Date
March 1, 2020
SF’s Innovation Strategy Manager Shares Industrial Design with 1st Graders
This week, David Byron, our Manager of Design & Innovation Strategy, shared his passion for the Industrial Design profession with 1st graders at Bingham Farms Elementary School! Paying it forward is a highly prized value here at Sundberg-Ferar, and to that end, we often contribute guests lectures or talks to local colleges, schools, and associations to help spread awareness of the power and opportunity of Industrial Design.
David is a prime example of this spirit. He makes multiple visits to elementary schools just like this one every year to talk with kids about what it’s like to be a designer, and the importance of using your imagination and creativity to solve problems for others. Byron is also chair of the Michigan Design Council (MDC) which runs a yearly design competition called the Michigan Design Prize. This competition is built for students from Kindergarten through high school and gives them the chance to enter their design ideas on a chosen theme into a contest for the chance to win one-on-one mentoring with a real industrial designer and receive a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place medal for their work. Initiatives like these are essential to attract and retain industrial design talent in Michigan and grow our economy, which is part of the MDC’s mission.
More than that, however, it gives these kids what is in many cases their first exposure to industrial design as a profession, and opens up a world of possibility for them to pursue industrial design as a career if that is their passion. By contrast, many industrial designers in the field today didn’t have the opportunity to even hear about the existence of the profession until well into their high school or post-secondary educations.
We love sharing our love of industrial design with the next generation. It’s sessions like these, with kids even in 1st grade, that help pave the way to a bright future for the state of Michigan, but that also fuel the creativity, innovation, and imaginations of the next generation to challenge the boundaries of what we think is possible, and build a real future that will benefit us all.
