#designleague

[virtualciti]

We begin tomorrow at 12 o clock noon with a webinar by one of India's original thought leaders in the Indian Animation and VFX space, Meesha Gautam. Join us in International Animation Day celebrations starting tomorrow. Please also request your students to join in GO48! in it's 9th year. We have a lot of events lined up with the biggest challenge being 48 hours films in animation and live mediums, and many more 48 minute competitions. Play to Win! Play Solo or Form a Team and take part in the league! Challenge yourself to be the best in India. GO48! is an exciting format initiated in 2012 and currently in its 9th Year. The format has exciting competitions in Art, Design, Gaming, Animation and Film Making to be finished in 48 minutes or 48 hours. It never gets more exciting than this... Register now and win exciting prizes. Celebrate International Animation Day with SXILL Chandigarh. Chandigarh Design School is celebrating the same with ASIFA. Animation Film Festival like International Animation Day which is celebrated annually, by staying true to the spirit and upholding one of its mottos of blending art and technology, making available invaluable knowledge and information, ASIFA India throughout the year, arranges several free workshops, namely the CG-Meetup. Regularly conducted since January 2006, one of the main aspects of these Meetups is creating a free, open to all platform for interaction and networking which has seen the active participation and support of the industry. #sxill #sillindia #arenachandigarh #arenaanimation #maac #maachandigarh #animationcourses #animationprogram #animationinstitute #aimationtraining #uxcourses #uiuxcollege #uiuxcourses #go48 #designleague (at Chandigarh, India) https://www.instagram.com/p/CG20ol0DP7l/?igshid=b1of2361x6w6

[cmudesignleague]

Cameron@Samsung

My badge and the building I worked in the background.

Hi all! My name’s Cameron, I’m currently a rising junior in the Environments track. This past summer I worked at Samsung Research America on the Think Tank Team in Mountain View, California. TTT (as it’s known for short) is an atypical R&D team charged with developing concepts and prototypes for future products and technologies; the team is composed of an extremely diverse group of people across design, engineering, and the sciences. Just to name a few, I worked alongside software engineers, mechanical engineers, optical engineers, physicists and solid-state chemistry people, electrical engineers, photographers and filmmakers, and a whole myriad of visual, motion, and interaction designers. I don’t think I’ve ever seen as many different types of work going on in one room as I did at TTT.

The Think Tank Team is located on the 3rd floor and has ~60 members: inside four semi-distinct labs work together: Tomorrow Lab, Interaction Studio, Pixel Lab, and Computer Vision Lab.

So what did I do, you might ask?

Well, I’m not allowed to say much besides that ‘I worked on new candidate designs and prototypes for future Samsung smartphones.’ Instead of talking about the work I’ll talk a little bit about TTT’s process and what it was like working on an R&D team inside a huge South Korea-based company.

Firstly, TTT delivers many different types of work to HQ: we make concept videos, we invent new sensing technologies, we explore novel interactions and new UX, test industrial design possibilities and create proof-of-concept hardware, create new display technologies, and more. This breadth of abilities means that some projects will have multiple components being developed simultaneously, so one group of people might be building a software prototype while another is building a hardware prototype with experimental tech. Even though the future vision (and concept video) has both of these prototypes integrated into one product at some future date, it can often make sense to incubate these pieces separately for a time.

Showing my co-worker a prototype (blurred out for confidentiality).

Before I go into a bit of culture and description of corporate scale — here’s some context, last summer I worked at an internet startup of ~200 people (all of whom worked in one office) called Asana. Working at Samsung, from a scale and culture perspective, was a totallydifferent beast. To start, Samsung Electronics employs over 300,000 people worldwide — just looking at R&D centers, ours was just one of 23 worldwide (the count increases to almost 40 if you count design centers) and this doesn’t even begin to describe the massiveness and multiplicity of teams at HQ. When Pranav, TTT’s Head, would retell the numerous visits he would make on a trip to HQ in our weekly stand-ups, it was hard to keep straight — even the concept of HQ became murky as he described traveling to different cities and campuses. All of this underscores the importance of communication and collaboration required to make TTT’s concepts and prototypes come to fruition.

‘The Dojo’ is pictured above: executives, workshops with collaborating teams from HQ, and visitors from Global TTT (our sister lab in South Korea) were hosted here during my time. It also featured a continually replenishing supply of yummy snacks.

My time at Samsung Research’s TTT was a total blast and I’m hugely grateful to everyone at CMU1 who educated and mentored me in preparation for the opportunity. I’d also like to thank everyone I worked with at TTT2 for making my time there exciting, productive, and educative in its own right.

