Category: Designer Blueprint

USING EMPATHY AND PLENTY OF POST-ITS A Q+A WITH ALISON SHIELDS __________________________________ What is your role at Stryker? I’m a user experience (UX) researcher on Stryker’s product development team. My job is to advocate for the people who will eventually use our products. I work to understand the needs of the end-user by gathering authentic […]

Did you know that Southwest Michigan is home to one of the nation’s largest centers of design-driven businesses? Everyday products like Kitchen Aid mixers, Sharpie markers, Yoplait cups, and Kellogg’s cereal boxes are all designed right here in our backyard. But design isn’t just for artists! No matter your profession, you have to think like […]

A Q+A With Brian Revoir, Senior Designer at Landscape Forms. WHAT IS YOUR ROLE AT LANDSCAPE FORMS? At Landscape Forms, we create outdoor furnishings and site amenities, lighting, and custom work. I’m part of a three-person design team, so the projects get split up between us. We’re authors in a sense. Working on a tight-knit […]

A Q+A with Mike Elwell, director of Western Michigan University (WMU)’s Richmond Institute of Product Design and Innovation. What should people know about WMU’s product design program? The Richmond Institute of Product Design and Innovation is two years old now, so our students are freshman and sophomores. I believe that we have one of the […]

A Q+A with Savannah Walters, Industrial Designer at Newell Brands. How do you approach design in your role at Newell Brands? I’m a staff industrial designer at Newell Brands, a leading global consumer goods company. We have a lot of great brands in our portfolio—since I started here, I have gotten to work on a […]

A Q+A with Michael Betz, President and Co-Owner of ImageStream. How do you approach design at ImageStream? My business partner Tom Brooks and I started this company 20 years ago, in 1999. We were working for Pharmacia & Upjohn, handling its media center here in Kalamazoo. But when the company started moving its jobs to […]

We sat down with Bill Fluharty, Director of Design at Stryker, to hear about his background and thoughts on the design industry. What does a director of design do? At a high level, my job is to build and maintain the competencies of design within the Medical division of Stryker. By developing talents of our […]

A Q+A with Zach DeYoung, Partner at Maestro. How Do You Approach Design at Maestro? Maestro is a forward-thinking design agency creating things that you probably wouldn’t imagine get made in Kalamazoo. We’ve been here for 11 years, and we work with huge Fortune 500 companies like Southwest Airlines, Johnson & Johnson, and Google. I […]

A Q+A with Leif Norland, Global Design Director for Cooking at Whirlpool Corporation. How do you approach design from your position at Whirlpool? Whirlpool represents many brands around the world, including Maytag, Jenn-Air, Amana, and KitchenAid, just to name a few. I head up the design of all of Whirlpool’s cooking products globally. My team […]

A conversation with Sondra Phillips, owner of SKP Design. What services does SKP Design provide? SKP Design is a boutique interior design company—in fact, we are the only interior design firm in Kalamazoo. We have both residential and commercial clients and can do everything from new construction to remodeling. Clients come to us because they’re […]

A Designer Blueprint with Tim Cane, Architectural Design Manager at Eckert Wordell. What does an architectural design manager do? I am in charge of the design department for the architects and interior designers; we work together with the engineering team to get the job done. We are an eclectic group. We work on designs of […]

A Conversation with Dan Martin—videographer, editor, and founder at Kzoom. As a videographer who founded his own company, how do you define your role? I’m like a rainmaker in training. I’ve shifted from doing things to making things happen. I still am actively involved in almost every key project in some way, but sometimes it’s […]