the path to INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
Let me guess, you liked to draw as a kid. Probably into Legos. Maybe you took things apart just to see how they worked.
You knew you liked to create. You just didn’t know what to do with it.
So you went through the motions. Graduated high school. Went to college. Maybe tried mechanical engineering. Perhaps everyone told you architecture was the answer. Graphic design maybe?
But that wasn’t it.
It still didn’t quite scratch the itch.
It didn’t get to the core of who you are.
Then, that one fateful day…
We all come to industrial design in our own time. But most of us share the same story - Youthful exploration. Followed by doubt. A deep sense of misplacement. And then… discovery.
I remember the day I stumbled upon the ID program at my university like it was yesterday.
Like most, I never knew it even existed, until it was all that mattered.
Not every day as an industrial designer is a great one. Some days the work breaks your heart.
But then there are the others. The ones that remind you why you fight for every detail. Why you chase every curve. Why you care so damn much.
Because when it finally comes together, you see the soul of the thing. Or maybe, it’s just showing you a bit of yours.
——— #WeAreIndustrialDesign #WAID
04.06.25 INDUSTRIAL DESIGN WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SEXY
I thought it would be sketching in cafés. Designing chairs for MoMA. Building things that changed lives. That I’d be part of shaping the future.
But then the future turned out to be a spreadsheet. a shipping delay. an awkward Zoom call with procurement.
It’s not that I don’t love the work. I do. It’s just... I didn’t realize how much of the job would be fighting for the chance to do the work at all.
The politics. The budget cuts. The 7th concept presentation just to convince someone to not put the logo there.
Nobody told me this was part of the craft.
And yet, we keep showing up. We keep designing.
Not because it’s easy. But because we’re stubborn. Because we still believe we can make things better.
Maybe your story’s different. I hope it is.
But to the designers out there who feel the dissonance between the dream and the job, you’re not alone.
And you're not wrong for wanting more.
——— #WeAreIndustrialDesign #WAID
04.05.25 Is U.S. Manufacturing Really Coming Back — or Are We Just Watching the Market Burn?
So unless you’ve been living under a rock, you already know that new tariffs just hit. Markets dove headfirst. China retaliated. And suddenly the question doesn’t feel so hypothetical anymore.
We've heard it for years, that reshoring is the future. That supply chain resilience and speed-to-market would eventually outweigh low-cost labor overseas.
But now it’s real. Now it’s policy. Now it’s personal.
For industrial designers and product companies, this moment is more than macroeconomics. It’s a full-blown rethink of how and where we make the things we dream up.
Because design doesn’t live in a vacuum. It lives in factories. In tooling decisions. In shipping lead times. In the reality of what it costs to build something, and who gets to build it.
So I’ll ask the question again, for all of us in this space:
Are we about to see a U.S. manufacturing resurgence? Or are we entering a new kind of instability, one that demands even more creative problem-solving from the people who design the physical world?
——— #WeAreIndustrialDesign #WAID
Put yourself out there
04.04.25 INDUSTRIAL DESIGNERS:
Don’t Just Show Your Work, Speak It.
Most industrial designers would rather sketch for hours than speak for five minutes.
But if you can’t explain your ideas, they die in the meeting, no matter how beautiful they look on the wall.
And it’s not just that your non-design partners “don’t get it.” They really don’t. They don’t see form the same way. They don’t think spatially. They don’t feel the material before they touch it. They literally think differently.
So break it down. Walk them through it. Build the bridge between your brain and theirs.
And do it with confidence, because if you don’t believe it, they won’t either.
You don’t need to be a keynote speaker. You just need to give the idea a voice.
Because great design doesn’t need defenders. It needs translators.
——— #WeAreIndustrialDesign #WAID
Put yourself out there
04.01.25 Where Has All the Industrial Design Work Gone?
Lately, a question keeps surfacing in my conversations with fellow designers:
Where has all the industrial design work gone?
It’s not a rhetorical question. It’s one I’ve been wrestling with personally, and I know I’m not alone. There’s been a shift in the market, gradual at first, but now unmistakable, and it’s left a lot of us wondering what changed.
Now, before we dive in, let’s be clear: This conversation sits on top of broader market realities. We’re still feeling the ripple effects of the pandemic. Inflation is still squeezing budgets. Tariffs and supply chain instability are making companies more cautious. Uncertainty is everywhere, and uncertainty kills product development faster than just about anything.
