IDSA’s Women in Design is on the move. The Society’s special interest section hosted an “Aesthetics in Design” event during San Francisco Design Week. Several speakers, followed by a panel, took the stage on June 8, 2015 in Timken Hall at the California College of Arts. “Aesthetics in Design” was sponsored by O’Reilly Media, Inc.
Ti Chang, IDSA, vice chair of the Society’s Women in Design special interest section, served as event organizer and panel moderator. The speakers included Nichole Rouillac, lead industrial designer, HTC; Qin Li, director of industrial design, Fuseproject; and Markus Diebel and Joe Tan from moreless.
“The speakers all shared a similar theme: that although designers have an important role in creating vision, it’s really how you drive the vision to a beautiful mass produced product,” says Sylvia Bargellini, IDSA, a UX design researcher with Element Science in San Francisco.
“The speakers were so clearly passionate about their role in design that their passion radiated off to the audience. Great panel discussion!” declares Sophie Cheam, IDSA.
“Aesthetics in design is a very thought provoking topic,” explains attendee Angie Lau. “Many ID women face this topic daily and struggle how to make this feasible within the corporate industrial design landscape. It was interesting to see how the two female speakers approached and delivered the same topic drastically different from the males within this speaker panel.”
Lau says she believes this can be the beginning of a series of conversations about aesthetics: “How is it addressed within other industries throughout ID and how do women see a way to incorporate this in their work? How is the delicate balance between form and function achieved?”
Next up for Women in Design—Chang is scheduled to attend O’Reilly’s Solid Conference: Hardware, Software & the Internet of Things, set for June 23-25, 2015 in San Francisco.
Also, meet Chang at IDSA’s International Conference, August 19-22, 2015 in Seattle. She’s scheduled to speak at a breakout session on August 21. Conference Early Bird registration rates run through June 15, 2015.
IDSA’s Women in Design special interest section is chaired by Nancy Perkins, FIDSA.