(The following article was featured in the November/December issue 2 of the IDSA Mid-Atlantic Chapter "Design Marker".)
 

Mentoring: When did you first learn of industrial design as a profession?

In high school, maybe after a few years of college. How many times at social events, have you had to explain to people what an industrial designer does? Do you design industry? Are you an engineer? Unfortunately, industrial design as a profession, does not have the name recognition or status of other allied fields, such as architecture or interior and graphic design. As a result, we as industrial designer must constantly be promoting our field. One way is by bring more new designers into the field. This can be done by starting with the youth of America, by mentoring students in high school, and even younger. Bob Welch, IDSA of Black & Decker and Mid-Atlantic Chapter Secretary, is curretnly mentoring a student from Hammond High School, in Columbia, MD. If you have any questions about mentoring, call Bob at (410)716-3454, or your local high school.

In a related note, three students at Winston Churchill High School, in Potomac, MD, have started an Industrial Design Club and are looking for feedback from Mid-Atlantic chapter members. The following is an article written by students, Brandon Bloch and Andres Floden:

The high school we attend has a wide variety of art related courses for students to choose from, ranging from commerical art to photography. But although these classes teach the basics needed to pursue an artistic career, the aspect of industrial design had never been explored by the limited staff. This was the basis for our idea to form an extracurricular club that would familiarize its members to the designing career that many have not yet heard of. After fulfilling the requirements for beginning a club at our school, we were well on our way to making our ideas a reality.

Over 60 people signed up to be possible members! (Although it was certain that not nearly as many would actually become full-time members.) After a few meetings between the leaders of the club, we conjured up a checklist with possible ideas and organized the format that our club would take. Their purpose was to explore all aspects of the profession, so we thought up projects to achieve our goal.

Among the topics were: automobile design, architecture, product design and logo rendering. This may sound general, but we grouped several ideas to form specific in-depth assignments. This ideas turned out to be popular among the members, and groups were formed to carry out each project, including the design of a stadium, with team logos, the plans for a modern car and the architectural blueprints for a suburban home. Other projects will follow, such as the design for a commercial product with advertisements and household furniture design, all which will eventually be made in the form of a scale model. We hope to arouse interest from professional industrial designers through this newsletter and our presentation at the upcoming IDSA meeting. Through these efforts, we'd like to get feedback, ideas for future projects and contests, as well as possible financial support for larger projects.