What do you like most about working at City Global?
A lot of what makes an enjoyable work environment is of course, the people. CG puts concentrated effort into building a collaborative team, and it works. Each member is highly talented, respectful, and a joy to work with. The cherry on top is the variety of fresh projects from a healthy roster of clients that keep my creative muscles strong.
What trends in products have you seen this year?
It might sound cliché at this point, but sustainable products. So much so, that quality-made lifetime products are making a comeback due to their limitless reusability. What's most heartening though, is the sincere effort our Fortune 500 clients have put into using more sustainable materials and manufacturing practices on a large scale.
Where do you see the future of design headed?
UX immediately, AR very soon. Specialties like Videography, CAD, UI, Animation and other motion graphics, will flourish to support these fields. Meaning, designers going into the Big 2 will have to be visionary directors of the many supporting specialists and masterfully manage their content via information architecture. With more content and connectivity moving faster than any previous generation has experienced, effective UX and AR architects will be some of the most sought after professionals of any kind. They are the link between our digital universe and the real world.
What role does art and creativity play in product development?
To do any job better than it was done before, one has to be creative in some way. Same goes for product development. The engineering of a product makes it work, its artfulness attracts us to it, design marries these two and adds utility, creativity underpins all. For me, it's about indulging in all these fields to reimagine how ordinary products can be more useful, more sustainable, more efficient, and more attractive.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
For better or worse, I notice unresolved designs most everywhere I look. They're like partially complete jigsaw puzzles – the overall picture is apparent, but pieces are missing; or pieces from another puzzle are there that shouldn't be. The drive within me to resolve these design puzzles inadvertently acts as inspiration.
Tell me about CG’s weekly Passion Project Wednesdays. What is it?
Started by my esteemed colleague, Antonio D. Spears, PPW is a way to learn about each other through learning about specific topics unrelated to our daily work. We turned Monopoly into a quick-play personal investment lesson, we broke into groups to make inventive cocktails, we even shared intimate details about personal loves and hates at one point. The team building value is inherent, but the strategic knowledge on how to operate more efficiently seems to build subconsciously the more we interact with one another as people and not necessarily as a work team.