1: In particular to Austin S. Lee, former professor of environments and interaction design

2: Especially Jeffery Pierce, Philipp Schoessler, Jason Yeh, Ranhee Chung, Link Huang, and Cathy Kim

[taz-al-ghul]

League of Design | Streetwear | Collectibles - Who would be into a monthly contest for each of the three brand pillars? Sick prizes for each category every month. #contest #tazalghul #design #streetwear #collectibles #league #designleague #funkopop #supreme #collectibleague #streetwearleague #funko #megab0x

[gasstudio]

I partner di GaS Studio e OIL al DesignLeague, il torneo di calcio balilla del design che si è svolto dal 9 – 12 aprile presso gli spazi del Virgin Active Café di Milano. Nelle foto momenti del dopo partita.

[virtualciti]

Play to Win! Play Solo or Form a Team and take part in the league! Challenge yourself to be the best in India. GO48! is an exciting format initiated in 2012 and currently in its 9th Year. The format has exciting competitions in Art, Design, Gaming, Animation and Film Making to be finished in 48 minutes or 48 hours. It never gets more exciting than this... Register now and win exciting prizes. Celebrate International Animation Day with SXILL Chandigarh. Chandigarh Design School is celebrating the same with ASIFA. Animation Film Festival like International Animation Day which is celebrated annually, by staying true to the spirit and upholding one of its mottos of blending art and technology, making available invaluable knowledge and information, ASIFA India throughout the year, arranges several free workshops, namely the CG-Meetup. Regularly conducted since January 2006, one of the main aspects of these Meetups is creating a free, open to all platform for interaction and networking which has seen the active participation and support of the industry. #sxill #sillindia #arenachandigarh #arenaanimation #maac #maachandigarh #animationcourses #animationprogram #animationinstitute #aimationtraining #uxcourses #uiuxcollege #uiuxcourses #go48 #designleague (at Chandigarh, India) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGu05Vcj6D4/?igshid=1i1nnnemv4aeq

[virtualciti]

Play to Win! Play Solo or Form a Team and take part in the league! Challenge yourself to be the best in India. GO48! is an exciting format initiated in 2012 and currently in its 9th Year. The format has exciting competitions in Art, Design, Gaming, Animation and Film Making to be finished in 48 minutes or 48 hours. It never gets more exciting than this... Register now and win exciting prizes. Celebrate International Animation Day with SXILL Chandigarh. Chandigarh Design School is celebrating the same with ASIFA. Animation Film Festival like International Animation Day which is celebrated annually, by staying true to the spirit and upholding one of its mottos of blending art and technology, making available invaluable knowledge and information, ASIFA India throughout the year, arranges several free workshops, namely the CG-Meetup. Regularly conducted since January 2006, one of the main aspects of these Meetups is creating a free, open to all platform for interaction and networking which has seen the active participation and support of the industry. #sxill #sillindia #arenachandigarh #arenaanimation #maac #maachandigarh #animationcourses #animationprogram #animationinstitute #aimationtraining #uxcourses #uiuxcollege #uiuxcourses #go48 #designleague (at Chandigarh, India) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGu0h2NpZHO/?igshid=1vfctg0tbmd1v

[cmudesignleague]

(Deborah and Sara-Remi)@IBM

This summer, Deborah and I worked at IBM as Software Design interns.

Along with 13 others, we were part of a program called the Maelstrom, which happens 3 times a year. Within the Maelstrom, we both held the title of User Experience (UX) designers, but both dabbled in the roles of visual design and design research.

IBM was founded over 100 years ago and has always revolved around invention, innovation, and breaking the status quo. About 3 years ago, IBM decided that design was an integral part of these processes, and converted several of the IBM locations into design studios. Currently, the largest design studio is in Austin, Texas. In the Austin campus, there are around 3 full floors that have been designated specifically for design. The Maelstrom has its own studio on one of these floors, and is in the center of around 10 other product teams, allowing us to see projects being worked on and to overhear critiques and conversations.

We began working in our shorter project — the “Nanoproject” — for two weeks. But moving quickly wasn’t the hard part, not when you’re in a 15 person group. It was pretty chaotic, but working with so many people was intentionally part of the challenge. After we made our final presentation, we were split into three different teams of five. (Sara Remi and I were working on separate teams) Each team was working on a different problem and was given different expectations so it was pretty cool to see what everyone was up to on our weekly presentations. By the end, we are all expected to give our final one to the IBM Design executives, so there’s a lot of pressure!

Outside of the office, we have had time to explore both downtown Austin and some of the surround suburbia. Austin is an amalgam of old southern country and hipster delight. The barbeque, tacos, and burgers are unbeatable, and the fun design of houses converted to restaurants gives Austin a unique and comfortable feel. With an average temperature of 100 degrees each day, though, it has been hard to see as much as the outdoors as we would like, and it is super important to keep hydrated.

[cmudesignleague]

Praew@Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

Hi guys! I’m Praew, and I’m a rising Senior in the Industrial design program!

(Incase you guys didn’t know who I was lol. This was taken at the 12 mile beach!)

I am currently interning at FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles), within their User Experience team! When I first received this opportunity, I was extremely worried that I was going to be stranded and bored in the middle of nowhere, Michigan (since I didn’t know how to drive) — but it actually has been one of the best summers ever!

