2016 IDSA Northeast District Design Conference

Join Angela Yeh at the 2016 IDSA Northeast District Design Conference tomorrow April 30! Have questions about innovation trends and cultural shifts in the industry? REGISTER and ask Angela today!

Design Summit 2016

YehIDSummit2016

Come celebrate our 10th anniversary with us and register for Design Summit 2016 !

The role of design has shifted and has become more impactful than ever before. Management consulting and professional service corporations are acquiring design firms and annexing creative offerings to their portfolios. Leading corporations are building design proficiency in house, VCs are building innovation advisement on their boards, and innovation divisions into the ventures they back. Startups include designers as founding partners and companies expect strategic design to be part of the corporate agenda. Design has become a movement from the periphery to the heart of businesses.

Our panel of experts will discuss how to qualify, structure, and keep a creative team and culture aligned for success. Join us in learning how to organize and envision a better future and experience for your designed culture.

REGISTER HERE!

PANELISTS

Adetola Abiade - BNY Mellon, Regional Director, Head of Global Innovation Americas

Deb Mangone - Pfizer Inc.- Sr. Director, Worldwide Innovation

Denielle Wolfe - Denielle Wolfe Consulting - Principal | formerly Tumi - Vice President of Product Development and Design

Eric Freitag - R/GA - Group Director of Product Innovation

Angela Yeh (moderator) - Yeh IDeology - Founder and CEO

WHEN: Thursday, April 14, 2016 from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM (EDT)

WHERE: 

Knoll Inc. - 1330 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019 

IDEA 2015 Submissions Now Open!

The search is on for this year's exceptional design! You know that your product or concept is the best, so put it to the test by entering the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) competition.

Each year, IDEA recognizes design excellence in products, interaction design, service design, strategy, research, concepts and student designs in several categories. IDEA represents prestigious recognition within the industrial design community, and entry is open to all until February 16th. Winners are chosen based on a list of seven criteria, which includes innovation, benefit to the user and responsibility.

This year's Jury Chair, Matthew Marzynski, IDSA, of the University of Washington, will lead a panel of 24 design experts, who are all chosen for their industry leadership. There are two judging stages: at the second of which, finalists are judged live at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI, where Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners are chosen.

Last year, nearly 2,000 entries were submitted from around the world – this could be your year. Previous IDEA winners include the Tesla Model S, the Nest Thermostat, and the Ultimate Ear Boom Speaker.

Results will be revealed live at the IDSA International Conference on August 22nd in Seattle.

About IDSA: Celebrating its 50th year, the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) is one of the oldest and largest membership organizations for industrial design professionals. IDSA sponsors the annual International Design Excellence Awards, one of the most preeminent design competitions in the US, and its events, including an annual international design conference and five district conferences, bring together the brightest design minds. INNOVATION is IDSA’s flagship publication. IDSA has more than 3,200 members in 28 professional chapters in the US and internationally. To learn more about IDSA, visit www.idsa.org, and connect via Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Save the Date! 5th Annual Design Summit

 

About Yeh IDeology's Design Summit

It’s been a banner year for the Creative Economy, and now, more than ever, businesses want in. So what do you invest in first? How do you build your own innovation center? Where do you begin and what is your focus? The latest and hottest in UX/UI? Deeper, more insightful user research? Doubling down on five-star service design? Digging in on business innovation strategy? Or continuously improving technology?

This February 2015, Yeh IDeology celebrates 9 years in the industry with our 5th annual Design Summit.

Join us at Knoll Inc. Showroom for an informal, wide-ranging panel discussion with industry luminaries, as Angela Yeh recaps 2014 to share what we’ve learned and present our latest insights into what’s trending in the business of design, strategy, and innovation.

Registration Sign up here or paste this link into your web browser: https://eventbrite.com/event/8251262749/

Changes in CMF

To quote a design consultant responsible for the look and feel of the Microsoft Xbox 360, “CMF is a specialized area of design that focuses on color, material and finish development. This involves trend research, materials and processes R&D, analysis, strategy and lots of creative thinking… A CMF designer to me is someone who cares about the details of a product and how those details can change perceptions or feelings towards the product.” – R.A.M.

