In this issue:
Now more than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve already seen the novel ways in which industrial designers have adapted to a virtual setting: from shipping samples and prototypes to home addresses to scheduling rotating timeslots for individuals to be at the studio to access tools and machinery. But with vaccines currently in distribution and a light at the end of the tunnel now visible, many big questions have started to emerge:
- Do design studios need to adopt a more fluid or virtual setting?
- Will creative collaboration return to pre-COVID standards, or will we adopt something new?
- What methodologies from virtual can we learn from and apply to an in-person setting?
- What will change from a team leadership perspective in the future?
- How will operational processes and project management techniques change?
- What can be done to ensure our team members are mentally and emotionally prepared to return to in-person work?
In March 2021, we synthesized these big questions and asked members of our design community “How is your design team/studio/office planning to return to work post- COVID?” Their responses, some lightly edited for clarity, are collected here as the main focus of this issue. It’s important for us to share our experiences, learnings, expectations, and strategies with one another so that we might emerge from the pandemic in a position to begin our “new normal” with efficiency, momentum, and success.
Guest contributors:
- What’s Next for the Design Studio? by Maureen Carroll, IDSA, David Patton, IDSA, Graham Sadtler, Cori Rowley, IDSA, Yves Béhar, IDSA, Jordan Nollman, IDSA, Dr. Bryce G Rutter, IDSA, Erika Avery, IDSA, Michael McAghon, Bret Recor, Casper Asmussen, Stuart Karten, IDSA, Chrissy Livaudais, Ben Azzam, IDSA, Tor Alden, FIDSA, Yariv Sade, Dan Grossman, Dan Harden, IDSA, Brian Black, Russell Kroll, Aaron Pierce, Justin Coble, Jonathan Thai, IDSA, Bill Webb, IDSA, Astro Studios, Mark Prommel
- Living Ecosystems by Jacklyn Ady, IDSA
- Remote Work: Toward a More Accessible Future by Caterina Rizzoni, IDSA
Featured content:
- Academia 360° by Aziza Cyamani, IDSA and Verena Paepcke-Hjeltness, IDSA
- Getting It Made Deep Dive 2021 Event Recap
- Supporting Black Designers IDSA Sponsors Visibility X Dsgn
- Not a Job, Not Just a Profession. It’s Being an Industrial Designer by Allen Samuels, IDSA
- It’s a Matter of Choice by Marshall Johnson, L/IDSA
- IDC 2021 Event Preview
- Is Design the Problem? by Gabriel Ruegg, IDSA
In every issue:
- IDSA HQ by Chris Livaudais, IDSA
- Beautility by Tucker Viemeister, FIDSA
- A Final Thought by Judith Anderson, IDSA