 SPECIAL: Our next guest is Mardis Bagley, a Creative Director and Industrial Designer based in San Francisco. He creates products that connect user experiences with brand stories. He believes in a design process that creates sustainability through desire. By creating experiences that surprise and delight, he connects with users on a visceral level. During our conversation, we talked about how he got his start in design, and went from the Midwest to the Bay Area, having worked at Ammunition, Matter, and LUNAR. Mardis now works with his wife, partner, and designer Phnam Bagley at Nonfiction, a design studio specializing in industrial design, branding, strategy, and packaging. They engage consumers through the design of unique and sophisticated products with rich backstories. Thank you @mardisbagley for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

For our first podcast, the Advanced Design crew goes live with Arvid Roach--an Industrial Designer at MNML in Chicago. Join us as we discuss how Arvid learned about design in high school, his undergraduate journey at Drexel University, which lead him to his internship at the Michael Graves Architecture & Design studio in Princeton, NJ, and eventually to landing his first professional design job at MNML. Check out Arvid’s work and follow his journey on Instagram under the handle @arvidroach. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, (formerly known as ADS Live prior to Advanced Design’s rebrand), send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with members of our diverse design community!

During our latest CONTEXT interview - we had an unannounced and covert interview with designer Daniel Bailey, also known as Mr. Bailey, founder of ConceptKicks! He was graciously interviewed by Industrial Designer Kat Reiser during his recent visit to ComplexCon which happened in Chicago. Daniel has a rich design background, he has collaborated with brands such as Nike, GE, Supreme, The North Face, Takashi Murakami, and most recently Timberland. Daniel talked about his upbringing, coming to the states to study - and finding his way back to Europe where he formulated and established his brand - and began his ripple effect through the fashion and footwear industry. Most recently, he designed a rare 1 of 1 shoe for Takashi Murakami that was sold at last year’s ComplexCon in Long Beach, CA for $17,000 for charity, and at this year’s ComplexCon, he collaborated with Timberland to be part of their CONSTRUCT: 10061 initiative. Check out this exclusive interview with Mr. Bailey, as he goes into depth about his life and work! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Thank you @mrbailey for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

It was a pleasure to have Interaction Designer Alex Flores who works at GE Transportation in Chicago. We talk about Alex’s journey from his undergraduate studies - to his professional life, it wasn’t a yellow brick road, and we love that he was open about it. We also discussed diversity, and the things we can do to be fair and inclusive. To checkout Alex’s work and follow his journey, follow him on Instagram under the handle @allxflores. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, (formerly known as ADS Live prior to Advanced Design’s rebrand), send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

SQ1 2019 SPECIAL: We had the pleasure of hosting our SQ1 speaker Fed Rios. Our conversation begins with Fed’s upbringing, and how art and design had a huge impact during his assimilation to the US. His exposure and early exploration of the arts got him into a good art high school, which eventually led him to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. After graduation, he got a job in Chicago at Radio Flyer. After a couple of years designing toys, he moved on to SRAM, and six years after that, he established his own studio: Fed Rios Design Studio. He’s now in the process of learning everything about running a business, such as client management, etc., things you don’t learn in design school. Thank you @fedriosdesign for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Since we re-branded to Advanced Design - we had to make some changes to some of our services. Our ADS Live is now called “CONTEXT”. A podcast where we have conversations about design, discuss the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed. Our first session (and longest podcast, clocking in at two hours) is with seasoned designer Michael DiTullo - who has designed for so many brands such as Converse, Nike, Sound United, and frog. Super grateful we were able to get Michael to join us and discuss how social media is part of our process and life. We discussed how Instagram and the images we post as designers are the tip of the iceberg, there’s so much behind what we do, we also discussed failures, and how we should embrace it, be more open about it. To follow Michael’s design work and journey, be sure to follow him on Instagram @d2lo. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Rinn Hirotsu, a big nerd who likes to have big fun! She’s a Creative Product Designer with experience in toys and games, currently working at Hasbro. Rinn is an enthusiastic collaborator with a Bachelor's degree focused on Transportation, Industrial, and Product Design from the DAAP program at the University of Cincinnati. During our conversation we talked about how toy design is something we dream up when we are kids - and an actual career path! We also discussed what it’s like to work from home, and how students who enter the industry should engage with their colleagues. Thank you @rinnvincible for sharing your story and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is William Stuart, the Design Director of Industrial Design at Fuseproject for the last 7 years, which spans disciplines across product, packaging and accessory programs for clients in multiple categories. Clients he has worked with include Western Digital, iRobot, Coway, Vodafone, Forme Life, British Gas, August Smart Home to name a few. He has led the design teams on various projects through strategy and concept design to mass production, and has a deep knowledge in production processes for both hard and soft goods. Including his time at Fuse, he has 15 years’ experience in Industrial Design and Product Development. Before moving to San Francisco, he lived in the UK, and prior to moving to SF worked in London for 10 years working at various consultancies with clients in consumer electronics, aerospace, wearables, medical, telecoms and luxury product sectors. Thank you @williamhstuart for being on our platform to talk about design. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

