Like many professionals, I am not working where I thought I would be. Upon graduation from Art Center, I only saw two options: work for a company like Kohler, Nokia or Ford, or work for a design consultancy like Continuum, Smart Design or IDEO. Working for a company like Enclos Corp was a third option I never considered. My title at Enclos Corp is “Industrial Designer”, not “Product Designer”. I have this title because the work I do each day requires not only the skills I learned at Art Center, but also those I gained through prior work experience. This wasn’t what I expected; I thought that the jobs I was doing prior to and during my time at Art Center were mostly unrelated to the career for which I was preparing myself. Instead, I discovered that the work I did to earn money while pursuing my goals gave me a big boost toward actually achieving those goals.

How Did I Get Here?

I found my job because the Director of Enclos Corp’s Advanced Technology Studio knew about Art Center and was specifically looking to hire a designer who was an Art Center graduate. The premise of the Advanced Technology Studio was to bring a combination of different disciplines together, and the presence of an Art Center grad would theoretically add a level of creativity to the mix. The Director assumed that a designer from Art Center would push boundaries and introduce challenging new concepts. But they still needed someone who knew enough about architectural drafting and construction to work on projects without requiring an enormous amount of training. So the job Enclos Corp posted on Art Center’s alumni online job board required an odd combination of skills. They needed someone from Art Center with architectural drafting or construction experience. It is uncommon for Consumer Product Designers to have that combination of skills. I had two very good interviews and started a month after applying for the job.

New Opportunities For Product Designers

My experience at Enclos Corp so far has taught me that many different kinds of companies can benefit from hiring Product Designers. Product Designers have a very valuable skill set that can obviously be used when developing a consumer product, but can also benefit many other fields. To again use myself as an example, I technically work for a construction subcontractor that has a major role in how a trained work force installs and uses its product. Anytime a company is considering how people are going to use a product, it would benefit greatly from hiring a Product Designer. Good Product Designers always consider human factors when developing their designs. They are also trained to imagine unintended use, and conduct research that involves interview, observation, documentation and first hand experience. A Product Designer’s perspective, skills and focus can help a construction subcontractor make its product that much more successful.

Knowing this, the challenge becomes finding companies that may not know how much they would benefit from hiring a Product Designer, and convincing them that they would. Examples that come to mind include: charter schools, non-profit humanitarian organizations, web application developers, musical instrument manufacturers, hospitals, retirement homes, public transit and public safety organizations. Another challenge is discovering what skills designers can bring to their work from outside Art Center, or what skills they can nurture while inside Art Center that can open up new possibilities for their future careers.

Another factor to consider is that the volume of products consumed by industrialized society will have to be reduced. I see this as a key part of sustainable design. We must either find a way to harvest materials from landfills and recycling, or create products that last forever. The best case scenario is probably a mix of the two. This means we as Product Designers will need to expand our career possibilities. We will have to adapt to a different kinds of design, not just consumer products. We will need to get involved with more facets of our society, not just what people purchase at a store.