5 minute read
Q&A: Catherine Jameson
Catherine Jameson
Loft LLC senior engineer
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Loft LLC senior engineer Catherine Jameson joined the Providence-based company 2½ years ago. Her focus is on bringing a design concept to products that can be manufactured.
QA &
PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
1. What drew you to Rhode Island and Loft that made it worth leaving a job as a me-
chanical engineer in California with a company with a national profile? I was interested in exploring a position at a design consulting firm, and Loft’s portfolio certainly impressed me! At Fitbit, I was able to learn from my team and see a large-scale consumer product come to life, from sketches to manufacturing. I wanted to take that knowledge and be able to take more of a leadership role and working in a smaller firm gave me that responsibility and opportunity to develop my engineering skills.
2. You graduated from Yale University with a degree in mechanical engineering. How important has that education and training, and the personal connections you
made in college, been in your career development? The most important classes I took in college were project-based courses that focused on solving a problem with a team – they replicate most closely what I do as an engineer in product development.
3. What steps would you recommend for others who share your love for design but
aren’t sure how to break into the field? I would say – build your communication skills: visual, oral and writing. Design is all about ideas, but you can’t share and nurture your ideas if no one knows what you’re talking about! Also, go ahead and reach out to someone who has the job you want, and see if they’d be willing to meet up for an informational interview. This can be a great way to start building your network.
4. What are the most important attributes needed to successfully blend engineering and
design? It’s important to discern which questions to ask, when. Coming from an engineering background, engineers are often pegged as the “no” people: designers will share a new idea, and engineers will immediately analyze all the risks and potential issues with the design. It’s so important to analyze those risks, but in a way that is aware of the timing and context of the idea.
5. What’s your impression of the overall design community in Rhode Island and the sup-
port services available to early-career professionals? I was fortunate to be a part of the Design Forward RI Emerge program hosted by DESIGNxRI. The program is ... geared towards early-career designers. It was wonderful to meet other young designers and create a community, even as we all had different fields.
PBN staff
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And DESIGNxRI offers a high school program, called Explore Design!, in which students ages 14 to 18 work with experienced designers to take on various design projects while also learning design software.
Carnevale says hiring throughout the industry has been slowed during the pandemic, but demand for design skills and designers remains strong, albeit shifting with consumer demand.
“Architecture, interior design and landscape [design] are seeing some renewed interest in the residential space,” she said, “while activity in the graphic design and digital realm – including app development – has been noticeably active, given the move to virtual and brands recognizing they need to have a stronger digital presence, or better accessibility with their clients.”
Carnevale added companies outside the design sectors are also recognizing the value of having designers on staff. She’s seen local companies advertising for graphic designers, along with jobs requiring product and digital-design skills.
A CATALYST
Mahoney said she came away from the Providence Design Catalyst program with lots of ideas to help turn A.M. Design into “a shop that also functions as a studio … the type of shop where people come to us for our creativity.” For Mahoney, that means releasing a line of interior products as early as next year, while intensifying her efforts at smithed metal and customization. Mahoney called custom metalwork “inherently expensive.” Why not take advantage of her studio’s new capacity for smithing and make the customs even more artistic and high-end?
Mahoney exemplifies what the program is about, says Carnevale.
Marge Hinge, a jewelry designer and another member of the 2020 cohort, has already “catalyzed” a clearer path and identity for her Providencebased jewelry studio, Hinge Designs.
A jewelry maker since childhood, Hinge joined the jewelry and metalsmithing program at RISD. After graduation, she worked for local shops and other artists, observing and gathering ideas for her own business along the way.
After leaving a full-time job to focus on building the Hinge Designs brand, she applied to the catalyst program.
“It pushed me to do a lot of things I wouldn’t do normally,” Hinge said.
It also opened a new universe of options for branding, such as using video content to detail her creative process for customers – an ideal visual aid to accompany her bright, earthy line of rings and earrings that are cut from brilliant minerals such as Dalmatian jasper or Herkimer diamonds.
Each designer must set three “milestones” for their business at the program’s start. The milestones help make the designers’ goals more explicit, and therefore more attainable. But they also serve as guidelines for the grant payments.
“This program is one of the only opportunities available in the state that is highly structured for success and accountability,” Carnevale said.
The 2020 cohort’s 11 members counted a photographer, a toymaker and even a small-business branding specialist (The Bureau of Tactical Imagination) among their ranks.
“Along with funds from Real Jobs RI (for the trainings and mentorship), we have invested over a $1 million in … 50 businesses (with $864,000 being direct grants) in the four program years we’ve been able to run,” Carnevale said.
The pandemic has provided designers with an example of what Carnevale called “thriving in the undefined.
