Interwoven Design Group Expands Medical Design Expertise with the Appointment of Yukiko Naoi as Creative Director
Brooklyn, NY – May 1, 2025 – Interwoven Design Group is thrilled to announce that Yukiko Naoi has joined the team as Creative Director. A seasoned leader in medical product design and a long-time collaborator with Interwoven Design, Naoi brings a unique, multidisciplinary perspective that bridges the worlds of design, medicine, and wellness. Her addition to the team marks a significant expansion of Interwoven’s capabilities in the medical design and packaging fields, reinforcing the company’s commitment to innovative solutions across the market.
Naoi’s career spans over two decades in industrial design, with a specialized focus on medical devices, diagnostics, personal care products, and packaging. As former president of Tanaka Kapec Design Group (TKDG), she led groundbreaking work in medical packaging, human factors research, and healthcare innovation, collaborating with industry leaders such as AstraZeneca, Bausch + Lomb, and Johnson & Johnson. Her extensive experience in regulatory compliance, usability research, and design for manufacturing will be instrumental in advancing Interwoven’s medical design practice, and her structural packaging experience will strengthen their packaging design practice.
Beyond her industrial design expertise, Naoi is also a licensed acupuncturist and founder of Rest NYC, a clinic dedicated to integrative health and wellness. Her ability to merge clinical insights with human-centered design allows her to create products that enhance patient outcomes and experiences, improving everyday lives. This unique combination of skills positions Interwoven Design to expand its influence in patient experience and wearable technology solutions for healthcare.
“We couldn’t be more excited to welcome Yukiko to the team,” said Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman, Founder of Interwoven Design Group. “Her expertise in medical product and packaging design as well as research-driven, user-centered healthcare solutions aligns perfectly with our mission. With Yukiko’s leadership, we are poised to deepen our impact in the healthcare design sector and develop groundbreaking innovations in wearable health technology.”
Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman (left) and Yukiko Naoi (right) collaborate at Interwoven Design Group’s Brooklyn studio, celebrating Yukiko’s new role as Creative Director.
Naoi has been a long-time friend and collaborator of Interwoven Design Group, contributing to multiple medical design projects over the years. In her new role, she will lead the studio’s medical design strategy and development, helping push the boundaries of wearable technology, health innovations, and e-textile solutions. Her expertise will allow Interwoven Design to broaden its partnerships within the medical industry and explore new frontiers in healthcare design.
Interwoven Design Group is a Brooklyn-based product design and development studio specializing in wearable technology, smart textiles, and innovations in health, medical, and consumer products as well as packaging. The studio is a thought leader in the wearable technology sector and committed to supporting women in design. By combining expertise in fashion, engineering, material science, and product design, Interwoven Design Group creates forward-thinking solutions that seamlessly integrate technology with the human body.
Please join us by welcoming Yukiko to the team!
A Q&A with Industrial Designer Alvaro Uribe
A Q&A with Industrial Designer Alvaro Uribe
Spotlight articles shine a light on designers we admire, asking leaders in the field about their work and their design journey. In this interview, we spoke with industrial designer and educator Alvaro Uribe. Born in the U.S. and raised in Colombia, Alvaro’s career has been defined by a multidisciplinary approach, blending industrial design, UX/UI, and branding to create meaningful, experience-driven products. His work includes product design for leading brands, museum-exhibited creations, and an entrepreneurial venture that helped international brands navigate the U.S. market.
Photo courtesy of Alvaro Uribe.
A graduate of Pratt Institute, Alvaro Uribe honed his craft at some of New York’s top design studios before launching his own practice in 2012. Alongside his professional work, he has built a distinguished academic career, serving as a tenured professor at Pratt and mentoring the next generation of designers. Alvaro wears many different hats. As a Design Director at American furniture brand Wooda, a UX/UI Lead with startups, and an industrial design consultant, he continues to shape the landscape in various industries while exploring how design can spark moments of delight and curiosity. We sat down with Alvaro to talk about starting his own practice, the challenges facing designers today, and how he balances artistic vision with commercial success.
Q:
Could you introduce yourself and tell me about how you came to be an industrial designer?