A lot of you may not be interested in the automotive field at all, and trust me, I was the same, but ever since being here I have realized how much potential there is for User Experience design within this field. Everyone is looking forward to the ‘connected lifestyle’ that we are going to have in the future, and to have that kind of connectivity, the car is going to have to be at the center of that experience.

(Check out this cool video by Nissan if you have no idea what I’m talking about! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-TLo86K7Ck )

Due to all this future hype and technology trends, I have attended many cool brainstorming sessions for concept cars. FCA also works in very lean teams, so they listen to everyone’s opinions, and even as an intern, your voice could easily make an impact in ideas that go forward to the final stages!

To me, the best part of this internship was that they really respected my thoughts, and let me shape my own project so that I could work on and learn about things that I enjoy doing. I had many small side projects that exposed me to new areas of design, but I was also able to focus on something that I am interested in as my main one. Even the UI work was interesting to me, since it was in a car dashboard cluster/radio format, rather than the usual phone or web interfaces.

Apart from the work part of this internship, they also had really good programs for interns to join, like factory tours, test lab tours (HMI lab, wind tunnel etc), test ride and drives and social events with other interns in the area (Ford, GM). They also placed most of the interns in the same housing complex (in Clarkston), so it was great to be able to hang out with the other interns after work and on weekends.

(View of Detroit from one of the apartment tours the After5 intern program took us on!)

(Sunsets in Michigan — I would see this really often, just on my way home from work!)

Another part that made this summer amazing was the beautiful nature around Michigan, and the awesome people that I became really good friends with who would go on these weekly adventures with me. Michigan has the most beautiful lakes, skies and sunsets — totally worth the 3~5 hour drives out to each location! I would really recommend visiting Mackinaw Island and the Sleeping Bear Dunes/Traverse City if any of you ever visit Michigan!

(Kayaking at Stony Creek Metro Park! People love watersports here in Michigan: apart from kayaking, they also had paddleboarding, canoeing, jetskiing, fishing, yachting…etc.!)

(Hiking with my intern friends at the Tahquamenon River Trail!)

(Pictured Lakes National Lakeshore)

(Twelve mile beach)

(Sleeping Bear Dunes….the most difficult hike of my life!!!)

(Mackinaw Island!)

Detroit and Ann Arbor are also great (nearby) cities to visit, despite what people say about Detroit, I loved going down there even though it was a 40 minute drive from the FCA office. Ann Arbor is a quirky college town with a lot of great eateries, cafes and vintage stores, so I think that being in Michigan really allowed me to explore a very diverse range of lifestyles and experiences!

(Greektown in Downtown Detroit featuring my intern friends Joy and Saniya, and ID Seniors Diana, Eileen and Albert!)

(Lack of good food is definitely not a concern in Michigan….courtesy of Diana’s snapchat hehe)

If you have any questions about interning at FCA/in Michigan/with an automotive company please don’t hesitate to come up to me and ask! It has been a really great experience for me, so I would be down to chat about it more in detail anytime!

[cmudesignleague]

CD at Work: Sahana

I am interning at a small company in San Francisco called Flite. They are an advertising company that approaches ads in a new and innovative way.  They have created a software platform that creates interactive and live ads. By this, I mean that the ads can have live twitter feeds and other media that are constantly updating themselves. Their ads are also interactive. You know those crazy ads that play videos and expand when you roll over them? THAT'S WHAT FLITE DOES! Though Flite's platform has a lot to do with coding and CS, they understand how important design is. They have an amazing user experience team made up of people who have a design background, but also understand how to translate their ideas to code. My boss, George told me on the first day, that he calls the most desirable workers "unicorns." It's apparently not as common to find people good at both design and CS, and so they are really valuable. 

The atmosphere at Flite is really welcoming. Everyone is very friendly and it's very team oriented. They meet each morning in meetings called "Scrum" to group up and talk about the problems to tackle that day. It's a fast paced environment because they release a new and better version of their software each week. 

I am an intern on the User Experience team, but I went into this with literally no knowledge of coding. They were understanding of this, and my first project was to teach myself some basic HTML and CSS. That was really fun because I was basically being paid to do something which really interested me and that I wanted to do anyway. Now I'm doing things like mocking up new versions of their Careers page on their website and brainstorming ways to update their Showcase page. These are all manageable projects, but I'm learning a lot about working in a team and with other people. It's important to understand how to ask for help when you need it and how to figure things out yourself. The other interns who joined me a week after I joined are all in different departments, and we are supposed to plan a company event together ... apparently it may consist of bowling and beer. 

Overall I love work. I am in a super central place in San Francisco near two gorgeous parks and a ton of amazing food places. This week is SF Design Week and so I'm going to go to a few events like studio tours and a Pop-Up Expo type show. This experience is going to really get me ready for the professional world, and I can't wait to apply what I learn here to school when we go back in the Fall. If you have any more questions about Flite, let me know! Also, their intern program, although only developed this year, is amazing. I highly recommend checking them out.