But even accounting for all that, something deeper is happening in our field.
I don’t claim to have all the answers. These are just my working theories, based on experience and observation. I’d love to hear yours too, because maybe, together, we can piece this puzzle together.
1. The Shift Toward Asia For years now, we’ve seen large companies ramp up their design presence in Asia, particularly in places like Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, and the large economic centers in China.
It makes sense on paper: lower costs, proximity to manufacturers, faster feedback loops, and fewer time zones to battle. In the past, cultural differences often meant that design for Western markets needed to be led by Western designers. But that gap has closed, fast.
Today, global design aesthetics are increasingly aligned. The internet has leveled the playing field - taste, tools, and trends now flow freely across borders. And with rising standards of living in China and surrounding regions, you now have incredibly skilled design talent who also happen to be a short drive from the factory floor.
So when cultural nuance isn’t a major differentiator, the advantage naturally shifts to those with logistical proximity.
That said, there are still sectors where this transition hasn’t taken hold, at least not yet. Medical devices, defense, trade show environments, and large-scale retail fixtures often require local expertise, regulatory familiarity, or simply aren’t cost-effective to ship. Many small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) still rely on local talent to help bring their ideas to life, and for that, I’m incredibly grateful.
And just to be clear: this isn’t about blame. Some seriously impressive and talented designers are based in Asia. This is simply an observation about the changing shape of our profession.
2. The End of the Overconsumption Economy Here’s a question: When was the last time it was easy to buy a meaningful gift for someone?
Really think about it. Once upon a time, every year brought new gadgets that solved problems in novel ways. We needed digital cameras. GPS devices. Alarm clocks. Radios. You name it.
Now? They’re all absorbed into a single black rectangle in your pocket.
Smartphones have become the universal multi-tool. And for a while, that created a wave of opportunity - accessories, upgrades, and adjacent tech boomed. But even that has slowed.
When’s the last time you had to upgrade your phone? When did the latest launch feel like something truly new?
We’ve hit a point of saturation. Not just in tech, but in consumer products in general. We have what we need. And if we don’t, we probably don’t want more stuff, we want better stuff. More intentional, more meaningful, more lasting.
Fewer new products means fewer design briefs. It’s that simple.
3. The AI Budget Vacuum Let’s be honest: AI hasn’t taken our jobs.
(Well, not yet.)
Just like Photoshop didn’t kill photography, AI won’t replace industrial designers. If anything, it’ll become another tool, something that helps us go further, faster. Write 20 variations instead of 2. Generate sketches in seconds. Rethink what’s possible.
But here’s the twist: The budgets are already being reallocated.
Companies are pouring resources into AI across the board. Every department wants in. Every roadmap has an “AI layer.” And that money has to come from somewhere.
Unfortunately, during times of economic uncertainty, guess which department gets hit first?
Design.
So no, AI isn’t replacing us. But the race to build AI is absolutely pulling budget away from product development, physical design, and the kinds of projects that used to land in our inboxes.
So… What Now? I’m not saying design is dead. Far from it.
But I do believe we’re in a moment of transition. Design work hasn’t disappeared, it’s just evolving. And in many cases, it’s moving.
Some of this may rebound. Some of it may never come back in the same way. But either way, we need to understand the forces shaping our field if we want to navigate what’s next.
And if anyone’s built for this moment, it’s us.
We’re designers. Creatives. Doers. Dreamers. We've never laid down and given up before.
Not when CAD came for our hand sketches. Not when the internet changed the rules. Not when UX/UI exploded and shifted the spotlight. We adapted. We carved out new roles. We redefined where design fits in business, and proved why it mattered.
We’re going to have to do that again.
It won’t be easy. It will take pushing outside our comfort zones. We’ll need to speak up, show up, and sell the value of what we do.
But I know we can. Because We Are Industrial Design.
#WeAreIndustrialDesign #WAID
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN: Group Therapy Session Welcome Hi. I’m Blair. I’m an industrial designer.
And some days, this job makes me feel invisible.
You put in the hours. You chase the details. You care more than you probably should. And still — you wonder if any of it mattered. If anyone even noticed.
If you’ve ever felt that... you’re not the only one.
That’s why we started IDI. It’s not a portfolio group. It’s not a job board. It’s not about flexing your latest render.