A:
I was born in Miami, but I grew up in Colombia and my immediate family is in Colombia. I came to the U.S. when I was 19 with the goal of pursuing industrial design. I actually wanted to be a Disney animator—that was my childhood dream—but making things with my hands was also something I enjoyed. I applied to schools to study industrial design but in Colombia the application isn’t based on a portfolio, it’s based on your SAT equivalent scores. My scores weren’t great, so I was not accepted to my main schools. I took that as a sign that maybe I should go somewhere else, so I came to New York. I spent a year applying to school, I got my first job working at an art supply store at the Art Students League of New York. I took courses there on metal welding and live drawing. I hold that year of my life as one of the best. Ultimately, I got into Pratt, Parsons, and RISD. There was something about Pratt that I really enjoyed when I visited the campus, so I went for Pratt. Also, my mother’s a designer, and I think that’s part of why I gravitated towards industrial design. She has a business doing Italian-style kitchen carpentry and I spent a lot of time in the factory making silly projects as a kid. I even went to Salon De Mobile before I went to college. That exposure to the Italian world was very inspiring to me, and I was fortunate to be surrounded by people in the design world early on.
Q:
What is your area of specialization within design? What drew you to it?
A:
I don’t see myself specialized, I consider myself a problem solver with a business mind. Having said that, I’ve become very comfortable with homegoods. I like anything around the home, whether it’s housewares, kitchen tools or the core; furniture and lighting. However, as a designer, I look to be challenged, so I’m constantly looking for new markets, new projects that will excite me and keep me on my toes. For instance six years ago, I started doing something completely different called Aztro Marketplace. I met a lot of my clients by visiting trade shows. In walking the trade shows, you realize how much money goes into visiting those trade shows, especially for international brands. If you’re coming from Spain, or you’re coming from Argentina, being in the U.S. for a trade show is very expensive. So I wondered, why isn’t there a platform that helps you connect with retailers here in the U.S.?
I had this idea back in 2015 and felt like it would be unfair to myself not to try it. So, in 2019, I started Aztro, which meant A-Z trading online. I built the platform from the ground up. It involved a lot of web development—working with programmers, understanding user flows—and that got me deep into UX/UI. I had to learn it the hard way because my business was constantly revisiting things and integrating feedback from stores or brands. I walked out of that experience very knowledgeable and it opened another path in my career: working with digital interfaces, whether websites or applications.
Q:
In 2012, you started your own studio. What motivated that leap, and how has your approach to design evolved as a result?
A:
The motivation was a biking accident that I had. I was freelancing for several consultancies in New York at the time. As much as I loved it—because I was getting my hands on a lot of different projects—I always felt like an outside entity, someone who was just passing through. One day, I got hit by a bus in Chinatown and my bike was destroyed. I was lucky that it wasn’t more serious, but I knew that I couldn’t say I was enjoying what I was doing if it had been worse. I needed a change. A few weeks later, Camille Thayer from Pratt emailed me, saying, “We need someone who knows Rhino and Solidworks. Would you be interested in teaching this class?” A lot of things just came together. I also had my first client offer me a project and I thought, Maybe this is a sign that I could do something on my own.
Q:
You work across disciplines, from industrial design to UX/UI and branding. How has this multidisciplinary approach influenced your perspective on product design?
A:
Earlier in my career, when I was doing a lot of product design, I was focused on the physicality of the product and manufacturing. Now I think more about the overall experience; the journey of why someone decides to use a product. What is the motivation? What are the pain points that drove them to want the product? UX opened me up to thinking about the product beyond just the moment of putting it on the shelf and walking away. UX is a user-centric way of thinking about how the product lives and how it fits into the user’s life.
Q:
Tell us about the idea of “emotional function” in your design philosophy. Could you share an example of a product where this principle was particularly successful?
A:
The Kibo Piggy Bank for Nambé, designed by Alvaro Uribe. Photo courtesy of Alvaro Uribe.
We have these expectations of how things work. We walk into a space with an expectation of what’s going to happen or how something might look or work. I think that, as humans, we build connections with products that surprise and inspire us. When you buy a product, you’re expecting it to fulfill a specific function, but when it performs especially well, or when it sits on your shelf and you’re happy to see it, it exceeds your expectations, and creates an emotional connection. I feel like we live in a world where there are so many products. Looking back at my parents, they cherish their first camera. There was this sentimental connection with products because the products had done so much for them. They were also valuable. The appreciation I felt for products was much more present back then. I feel that now there’s an opportunity to have an emotional connection but it requires intention. It won’t happen by chance. A design I often get emails about is the Kibo Piggy Bank for Nambe, which delivers both functionally and aesthetically.
