Interview – Joshua Saling

Embody 3D had the great opportunity to talk to Joshua Saling, an industrial designer from Sydney, Australia! Even as a recent graduate Joshua has kept himself busy working in a variety of design fields and industries from interaction design to graphic design, from designing cars to designing in the audio visual industry! For more information please check out: http://www.joshuasaling.com!

Article by Martin Gibson – @embody3d @martingibson - 23.07.2010

General Questions

Hi Joshua, welcome to Embody 3D and thank you for taking the time to talk with us today. To get started could you please give our readers a brief background of your experience in the industrial design industry thus far?

Hi Martin, thank you very much for having me on Embody 3d.

I studied Industrial Design at Monash in Melbourne and graduated at the end of 2008. During my final year of university I was sponsored by the Auto Crc (www.autocrc.com) to work on integrating mobile devices into the automotive interior which was a great project to work on.

After graduating I went on to complete a Month of work experience at an Industrial Design consultancy called Design Resource in Crows Nest, Sydney.(www.designresource.com.au) Following that I was involved in some freelance work at Creata in North Sydney (www.creata.com) to help with some extra work they had at the time. This was quite a fun experience as I was asked to come up with new concepts for McDonalds happy meal toys and was actively involved in their brainstorming sessions.

For the last year and a half I’ve had what is probably considered an unusual position for an Industrial Design graduate. I have been working as a Designer for an audio visual integration company called Peace of Mind Technology. (www.peaceofmind.net.au) My role at Peace of Mind is quite varied. I design graphical user interfaces for touch screen control panels, I do all the graphic design work for the company, I visualize ideas that are taken into client meetings and I also design custom mounting solutions to integrate the technology we are installing with the Architecture. Working at Peace of Mind has been a fantastic experience and as the only designer I have had to learn fast and am given quite a lot of responsibility.

As well as working at Peace of Mind I also do some freelance design work and work on my own projects.

I know Design Resource does a lot of transport design projects and they are also pretty big on hand sketching skills, not only ideation sketches but also amazing hand renders. What are your thoughts on the more traditional methods used at Design Resource vs some more new age companies that almost live and breath CAD/computer rendering fulltime.

I think both manual and digital visualization skills are equally important and the trick is to have the ability to match the right skill to the right task.

Compared to myself you could say you’ve had a really busy design education and post-graduate design life. What has it been like working in such varied positions in the design industry? Did you find some positions helped you with other jobs you’ve done?

Every experience, professional or personal, I think helps with new tasks or experiences whether it is direct and easily identifiable or whether it is more subtle. I have been quite busy since completing my studies but there was one short period where I had to find non design related work to keep me afloat. Graduating in the heat of the Global Financial Crisis I think was probably harder than graduating in times of prosperity but I think in the end it teaches you to be tougher, more resilient and flexible. An important message to other young designers is, do not discount any type of experience you gather along the way because it all contributes to the way you learn to work and to the designer you will end up being.

Many educators often debate whether design skills are transferable. That is, an industrial designer can easily become a graphic designer, or a graphic designer could also easily be an architect. From working as an industrial designer, graphic designer, interface designer do you find that you can easily work in these different scenarios quite easily?

While each design discipline requires specific skills or methods of thinking, in the end all creative work follows a similar design process and is about solving problems. I call myself an industrial designer because that’s what I studied at University but I would have been equally happy studying Architecture or Graphic design. I don’t think that one should limit themselves by their degree, I think if you have an interest in something and have the opportunity to get involved working on a project that doesn’t exactly follow what you studied you should just do it.

What would you say were the most interesting and the most challenging experience you’ve had working so far?

I really enjoyed practicing my interface design skills by working on multiple touch screen interface projects for different clients through Peace of Mind. It has also been interesting going onto building sites and interpreting architectural drawings.

Student-Related Questions

How did you find Monash Universities Industrial design program on the whole (the good/the bad)?

I had a good experience studying at Monash. The facilities were fantastic, most of the teaching staff were experienced and inspiring and the competition was tough. I can’t fairly compare it with other Universities because I haven’t studied anywhere else. One thing to note if you are thinking about studying industrial design in Melbourne is that Monash does have a big focus towards transportation design so that can either be viewed as a really good thing or a not so good thing depending on your interests.

Monash University in recent years has from what I have seen been a pretty successful university at developing interesting major projects and developing some real successful and innovative designers. Do you have any insight into the contributing factors of this success?

I think one of the contributing factors is that there is a big focus on research so students are forced to think deeply about the projects they are working on. There is also a very competitive atmosphere at Monash which pushes everyone to keep setting the bar higher.

Whilst you were at university did you have a real set idea of where you wanted to work post-uni or were you really open to anything?

I have always been quite opened minded and was open to a range of things as long as I was involved in creative work that excited me.

Many industrial design students from around Australia are finding it extremely difficult to get any type of ID work. Do you have any advice or ‘secret sauce’ as to how to pick up work whether it is fulltime, part-time, work experience etc.?

I guess the best advice I have is not to give up and to keep busy. If you’re not finding any work, do work of your own and publish it on your online portfolio. Also a really simple but easily forgotten thing to do is to tell everybody you come into contact with that you are a designer, it’s surprising how this can lead to opportunities in unexpected places.

Design-Related Questions

What would you consider to be the best and worst aspects of being a professional industrial designer?

The best thing is that you are able to spend your time being creative knowing that you are doing something that you enjoy. As for the worst thing, every job has its downsides, I can’t think of anything that really stands out.

For your design work do you have any particular inspiration, design process or design philosophy that you design by?

I don’t think I’m old enough to have a design philosophy yet I’m still learning. I might have one, one day. When I do I’ll let you know. I don’t draw inspiration from anything in particular, I try to observe things I find interesting as much as possible and this is where I get ideas from.

Many people at Embody 3D know I am a huge CAD buff. Just out of curiosity what CAD software packages do you use and recommend (CAD/Rendering)?

I really enjoy using Hypershot for rendering.

I am also a massive fan of Hypershot, I just love its simplicity! I am really interested in the NDI system you developed for nomadic devices inside automotive interiors. Could you please explain what the NDI system is? How does it work? What is its potential?

The NDI System is an automotive interior concept designed for integrating nomadic devices like mobile phones, mp3 players, etc… into the vehicle interior. The reason for this project was the growing trend of the use of nomadic devices while driving and the issues this trend presented. Issues such as safety, cluttering of the automotive interior, competing technologies and improving the quality of the commute. The system provides physical storage of passenger devices, as well as providing interaction with the devices through the adaptable, interactive surfaces of the car interior. The NDI System is a concept based on the current technologies of its time and provides a window into the future of what car interiors one day might be like. The feasibility of this concept requires the development of a few key technologies which include wireless charging, wireless data transfer and flexible touch screen displays.

Are there any current projects your working on at the moment of particular interest?

I’m just about to finish the new website for the company I currently work for. I have been working with two external web developers which has been a fantastic learning experience. I’ve actually recently made the decision to venture overseas for a while to experience life abroad and hopefully to gain some overseas experience. So I’m busy finishing up everything here and preparing for that next step.

Joshua thanks for taking the time to talk with us here at Embody 3D. Do you have any last thoughts for the Embody 3D readers?

I’ll be basing myself in London so if there are any Embody 3d readers in the UK that would like to have a chat let me know, it would be great to meet likeminded people while away from home. Other than that thanks for having me and keep up the good work with Embody 3D.

To find out more information about Joshua please check out Joshua’s website at www.joshuasaling.com

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