2012MidwestDDCspeakers

ANN-MARIE CONRADO, IDSA
Assistant Professor of Industrial Design
University of Notre Dame

Ann-Marie Conrado is an assistant professor in industrial design at the University of Notre Dame and is IDSA’s Midwest education representative. She was design manager at Insight Product Development where she received numerous design awards, including a Gold IDEA before returning to academia. She continues a consulting practice with international clients, including Panasonic and Namco-Bandai and founded the HOPE Initiative, a nonprofit working to use creative thinking to address humanitarian concerns in Nepal. She currently champions the practice of social design at Notre Dame and was awarded the inaugural IDSA Young Educator of the Year award for her contributions in the classroom. Condrado holds a bachelor’s in fine arts in industrial design from Notre Dame and a master’s degree in cultural anthropology from the university.

Session Title:
In Fusion: Design Must Evolve to Assimilate Global Shifts in Culture and the Family Unit

KEN DOWD
Vice President
Teague

Ken Dowd has created innovative and provocative designs for both the automotive and aerospace industries for more than 40 years. He began his design career in the late 1960s working for Ford Motor Co. During his decade of design work with Ford, he was assigned to the Special Projects Studio, responsible for the design and modification of multiple race and show cars for Ford in both the US and Australia. He has led teams in the creation of the concept design, detail furniture, architectural design and material selection for executive aircraft including Air Force One. Additionally, Travel and Leisure magazine named Dowd one of the world’s top 35 innovators because of his pivotal role in the design of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Session Title:
A New Airplane for a New World: 787 Dreamliner

ELIZABETH GERBER
Professor
Segal Design Institute at Northwestern University

As a professor in the Segal Design Institute at Northwestern University, Liz Gerber’s mission is to use design to build people’s confidence and motivate innovation; as founding faculty member of Design for America (DFA), she is doing exactly that. She founded DFA in 2009 to address Chicago’s demand for informal, interdisciplinary service learning opportunities in design and the abundance of local societal challenges. The award-winning initiative, which engages students in design for local and social impact, is spreading virally as students from campuses across the country set up their own DFA studios. Before the Segal Design Institute, Gerber taught business and design at Stanford’s d.school and worked in the toy industry. She researches the role of technology in creative work.

Session Title:
The Design-It-Together (DIT) Movement: The Case of Design for America

Workshop Title:
Using Improv to Enhance the Effectiveness of Brainstorming

MARIANNE GRISDALE, IDSA
Creative Manager
TEAMS Design USA

Marianne Grisdale currently serves as IDSA’s Housewares Section chair and creative manager for TEAMS Design USA. This role combines the skills of designer, researcher, project manager, strategist and account manager. As an award-winning designer for over 20 years, she works with global and local brands, such as Mr. Coffee, Sunbeam, Canadian Tire, Fiskars, Bosch and Siemens. Grisdale has a bachelor’s in fine arts in industrial design from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.

Session Title:
In Fusion: Design Must Evolve to Assimilate Global Shifts in Culture and the Family Unit

ERIN HAMILTON, IDSA
Design Research Senior Associate
Lextant

Erin Hamilton, IDSA is a design research senior associate at Lextant in Columbus, OH. Her background in industrial design helps her to customize techniques and processes for understanding users’ desires, dreams and aspirations and apply them to solutions. Her proficiency in building and using complex database systems help to facilitate more efficient handling of data for analysis and synthesis. While working at Lextant, she has had the opportunity to travel globally conducting contextual research in places like hospitals, surgery centers and in participant homes. She has also served IDSA at the chapter level—first as secretary/treasurer (2007-2009) and more recently as chapter chair (2009 – present) for the Central Ohio Chapter. She has also served the Mideast District since 2006 by participating in the planning of conferences and events.

Before joining Lextant in 2006, she worked as an intern at Aerosport Modeling and Design and gained experience in design research by working at Rocket Surgery. Additionally, she attained valuable experience working at Chardon Laboratories where she learned how to build and manage information databases.

Session Title:
Mind the Gap: Bridging the Gap between Research and Design

KEVIN HENRY
Associate Professor
Columbia College - Chicago

Kevin Henry is an associate professor of product design at Columbia College Chicago and the author of the upcoming book, Drawing for Product Designers. The book draws on broad research, interviews with designers, professional work samples and more than 100 illustrations (including step-by-step tutorials) to tell a deeper and more nuanced story of the visualization process. It combines analog and digital workflows to explain, in simple terms, the process and psychology underlying seeing/recognition/sketching as well as their crucial role on every aspect of the design process. Henry is the recipient of both IDEA and Good Design awards.

