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The light spills in through the windows of your studio. You’re sketching things up, importing illustrations, optimizing models here and there, and making the most beautifully designed product a consumer has ever seen. You have a perfect balance between a love for esthetically pleasing design and what you went to engineering school for.
However, there are a lot of engineering and design professionals that find themselves on one side desiring more involvement in the other. This is especially true for engineers that have a bit of a creative tendency. Like when you see a product and smile because you know how it goes together and what it took to manufacture it, but still, your amazed at the appearance and wonder why that aspect seems familiar yet somewhat foreign. Then you see something that is completely hideous and wonder who they drug out of the potato factory to design it. Either way, the design has caught your attention and you get that twitch called inspiration.
“The Engineer who can Draw”
I recently read an article talking about the disembodied engineer. Poor guy. Confused about life, secretly wanting to add a curve here or there, unable to add an ounce of industrial savvy inspiration and constantly foiled by the whims of bracket-happy stress engineers.
…this can end up producing a working engineer or recent graduate with the dull, sinking feeling that they’ve spent the best years of their life struggling up the wrong professional ladder.
Don’t tear up now. It’s a revealing article from a design perspective. But guess what? Just because you enjoy Prismacolors and Balsa wood more than adding numbers and brackets doesn’t mean you have to pull up your roots and switch to being a designer. You’re actually in a better spot. You have the training in engineering, and the interest in design. But how do you find that balance you desire to be involved in design and engineering?
Actually, it’s pretty simple, but first…
To avoid cracking the glass wall between Industrial Design and Design Engineering, lets just say up front, there is a difference. Like grass and bacon. But saying there’s a difference doesn’t mean you can’t have an interest in one or the other.
Look, engineering and industrial design are both great degrees. One can work with the other though and it doesn’t need to be limited to just industrial design. Some schools are even combining the degrees. People, like my favorite architect Antonio Gaudi, have also combined the disciplines. The first step is to focus.
Focusing on your interest
The guy who said, “Work at what you love doing and you’ll be happy” was half right. He forgot about eating and then also being trapped. You might feel trapped in a job or degree because of circumstances or choice, but, ya know, whatever. You can do something about it.
If you’re young and in school, there couldn’t be a better time to become that hybrid implement of synchronistic utility, like Kevin Kline on Broadway…kinda. But even if you have a lot of notches in your belt, you can do the same things to stoke those wild fires of fiery wildness. Here’s seven really easy ways.
- Keep a sketch pad
“But that’s too simple!” That’s right and it works, especially to get you started. It will especially come in handy when you want to show someone a robot sketch. This can go along way toward getting a portfolio together and just helping you feel like your have an outlet. I suggest doing it a certain time of the day when your inspired or join in a showcase or design contest. Check these out.
Illustration Friday
How Design Competition
Design Online Competioin Network - Learn
“Learn? Learn what?” Learn the industry, the careers, the fun stuff, the lame stuff, and especially the business stuff. One of the funnest adventures to go on is a visit to manufacturers or print shops and find out how they do use tools, what material they use and how they work with people. That’s where you start after you have the idea, which is always the hardest part. There’s always a next step and learning is usually it. Here’s some links.
Five steps to a better portfolio
Rethinking the Design Industry
The Business of Design
Lean Manufacturing Terms
Web Design from Scratch - Get a second major
“Now you’ve just gone mad. That’s too much work.” Actually, yeah, but you’d be surprised. This is how I quelled the rage brought on by endless hours of deriving equations. Along with an engineering degree, I got a design degree. Now, it wasn’t RISD or the like, but it gave me a lot of the discipline and even better, the joy I wanted to get out of my education and eventually transfer into my career. Look into it. - How about a graduate degree?
Danger, engineer with a sense of style. I think one of the most potent degree sets someone in engineering could have is an MBA with a Masters in Design. A lot of school maybe, but if you’re planning on going for the advance degrees why not consider this route? I always go back to what my dad said, “Get your Swiss army knife.” If you have the tools and knowledge, you have a whole lot of options and more to drill into. - Pick up projects that involve design
When I was in school I picked a hot-air balloon project when I could have done a car or prosthetic design. Don’t make the same mistake. There’s bound to be one project that has a more design oriented approach. Working full-time makes it hard to pursue interests sometimes. You’ll have more resources though. Spend an hour each day drawing or modeling ideas. Maybe it’s getting involved with freelance work, web design, graphic design or trade shows. Talk to people you know, go with it and always give your input. - Start something online with a friend
This can be incredibly fun and also really frustrating. I started a shirt company and did the shirt graphics. That was a blast. Running the entire business side by myself was not a blast. A friend can help. Maybe you just have a bunch of ideas. Friends can help grow those ideas and there’s not a better place to get them out there. Conceptualize, Share, Create. Getting online will get you in front of people. Start with sites like these:
Flickr
Etsy
Ponoko
Threadless
Wordpress
Instructables
DiviantART. - Go to a conference or exhibit
There are a lot of these during the year and you can meet a lot of people and get some inspiration. It doesn’t have to be just a design conference either. Go to an art exhibit, local gallery, or tattoo parlor. Here are some of the bigger design conferences.
