What does your heart tell you?

12.9.25

At one point during Becca’s Offsite session (yes I am still going on about this talk) she landed on a slide that said “what does your heart tell you?” She narrated it with, “I just want you to look inside yourself and find where those warm fuzzy emotions come up when you sit down to design”.

I remember my initial thought was “not industrial design”. I quickly began backtracking in my mind as tears came to my eyes. I couldn’t have meant that. As the years passed, I often returned to that section of the talk and each time would try and convince myself that industrial design was the answer, I couldn’t admit that my first reaction was true, until now. 

That wasn’t the first time I questioned if I actually wanted to be an industrial designer. The first was during my second year of college. I was sitting in my friend’s apartment and telling her how I felt like so many of our classmates seemed to have this innate ability to design and loved it in a way I could only dream of. I was holding on to the fact that I had passed first year portfolio review as some sort of sign that this was what I was meant to do. I felt stuck finishing what I started and had already given so much time, money, and myself to this career path that I saw no alternatives.

I spent the last six years convincing myself that it would get better. That I would love it and feel like a “real” industrial designer once I got an internship, once I graduated, when my first product came out. And of course all those moments were amazing and some that I am most proud of, but they didn’t change the underlying feeling. Last year I considered leaving the design industry altogether. But I had no clue what I would be if I wasn’t an industrial designer. I felt like I had to make everything I went through in school worth it and to me that was staying in this industry no matter what. 

When I saw Offsite post their Summer offerings I was so excited to see the return of CMF. It was a class I had wanted to take for years now, but had never had the time or mental capacity for it. I had heard so many good things about the class and figured learning a new skill set could help my industrial design work. I decided to take the leap and enroll with no idea of where it would lead me. In school CMF was that last minute thing you did at the end of a project. Where color was decided after a five minutes Google search on color psychology. Through the class I learned that CMF is so much more than that. It’s this puzzle of history and current events, storytelling, and emotions. It was a new way to approach design based on tangible research and creating connections to tell human stories. It gave me a sense of joy I hadn’t experienced in design before and everyone I talked to about it could see it too. For the first time I saw an alternative.

 After years of trying to convince myself that one day everything would fall into place and that at some eventual milestone I would feel like a “real” designer. I have come to accept that my first inclination was correct, the answer is not industrial design. Which is why I am excited to announce that I am transitioning into CMF and trend forecasting. I have finally listened to what my heart was trying to tell me all along and found the thing that brings out the warm fuzzy emotions when I sit down to design.

I want to thank everyone who encouraged and supported me along the way. I truly am so grateful.  Also a huge thank you to everyone who has read my blog posts this year. I love writing and can’t wait to share more in 2026.

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