ALWAYS LEARNING

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I grew up in the Bay Area and studied art from a very young age. As a teenager,
I apprenticed to a goldsmith for a few years and discovered that working with my hands inspired my imagination in a way drawing on a page could not. It made my hands dirty,
I loved the feel of the tools and working with wax or heating flux with a torch and watching
it melt into the metal. It had depth, literally. During my freshman orientation at CCA in early 1994, we were given a presentation about Industrial Design. My heart started to race, it was as if I had won the lottery. “That’s it!” I thought. I wrote about it in my diary and kept it a secret for months so that I could be alone with my decision.

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I eventually transferred and graduated from SFSU. I did some freelance graphic design, designed duckies for an entrepreneurial startup, and then worked for Sanrio, Inc. the
home of Hello Kitty! Eventually, I got a job at Pottery Barn in the Home Accessories
division. I enjoyed it there and learned so many wonderful skills. Not long after that I moved to Colorado, married and started a family and when my children were small they were my sole focus. But my desire to stay connected to the design community never waned and I continued to read design publications, learn new technology, sketch, create and look for ways to enhance my point of view as a designer. I believe that to observe is
to learn, since we are also consumers. 

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I am grateful to have recently earned a Master of Science in Industrial Design from the prestigious GradID program at  Art Center College of Design. So much has evolved since I first began with a T-Square and vellum years ago, to an industry that has become incredibly dynamic and complex. Today my focus is on strategy, design futures and how to improve the user experience through research, interviews, future trends, and getting to the heart of the matter. The joy in design is not only the beauty of a completed product or system, but the journey in getting there. So what’s next?