It’s a place where we talk honestly about the stuff that doesn’t make it into case studies. The burnout. The quiet wins. The identity crises. The beauty. The grind. The why am I still doing this?
It’s real designers talking like real people. And it’s growing.
So if you’ve been reading these posts, nodding quietly to yourself— you might already belong there.
If that’s you, drop a comment or DM me. I’ll send you the link.
You’re not alone. Pull up a chair.
#WeAreIndustrialDesign #WAID #IDI
03.31.25 Why I love designing tech
Because tech moves. Fast. And design has to keep up without losing its soul.
It’s not just about shaping form — it’s about shaping behavior. You decide what becomes instinct. What gets reached for. What gets remembered.
Tech forces choices. It tests ideas under pressure. Can this be smaller? Stronger? Cheaper? Smarter?
You’re not designing for today. You’re designing for the moment just ahead. The one no one’s seen yet — but will feel when it lands.
That’s the work I want to do. Right at the edge of what’s next.
——— #WeAreIndustrialDesign #WAID
03.30.25 A Love Note to the Industrial Design Community
Thank you! I mean it, thank you all for what you have given me over the past few weeks/months. I’m still working on figuring out my professional path, not sure I’ll ever get there.
But for now at least I have all of you, and that’s a huge pillar to lean on.
I’ve talked to so many of you this year.
I don’t have an exact number but I’m pretty sure it’s over the one-hundred mark now! And I see it now. The core ideas and principles that bind us all.
Despite the amazing breadth of work we all do, Industrial Designers are by and large a pretty consistent bunch.
I’ve gotten to the point where I could probably tell you your life journey to design before you got the first word out.
There are some core traits that are fairly consistent.
But the thing that I believe truly makes a designer, is EMPATHY.
We all have it. If we didn’t then how would we be able to understand what someone else’s emotional reaction to our work would be?
But it goes beyond just that. Designers in general feel compassion more than other groups.
So when someone comes looking for help or advice or just wanting to bug you to chat design with them like I do a lot, you’re always there. So again, thank you. I will continue to bother many of you in your inboxes and DMs.
But just know that despite my underlying motivation to find that next job, is a genuine passion to get to know you and what you do.
Because like most of you, I don’t care for disingenuous people.
I’ll never stop loving product design. And I’ll never stop loving the people who design them.
——— #WeAreIndustrialDesign #WAID
A Love Note to the INDUSTRIAL DESIGN Community
Thank you.
I mean it, thank you all for what you’ve given me over the past few weeks and months.
I’m still working on figuring out my professional path. Not sure I’ll ever fully get there. But for now, at least, I have all of you. And that’s a huge pillar to lean on.
I’ve talked to so many of you this year. I don’t have an exact number, but it’s over a one-hundred in 2025 by now.
And I see it clearly: the core ideas and principles that bind us. Despite the amazing breadth of work we all do, industrial designers are, by and large, a pretty consistent bunch.
I’ve gotten to the point where I could probably tell you your life journey into design before you got the first word out. There are some core traits that show up again and again.
But the one that I believe truly defines a designer is empathy.
We all have it. If we didn’t, how could we ever understand someone else’s emotional reaction to what we create?
And it goes beyond that. Designers, in general, seem to feel compassion more deeply than most.
So when someone comes looking for help, advice, or just wants to chat about design—like I do, a lot—you’re always there.
So again, thank you. I’ll continue to pop into your inboxes and DMs. But just know that what drives me most is a genuine passion to connect. To hear your stories. To learn from your path. To see what you’re building.
Because like most of you, I don’t care for disingenuous people.
I’ll never stop loving product design. And I’ll never stop loving the people who design them.
——— #WeAreIndustrialDesign #WAID
03.29.25 Industrial Designer: unAssembly Manual
STEP 12:
Package the finished product in polished self-worth.
Make sure it looks good on shelves, on screens, in portfolios.
Convince yourself: If it succeeds, then I succeed.
STEP 11:
Present as seamless.
Hide the stress.
Hide the arguments.
Hide the twenty dead versions that came before this one.
They won’t understand anyway.
STEP 10:
Receive feedback.
Take it personally.
Recoil.
Rewrite.
Rerender.
Resubmit.
Repeat.
STEP 9:
Tell yourself this time will be different.
This time it will be perfect.
This time they’ll see how good you are.
STEP 8:
Tie your name to the work.
Not just on the file.
On your soul.
Believe: If they love it, they love me.