Q:
Industrial design balances artistic vision with business and user needs. How do you navigate this when developing a new product?
A:
Every client is different. Some projects are driven by market research—looking at what’s out there, identifying gaps, and creating something that fills a real need. Other clients live in more artistic or conceptual spaces, so the work leans more into visual storytelling or expression. Either way, as a designer, you’re responsible for making sure the product not only looks good but also functions efficiently and intuitively. That’s why UX and UI go hand in hand—they’re equally important. Take something as simple as a menu: it should clearly map the sections of a site, but who says it can’t also be exciting? A few years ago, I worked with a digital agency in Toronto on a corporate website. Instead of a standard dropdown, we used the golden ratio spiral to build a dynamic menu—featured projects had the most visual weight, secondary sections were subdominant, and older content took on a subtle, supportive role.
Q:
Like you, we are constantly partnering with engineers at Interwoven Design. Could you talk about the relationship between engineers and designers and how to get the most from that partnership?
A:
Engineers bring a level of analytical rigor that balances and elevates the more user-centered and experiential focus that designers often bring to the table. In any multidisciplinary collaboration, it’s the diversity of viewpoints—technical, aesthetic, functional—that leads to stronger, more market-ready products.
For example, when we’re working on something like an injection-molded product, engineers help ground the design in reality—highlighting constraints, opportunities for efficiency, and manufacturability. When you are working on an app, the programmers will be thinking about speed, efficiency and reliability of the system.The best collaborations happen when both sides listen and respect each other’s expertise. In my experience, when that mutual understanding exists, the process becomes incredibly fluid and effective.
Q:
Looking back at your body of work, could you share a project that stands out as especially meaningful to you?
A:
Two projects come to mind. The first is the mobile and desktop app I designed while serving as Head of Design at Outpave, a SaaS platform focused on expense management for small businesses in the construction industry. I had the privilege of working with an exceptionally talented and inspiring team, supported by bold, design-driven leadership. That made a world of difference—every detail mattered, and nothing was overlooked.
The challenge was tackling a space that’s often chaotic: contractors managing expenses across multiple vendors, job sites, and categories. By pairing a mobile app with a robust desktop experience, we gave users the flexibility to allocate expenses, track transactions, and simplify bookkeeping in a seamless way. The end result was a product that felt intuitive and fluid, even though it was handling deeply complex workflows. That’s what made it special—transforming a technically dense process into something smooth, clear, and beautifully simple.
The Coliseum Chair for Slide Design, designed by Alvaro Uribe. Photo courtesy of Alvaro Uribe.
The second project is the Coliseum Chair, which I designed for Slide Design, an Italian brand known for its bold indoor-outdoor furniture and strong storytelling through design. Collaborating with an Italian company was a dream come true—there’s a deep appreciation for artistic vision, paired with exceptional craftsmanship and manufacturing precision.
The chair itself was inspired by the architectural arches of the Roman Colosseum, reinterpreted into a sculptural, functional form. It quickly became an iconic piece for the brand and was prominently featured at last year’s Salone del Mobile, drawing attention for its blend of historic inspiration and contemporary aesthetics.
Q:
What are some of the biggest challenges facing industrial designers today, and how do you approach them in your own work?
A:
Keeping up with technology is a big challenge. There is so much at our disposal as designers, and learning them all feels challenging and potentially confusing. There’s so much more, but how do you integrate them properly into your process? It can easily feel like you’re trying everything but not using anything at its full potential. I think that’s a challenge.
From a job standpoint, I also feel that the industrial design consulting industry has gotten smaller since I was a student. It used to be mostly consultancies offering design services to brands but now many brands have in-house design teams. Even within in-house design teams, I feel like designers have become incredibly efficient. It used to be that you needed a big team of designers, but now a designer can do the job of three other designers. That’s challenging in the sense that there are only so many opportunities out there for the amount of industrial designers graduating every year.
Having said that, at the core of every industrial designer there’s always problem-solving. It’s been nice to see designers moving into strategy and other areas, applying that core skill of problem-solving to business, strategy, environmental practices, and so on.