ICFF International Contemporary Fair Festival
ISDA - IDSA National Conference
HowConference
AIGA Design Conference
There’s nothing wrong with a multi-disciplined approach to engineering. You know your interests. Start sketching, start learning and see where it takes you.
Other Resources and Inspiration
ISDA
RISD
Parsons
Platt
CCA
DIA
TED
Industrial Design Outreach
Design Industry
Core77
World Wide Design Directory
The Gnomon Workshop
SolidProfessor
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A couple of my favorite blogs are the Core77 blog and the IDFuel blog.
There’s also a design feed aggregator site called Design-Feed.net that pulls in posts from over 280 feeds!
Great article, Josh!
It touches on a lot of things I have been thinking about personally over the last year or so. You lay out some very good suggestions.
Brian, CADFanatic
http://www.cadfanatic.com/
Hey Brian, thanks. I know a lot of engineers could care less about this kind of stuff and there’s opinion and contention about each discipline on both sides. I like engineering, but I’d probably call myself more of a designer, even though I have an engineering degree. I say, so what, I like good design and like coming up with the ideas and drawing them out.
If I had my choice I would have gone to the art institute in Chicago, but my parents were footing the bill and engineering school was a more “solid” option (ha, no pun intended.) Glad it happened that way though, cause I think it’s a much richer experience looking at design through the lens of engineering instead of the other way around.
Josh,
Thanks so much for this article and links. This post really nails it for me as a ME that is passionate about design. I think this post from a Core77 member speaks out on the same issue:
http://boards.core77.com/viewtopic.php?t=14346
That is a great forum topic Daniel. I had to respond to it. Glad this one has helped to. I’m always interested to hear what engineers are doing out there to supplement their thirst for design. Let me know what you end up doing! thanks.
Hey, thanks for the article. As a mechanical engineering student interested in design this really helps. I’ve already gone to the career adviser at my school and she didn’t really know what to recommend. It’s hard enough going through an engineering curriculum as one of the only girls in my classes but to have trouble finding where to go with what I want to do just compounded it. Do you have any advise on what to do in terms of internships or beginning jobs in engineering design?
Interesting article - essentially boils down the feeling of dissatisfaction with my mech eng degree and subsequent career, and why I went back to do an MA in industrial design (steep learning curve)
I’m now working in the ‘design industry’ (whatever that is) and enjoying it thoroughly even tho pay is a bit down and I do get saddled with a little too much of the engineering for my liking sometimes…
Hey Kris, thanks. glad it helps. I remember that trip to the career adviser. They sat me down to take the Myers-Briggs typology test. useless! I already knew what I wanted to do, just not how or where. If it’s the same with you, here’s what I would recommend, and you don’t need a typology test.
On a thick piece of paper write something specific you want to do, “DESIGN FOOTWEAR”, put it where you see it everyday. Now, the fun. Visit Coroflot.com and look at the design portfolios and the job listings. See what’s out there and sparks your interest. Now ask yourself, do you have everything you need to get one of those positions? I’m thinking probably not right now. I would then do the following.
-find out what is required (portfolio, references, experience, etc.)
-Sketch out your ideas (sketchpad, models, renderings, etc.)
-bookmark site that inspire you (I use faves.com)
-talk to people that know the industry your interested in (they’re out there, interior/ industrial designers, professors, etc.)
-call up design firms, ask for interviews (no one else is taking the initiative, but you can)
-be willing to work and start low (a reality, but if your learning stuff you want to do, it’s worth it)
I ended up hunting down a job myself. I called, went in, talked to the manager and started very low. It was all worth it.
If I was doing it all over again I would still do engineering and still pursue my interest in design doing my own stuff or going for a masters in design. It depends all on what you’re interested in, but keep that piece of paper up where you can see it everyday.
Also check out Freelanceswitch.com. It has a lot of articles and interviews that have to do what people look for and how to work with people. highly recommended.
Chris, thanks. I’ve been interested in talking with someone just like you that went back for a MA in ID. Would be nice to know more about your experience. Where did you end up going to school?