Context – Details, episodes & analysis

Jonathan is a hardware and experience designer based in Toronto, Ontario. After 5 years of working in San Francisco as a core part of frog's industrial design team, Jonathan moved to Canada in early 2020 to pursue a new adventure with e-commerce powerhouse, Shopify. His experience as a design consultant spans across leading brands and start-ups in the tech, retail, automotive, government and healthcare industries. As a part of Shopify’s budding hardware division, Jonathan works at the forefront of commerce innovation, bridging the gap between digital and physical in the retail arena. We speak to Jonathan about the pressures of being first generation, making your parents proud for all of their sacrifices, and the legacy we are building as designers for future generations to come. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

For today’s episode, we welcome the leaders behind the Office for Product Design. Nicol Boyd began his training in design at the Glasgow School of Art. After completing his undergraduate degree in 1999 he moved to Italy to work for Alessi, where he developed products for among others Achille Castiglioni, Alessandro Mendini, Alberto Meda and Michael Graves. He returned to the UK to continue his design studies at the Royal College of Art, graduating in 2004. The following years saw him working at IDEO, first as a resident in their San Francisco and Palo Alto offices, and later with the Munich and London offices. He also spent a year at Nokia’s design department in London, before establishing himself as a freelance designer. This period saw a renewed collaboration with Tomas Rosén and ultimately led to the formation of the Office for Product Design in Hong Kong in 2007.

Tomas Rosén originally studied philosophy at Stockholm University before completing a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at Linköping University. Scholarships from the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and the Marcus Wallenberg Foundation led him to pursue additional postgraduate design studies at the Royal College of Art in London, where he graduated in 2004. Having previously worked on design projects for Volvo and Scania in Sweden, he joined Nokia’s design department in London in 2005 and subsequently went on to co-found the Office for Product Design in Hong Kong with Nicol Boyd in 2007.

Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Jeffrey Jones, an LA based freelance industrial designer and professor with over a decade of experience developing mobile consumer electronics such as smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and fitness bands. From 2008-2012 Jeff worked at Samsung’s Mobile Design Lab in Los Angeles, where he designed a wide variety of mobile phones such as AT&T’s Rugby 3 and Galaxy Mini, which sold more than 10 million units globally. From 2012-2019 Jeff worked for Samsung Design America in downtown San Francisco, where he was the lead designer for countless category-creating and line-up products such as the Gear Fit series, Gear S2, Galaxy View and the “Edge” design language for Samsung’s flagship smartphones. Jeff has a passion for finding beautiful, simple and iconic solutions for the complex challenges involved with bringing useful and manufacturable products to market at scale. As a freelance industrial designer, Jeff brings innovative form and functional ideas through analog and digital sketching, 3D modeling in NX and Solidworks and rendering in Keyshot. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

We welcome Spencer Nugent back to our platform to talk about objects that we find polarizing. We question why we’re so attracted to brands that take risks to produce products that have us talking; such as the Tesla Cybertruck or the Playstation 5. Is this on purpose, or is this truly innovation? As humans, it’s natural for us to have biases, so when these disruptive products launch, we have debates and pick our sides. Spencer gives us his take with a critical lens on how he approaches these conversations. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Chris Granneberg, an Industrial Designer based in LA. Chris studied Industrial Design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NYC where he graduated in 2004. Soon after graduating Chris joined Karim Rashid's studio in NYC where he was promoted to Product Director in 2009 managing the global Industrial Design projects and team. At Karim's, Chris collaborated and led hundreds of projects with brands including Samsung, LG, Asus, 3M, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Alessi, Orrefors and BoConcept. Leaving Karim's studio in 2013 Chris was recruited at the PepsiCo Design Center as one of the CDO's initial hires. At PepsiCo, Chris managed the Industrial Design component of global structural design projects for both foods and beverages for 3 years. In 2016 Chris relocated from Brooklyn to Los Angeles to launch his design studio. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Spencer Nugent, where we dive into a conversation about the good things about hard things. In the age of instant gratification and intelligent tools, there’s value to taking the long, slow road when creating great things. With these new tools and platforms, ease of production and low barriers to entry can make design more democratic, but without proper restraint, has also made it much more superficial. In this episode, we go deep about keeping it real. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Yuliya Veligurskaya, the Creative Director of Studiocult, based in New York City. Studiocult is a brand specializing in clever jewelry, and accessories. All of the pieces are inspired by everyday objects and crumbs of shared memories. Guaranteed to turn some heads, their accessories are made for those who want to wear something expressive and out of the ordinary. They can create one of a kind bespoke pieces of jewelry for individuals as well as design a range of products including jewelry, handbags and accessories for businesses. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guests are the brothers, Hoang & Anh who founded Creative Session, a design blog dedicated to ideas between the two. Currently, they head design at Playground building brands and products. Playground is a venture firm that partners with entrepreneurs working at the intersection of atoms, bits, and AI to build the companies of tomorrow. The brothers believe building great products begin with developing lasting brand visions, these values are the foundation for strong companies and innovative products. Collectively they have a diverse body of work, designing for companies such as: Amazon, Google, Samsung, Nike, Kanye West, Versace, Audi, Microsoft, Shinola and more. They think the best part about design is the unfamiliar fields you’re thrown into. Currently they’re geeking out with robotics, quantum computing and aerospace. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Anna Lee, is a technical co-founder of Lioness, the women-led sexual health startup that built the world's first and only smart vibrator that improves understanding of sexual pleasure and body through biofeedback data, recently featured at CES 2020, a finalist at Last Gadget Standing, Engadget Best of CES 2020, Refinery29 Best of CES SexTech.  Anna was previously a mechanical engineer at Amazon, launching the Amazon Dash Button’s original concept and the Kindle Voyage Page Press Technology.  She has spoken at top universities like UC Berkeley and Chalmers University, SXSW, and CYFY India, and most recently named 2020's Forbes 30 Under 30 as well as Paper Magazine's Asian Women Creators You Need to Know. She is a big advocate in Lioness’s mission to expand understanding and research in sexual health, and destigmatize female sexuality. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!

Our next guest is Amanda Huynh, a Canadian product and food designer working at the intersections of community-building, social innovation, and sustainable design. Amanda’s design career has allowed her to work across a variety of sectors in Vancouver, Bali, Shanghai, and London. Amanda earned a BDes in Industrial Design from Emily Carr University of Art + Design and worked as a professional designer for several years before pursuing a MSc in Food Design from Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milan, Italy. She is an Assistant Professor of Industrial Design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Thank you @amandahuynh for being on our platform to talk about design. Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!