Who I Am
Designer. Researcher. Strategist. |
I am currently the Design Manager for Boston Whaler, leading a team of great designers and researchers. We strive to create products that allow for memorable experiences for our customers. I have a strong passion for the relationship between design, research, strategy, and business. I believe in seeing the creative possibilities in breaking down boundaries and describing the world, organizations, or the problems in new ways. Here is how it all got started!
I had no idea I wanted to be a designer when I was a kid. I grew up playing with a lot of Legos and tearing apart all of my toys to see how they worked. Every spring I would create foam boats to race down the side of the road as the snow melted, built push carts in the summer, and massive igloos in the winter. Little did I know that all of these things would have an impact on me becoming a designer. Like most designers, I thought I wanted to be a car designer. But, like most designers, after design school I realized that was just not what I wanted. Who wants to draw headlights all day. So I started the job search like every other college grad and came up empty. But then one day I got a call from my professor about an opportunity that he heard of designing boats. I had never even imagined designing boats, even though I had fished my entire life and pretty much spent every bit of free time on the water. So naturally it seemed like a perfect fit. After a few years designing boats and building a design office, I started to realize that design was something much larger for me. I started seeing how design could have more of an impact when combined with business. I decided that it was time to go back to school in order to explore my thoughts on how to build a design culture within business. I completed my Masters Degree in Design Management from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Nowadays I continue to explore new ways for design to work within business and deliver something greater than it could on its on. My concentration has been on integrating holistic contextual research within design in order to create a value system for design. More recently I have been focused on how design communicates on multiple levels and how it can be integrated in a more strategic way to better support business objectives. As design continues to grow and evolve there will always be new areas to explore, making it a very exciting and intriguing field of study. I hope you enjoy the journey with me as we uncover new ideas and new ways design can grow! |