CDC Welcomes Guest Speakers

For this week’s class we had two guest speakers. Dr Norman Stevenson and Noel Joyce, two Irish designers who discussed their journey in becoming a designer and the steps and processes they went through. Since the BlackBox design challenge it was our first insight into the world of design from a professional point of view.

Norman was first to speak to us and gave an introduction into his developments with LG and his thoughts form a teaching perspective of design. His main vocal was to get better at the stuff you love and always keep improving at the stuff you’re not the best at. I thought this was quite interesting way to improve as an overall designer and I will definitely put it into practice regarding my own skills. An employer will at the end of the day judge us on the skills that they want to see for that job, so we must make our designer skills needed. But we must also be our own designer and show off the work we want more off.

Noels story, I think I engaged more with because he seems like a more down to earth kind of country person that I can easily relate to. He started in a group producing a stylus and how the group followed up on their idea and got it developed despite manufacturing odds. His group ended up making assemblies of their stock which ended up in the hands of Nike designers as they use it today. Wow! This really showcases determination and belief in your work and how an idea can become developed internationally. Noel went into depth about the work involved in design. It mightn’t be all crystal clear a lot of the work is your work that you do yourself and you may have to get your hands dirty. The industry can be so rewarding but the work must be put in no matter what.

Then the tables turned to us. “If we could have invented one design that’s already there what would it be?” Very interesting indeed. To be honest I can think of a lot of designs I wish were mine but if I had to pick one it would be the Adidas predator boot.

The Adidas Predator football boot is perhaps the most famous and well-known piece of sporting footwear. For me I have owned many versions of the boot therefore it would be the boot I would always buy. Another aspect of this boot is the classic colour scheme of black, red and white which is there to be seen through each version of the boot. Its my dream to end up designing in sport and someday I hope that this dream comes true and if it is designing football boots or continuing the legacy of Adidas predators I wont be complaining.