INDUSTRIAL DESIGN: networking is not the fake part

Tim Perry wrote a smart piece recently about making networking feel less awkward, and one idea stuck with me. Networking gets weird when people treat it like selling before there is any trust, context, or actual need.

A lot of designers push back on networking because it feels fake. Like you are supposed to become louder, slicker, and more polished than you actually are. But it doesn’t have to be that at all.

It’s really about putting more of your actual thinking where the right people can see it. Share your point of view. Have useful conversations. Stay close enough to good people that, when the timing is right, you are not starting from zero.

Relationships are not a dirty shortcut around merit. They are how people learn what you care about, how you think, and why they might want to work with you.

Your work still has to be good, but being invisible is not a career strategy. It is just a comfort zone with better branding.