Q:
What advice would you give to designers looking to create products that stand the test of time—both in function and emotional resonance?
A:
Two things. Do a lot of research, and try to have a process that allows you to make mistakes. Nowadays, we might spend an hour or two a day looking at social media. The amount of images we consume is not great for your design process. Inevitably, your brain will connect one idea to another, and then you’re feeding into this trend that we’re all reinforcing. Suddenly I feel like, I’ve seen this before. I can’t put my finger on where. One of the things I love about Pratt is that we teach abstraction; the ability to look at ideas in a very abstract way and sketch and allow yourself to have an idea that does nothing. And maybe it does do nothing, but maybe it triggered something that led you to the next idea. Today a lot of designers want to get to their idea without obstacles or without issues. As an industry, we need to embrace people showing their mistakes, showing their failures, showing what didn’t work out just as much as what did. When we celebrate that part of the process, that’s where innovation happens.
Q:
What concerns you about the future of industrial design? What gives you hope?
A:
Industrial design is unappreciated as an industry, in my opinion. I think we bring a lot of value to businesses but we can be seen as a commodity. It’s like design-washing, where the company calls something design but it’s not really design. Industrial design is such a robust field. When you’re studying industrial design, you’re expected to master a wide range of skills—sketching, CAD, rendering, user research, market research, prototyping, model making, craft, understanding materials and manufacturing processes. You also learn to think strategically about product lifecycles and marketing. It’s so much more than just making things look good.
Yet when you step into the job market, the salaries often don’t reflect the depth or value of that expertise. And that’s frustrating—because the impact of good design is tangible. You can measure it, track it, and see how it drives success. Some brands get this—they’re design-led, and they invest in it properly. But they’re the exception. Too much of the industry still undervalues design, keeping it in the underdog position it doesn’t deserve.
When it comes to hope for the industry, I believe in the resilience of designers. At their core, designers are problem-solvers—not just in their work, but in how they navigate their own paths. Many are already pivoting into new industries, bringing fresh perspectives wherever they go. Emerging fields like artificial intelligence are opening doors for industrial designers to shape all kinds of human experiences, far beyond physical products. The market is evolving, and designers have the adaptability and creativity to evolve with it.
Q:
What’s next for you? Are there any upcoming projects you’re particularly excited about?
A:
I have a range of work across both industrial design and UX, and it’s always exciting—but lately, I’ve felt a growing urge to be part of something bigger, where I can make a deeper impact. I’m now open to the idea of joining a team if the right opportunity comes along. In the meantime, I have some exciting new collections launching with clients, including a Judaica collection for Nambe, branding and web development for Wooda, barware items with a Portuguese brand, new projects with brands in Italy, and mentoring young talent alongside my role as a professor.
On top of that, I’ve been even more energized by my personal projects. Over the past year, I’ve really gotten into 3D printing as manufacturing. The idea of what a brand is is shifting, and I believe designers are increasingly becoming brands themselves. 3D printing is a powerful catalyst for that shift—it removes the barriers of minimum orders and tooling costs, allowing you to design, produce, and sell directly to your own audience. You can now launch a product that feels just as refined as something on a store shelf, but with full control over the customer experience. That kind of creative freedom is incredibly exciting to me. I want to explore it firsthand. Knowing myself, I’ll definitely give it a shot.
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We hope you enjoyed this interview with industrial designer Alvaro Uribe! Check out the rest of our Spotlight series to hear more from leaders in the design industry. Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn for design news, multi-media recommendations, and to learn more about product design and development!
3 Must-Know Brand Strategy Frameworks for Wearable Tech
3 Must-Know Brand Strategy Frameworks for Wearable Tech
A Guide to Building a Strong, Differentiated Wearable Tech Brand
In the fast-evolving world of wearable technology, having a great product isn’t enough—you need a strong brand strategy to stand out. Whether you’re designing smart textiles, medical wearables, or consumer tech that seamlessly integrates into daily life, your brand is what builds trust, loyalty, and excitement around your innovation. At Interwoven Design, we’ve seen firsthand how the right brand strategy can transform a wearable tech product from a niche idea into a market leader. In this Insight article, we’ll walk you through 3 useful brand strategy frameworks that will help shape a compelling, differentiated brand—one that connects with users, communicates value, and carves out a unique space in this competitive industry. Let’s dive in!