Until recently, CMF has been pigeon-holed as a secondary phase in the design refinement process. With the need for brand differentiation becoming ever more critical, however, CMF is currently experiencing substantial growth not only as a critical aspect of the development process, but in some sectors, a distinct career role unto itself; To the extent that, at any given time, we’re running at least one, if not more searches for professional candidates whose primary focus is on color, material, and finish.

Correlated with this trend is an increasing level of sophistication for CMF on the part of brands and designers. Whereas in the past, one specification may have served across the board, brands will often now spec combinations unique to each their retail outlets. This is particular evident if you track brands and their product line exclusives for big box retailers – Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart and CostCo to name a few. Footwear brands have been doing this for years; developing different CMF collections for each of their retailers, from Modell’s and DSW, to Dicks and Foot Locker.

Retailers themselves are getting into the game by developing their own branded private-label products – for example: Cobalt (Lowes), Black & Decker (Sears), or Husky (Home Depot).

CMF matters – for brand and product distinction from retailer to retailer, as well as within the category for low-end to high-end differentiation.  To this end, developing, sourcing, tracking, and analyzing the effects and success of a CMF library, and maintaining all this, is quite the feat. Not to mention juggling the existing demands of brand language continuity, growth targets, and new market penetration.

Furthermore, the specialty itself is constantly changing – often beyond the scope of even the savviest of industrial design generalists. Case in point, whereas past materials were sourced off-the-shelf, many current developers conceive and design their own materials to keep pace with novel, ever-evolving technological demands such as electrical conductivity, state-changing capabilities, sensitivity to biological outputs including heat, sweat, and salinity, and even on-the-fly camouflage. Such designers occupy a niche off-shoot of the CMF umbrella, dubbed CMD for Color, Material Design.

Simply put, the days of CMF as an added bonus and discrete “step” are long gone and the nuanced CMF skill set that the market is now demanding, demands a design specialist.

So what’s the catch? At first glance, this pipeline of specialists appears somewhat in short supply; that is because, until recently, many designers counted CMF as just one of their many tools; rarely a professional focus on its own.

So what does that mean for designers and design employers? It means a whole new sector is emerging, with myriad opportunities to shape it, guide it and capitalize on… and you might just want to be part of it.

Angela Yeh Joins Alumni Innovators in Pratt Institute's Design by Differentiate Issue No.3

Innovation within business and design can no longer exist separately as the two continue to cross-pollinate globally. The majority of people speak of design and innovation like loose pages in a book; this book itself is dense, but informative, and a quick glance doesn't do it justice. You skim the surface, yet miss the juicy core… In Pratt Institute’s third issue of Differentiate by Design, Angela Yeh joins other Pratt alumni to share their insights to today’s ever-dynamic creative economy and discuss how innovation is a key player for tomorrow’s industry.

Angela applied her Pratt education and previous professional experiences to building a new innovative business model for recruiting, that is, Yeh IDeology. At Yeh ID, we design relationships. Our philosophy is creating deep connections with people that will help us make the perfect match with talent and culture. "We focus a great deal on strategy; we’re like a McKinsey for [design, strategy and innovation]. That is why being multilingual, in the business sense, is so important.” Read more in Different by Design.

The Future of Design Work | Yeh & SVA

Recently at New York’s School of Visual Arts (SVA), Angela Yeh sat with Allan Chochinov, their chair and co-founder of MFA Products of Design and Angie Wojak, director of career development to discuss The Future of Design Work. In today’s ever-complex world of business and design, professionals need to understand where design opportunities lie, how to navigate the market and realize the hidden talent brewing right beneath their skin. While this seems obvious, what we have discovered is opposite to this sort of thinking...

Read here for The Future of Design Work in SVA's Hire Edition.

* This article is currently only available in print. To read more issues from SVA's bi-annual Visual Arts Journal, visit here.

Yeh ID Pairs Up With IDSA & 3DEA For 3rd Annual Design Summit

Join Yeh IDeology, The Industrial Designers Society of America and OPENHOUSE as we present our annual Design Summit panel discussion, reflecting on the design industry in 2012 and forecasting into 2013 and beyond. This year’s summit will gather unique insight from design and business leaders. We’ll particularly discuss how companies are investing in and building design teams and how to master hiring creative talent to generate business success.