IDSA IDC SPECIAL: We had the pleasure of speaking with Laura Silva, who was in town for IDSA’s International Design Conference. Laura is VP, accessibility UX designer lead at Bank of America. She is an advocate for diversity in design, she’s a DACA Dreamer, an Inclusive UX Designer, and one of the most inspiring humans you will ever meet. Laura is a graduate of the Savannah College of Art & Design, and has worked at Amazon before her job at Bank of America. Laura shared her story of migrating from Bogota, Colombia with her family at the age of 13, and the hardships of transitioning to an American teenager life (along with her love of movies that she related to growing up). Due to her background, Laura had to grow up fast and work hard at a young age. This interview with Laura is an emotional and honest conversation about fighting for your dreams, working hard to get what you want, and never giving up regardless of your situation.  Thank you @lausilvah for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in--be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

It was a pleasure to have three amazing and powerful women designers be part of CONTEXT! Thank you to IDSA Chicago for allowing us to interview Nichole Rouillac, Ti Chang, and Morgan Matt during their Women & Design Summit. We interviewed Nichole first; join us as we discussed her journey from a small town in the southwest suburbs of Chicago to the Bay Area to be part of some of the most prolific designs of our time. Ti Chang who revolutionized the sex toy industry with her innovative designs, and Morgan Matt who is changing decades of tradition at Proctor & Gamble by designing women products for the Gillette brand. Follow these amazing women designers on Instagram under their following Instagram handles: Nichole Rouillac: @nicholerouillac, Ti Chang: @designerti, and Morgan Matt: @missmorganmatt. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, (formerly known as ADS Live prior to Advanced Design’s rebrand), send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

We had the pleasure to chat with Nicole McLaughlin, - a designer and maker of up-cycled products, her work contributes to the topic of sustainability, and is changing the way we think about the longevity of the soft goods that we own. We kicked things off by talking about her early work in college as a graphic design major, doing unpaid internships to build her experience and credibility as a designer, so that she would eventually land an internship opportunity at Reebok. We discussed the struggles and the hustle behind unpaid internships, and how everyone should pay their interns no matter what - we also talked about the pressure she put on herself to succeed and get ahead while wrapping up her undergraduate degree. When Nicole was promoted to full time design, she discovered her love for prototyping, and began to build and make footwear prototypes from up-cycled materials during her own time after work. She later came to a realization that her side hustle can be a real studio - after receiving various media attention from Hypebeast, Vogue, and Highsnobiety - it was the validation she needed to step away from corporate America. Please listen to the whole interview for Nicole’s unique design story! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Thank you @nicolemclaughlin for being so candid and honest. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Spencer Nugent, this interview takes us back to last year, June of 2020 to be exact, one of the first conversations prior to building Offsite. Spencer is the founder of idsketching.com and sketch-a-day.com. His experience includes working at General Motors in Warren, Michigan, San Francisco based design firm Astro Studios, heading up his own design consultancy and Studio Tminus where he worked with several clients primarily in the consumer electronics and apparel industries. Our conversation spans different topics such as the relationships educators have with companies and studios, the journey of a student, and the current education model, and how we started Offsite and the course he is teaching: Design Discourse. Thank you @sketchadaydotcom for sharing your story and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Bengt Brummer, a Senior Industrial Designer at Google. He was born in Germany and spent his childhood in both Sweden and Germany in a bilingual family. After training and working as a chef in various countries in Europe and the US and earning a BFA in the Culinary Arts from Örebro University in Sweden, he attended Parsons School of Design in NYC. In 2011, he graduated with an MFA in Industrial Design from Konstfack. Bengt likes projects that cross disciplines - consumer electronics, branding, culinary arts and home decor - they’ve been and continue to be the work that hold the most meaning for him. He considers himself a global citizen and has worked in professional studios in Europe and the US within both the fields of Culinary Arts and Industrial Design. Thank you @benbentobox for sharing your story and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

