My Design Business Setup
A guide to the equipment I use to run my profitable one-man design agency
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👇 If you’re here for the industrial design job postings, scroll down to the bottom.
(or keep reading)
Imagine a design agency.
What does it look like in your head?
An airy, spacious office filled with Herman Miller chairs? Sleek, glass conference rooms with the latest video calling tech? A fully stocked snack bar and a cushy break area with designer couches?
That’s certainly what I imagined when I graduated college with my industrial design degree. And for the first decade of my career, I did work in an environment like that. It can have many perks and be a great place for a design team to collaborate on amazing work.
But things are looking a little different for me in the next phase of my career.
Last June, after just over ten years of growth and learning, I left my role as a partner at a top design studio to pursue my own path.
For the last few months I’ve been running my own one-man industrial design agency out of my home office, working on projects for startups and corporations that make a variety of products.
Since I no longer had the cool studio space that I used to work in and all the state-of-the-art equipment that came with it, I’ve had to figure out a new setup for myself. Luckily, I found that getting your own functioning design studio up and running isn’t all that hard these days.
I’ve written a brief guide to the equipment I use to run my operation, including:
Computers and tablet
Computer peripherals
2D and 3D printers
Audio-visual equipment
You can check out the full guide here:
If you want to find it again later, I’ve broken out the guide as a post in a new section of Design Things, which I’m just calling “Resources” for now:
Let me know if you have any questions and definitely let me know if this content about running a design business is interesting to you. I’ve been a leader at a top design studio and now a design solopreneur. I’d love to share more of what I’ve learned with you (if you’re interested).
Have a great week!
Design Things of the Week
Each week I share a few design-related things I’ve encountered.
📄 An article that shows you how deep you can go on a font:
LoveFrom, Serif: a modern interpretation of Baskerville created by Jony Ive’s LoveFrom. I’ve always maintained that industrial designers need to learn about typography and graphic design in order for them to best communicate their work. It’s nice to see concepts from industrial design, like curvature continuity, making their way into typography as well.
📺 A video that will teach you about composition in visual communication:
Succession: How the Camera Lies by Patrick Tomasso. This isn’t strictly design-related, but this video discusses the masterful camera work on Succession and how it significantly contributes to the show’s distinct visual style and helps communicate story points. A lot can be learned from cinematography and applied to how we craft images to communicate design.
🤔 Two LinkedIn posts that will tell you what ID software to invest in:
My LinkedIn polls about most popular CAD and rendering software. I recently surveyed the LinkedIn professional ID community about their primary choice of software. With over 1000 responses on both, the results are pretty clear: If you want to be as employable as possible, master SolidWorks and Keyshot.
🎵 Music that will help you get work done:
Design Vibes playlist by Sherzod Max on Spotify. I’m always looking for music to get into a work groove to. I find it really helps me focus to have the right type of music on. This playlist takes you through a variety of intensities of mostly electronic music without excessively distracting vocals that helped me keep me on task a few times this week.
🗨️ A quote about helping others:
You will never lose by helping others win - John Maxwell
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Just the ID Jobs - 17x Full-Time, 5x Internships
“Just the Industrial Design Jobs” is a segment of this newsletter that lists only industrial design jobs that were posted within the last week to various job board websites. US based only for now for my sanity (sorry!).
Please let me know if you find this useful, and if it is I encourage you to share or forward it onto your industrial design friends.
Authentic Industrial Design, LLC - Industrial Designer
Remote
Outdoor equipment
$35 - $55 an hour
0 years experience minimum
SCS Direct Inc - Product Designer/Industrial Designer
Trumbull CT
Durable goods
$45,000 - $70,000 a year
0 years experience minimum
The Galante Architecture Studio - Assistant Furniture Designer
Cambridge MA
Furniture
$55,000 - $60,000 a year
1 years experience minimum
Stoner Industrial Services - Industrial Designer
Denver PA
Custom fabrication
1 years experience minimum
Munchkin, Inc. - Industrial Designer, Curio
Van Nuys CA
Home goods
$70,000 - $80,000 a year
1 years experience minimum
MERIT - Packaging Designer
San Francisco CA
Packaging
$80,000 - $100,000 a year
3 years experience minimum
Acushnet Company - Product Designer - Titleist Golf Gear
Fairhaven MA
Sports equipment
3 years experience minimum
Jazwares, LLC - Packaging Designer - Activity & Action Figures
Bristol PA
Packaging
4 years experience minimum
Jazwares, LLC - Toy Product Designer - Building Sets
Sunrise FL
Toys
4 years experience minimum
ConMet - Industrial Designer - Plastics
Vancouver WA
Automotive
$94,689 - $142,033 a year
5 years experience minimum
Square - Sr. Industrial Designer
Oakland CA
Equipment
$129,300 - $185,900
5 years experience minimum
Skeeter Products, Inc - Industrial Designer
Kilgore TX
Boat design
$60,000 - $75,000 a year
0-5 years experience minimum
Boar's Head - Packaging Designer
Sarasota FL
Packaging
2-3 years experience minimum
Hewlett Packard Enterprise - Industrial Designer
Spring TX
IT equipment
$73,400 - $168,900 a year
2-4 years experience minimum
Moey Inc - Exhibit Detailer (CAD & Industrial Design)
Brooklyn NY
Exhibit design
$27 - $33 an hour
3-5 years experience minimum
Stress Engineering Services, Inc. - Senior Industrial Designer
Cincinnati OH
Consulting
5-7 years experience minimum
Sonos, Inc - Senior Industrial Designer, Design Development
Remote
Audio
$150,000 a year
8-10 years experience minimum
StatGear - 3D printing Specialist - Industrial Designer - Interns Welcome
Fort Lauderdale FL
Survival gear
$20 - $26 an hour
0 years experience minimum
Schneider Electric - Industrial Design Intern
Andover MA
Equipment
0 years experience minimum
Pella Corporation - Industrial Design Intern - Summer 2023
Pella IA
Architectural products
0 years experience minimum
Humanscale - Industrial Design Intern
New York NY
Office products
$18 an hour
0 years experience minimum
Munchkin, Inc. - Industrial Design Intern, Curio
Van Nuys CA
Home goods
$18 an hour
0 years experience minimum