Hasta La Ideas

Nick Oakley’s first design job was in Terence Conran’s London studio back in 1979, where he labored under the legendary figure for a bit less than US$1 per hour. The 30 years since then have seen the RCA and Northumbria graduate developing consumer products, professional equipment, corporate identity, and transportation programs, before focusing in on mobile computing while working at IDEO in the 1990s. As design lead at Intel’s Mobility group, Oakley is one of the company’s primary sources of next-generation mobile computing concepts, responsible for projects ranging from the far out blue-sky to market-ready notebook designs–many of which have seen production under third-party nameplates in the past decade.

This relative anonymity, coupled with the extraordinary technical fluency necessary to work at a relentlessly pragmatic firm like Intel, poses some unique challenges for hiring designers, which is why we’ve asked Nick to join us on the panel this Thursday at the Portland installment of the Coroflot Creative Employment Confab.

His two questions:

1. How is seeking and hiring designers different in the US vs. the UK? Do you find certain qualities easier or harder to find in the two countries?

I think there’s always been a difference between Euro, and certainly UK designers vs. the US equivalent. It’s always seemed as though UK design education and practice tuned designers in to a different set of sensibilities–perhaps supporting ideas and approaches based around the meaning and qualitative attributes of products. The US in contrast has always seemed to me more research- and process-based, and tends to encourage more rationalist, process driven designers. As Intel is fundamentally a data and process oriented company, US designers probably wind up being a better fit.

2. Do you find that Intel’s reputation as an engineering-led company makes it easier or more difficult to attract and retain highly qualified designers?

Intel is an ingredient brand and a technology driven company, and therefore not an obvious first choice for a highly qualified designer. Much of the work is conceptual, exploratory and for internal consumption only, so very little makes it to volume production, which for many designers trying to build a portfolio can be a bit of a turn-off. With unconnected business groups within the company approaching design in different ways, it’s also probably difficult for a prospective candidate to get a ‘read’ on a career opportunity with us, and whether it would be a match for long term career aspirations.

Oakley, along with directors and recruiters from Nike, Ziba, and Cinco Design, will form the core of the Portland Confab, an afternoon-long informational and networking event for designers, creative directors and recruiters from the product, apparel, branding and interaction design fields. Tickets are still available, and this will be the only Confab in the Pacific Northwest; check out the Confab page for details and registration info.

Coroflot’s Creative Employment Confab
Thursday, June 11th, 2:30-6pm
University of Oregon, Portland – White Stag Block
70 NW Couch St. @ NW 1st Ave, Portland, OR

Additional Confab info:

2 Questions for Beth Sasseen of Nike
2 Questions for Chelsea Vandiver of Ziba
Fast Company coverage of the Austin Confab in March

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