You can read the feature here
]]>Visit the Innovation for Extremes website for more details.
]]>History and organisation:
eCAADe is a non-profit organisation which has the following goals:
Create an information network about CAAD activities and facilities of special interest existing in schools of architecture in Europe.
Search for solutions to facilitate the exchange of staff, students, teaching programmes, and computer software between schools of architecture.
Make specific proposals towards the creation of closer relations between education, research, and practice in the area of architectural design and CAAD.
Establish contact with governmental, international, and professional organizations and agencies.
Throughout the years, many initiatives were undertaken to achieve these goals (some of them listed below). The main event within eCAADe is the annual conference, which takes place at a different location within the region that eCAADe covers. The first conference was held in 1982 at the Technische Universiteit Delft, Netherlands. The first five conferences were formative towards the official establishment of the association in 1987. The formal statutes are registered under Belgium law in Brussels.
The situation in CAAD has changed substantially from the early years to today. The most influential changes are: increasing computational power of pc’s, development of all kinds of simulation techniques (structure, light, thermal, etc.), and the development of Internet. These dynamics, and the fact that the association has always run as a voluntary effort by many, means that the working of the association and the targets that were set evolved throughout its history. The current structure, means of communications, and working method emerged as good practice from experiences in the past. It is important to note therefore, that the description below reflects the current situation, and that this is based on the experience by those who built up and maintained the association.
]]>Training programs are available from professional design schools or from colleges and universities and usually take 2 to 4 years to complete. Graduates of 2-year and 3-year programs are awarded certificates or associate’s degrees in interior design and normally qualify as assistants to interior designers upon graduation. Graduates with bachelor’s degrees usually qualify for entry into a formal design apprenticeship program. Basic coursework includes computer-aided design (CAD), drawing, perspective, spatial planning, color and fabrics, furniture design, architecture, ergonomics, ethics, and psychology.
The National Association of Schools of Art and Design accredits approximately 250 postsecondary institutions with programs in art and design. Most of these schools award a degree in interior design. Applicants may be required to submit sketches and other examples of their artistic ability.
The Council for Interior Design Accreditation also accredits interior design programs that lead to a bachelor’s degree. In 2005, there were 137 accredited bachelor’s degree programs in interior design in the United States, located primarily in schools of art, architecture, and home economics.
After the completion of formal training, interior designers will enter a 1-year to 3-year apprenticeship to gain experience before taking a licensing exam. Most apprentices work in design or architecture firms under the strict supervision of an experienced designer. Apprentices also may choose to gain experience working as an in-store designer in furniture stores. The NCIDQ offers the Interior Design Experience Program (IDEP), which helps entry-level interior designers gain valuable work experience by supervising work experience and offering mentoring services and workshops to new designers.
Following the apprenticeship, designers may choose to take the national licensing exam or choose to become members of a professional association. Because registration or licensure is not mandatory in all states, membership in a professional association is an indication of an interior designer’s qualifications and professional standing.
Employers increasingly prefer interior designers who are familiar with CAD software. Interior designers also increasingly need to know the basics of architecture and engineering in order to ensure that their designs meet building safety codes and ADA requirements. Other skills obtained through an education in interior design include space planning, architectural lighting, textiles, rendering, ergonomics, etc.
In addition to possessing technical knowledge, interior designers must be creative, imaginative, and persistent and must be able to communicate their ideas in writing, visually, and verbally. Because tastes in style can change quickly, designers need to be well read, open to new ideas and influences, and quick to react to changing trends. Problem-solving skills and the ability to work independently and under pressure are important traits. People in this field need self-discipline to start projects on their own, to budget their time, and to meet deadlines and production schedules. Good business sense and sales ability also are important, especially for those who freelance or run their own business.
