surprise the designer

The job I moved to Boston for ended just about a year ago. And then the fall of 2012 was long and drawn out and, well, pretty light on the employment front. I was lucky to have a steady part time teaching job and enough small freelance projects to keep me afloat. Plus serving as a volunteer courier for Be the Match provided a welcome diversion. But there were plenty of long dark days spent applying for positions that I never ever heard back from. Life started to change when I received a call at home (in Ohio) in late December. I had interviewed at a Boston brewery for a tour guide/bartender/server weekend position and they were calling to let me know that I got the job (!) Brewery training started in early January, and coincided with the start of the spring semester (teaching 8 hours/week), a long-term contract design position (16-24 hours/week), and a long-term design project with friends (4 hours/week.) Suddenly my mellow schedule was packed to-the-gills. And it stayed t...

Eight years ago I decided to study industrial design. It was a drawn-out decision that started with a dazzling sit-down with one Robert Probst , was tempered by lots of engineering school applications, and finalized with a small leap of faith. School was challenging, fun, and deliberately very broad. We designed chairs and power tools and reading lights because the design process is always the same anyway. ...right? Getting a design education teaches you a lot of things: how to be creative in a business setting, how to communicate effectively, how to draw pretty darn well. But what has stuck with me the most is versatility. In school, you're expected to be the design researcher, product designer, packaging engineer, model maker, copywriter, and photographer (among other things.) And while some people will tell you that you're only ever one thing in the 'real world,' I would tell you quite the opposite. Since graduating from school, I've assisted a design...

This might sound obvious, but one of the greatest things about being an adjunct professor is the chance to share the knowledge you've amassed with people who haven't quite found it yet. Making a portfolio is a challenging process. You have to put your best foot forward, standing out enough to be noticed while blending in enough to appear compatible. Thanks to co-oping with four different employers (and professionally working with three more), I've made a lot of portfolios. So I have plenty of tricks up my sleeve. I gave this short presentation to the junior class at Wentworth today. It covers some of the basics: building blocks to eventually get you to the point where you'll be learning from yourself. Do you have any tips to add? Industrial Design Portfolio Basics from carlyhagins If you're looking for a slightly more in-depth guide, check out Hire Me! by the UCID class of 2012. 

Have you heard of the Altitude Design Summit ? It's one of the most popular (and from what I can tell, well put-together) annual blogger conferences out there. A bunch of the bloggers I regularly follow go every year, and it's always fun to see their coverage of the event: plenty of tweets, wrap-up posts, and photos of gorgeous business cards. (Check out this awesome pinterest board chock-full of wrap-ups:  http://pinterest.com/melaniebiehle/alt-summit-2012/ Sooo much good information there!) More after the jump...