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 ...
Apr 03, 2022•51 min•Season 4Ep. 96
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 ...
Mar 30, 2022•52 min•Season 4Ep. 95
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 Footwea...
Mar 15, 2022•1 hr•Season 4Ep. 94
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 ...
Mar 03, 2022•50 min•Season 4Ep. 93
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 alte...
Feb 07, 2022•51 min•Season 4Ep. 92
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...
Jan 31, 2022•56 min•Season 4Ep. 91
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 wit...
Jan 25, 2022•52 min•Season 4Ep. 90
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 c...
Jan 05, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 4Ep. 89
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 differen...
Dec 20, 2021•53 min•Season 4Ep. 88
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 ...
Nov 19, 2021•57 min•Season 4Ep. 87
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 down...
Nov 08, 2021•1 hr 18 min•Season 4Ep. 86
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 conv...
May 25, 2021•48 min•Season 3Ep. 85
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. Lea...
May 25, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Season 3Ep. 84
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 ...
May 04, 2021•37 min•Season 3Ep. 83
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 includ...
May 04, 2021•41 min•Season 3Ep. 82
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 in...
Apr 17, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Season 3Ep. 81
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...
Apr 17, 2021•56 min•Season 3Ep. 80
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, f...
Mar 20, 2021•53 min•Season 3Ep. 78
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 Mila...
Mar 20, 2021•49 min•Season 3Ep. 79
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...
Mar 02, 2021•42 min•Season 3Ep. 76
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 f...
Mar 02, 2021•53 min•Season 3Ep. 77
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, Fo...
Feb 22, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 75
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 Wern...
Feb 22, 2021•48 min•Season 3Ep. 74
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 p...
Feb 07, 2021•57 min•Season 3Ep. 73
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), Philip...
Feb 07, 2021•48 min•Season 3Ep. 72
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 lik...
Jan 30, 2021•33 min•Season 3Ep. 70
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 busine...
Jan 30, 2021•44 min•Season 3Ep. 71
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. Ou...
Jan 20, 2021•40 min•Season 3Ep. 69
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! ...
Jan 20, 2021•52 min•Season 3Ep. 68
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...
Jan 13, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Season 3Ep. 66
