As anyone who knows me knows (or who has at least seen my website www.laurenaebowers.com <<- check it out!!), I am trained as an Industrial Designer. But I didn’t always start out this way.
When I first came to Tech I was actually registered as a Biology major. I had the best Bio teachers in high school, Mrs. Bullock for honors and Mr. Rose for AP… I was obsessed (still borderline am though I (try to) contain myself a little better now). However, something compelled me to change my major to Industrial Design. I don’t know. I really don’t. (Don’t get me wrong, I love my major and excelled at it and don’t regret it in the slightest. Just saying I don’t remember why I changed. Fate?)
Anyway, I’m very much interested in sustainable design and how products can be designed and manufactured in a way that have a positive impact on the World and on the human race. Mass consumerism exists and I don’t know that it’s really ready to go away or if it ever will. But I do think that Industrial Designers have HUGE potential to shape people’s perceptions of ‘things’ and quality of life. Lots of people don’t really know what we are.. like a secret behind-the-scenes force. I have to explain my degree more often than I’d like, but it’s OK. I love talking.
So anyway, it’s a little difficult to find a job, so why not further my education with a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering? (previous couple of posts) It would be a more productive use of my time than simply waiting tables or working retail for the next two years, am I right? Plus I miss math and systematical/orderly things like you wouldn’t believe. I took 5 math classes in high school (yeah… that girl who doubled up one of my free electives to take more) and was on the Math Team (president my senior year), member of Mu Alpha Theta.. my favorite problems are the super long ones that take pages to do. Unfortunately for me I haven’t taken a math class since 2007. That being said: Oh wow I’m so excited/nervous about the Spring!
So anyway – back to the ocean. I would love to design products that are for outdoor/ocean/explorer/learning/research/lab/scuba/hiking/adventure… I think people should get outside more. Anything in that realm. One of my favorite parts of Product Design is the thought and research that goes into the initial design. How do you hold it? How do you use it? What does it help you do? How does it make you feel? How does it work? What already exists? How can this be engineered to be manufactured inexpensively and in a sustainable way? Who will use it? All that stuff…. oh it’s just so exciting!
So, obviously ME and ID go hand in hand. ME will only make my education and training in ID stronger. But there’s this awesome thing out there called Ocean Engineer and they learn everything about the ocean and come up with new products and gizmos to help out the researchers and people using the ocean. I think it’d be awesome to come up with new, sustainable products that could be used by everyone around the World to learn, study, explore, and fall in love with our planet. (It’s a really vague major/profession.. I could kind of do whatever I wanted, the ocean is pretty big and relatively unharnessed/explored/we don’t know that much about it yet… comparatively speaking)
Just a thought. For now (future now, not right now), back in school and just learning and exploring. Everything will happen when it’s meant to happen. I just need to be ready for it.
speaking of being ready: I’m checking the registration website every 5 to 10 minutes until I get that class I need. Determination and Persistence = qualities I have.