Beginning interior designers receive on-the-job training and normally need 1 to 3 years of training before they can advance to higher level positions. Experienced designers in large firms may advance to chief designer, design department head, or some other supervisory position. Some experienced designers open their own firms or decide to specialize in one aspect of interior design. Other designers leave the occupation to become teachers in schools of design or in colleges and universities. Many faculty members continue to consult privately or operate small design studios to complement their classroom activities.
]]>Society goals:
The society has a number of goals, including:
improving the design and development process
building a community among existing designers and create training opportunities for new designers
increasing the impact of educational designers on educational practice
Annual conference:
2005 Oxford, England; Conference chair Hugh Burkhardt
2006 Oxford, England; Conference chair Hugh Burkhardt
2007 Berkeley, California, USA; Conference chair Elizabeth Stage
2008 Egmond aan Zee, the Netherlands; Conference Chair Peter Boon; http://www.fi.uu.nl/isdde
2009 Cairns, Queensland, Australia; Conference Chair Kaye Stacey http://www.isdde.org/isdde/cairns/index.htm
2010 Oxford, England; Conference chair Malcolm Swan http://www.isdde.org/isdde/oxford2010/index.htm
2011 Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Conference Chairs Frank Davis & Christian Schunn
You can read the feature here
]]>I studied Fine Art at university but by the time I left I knew I didn’t want to be an artist and took a job in an outdoors shop for a year while I saved up to go travelling. That’s where my education in the outdoors and the industry began.
I found out about the MA Performance Sportswear Design course at Derby University through a former colleague who was on the course 1 year ahead of me and applied once I was back in the UK. The course taught us aspects of design, pattern cutting, marketing and CAD skills. I did my Masters placement at Rab and have been with them since I completed it.
For me working as a designer now the most important things on the course were the pattern cutting (to gain an understanding of garment construction) and CAD skills. We use computer packages, mostly Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop on a daily basis and getting to know them inside outside out is a real advantage. For me the combination of these design skills, an enthusiasm for the outdoors plus having worked in an outdoors shop and understanding how consumers make purchasing decisions were invaluable.
In my opinion anyone looking for a uni course to get into design for the outdoors currently should consider one of the 2 undergraduate courses available, the Sports Equipment Design - BSc (Hons) at Salford and the new BA (Hons) Performance Sportswear Design at Falmouth, of which I don’t know much about, but looks promising on paper. If you want a more scientific/ textiles approach then consider the BSc in Sports Studies (Outdoor Activities) course at Leeds.
If you’re looking for a postgraduate course then there are more options, though most of them being more textiles rather than garment oriented. There are postgraduate textiles courses with good reputations at Heriott Watt, Leeds and Manchester and I have recently been told there is a course at Otago University, New Zealand.“
]]>Design
This is a role that definitely requires qualification – I know of no designers who haven’t been to a design college of any description. The only exception to this is people who have started their own brands and may not have had any formal design background. The ones that I am aware of and appear to have some credibility are the Performance Design courses at Derby and Leeds. I have used several people from these for projects and the quality/calibre of the graduates is, in my experience, very good.
Sales
Whilst “sales” may not be considered in the same light as design or marketing, be warned – they have a big influence in many organisations on what gets developed or into the market. I have dealt with many, many sales people within the industry and they are, let us say, a…..variable bunch. This is a breed I really don’t understand, and how they get into this role is one that mystifies me. Just about everyone I dealt with in an organisation came from a sales role from another company, and it looks a bit like musical chairs (many sales people I know have worked for at least 5 brands in the outdoor industry). But how any of them actually got into sales in the first place, I don’t know.
Marketing
Again, just about everyone in this area I have worked with came with a professional background and formal qualifications etc, but there are exceptions. People in the marketing departments of outdoor brands have come from a wide range of previous employments – from sports brands to FMCG. As a discipline, marketing translates across any kind of industry very well – in theory, anyway. Strangely enough, I find the marketing people often have very little empathy with the industry they have chosen, and that includes outdoors.