We had an amazing interview with Michael Vorel, a Visual Designer at Nike. He talked about his humble beginnings working retail and realizing his worth, provided amazing advice, and inspired us all, a true Chicago native, making a difference in the design world! To follow Michael’s design work and journey, be sure to follow him on Instagram @michaelvorel. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, (formerly known as ADS Live prior to Advanced Design’s rebrand), send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

We had the pleasure to chat with Industrial Designer Jessica Choi, who works at Google designing the future. We talked about her journey as a student, wanting to be an artist, her upbringing with her parents back in the suburbs of Detroit, attending CCS and leaving to work full time for Matter before graduating. We also talked about experiential design, and how it’s shaping how we touch and interact with products. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Thank you @choi_jessica for being so candid and honest. Thank you for tuning into CONTEXT, send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

IDSA IDC SPECIAL: We had the pleasure of speaking with Silvana Zaldivar, an Industrial Designer at Shopify in Toronto, Canada. Her story begins in El Salvador, where she was born and raised, and received a scholarship to study at the University of Louisiana in LaFayette. She attended many conferences and events that gave her the opportunity to network, which led her to an internship at Fossil. Upon graduating, she headed west to the bay area with no plan, just her skills and optimistic attitude. Silvana arrived during San Francisco Design Week, and she immediately went to work meeting designers and networking, which led her to a job at Matter. She created her own luck through hard work, and in the years that followed, she moved to London to work at Layer, and eventually at Shopify. Silvana expresses the importance of networking, and genuinely working hard for the things you have, as there are no shortcuts in design. Thank you @silvanazaldivar for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

For today’s podcast, we feature Industrial Designer Leon Fitzpatrick, who we call the designer of the future, a globetrotter, and a gifted visionary. Originally from Australia, he made his way to the States to study at the College for Creative Studies (CCS) in Detroit, Michigan, where his father was the Chair of Transportation Design department. Born to the distinguished designer and educator Bryon Fitzpatrick, Leon carved his own path in the years that followed, working for brands such as Motorola, Nike, XBOX, Microsoft, Dell, Ford, Magic + Might, Artemide, and MNML. We discussed technology, the original Microsoft Razor, and how the iPhone disrupted that industry. In 2014, he co-founded AUXILIARY, an independent industrial design school based in Brisbane, Australia. He came to realize a growing gap between education and the needs of industry. AUXILIARY was created to address this skill deficit by developing rigorous design courses that teach the foundations right through to connecting design students with real clients. The end goal was part school, part design consultancy. Thank you @lebenfitz for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

We sat down with Derek Cascio, an Industrial Designer and Professor at Wentworth Institute of Technology (WIT). Prior to doing that, Derek worked for a wide range of companies as a designer: Philips, Staples, and Hasbro as a design manager on the Marvel product line. He also started an organization called Design Museum Boston with Sam Aquillano in 2008 which just celebrated its 10 year anniversary. During our interview we discussed our shared love for Transformers, how toys shaped our childhood, but also how it shaped our professional development and who would’ve thought this was possible?—only in design. Derek was also a speaker at SQ1 2018 in Chicago, where he shared his sketching tips with an audience of nearly 300 design students and professionals. After knowing him for the past several years, we’re happy to have him become a part of our Advanced Design family. Thank you @derekcascio for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!