Ian Peterman, IDSA, CEO of Peterman Design Firm and Chair of the IDSA LA Chapter, recently launched the Conscious Design Podcast and YouTube channel, with the goal of helping people to discover what it means to develop a product consciously.
Ian’s guest experts have shared on topics such as how to sustainably manage people and cultivate the best possible workplace; how to create the smartest car headlights in the world; how a company made an educational app to help people learn about neurodiversity and more. Most of the guests are people who haven’t been on a podcast before, which is part of the goal: to provide unique, diverse input that informs people of the many options, technologies and ideas that are being used now to create more consciously designed products and brands.
Ian grew up surrounded by design, engineering, accounting and entrepreneurial people. He started his first business with his brother as an early teenager. Ian’s career began on a mechanical engineering path; during that time he worked as an engineer and a designer, getting almost a decade of experience before finishing his degree in industrial design. By then, his portfolio included projects like designing and building the supply chain for Barefoot Sound’s recording studio speakers, HP commercial printers, lasers at nLight Photonics and SaberForge’s lightsabers, as well as working with OnRobot to design their Gecko Gripper.
With the past several years of experience under his belt, and a list of happy clients still wanting to work with him, Ian launched the Peterman Design Firm. Since founding PDF in 2017, his passion for eco-friendly design and making products that really impact the world in a positive way grew. Being asked “what makes your process special” started a year-long journey in 2020 to completely define his methods for conscious design. This is how the Peterman Method went public: a conscious design approach that Ian applies to products, brands and businesses. Through helping his clients build more conscious products and brands, Ian realized that most good design and business development advice available wasn’t as cohesive as it could be, and thus the Conscious Design podcast and YouTube channel was started.
Ian is passionate about disruptive green-tech, the outdoors, space exploration and the unfolding story of how humanity evolves while leaving the earth better than we found it. He believes regenerative practices and technologies should be the new baseline for sustainability. When he’s not designing or teaching, he’s enjoying time with his family, playing soccer or his violin.