STEP 7:
Ignore the team.
Ignore the constraints.
Ignore the fact that this was never yours alone.
Tell yourself it was.
STEP 6:
Bury the fear that maybe you’re not that special.
That you’re just a part of the process.
That anyone could have done this.
STEP 5:
Reinforce your ego.
Attach it to the rendering.
To the form factor.
To the flawless UX flow.
STEP 4:
Build an identity around being “the creative one.”
Don’t let it crack.
Don’t let them see the mess.
STEP 3:
Mistake praise for proof of worth.
Mistake silence for failure.
Mistake success for love.
STEP 2:
Forget where the work ends and you begin.
STEP 1:
Become the product.
Now. Stop.
Reverse the process. Unthread the wiring. Unbolt the ego from the output.
You are not what you made. You are the one who makes.
Again. And again.
Not for praise. Not for credit.
Because it’s who you are.
And what you love.
So learn to deconstruct it. Not just the work, yourself.
Unwind from the outcome. Detach from the result. Let your worth be bigger than any single design.
Not for the job. For you.
Because your value isn’t in what ships.
It’s your creativity.
——— If this hits you in the chest, it’s for you. If it doesn’t, that’s okay. You weren’t the point.
#WeAreIndustrialDesign
#WAID
Hartmut Esslinger Inspired Post Title: Because that instinct, the wouldn’t-it-be-cool-if reflex, is exactly what’s missing in so many boardroom meetings today.
CTA (optional): Ever been hit with a backhanded design compliment like that? I’d love to hear how you handled it.
● “Design is not about styling. It’s about moving people.”
● “Form follows emotion.”
● “You cannot innovate by copying.”
● Design begins where spreadsheets end.
● You can’t calculate your way to vision.
● The past is written by the victors. But the future is written by the dreamers.
● The past is written in spreadsheets. But the future is sketched out on napkins.
● The Future Belongs to the What-If People
03.24.25 Designing Through a War: The Strongest Soldier in Sudan "Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly." —Langston Hughes
Her name is Shatha Yahia.
She is an industrial design student living in Sudan.
And she is, without question, one of the strongest people I have ever encountered.
While most of us stress over client deadlines, job rejections, or the latest AI disruption,
Shatha has been clinging to her dream of becoming a designer in the middle of a civil war.
The university system has collapsed. There are power outages, internet disruptions, and dangers all around.
Yet she's still putting in the work. Still trying to improve her skills. Still dreaming of becoming an industrial designer.
When she reached out to me, she didn’t ask for money. She didn’t ask for sympathy. Only guidance.
For direction. For a way to keep going in a career that, even in the best of times, is difficult to break into.
She wanted to know what kind of projects she should work on to build a portfolio.
How can she position herself for freelance work without a degree, without resources, without a support system?
My heart sank as I stared at her message.
I know what it's like to feel lost in your career. To be between jobs. To question your skills.
And despite whatever struggles I’ve faced, I’ve never had to fear for my safety just to keep designing.
And yet Shatha is still showing up. Still trying. Still believing.
If you're reading this and you're a part of the global design community, I hope you'll take a moment to think about what she's going through.
And then I hope you'll do something.
Offer to review her work.
Invite her into your design community.
Share advice, templates, prompts, whatever you can. Give her reason to believe that this industry she’s reaching out for with both hands still has a hand to offer back.
We whisper ‘resilience’ into mission statements. Shatha screams it into silence.
If you want to help, please reach out to her and let her know that she’s not alone.
Because if nothing else, we are a community of empathy, compassion, and understanding.
We Are Industrial Design, and so are you Shatha.
#WeAreIndustrialDesign #WAID #DesignWithoutBorders
The Project That Almost Died (And What It Taught Me) A while back, I got a call from a founder. They had an incredible product idea—something with real legs. But they were stuck.
They’d gone through three freelancers. Talked to five agencies. Started building a team they couldn’t yet afford.
Six months had passed. Still no working prototype.
What they needed wasn’t more designers. They needed direction. Leadership. Action.
I jumped in. Within three weeks, we had a validated concept, real user feedback, and a production plan in motion.
Design isn’t just how it looks. It’s how it works, and who makes it work.
If you’ve got something worth building, don’t let it sit on the shelf.
Let’s make it real.
