Educational institution: Carleton University (Canada)
Programme: Industrial Design (2016)
Winner: Best Student Industrial Design Project in Canada awarded by ADIQ on WIDD 2016 in Montreal, Quebec
What made you decide to become an industrial designer?
As a child, I would spend my summer days alongside my grandfather, whose backyard garden was full of handmade apparatuses to protect his prized tomatoes. This was my first introduction to problem solving. From that point on, I always knew that I wanted to create. After high school, I fell into industrial design in college, and the rest, they say, is history.
In your opinion, what types of people are best suited for the profession of industrial design? What is a typical industrial designer like?
I believe that industrial design is made of people who embrace making mistakes. Embracing mistakes and then solving them in the early stage of the design process, leads to stronger designs. It might sound counter-intuitive, but mistakes help lead industrial designers to reach their goals.
Where did you study industrial design and what was the most important thing you learned?
After graduating high school in 2008, I went to study industrial design at Dawson College in Montréal, Québec. Then, I continued my industrial design education at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario.
The most important thing that I have learnt in my 7 years of studying is the importance of user testing. It’s important to ask questions about your project to friends, family, or even complete strangers. Different perspectives can help solve the issue being addressed or raise questions that have not even been considered yet.
What do you believe are the major obstacles or challenges for young industrial designers today from a professional standpoint? Are there additional challenges for women in the profession?
A major challenge for young designers in a professional environment is developing an understanding of how our work impacts different departments within a company. As a designer, we have to take into consideration the sales department, the marketing department, and most importantly, the production department. If a young designer can work in a collaborative manner with these departments, then he or she will grow and develop a stronger professional character.
I do not think that there are additional challenges for women in the field of industrial design. In both schools that I attended to study industrial design, the class was represented equally by both sexes.