Understanding Brand Strategy for Wearable Tech
Brand strategy is more than just a logo or a catchy tagline—it’s the foundation of how your wearable tech product is perceived, who it resonates with, and why customers choose it over the competition. Unlike other industries, wearable technology sits at the crossroads of fashion, health, and innovation, meaning that a strong brand must balance aesthetics, functionality, and emotional connection.
A great wearable product seamlessly integrates into people’s lives, but a great wearable brand does something more—it builds trust, creates desire, and tells a story that makes people feel like they need it. Whether it’s a fitness tracker, a medical device, or a next-gen smart fabric, how you position your brand can determine whether customers embrace it or overlook it.
In the sections ahead, we’ll break down some of the most powerful brand strategy frameworks that will help you define your brand’s purpose, differentiate it in the market, and create lasting connections with your audience. We like to have a toolkit of options, as we don’t use every framework for every project, we custom build the design process for each challenge. Let’s start with positioning—because knowing where you stand in the market is the first step to making an impact.
Positioning Your Wearable Tech Brand
Before a customer even experiences your product, they experience your brand. Brand positioning is about defining what makes your wearable tech unique and why it matters to your target audience. In a crowded market, positioning helps you stand out—not just as another smart device, but as a brand with a clear purpose and value proposition.
To craft strong positioning, ask yourself:
Who is your ideal customer? Are you designing for athletes, healthcare professionals, everyday consumers, or fashion-forward early adopters?
What problem does your wearable tech solve? Is it enhancing performance, improving health outcomes, or providing a seamless user experience?
How does your brand’s personality and messaging reflect this? Should your tone be clinical and data-driven, sleek and futuristic, or approachable and lifestyle-oriented?
Key Brand Strategy Frameworks for Wearable Tech
Building a strong, recognizable brand in the wearable technology space requires more than just great design and cutting-edge innovation—it demands a strategic foundation that connects with users on a deeper level. To create a brand that resonates, companies must define their purpose, craft a compelling identity, and establish a clear and consistent message. In this section, we’ll explore three essential brand strategy frameworks—Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle, The Archetype Framework, and The Brand Identity Prism—that can help wearable tech brands differentiate themselves, foster loyalty, and create a lasting impact.
1. The Golden Circle
Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle
At the heart of every great brand is a compelling “why.” Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle framework —starting with why, then how, and finally what—popularized by his book Start with Why helps brands connect with customers on a deeper, purpose-driven level. Wearable tech brands that communicate a strong purpose inspire loyalty beyond just product features. For example, WHOOP’s why isn’t just to track biometrics—it’s to empower users with data-driven insights to perform at their best. In contrast, brands that focus solely on what they do, like offering another fitness tracker with heart rate monitoring, often struggle to stand out. By leading with purpose, wearable brands create an emotional connection that turns users into advocates.
2. The Archetype Framework
Brand archetypes, rooted in Carl Jung’s psychological theory, help brands develop strong personalities that resonate with their audiences. When wearable tech brands embrace a clear archetype, their storytelling becomes more cohesive and engaging. For example, Apple’s wearable tech aligns with The Innovator—pushing boundaries and redefining personal technology. Meanwhile, a brand like Fitbit embodies The Caregiver, prioritizing health, well-being, and accessibility. For adventure-driven audiences, Garmin wearables embrace The Explorer, appealing to those who seek rugged, off-the-grid experiences. By choosing the right archetype, wearable brands craft a more humanized identity, making it easier for customers to relate to and trust their products.
3. The Brand Identity Prism
Jean-Noël Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism
Jean-Noël Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism provides a structured way to build a strong and consistent brand identity. The framework breaks branding into six key elements: Physique (the tangible product and design), Personality (the brand’s character and tone), Culture (values and beliefs), Relationship (how the brand interacts with users), Reflection (how customers see themselves using the product), and Self-image (the aspirational identity it creates for users). Applied to wearable tech, this framework ensures a holistic brand strategy. Take Oura Ring, for example—its physique is sleek and discreet, its personality is refined and data-driven, its culture emphasizes wellness, and its relationship with users is built on trust in its health insights. By aligning all six elements, brands create a distinctive and cohesive presence in the market, reinforcing long-term loyalty.
