Belinda Stening is an industrial designer based in Australia. In 2002, she founded Curve, the industrial design magazine respected worldwide for its excellent design editorial content in print and online, to promote and highlight how talented and flexible the world’s industrial designers are.
Since the recent closure of Curve, in June this year, she is returning to industrial design practice. With a Masters in Fine Art – Sculpture and twelve years of design publishing experience in both the print and digital spaces, her industrial design career path demonstrates just how versatile industrial designers can be.
Belinda and Curve magazine have been longstanding supporters of Icsid and the organisation’s international portfolio of projects. As she transitions to a new phase of her career, Icsid approached the former editor-in-chief to hear about her thoughts on the industrial design industry at present.
“I have changed my career path multiple times. After a nursing career, work in the travel industry and then a brief stint in the film industry, I studied industrial design. This was something I had wanted to do from a very early age.
I worked in design consulting for many years, lectured in design and ran my own manufacturing business before starting Curve. Now I’m looking forward to returning to design practice after writing about it for twelve years!
It’s important in design, life and business, to be flexible and to embrace change. I did this with Curve, moving from print to digital, native app and then mobile web app publications.
The world needs high calibre professional industrial designers more than ever before. After years of talking with designers and writing about industrial design, I’ve seen a massive change in product technologies.
Advances in product and digital technology need to be equally matched with creative design, interaction and interface design to ensure the rising tide of new technologies impact on our daily lives in positive and productive ways. Industrial designers are working at the forefront of interaction and interface design; they are perfectly positioned to do this.
Defining any design discipline is difficult. Good designers (including industrial designers) are open-minded and embrace change – they love a creative challenge, so tightly defining the way they work is risky.
Good industrial designers have an innate ability to visualise and work in three dimensions. Human beings like to make objects and products that make everyday life easier and more enjoyable. Industrial designers make this happen.”
