A need for an outlet to talk about industrial design proved to be a successful venture in supporting a growing community
At the Core77 Conference Designing Here / Now in Los Angeles’s refurbished church venue, Vibiana, we sat down with Core77’s Co-founder and industrial designer, Stuart Constantine to chat about the evolution of its online industrial design community.
A little more than 20 years ago, Constantine, then an industrial design student at Pratt Institute and fellow classmate Eric Ludlum, worked on a special project for their last semester. They created a website filled with online portfolios, articles, jobs, and other resources about industrial design. “Back then, we had a hard time explaining to people what [industrial design] was. One of the missions early on was to educate the population by highlighting people and projects, what they were working on.”
Over the years, companies and industrial designers alike have asked to be featured on their website. “It snowballed from there,” he says. This led to successful collaborations with the likes of Autodesk, ArtCenter College of Design, and Eastman Innovation Lab, as evident during the conference. The growing appeal of Core77’s work has influenced a number of industrial designers, including James Monsee of PAX Labs, who credited Core77 as his gateway into the profession during his presentation of his journey in vaporizer technology.
Today, Constantine believes that goal to educate the population about industrial design has been achieved, as it is more recognized and acknowledged than in previous years. Core77’s focus has now shifted to highlighting notable design works from individuals and companies, especially through their online job/portfolio site, Coroflot. This also stemmed into producing the Core77 Design Awards and the Designing Here / Now conference, now in its third year.
It’s not surprising then to see that the majority of the attendees at Core77’s Conference are Millennials, young industrial designers between the ages of 22 and 35. A contemporary reflection of the generational landscape in the profession. Young industrial designers are more likely to post about their works, projects and portfolios online. “This model is very appealing to them and the focus of our business,” Constantine says. He notes that professionals who have moved past this stage of their careers are now in leadership positions, therefore are less likely to share their works. Running a business and being a designer are two distinct but related threads in an industrial designer’s career. Frog Design’s Creative Director, François Nguyen succinctly sums it up, “I’ve gone from KeyShot to Keynote.” Constantine would rather focus on the design aspect, which keeps the door open to a wider community.
If the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals are aimed at solving the world’s problems, can industrial design be applied? Only partially according to Constantine. Addressing any kind of social issue requires a large, multidisciplinary team to solve the likes of climate change. “Designers are really good in creating the framework in solving the problem,” Constantine says. They can then pass it on to other experts in addressing other parts of the issue. “Designers need constraints in order to be effective. When the solutions are too broad, then you can’t make any progress. The narrower the constraints are, the more effective they can be.”
Core77’s Conference Designing Here / Now 2016 took place on 29-30 September 2016 in Los Angeles, California. To read highlights of the conference, click here.
The next conference will take place in Chicago, Illinois in October 2017.