The evening will begin with a panel discussing the key factors impacting the current state of design industries. Then, we'll guide designers through the process of greatly increasing their value in the New Economy marketplace.

Networking, food and drink from 6:30-7pm. Discussion starts promptly at 7 pm.

Register Today! Space is filling up quickly!

Panelists Ted Booth, Managing Director, Method Laura Brumit, Human Resources & Recruitment, IDEO Arthur Young-Spivey, Fabrication Specialist, 3DEA Janet Villano, Director of Product Development, Skip*Hop

Moderator Angela Yeh, Founder, Yeh IDeology

Where: 3DEA Pop Up Store - 835 6th Ave. (At the corner of 6th and 29th St)

Admission: $7

RSVP: Space is limited! Register here!

YehID: Doing Our Part

By Angela Yeh | November 21, 2012 Volunteers prepare food for those in the Rockaways [Image courtesy of Todd Seelie]

It's 4:30am and I can't sleep. So many thoughts are racing through my head. I keep waking to put notes in my iPhone hoping that once they are safely recorded, they won’t keep needling me and I can go back to sleep. There's still so much destruction from Hurricane Sandy surrounding me and I'm so fortunate that those in my immediate circle are safe and out of harm’s way. I'm six months pregnant now and my husband, friends, and family insist I stay safe and not overdo it despite all my desire to get in there, roll up my sleeves, and offer whatever disaster relief I can. I care so much about this country. All of us at Yeh IDeology want to help in some way as New Yorkers and others on the East Coast struggle to recover and rebuild from nature’s fury. With Thanksgiving less than a few days away, the most prominent thoughts in our minds are those of thankfulness for all that we have, for all those who were kept safe throughout all of this turmoil, and for all those who have supported and helped those affected. The storm was and still is bad enough, but unfortunately, its not the only obstacle we Americans are facing now. The economy looks like it’s getting stronger, but it the fact is, there are many Americans who are still out of work, unable to find the opportunities that they want and need. At Yeh IDeology, we want to assist in the effort to put lives, homes, communities, and the economy back together, and helping people understand the job market is where we can have the most impact.

Having been in the recruiting business for 15 years now and establishing Yeh IDeology 6 years ago, we know the job market because we sit in the middle of the hiring process. I have heard so many of the same questions from job seekers and so many of the same questions from employers. The fortunate truth about Yeh Ideology’s team is that we are all designers: we specialized in the design world because that's the world we love, and we’re fortunate to help companies hire the best of the best of any category in which we specialize. As I teach about career strategies to students at Parsons New School and as we at Yeh IDeology advise our employer clients on issues about recruitment specific to design, it becomes clear that many of the lessons and topics we share span across all industries and professions and are relevant for people at all career stages, from the top-tier, seasoned professionals to the aspiring young beginners.

Prior to going into recruiting and starting Yeh IDeology, I experienced firsthand how lost a job seeker can feel not knowing what jobs out there were right for me and what jobs existed for me. Now that my team and I have a front row seat in the job market, we witness over and over how a career defines a person and gives them pride. We also see how crippling it can feel when someone can't find the job of their dreams, and how it can affect their composure.

As both a recruiter and a small business owner of a boutique recruitment firm, I experience firsthand the struggles business owners and businesses go through to build a thriving business. There are so many components to running a business and so many aspects of the business that need attention, time, and funding. We've seen companies find incredible solutions that balance those needs and succeed. And, conversely, we've seen businesses constrained by the many details to be juggled and tackled, and frustrated in their journey to succeed. We've witnessed some businesses struggle to find their way and then, for internal or external reasons, fail.

From our seat here at Yeh IDeology in New York, we care to share with you much of the knowledge and experience we have amassed. If in some small way we can help the job market and economy come together from both the job seeker's and the employer's perspectives, then we will all sleep better, assured we have done our part.

Let's all start sharing what we know and help each other succeed.

We hope that you all have a wonderful and safe holiday!

