From the Chair

IDSA HQ

NAVIGATING THE NEW DECADE TOGETHER

2019 was a wonderful year to be a part of IDSA. With exciting new developments in our organization, we were able to focus our efforts on bringing more new, valuable content to our communities—online and at in-person events. I hope you had the chance to join local chapter activities, participate in the Women in Design and the Medical Design Deep Dives, and attend the International Design Conference in Chicago. We’ve been able to grow as a group and enrich our careers through this time spent together. To further tighten our community, we frequently gave local updates and shared exciting member achievements through multiple channels, including our website and social media. We celebrated collective successes, embraced creative thinking and encouraged knowledge sharing. We worked hard together to connect, learn and evolve. I deeply thank each of you—our community, members, volunteers, chapter leaders, Board of Directors and diligent IDSA staff under the lead of Chris Livaudais, IDSA—for making this all a reality.

We are excited to begin navigating the new decade, but our hearts are filled with some concerns. With advancing technology comes opportunity. We have the ability to substantially improve day-to-day life, but we can also look closely at the needs of people from different walks of life to see where we, as designers, can begin to reimagine solutions to their unique challenges. There include 3D-printed houses for underserved communities, micro robotics for remote surgery, origami/modular solutions for urban living and artificial intelligence for our aging population. We are dedicated to doing the best we can to create a promising future. The more we explore, the more we need to act responsibly and thoroughly.

Greta Thunberg rang in 2020 as Time magazine’s Person of the Year. At age 16, Thunberg is the youngest person to be honored in the magazine’s history. Boyan Slat, the founder of The Ocean Cleanup, has announced his mission to turn the ocean’s plastic waste from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch into sustainable products. William McDonough, the founder of Cradle to Cradle, notoriously once said, “Designers are the creators of the good and the bad.”

In this new decade, we must be responsible for creating a sustainable practice that produces less waste, promotes an efficient production ecosystem and sets the bar for how we operate as designers.

If you’ve tried, you know just how hard this is to do. The effort goes far beyond design and deep into the entire system, from marketing to manufacturing, from education to execution, and so forth. We need to learn quickly, teach others and tell stories about our experiences. IDSA and the Board of Directors developed a new Deep Dive strategy focused on sustainability. The Sustainability Deep Dive is a nationwide effort for the design industry to bring experts together and push for an environmentally conscious future.

We also will continue to celebrate women in design. This year, our Women in Design Deep Dive will focus on women in leadership and how to empower one another. The Medical Deep Dive will now expand to include healthcare, with professionals and industry leaders guiding the conversation and helping us connect the dots from the hospital to the home to the individual. As IDSA focuses on being the hub of the design community, we will continue to bring curated content to our events and better tailor the experience for our attendees.

We also want to elevate the IDSA brand and experience through meaningful partnerships. IDSA is dedicated to supporting the careers of our members throughout their entire career journeys. One critical way we can create new opportunities for collaboration, crosslearning, knowledge sharing and trend forecasting is by providing partnerships with diverse industry leaders at our events like IDC. This year in Seattle on September 14–16, we will integrate notable brands, designers, institutions and organizations to enrich and inspire our points of views as professionals. We want to create dialogue around the design process, our sources of inspiration, what challenges lie behind each creative practice and more.

On behalf of IDSA, I’d like to express just how committed we are to creating an intriguing, consistent and elevated experience for all our members—from receiving the Welcome Package to our local events and conferences. We want to not only help grow your professional network but to also provide one-of-a-kind experiences that push the boundaries of design thinking, create opportunities for mentorship and collaboration, and connect us across multiple disciplines. Perhaps most importantly, we are here to support you in your career and celebrate the work you do as design professionals. I look forward to your continued support in 2020 and cannot wait to see what we can accomplish this year together as the Industrial Designers Society of America.

Happy New Decade! And happy designing!

—Qin Li, IDSA, IDSA Board Chair qin@fuseproject.com