Product management
This is a weird role – a combination of market and sales analysis leading across to product outlines, briefs and specifications. In some companies, PM’s are actually the designers – in a crude kind of way. The scope of this role certainly makes it one of the most interesting and satisfying, but it can be equally frustrating. However, I think this is also a role with probably the most diverse range of approaches to entering the industry, or at least, one that you could get away without any formal background. However, I do qualify this statement as being true for people of my generation in the industry (15-20 years) – it might not be so now as, at least with the big brands, everything is so much more professional.
How did I get into the industry?
I will relate my tale as I believe this is still a way in. My first job in the industry started as an assistant product manager at Berghaus (the “training school” for so many in the trade) – or was it? In many ways, my involvement started a few years earlier. My background is enviable. Born and bred in New Zealand, I was brought up in the outdoors and subjected to what was then a very good education system (I don’t know what it is like now). I studied and graduated in chemical & materials engineering at Auckland University. After 5 years professional life in NZ, I let my passion for mountaineering take over and discarded my career to become a “climbing bum” travelling around the world. It was during this period (of 6 years) that I started working in outdoor shops to finance the next expedition. This, in a way, could be considered my real start in the industry, but I do think it is typical of many attitudes that “retail staff don’t count”. However, I absolutely believe that two critical elements are here – I understood the end use (being a very active and regularly abusing, destroying but always using outdoor kit) and I understood what ordinary customers wanted (working in retail selling to them). My university degree wasn’t important, although the intellectual rigour that this requires (regardless of discipline) was helpful (if you don’t have it naturally) and I suspect was a background factor in getting my first job.
So, in summary
1. Be active (the level isn’t important – I was an average climber)
2. Use lots of kit and be critical of it in a rational way. Ignore brand-names and marketing hype. Challenge perceived wisdom.
3. Work in an outdoor shop and listen to customers
4. Cultivate contacts with sales reps or anyone else from the industry
5. Go to tradeshows and meet people, express interest etc.
6. Take a balanced approach – there is no perfect product and everybody is different in their experience and expectations.
7. Pursue a course of formal qualification relevant to your skills and ambition
8. Have passion, patience, perseverance and positivism, but especially passion
A final warning
Working for an outdoor brand may appear to be great, but one’s outdoor life can suddenly become seriously compromised as work takes over. Designers can become disillusioned with some brands as commercial realities often conflict with the ideals and flair that is their gift.
[ed] Carol McDermott is the inspirational force behind Crux and Lightwave.
]]>I am the Designer for Mountain Equipment. This may seem odd, but I have never liked being called a designer. I probably have a severe personality disorder but I just don’t think it describes what I do very well. As I get older I find myself out for dinner with people I don’t know and everyone is telling each other about how wonderful it is to be married, having kids, and discussing how they want to eat happier chickens. They go through the basic list of questions they all ask each other in these situations and finally it comes, “so Keith, what do you do for a living?” Over the years I have honed the answer to simply, “I design Gore-Tex® jackets”. It is descriptive enough for non-outdoor people to understand and just enough for anyone with an interest in the outdoors to want to speak to me more.
Thankfully the job I have is a bit more varied than just designing jackets. We don’t have a design department, a sourcing department, a team of people to organise fabric testing, etc. All these jobs are, for the most part, my responsibility. I work closely with the Product Manager and a small team of Garment Technologists to design and develop a range of outdoor clothing and equipment every season.
Nature or Nurture
Biological determinism: where biological factors such as an organism’s individual genes (as opposed to social or environmental factors) completely determine how a system behaves or changes over time.
When I look back at how I got to where I am today I have to question was it a case of Nature or Nurture? My dad is a Design and Technology teacher with a passion for the outdoors and my mum is a dressmaker. I like to think it is partly genetic but I have memories of my dad designing fleece jackets and one-man backpacking tents when I was a kid. My mum would then make them up for him on a Saturday morning. I knew from a young age the only thing I wanted to do was design product for the outdoors.