Perfectionism is baked into the DNA of industrial design. We’re trained to obsess over every curve, kerning, kerf, and corner radius. Every presentation is expected to be polished, pixel-perfect, portfolio-worthy. And because we’ve been conditioned to equate quality with perfection, a lot of designers—especially early-career ones—get stuck in a cycle of “not good enough yet.”
They don’t post. They don’t apply. They don’t share. They stall out—waiting for perfect.
But here’s the kicker:
Perfectionism is a survival trait in school. But in the real world? It’s a career killer.
It leads to missed opportunities, delayed growth, burnout, and worse—silence in a world where visibility is half the battle.
INDUSTRIAL DESIGNERS: We Don’t Have a Talent Problem. We Have a Marketing Problem. Lately, I’ve had a lot of conversations with industrial designers.
Agency owners, founders, job seekers, freelancers, in-house, students, professors…
The same theme keeps coming up:
If you're still waiting for the work to come to you, you're going to be waiting a while.
It’s not just about the work anymore.
It’s about how well you communicate the value of that work.
And most of us were never taught how to do that.
The agency founder who never had to market? Now scrambling for clients. The freelancer? Uncomfortable with cold-messaging on LinkedIn. The mid-level designer? Sending out résumés into a black hole.
The old playbooks don’t work.
And the new ones? They’re still in draft.
Some say paid ads. Others say more LinkedIn. Some say leverage your network harder. Some say wait it out until the market turns.
But the truth is: you have to be seen. Tell your story. Show your value. Make noise.
Not to become an influencer, just to stay in the game.
And the more we raise the profile of Industrial Design, the more opportunity there is for everyone.
You’re not my competition. You’re just a partner I haven’t worked with yet.
So help each other out.
What’s working for you right now?
How are you landing work, building connections, staying afloat?
Have you found a cold outreach strategy that doesn’t feel like selling your soul?
What platform has brought you the best leads lately - LinkedIn? Google? Referrals?
If you had to start building your design network from scratch today, where would you begin?
What’s one thing you’ve done recently that moved the needle—just a little?
Is there a specific tool, template, or framework that helped you land your last client?
Drop a tip. Share a story. Tag someone worth learning from.
Let’s crowdsource the new playbook.
#WeAreIndustrialDesign #WAID
When Budgets Shrink, But Deadlines Remain Your roadmap didn’t shrink, just the budget did.
Your calendar didn’t get the memo about the hiring freeze. Your launch date is still there, staring back at you.
But half your team’s been reassigned. Procurement’s ghosting you. Your agency wants to renegotiate. And leadership is saying, “Let’s just get through Q2.”
I’ve watched this movie before. I’ve sat in the room while a VP looked at a whiteboard full of urgent work and said, “We need to find another way.”
Here’s how you make it work:
– Lean external teams that slot in fast
– No onboarding. No friction. Just traction.
– Tightly scoped sprints with clear deliverables
– Built for teams who need results without long-term overhead
It’s not about doing everything. It’s about keeping the wheels turning when everything else says stop.
This is the kind of environment where lean teams thrive. Where “just enough” becomes the perfect amount. Where constraints become clarity.
If that’s where you are, juggling timelines, trimming budgets, trying to keep the lights on without lighting a fire. You’re not alone.
And there’s a playbook that works.
crafterby.agency
“INDUSTRIAL DESIGN RENAISSANCE”
There’s a quiet hope drifting through the design world lately.
That maybe, just maybe, we’re heading into a new era. A resurgence. A return to form. A resurgence.
A turning of the tide on mass consumption. A new drive towards meaning.
I’ve heard it in conversations with other designers: The quiet hope that people are getting tired of the endless scroll of cheapness. That maybe we’ve finally hit the saturation point where more stops meaning better.
Because once you have everything you need, what you buy next says something about who you are.
Consumers will crave things that were actually designed. Things with weight. And story. And intention.
Not just another black plastic thing that ships fast and breaks faster.
We’ve been through a long season of “just make it cheaper.” But what if the next season is “make it matter again”?
Are we moving toward a new era of the meaningful object?
Something you don’t just use, but feel. Something that says more than it shows. Something that earns its place in your life and stays there.
What if people are ready for design that lasts, in the hand, in the heart, and in the story they get to tell when someone asks, "Where did you get that?"
Maybe that’s just designer optimism. It might be delusion. Or maybe… it’s already happening.
And we’re the ones who get to shape it.
#WeAreIndustrialDesign #WAID
