Henry Cotter

What I love most about design is the process of going from nothing to something. You’re starting with a blank page (or screen) and ending with an actual product. Design is often portrayed as an epiphanous moment that leads to the next great invention. I suppose it can be, but I find that you need to do the hard work of sketching and exploring different ideas and through that work, good design is revealed. You can’t run a marathon (I’ve run seven) if you don’t do the hard work of running. Coming up with those ideas and digging into the details of a design to make it a reality gives me drive. As an Industrial Designer at Sharp, I worked with six different OEM customers to design products that adhere to their respective brand languages. I loved sketching, using 3D CAD and working with our Mechanical Engineers to figure out where to place screws and fasteners, so they’re hidden from view but still accessible to our workers for assembly. Juggling six different customers AND designing Sharp products put my project management skills to the test. It was fun and I relished it! While in Singapore, I worked in Marketing as a Graphic Designer with the US Navy. I worked with 5 different program managers to produce at least 10 pieces of advertising per month to promote parties, talks, classes and more. The work (and fun!) was in the collaboration and figuring out how to design the advertisements. I learned a ton about graphic design, layout, advertising, online marketing and further honed my project management skills.