I started out on a BSc in Industrial Design course based in Aberdeen. The course had an engineering and marketing element alongside design theory and practice. It recognised the need for more rounded designers…ones who could do more than just make a product look great. I kept my focus on the outdoors throughout the course and by the time I had finished 4th year I had designed some interesting products including a semi-inflatable kayak and carbon fibre shafted ice axes.
Work
A chance meeting with a windsurfing Automotive Design Manager at the New Designers Exhibition in London left me with a business card and ultimately with a job as a Design Engineer. It wasn’t long before I had become proficient on the CAD package, gained an understanding of injection moulding, tooling, and all things automotive. It wasn’t my planned choice of career but I was designing parts for the £300,000 Mercedes McLaren SLR, which kept me interested for a while. I found myself back on track when I was offered a job as a Project Designer working for a leading Cold Water Immersions Suit manufacturer. It was a chance to gain knowledge of technical textiles and human physiology, which was much more up my street. I spent my time researching new technologies to heat and cool the body. This meant afternoons in a swimming pool with the helicopter crash simulator, floating in a tank of cold water for up to three hours, or doing step ups in a climatic chamber all while wearing Gore-Tex suits and a rectal thermometer. Redundancies eventually hit the oil industry and I was out of a job.
Over the next couple of months I contacted quite a few outdoor brands and I applied to jobs that looked interesting. I got one interview in total and they ultimately did not want to take a chance on me…what did I have to do? Well, I had recently heard of a more direct way into the outdoor industry. The University of Derby had a one year full-time MA in Performance Sportswear Design course, which seemed to have a very high success rate in placing students with employers. This was a big investment for me financially. £15k to be exact by the time I had finished not including the loss of potential wages for the year. I went back into the automotive industry while I waited for the course to start and saved as much as I could.
Re-training
The course at Derby was split into three stages:
Stage 1 (Postgraduate Certificate): Postgraduate skills
- 4 Months long Identification of end-user requirements
Fibre and material studies
Garment technology
Stage 2 (Postgraduate Diploma): Practical design project development
- 5 Months long Project development, management, and launch
Portfolio development and presentation
Stage 3 (Master of Arts): Independent studies for performance sportswear design
- On placement if possible
Having already completed a design degree and with experience working as a designer, the majority of this stuff was pretty straightforward. However, I wasn’t on the course to pass, I was on the course to get a great job so I worked huge hours over the first nine months. The course was purely a means to an end for me. It wasn’t particularly well organised, but in-between all the problems there were some great lecturers who really knew their stuff. Fundamentally the course allowed me the time and space to develop my skill set from one product area to another. It will not suddenly make you a good designer.
Back to Work
I started the course in January and by October of the same year I had finished stage 2. Two weeks later I had my first interview and two weeks after than I had another four, one of which was Mountain Equipment. The interview lasted three hours most of which were spent chatting about which mountains I had been up, where I had been skiing or cycling, and how far could I run.
That was four years ago.
What i have learnt
1. There are plenty of jobs for good designers. You just have to spend time and effort accumulating the right skills, knowledge, and experience for employers to be interested. This will normally mean a design related degree (fashion, product, etc) combined with knowledge and experience of outdoor activities
2. I think there are two basic types of designers: Ones who design by inspiration and ones who design by perspiration. You are lucky if you are in the first camp. The majority have to work hard to generate enough ideas for a whole season
3. You won’t necessarily be designing product you would use or even like, so learn to listen to the people that will
4 In my opinion, designing the most commercial £60 waterproof jacket is much harder than designing the ‘best’ £300 waterproof jacket. You can learn something from product at every price point
5. Do not specialise too early if you don’t want to and don’t worry if your path is not going in a straight line. I am better at what I do because of the convoluted path I took
6. If you really want a job with an outdoor company just phone them up and ask to speak to the Design Manager. Posting a random CV will probably go nowhere.
See more information here
[ed] Arc’teryx has changed the way many companies approach design, and there attention to detail is second to non.
Check their website here
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