-Angela Yeh

Hurricane Sandy Update

It’s been a week since Hurricane Sandy hit, and the East Coast is slowly recovering. We are grateful to say that the YehID Team is safe and well. In the interim while the NYC area was ramping up, we continued to work - some of us remotely - to support you, our customer's needs.This week we're so proud to see NYC's transportation system back up to speed and we're glad to announce that Yeh IDeology is back at full capacity. Our thoughts continue to go out to those in more dire situations. And we hope for a swift recovery for all affected by this disaster. For those of you that want to donate to help those affected by the disaster, here is a link to the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) website. For those of you that want to volunteer in any way, these are two great resources to find out where and when you can help out: New York Cares and UJA-Federation of New York.

Architecture and the Lost Art of Drawing

In Last week’s Sunday Review the New York Times published an opinion piece by design polymath Michael Graves, making public a discussion that has been ongoing in design circles for some years now: The Death of drawing and what it means to the design profession. With the pervasiveness of digital technology is drawing by hand becoming a marginalized skill and a dying art? Graves speaks mostly from an architectural perspective and references his own growth as a practitioner as well as noting the need for digital and computation but lamenting a perceived lack of emotion in those designs.

“ … I find this quite different from today’s “parametric design,” which allows the computer to generate form from a set of instructions, sometimes resulting in so-called blob architecture. The designs are complex and interesting in their own way, but they lack the emotional content of a design derived from hand. “

At Yeh IDeology, this question is a daily conversation that we have with our clients. The visual nature of design makes hand drawing still an attractive piece of a portfolio and one that very quickly and easily shows process and how a designer, young or old, thinks. Yet without the ability to translate those drawings into 3D some of that value is lost and extends the design process unnecessarily. The ideal designer combines a solid foundation of hand drawing skills with the ability to translate and iterate quickly in 3D.

Where do you stand on this debate? Is Hand Sketching that important to your practice? Are tablets the right kind of in between system? And what does the future hold as technologies get faster and cheaper in this domain?

Read Graves' opinion piece here and tell us how you feel.

PepsiCo snags Mauro Porcini

PepsiCo made a really great move this past week by introducing Mauro Porcini as their first Chief Design Officer.This is a major win for PepsiCo and particularly their brand culture, which has undergone a variety of shifts during its lifetime without a key design chief to steer the ship. For a great visionary leader in design such as Mauro Porcini to handle the design language and image of the corporation’s top brands, PepsiCo may finally be able to settle upon an image or stronger sense of brand equity. Longtime rival Coca-Cola has known this for a while, whether purposefully or by a lucky draw, which is why the color red and scripted font are unmistakable throughout the world. And in a world where the brand is sometimes worth more than the product itself, bringing someone in who finally has the ability to say "This is who we are, this is what we are about, and we need to scream it from the mountaintops" is exactly the thing they need, not another, newer logo to take place of the old one. It's just another example of companies that are beginning to trust design, understand its value, and seek it out, and let designers take the reigns and utilize their creativity to establish brands. As more companies begin to understand that design isn’t just about styling pretty things, that in reality it's a vehicle and an invitation for the entire consumer experience, the world will begin to see more and more impactful and engaging brand experiences and start to develop more personable relationships with the product.

Pretty exciting stuff!

Design Impact Fellows

At Yeh IDeology our day-to-day consists of matching design talent with companies that need that designers. However, that’s a fairly narrow way to think about design recruitment, and we like to keep the broader picture in mind. Every corporation that hires a new designer grows it’s design department. Each department that grows will reach more individuals with its thinking. And as more people appreciate and value quality design, it gains traction as a positive force not only improving the day-to-day, but also addressing social challenges. Humanitarian aid, much like design thinking, has undergone a substantial shift in recent years. Summed up by Project H’s creed “Design WITH, not FOR” there is now a heavy focus on collaborative long-term solutions. By integrating a system into an existing community, the effort becomes self-sustained and assists individuals not only in the immediate, but also in the long term to gain a greater autonomy and sense of control, addressing (at least in part) the harsh psychological effects of poverty.

One of the exciting organizations that’s expanding the reach of design is Design Impact Founded by Ramsey Ford and Kate Hanisian, Design Impact is a sort of Peace Corps for strategic thinkers with design chops. As their website states:

“We not only scale individual social design solutions, we scale a social design process, sustainably replicating our model. This means more design services offered in the social sector, more people collaborating on pressing issues, and more design solutions fostered simultaneously.”

