Author, Design the Life You Love
Ayse (pronounced Eye-Shay) Birsel is one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business” 2017 and on the Thinkers50 Radar List of the “30 management thinkers most likely to shape the future of organizations.” She is the author of Design the Life You Love. Recognized as the #1 Coach in Life Design in the world, she gives lectures on Design the Life + Work You Love to corporations and has a blog on Design the Work You Love for Thinkers50, based on her interviews with some of the most recognized thought leaders of our time.
Ayse is the co-founder of Birsel + Seck, the award-winning design and innovation studio, and consults to Amazon, CVS, Herman Miller, GE, IKEA, The Scan Foundation, Staples and Toyota, among others. Her design process, Deconstruction:Reconstruction™, is the red thread across all her work. Interior Design Magazine recognized her as “Best of Year Product Designer” in 2020. Her work can be found in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
Design the Life + Work You Love, As a Woman Designer
My expertise is in design and innovation. You have probably sat in or held something in your hand that I have designed for brands like Amazon, Herman Miller, Toyota or Target.
I took the patterns that emerged from across industries and developed an accessible and now well-proven design process called Deconstruction:Reconstruction™. This is the red thread across all of my design studio’s corporate product design, innovation, and brand work. I also applied this process to life, which I believe is the ultimate design project.
Design the Life You Love, the book and workshops, came from this experiment. Thousands of people have used my process to transform their lives and work and, in the process, have changed my design approach to be even more human-centered.
For the longest time, I believed it didn’t matter whether I was a woman or a man. I was a designer. But now, as a woman co-founder, and with an amazing team of women designers and collaborators, I believe in female leaders supporting and creating with, and for, other women. And that’s what I will talk about.
Northeast DVP, Statement of Candidacy
Since I was elected VP of Education in 2014, I have experienced tremendous learning and growth. The last two years have been amazing—working with the IDSA Board, putting together a great IDSA/Eastman Innovation Lab Education Symposium and serving as a strong voice for design education and the design profession. My goal for the 2015 Education Symposium was to broaden our perspective around education to include not only design education but also design of education, as well as STEAM, corporate design education and layman’s education in design. Keynoted by Don Norman, PhD, IDSA, the Education Symposium became an intellectual bridge to the International Conference in Seattle. This year in Detroit, we’re creating a similar program that includes some of the best papers in education around the topic of Making Design Education Happen, together with speakers from education in the broader sense. We’d love to receive your paper here.
This year I am running as the Northeast DVP nominee for several reasons. First, selfishly, for the privilege of continuing to work with our Chair John Barratt, IDSA, and the stellar Board members who’ve become friends and collaborators, and with our Executive Director Daniel Martinage and his very hard-working team whom I have come to know well.
Secondly, to use my experience and network to serve the NE District by striving to bring schools and businesses closer by working together rather than in silos. And thirdly, to build on everything I have learned about putting together the national Education Symposium, to create a great Northeast District Design Conference in 2017. I feel I have graduated from novice to someone who deeply appreciates and values the privilege of being a part of IDSA. I hope you will give me the chance to serve you in the role of Northeast DVP.
