Core77 Interview Flashback w/ Pics: “THE FUTURE IS …” August 15-18, Boston, MA.

In 2012, I chaired “The Future is… ” Conference, the 2nd largest IDSA conference (IDC) in its 60-year history.

In anticipation of the upcoming IDSA 2012 International Conference, Core77 had an opportunity to chat with Conference Chair, Charles Austen Angell, about his decade of service with the IDSA, visioneering, and advice for young designers! As he shares in his statement about this year’s conference theme, The Future Is…

From the website: “The Future Is… about us. How we work, laugh, learn, cooperate, connect, and stay healthy. Topic experts will address the dramatically changing playing field in business and technology in a format where attendees contribute to the understanding of the information.
We are in times of extreme economic stress, and yet the rules of business and commerce keep changing at an almost impossible rate. How do the best stay ahead, and what is design’s role in addressing change?”

IDSA International 2012 Conference

The Future Is…
August 15-18, 2012
The Westin Boston Waterfront – Boston, MA

Core77: You’ve been part of the IDSA leadership as early as 2001 and are the current Chair-elect of the IDSA board—what motivates your service and gets you excited about the role of the IDSA?

Charles Austen Angell: I get excited about the community of designers and how that community can dramatically and positively influence the discipline of design. I want to see the community grow and benefit the careers of more designers. As an association, IDSA is a different animal than the other trends connecting people professionally. IDSA is a true community that spans the history of our field. It is made of a rich network of deep relationships that you simply can’t build with tweets or Facebook posts. In our fifteen minutes of fame culture, it is essential to have an association that rises above trend and spans the decades. IDSA was there when we were students and it will be there when we retire. True creativity requires perspective.

CORE77: This year’s theme encourages conference participants to write “the future”. What are some of the most important areas for industrial designers to be exploring when considering the industry’s future and why?

Austen Angell: Design now moves at the speed and cadence of business. This is a part of the success of design within the business world. However, there is a cost. The scope and span of design thinking has become somewhat clipped into shopping seasons and fiscal quarters. This shift means we talk less about the big picture, we spend less effort “visioneering” and less time thinking about how it all comes together. Futurama, autorama, the kitchen of the future, and World Expos—in the past, designers flooded society with visions of a better society and a more positive world. This is the level of positive, imaginative dialogue we want to provoke moving forward.

I sat onstage with my old friend, and we had a short dialogue after his talk.

CORE77: What speaker(s) are you most looking forward to hearing from and why?

Austen Angell: Toughest question here—the line-up truly represents the top thought leaders in our field. The tracks are offering an unprecedented level of content on everything from medical design and sustainable design, to the business of design and the tools we will use to create the future. There are heaps of offsite parties and studio tours at the best studios.

Speakers included: SYD MEAD, LAURENCE GARTEL, LESLEY MOTTLA, SAM AQUILLANO, DEREK CASCIO, STEFAN ANDREN, TOM DIERKING, JULIA SILVERMAN, VICTOR ANGEL, KUNPYO LEE, HARRY WEST, TED ACWORTH, BOB SCHWARTZ, MIKE + MAAIKE, NATE BALL, VALERIE FLETCHER, BOB BRUNNER, and many others.

My friend Jordan Nollman put together an outstanding off-site experience with parties and studio tours around the city of Boston.

CORE77: As a designer with both corporate and entrepreneurial experience, what advice do you have for young designers who are just starting out?

Austen Angell: There’s a saying that a painter is only as good as the miles of canvas they’ve painted. Design is like that. I see a big schism between the new designers who see design as a job—in at 9:30 out at 4:30—and the young professionals who view it as a professional craft, a calling where work is the opportunity. The people I knew coming out of school who saw design as a calling are all still in the field, I don’t know what happened to the others.