They do this by bolstering entrepreneurial ventures:

As well as considering health and the environment while working on development:

Design Impact is looking for a new set of fellows to carry on with the great work they have already accomplished. On January 1st they opened their call for the 2012 set of fellows, passionate, talented designers who want to work in the field and do hands-on work in India. Check out their website to see if you'd like to apply!

This is a great organization we are thrilled to support, because after all, Design Impact really seems to get step #5

Resource Directors Association: Annual "Career & Money" Meeting with Yeh IDeology

Last week Monday I spoke to the Resource Directors Association for their annual Career & Money meeting. I met Eileen Rasgdale, the president of RDA at last year's Cooper-Hewitt Teen Fair that Yeh IDeology has been asked to participate in for the last several years. Eileen asked me to come speak to RDA regarding the changes impacting the architecture industry and give advice on how to adjust and navigate these changes. The RDA is a not-for-profit professional network of resource persons working in the Architecture and Design community and their mission is to share knowledge of new products, specification issues and news and changes within the industry. They have chapters in Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia and Seattle.

As everyone went around the room sharing their backgrounds and their top concerns in this intimate group setting it quickly became apparent that this group of creative professionals were dedicated and passionate about their field. We talked about how the shift in this new economy had affected their industry as well. For some members' companies had either down sized or taken on more account but overall the main impact was that the work load and responsibilities were doubled. We talked about ways for members to prepare for these changes and how to position themselves to take advantage of these new shifts and yet set reasonable expectations for those around them as their responsibilities change. Having been actively involved in organizations like IDSA and being on their board of directors, we also explored various solutions and ways RDA the organization could support the members individually.

It's indeed challenging time these days and regardless of the industry, the ways that companies have been structured and have always done business has changed. Yet at the same time these drastic times of change in history are often the ripest moments to implement change for the better and improvement. Status quo has been upended and everyone is more receptive to change.

I talked about how the new normal in this new era is "adaptability" and those that will make it in this new era will be the ones that look ahead to predict the next industry shifts, adjust to them and be ready to embrace them. Collectively this was a strong dedicated community and it was refreshing to see that many great ideas were already there percolating waiting to be acted on. I look forward to seeing how the members of RDA collaborate and navigate this new era.

Here I am with a few of the members as we lingered after our lecture admiring the gorgeous furniture at Suite NY, who generously hosted the event.

Thanks to Eileen Rasgdale and the RDA for having me come speak.

IDSA.NED Conference: A Community of Leaders

This year's IDSA Northeast District Conference at the Rhode Island School of Design and as always I was blow away by the speakers, content and the energy of the conference. Throughout the conference, more than anything was this feeling of excitement to influence and change the world by everyone in their own way. In all the years I've gone to conferences and industry trade shows I often found the most inspiring and forward leading individuals populate this space the most. Of course there's a variety of reasons that people attend conferences. Those that are promoting their brand or company, those that are looking for new business or career opportunities. But many are there to either share best business practices and connect. I often find those that attend industry events tend to be more current, and leading the industry trends, the ones that are most connected and connecting others. It's especially interesting during times of economic challenge when you notice the few that push ahead while most stay in safety mode.

One impressive talk John Maeda moderated was a collection of the leading young creatives pushing the boundaries of innovation and business. Several of the other speakers, like Scott Wilson of MINIMAL, Mike Branson of PearlFisher, Richard Watson of Essential Design stuck around to stay around and talk to the local professionals, students and other speakers.

The students and young professionals I meet year after year are also the ones that I notice tend to find their career opportunities through the connections they make at these events. I also know companies that track the attendance list to seek out talent and to see who's out and about in the industry. It's so impressive to meet people like Sam Aquillano who was a merit award winner many years back quickly swept up by Bose Corporation and now the Co-Founder & Director of Design Museum Boston as well. And Sami Nerenberg I met a few years ago at the IDSA.NED conference as a budding graduate and this time she was a speaker sharing her new initiative Design for America that's sweeping the universities across the US. This is where you meet the new leaders of an industry.

For Yeh IDeology I have to attend various industry events, conferences and organizations. I have to admit many are dry and boring yet necessary. Few have the collaborative atmosphere of sharing best business practices I find at industry events like IDSA and DMI. Here I feel like the community is collaboratively trying to advance and improve. Collectively we can do so exponentially faster and better.