Workshop Title:
Sketching Heuristics: Why They Work and How They Work

VINCENZO IAVICOLI, IDSA
Chair of Product Design Department
College for Creative Studies

As the founder and creative director of the design consultancy Iavicoli-Rossi, Vincenzo Iavicoli has spent his career developing acclaimed products, environmental art works and interior projects for a range of clients worldwide. Throughout his career, he has worked in academia developing his teaching practices to advance industrial design education globally. Iavicoli taught at Tsukuba University and Tama Art University in Japan, at the Istituto Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche (ISIA) and Polimoda in Florence, Italy, before the College for Creative Studies. He spent nine years at Art Center College of Design in Switzerland and then in Pasadena on the product design faculty; he also served as corporate liaison director, responsible for negotiating industry sponsorship of studio classes and overseeing the projects. Iavicoli has conducted workshops, seminars and lectures in the United States, Europe and Asia.

Session Title:
Integrated Learning Process

MICHAEL KAHWAJI, IDSA
Lead Industrial Designer
Whirlpool Corp.

Michael Kahwaji is a lead industrial designer at Whirlpool Corp. and a member of the Global Consumer Design team. He received his master’s in fine art in industrial design from the University of Notre Dame and a bachelor’s in industrial design from Western Michigan University. He has worked as an industrial designer at Zircon Corp. in San Jose, CA developing DIY and commercial grade tools. He also worked as a graphic designer at DesignCrew in Pasadena, CA. Since his experience as a graduate instructor, Kahwaji has spent considerable time improving the quality of student portfolios, educational experience and mentoring programs. Despite his tough love and candid critiques, Kahwaji has managed to keep most students’ tears at bay with clear directives on how to develop portfolios and resumes. Known for his straightforward approach to design critique, Kahwaji has successfully contributed to the development and placement of more than 100 students.

Workshop Title:
Don't Call Us, We'll Call You

LARRY KEELEY, A/IDSA
President and Co-Founder
Doblin Inc.

Larry Keeley, A/IDSA is a strategist who has worked for 30 years to develop more effective innovation methods. He is president and co-founder of Doblin Inc, an innovation strategy firm known for pioneering comprehensive innovation systems that materially improve innovation success rates. He frequently lectures and publishes on strategic aspects of innovation. Keeley is completing a book on innovation effectiveness, The Taming of the New, which outlines a comprehensive approach to effective innovation and the role of leaders in driving innovation within enterprises. BusinessWeek named him one of seven innovation gurus that are changing the field and specifically cited Doblin for having many of the most sophisticated tools for delivering innovation effectiveness. They also selected Keeley as one of the world’s most influential designers in 2010. He is a board member for Chicago Public Radio, where he has charted strategy for what has become an innovation engine for public radio across the US—helping to foster This American Life.

Session Title:
Frontiers of Fusion

PAM NYBERG, IDSA
Director of Strategy
Thrive

Pam Nyberg, IDSA is the director of strategy at Thrive, an Atlanta-based design and innovation consultancy. She has 15 years of global consulting and corporate experience in human-centered design, strategy development, design education and design management. During her career, she’s led research, strategy, product and platform development projects for employers including Whirlpool, Doblin, Procter & Gamble, Newell Rubbermaid and IDEO. Her design-related client list has included companies such as HP, McDonalds, Microsoft, Eli Lilly, Pepsi, Philips, Steelcase, Boeing and SK Telecom. She earned her master’s in design planning from IIT’s Institute of Design, did master’s work in product design at Stanford, has a master’s in human factors engineering from the University of Michigan and earned a bachelor’s in mathematics from DePauw University.

Session Title:
Scary Stylists and Tragic Haircuts: Helping People Overcome Past Traumas by Designing an Epic Hair Experience

PERRY REYNOLDS
Vice President of Marketing and Trade Development
International Housewares Association

Perry Reynolds is the vice president of marketing and trade development at the International Housewares Association (IHA). He served as a buyer and merchant for retailers in the mass market, supermarket and distributor channels before moving to housewares manufacturers EKCO and Progressive International in marketing roles. He joined IHA in 1997 when it was known as the National Housewares Manufacturers Association. Among his responsibilities, he oversees the design events and activities at the association and the International Home + Housewares Show, including the Student Design Competition, IHA Innovation Awards, Innovation Theater and Going Green exhibit.

Session Title:
Design Drives Business in the Housewares Industry

JENN SCHIFFMAN
Researcher
gravitytank

Jenn Schiffman is a researcher at gravitytank who works to understand consumer realities in their native contexts. As a trained designer, she specializes in developing tangible, visual frameworks that bring clarity and enhanced understanding to a team's research findings. She has worked for a wide range of clients across consumer, medical, industrial and retail categories. She holds a bachelor’s in industrial and interaction design from Syracuse University.

Session Title:
The Refocus Group

PHILIP THOMPSON
Vice President of Design
Masco Corp.

Philip Thompson began his professional career in 1992 when he joined Electrolux's Design Center in the United Kingdom. In 2000, he moved to the United States to join Whirlpool's Global Consumer Design team and manage the KitchenAid Design Studio. In 2004, he was appointed US design director with broad responsibilities for a multi-disciplinary team working on all product categories for all major brands. Then in 2007, Whirlpool relocated him to Italy as senior director of global design strategy. He joined Masco Corp., in 2010, as vice president of design. Thompson is a graduate of Teesside University and the Royal College of Art.

Session Title:
Design Matters