Case Studies: Standout Positioning in Wearable Tech
1. WHOOP
Health & Performance Optimization
WHOOP has positioned itself as the go-to wearable for serious athletes and health enthusiasts. Unlike mainstream fitness trackers, WHOOP doesn’t have a screen—it’s all about data-driven insights, personalized recovery coaching, and subscription-based access to health analytics. The brand’s positioning is clear: If you’re serious about performance, WHOOP is for you.
2. Oura Ring
Discreet & Stylish Health Tracking
The Oura Ring takes a different approach, offering an ultra-sleek, screen-free wearable that blends seamlessly into everyday life. By focusing on wellness, sleep tracking, and an elegant, jewelry-like design, Oura appeals to a lifestyle-conscious audience that values aesthetics as much as technology.
3. L’Oréal’s My Skin Track UV
Beauty & Health Awareness
L’Oréal entered the wearable space with a completely different angle—combining skincare with technology. Their My Skin Track UV sensor helps users monitor sun exposure, reinforcing their brand’s commitment to skin health and beauty. This kind of niche positioning allows them to stand out in a tech space dominated by fitness and medical brands.
The key takeaway? Positioning isn’t just about features—it’s about aligning your product with the right audience, telling a compelling story, and ensuring your wearable tech solves a clear, meaningful problem.
Aim for Early Integration
A strong brand strategy shouldn’t be an afterthought—it needs to be embedded into every stage of product development. In wearable technology, where user trust and engagement are critical, aligning brand identity with product design ensures consistency and a seamless customer experience. From the materials chosen to the user interface, every touchpoint should reinforce the brand’s core values. For instance, a company focused on sustainability should integrate eco-friendly materials and transparent sourcing into their wearable products, not just market sustainability as a selling point. Similarly, a brand positioning itself as a leader in precision health should prioritize data accuracy and intuitive user experiences. By integrating brand strategy from the start, wearable tech companies create products that feel authentic, purposeful, and deeply connected to their audience’s needs.
Create Experiences that Resonate
Effective brand strategy is the foundation of a strong, enduring wearable technology brand. Whether leveraging The Golden Circle to define purpose, choosing an archetype to build a relatable personality, or using the Brand Identity Prism to shape perception, these frameworks ensure a cohesive and compelling brand presence. The most successful wearable brands don’t just develop products—they craft experiences that resonate. At Interwoven Design, we specialize in bringing brand strategy and product development together, helping wearable tech companies create meaningful, high-impact innovations. Whether you’re launching a new device or refining an existing brand, our team is here to guide you through every step of the process. Looking to create something extraordinary? Reach out to us to discuss how we can help shape your brand and product vision.
Redefining Design Education: Bridging Tradition and Transition
Redefining Design Education: Bridging Tradition and Transition
This article, co-written by Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman, Elham Morshedzadeh, Ph.D., and Annie Abell, was published in the Winter 2024 Issue of IDSA’s INNOVATION Magazine.
Design education today stands at the crossroads of tradition and transformation, demanding that we prepare young designers with both timeless skills and cutting-edge tools to address society’s most wicked problems. Traditional competencies- design research, drawing, 3D form exploration, materials expertise, and problem solving — provide an essential foundation, yet they remain insufficient if students are not also trained to critically assess which challenges merit their attention. It is not enough for aspiring designers to master techniques; they must also cultivate the curiosity, resilience, and analytical acuity necessary to navigate a rapidly changing landscape.
In an ideal setting, education serves as the launchpad for industrial design innovation, nurturing visionary thinkers who blend art with engineering to craft transformative solutions. However, equipping students with this comprehensive skill set is a persistent challenge, especially when many academic institutions struggle to adapt their curricula to the fast pace of industry change.
Bridging the gap between theory and practice is an opportunity layered with complexities. As an active member of both IDSA and academia, I witness firsthand the struggle to define exactly what our future leaders need to learn.
IDSA champions educational approaches that break tree of traditional disciplinary silos, advocating for rigorous, interdisciplinary models that merge conceptual insights with tangible, real-world applications. Yet the hard question remains: How, exactly, do we implement this vision in educational practice?
To do so, we must reexamine and modernize our current educational models, ensuring that they integrate diverse fields and instill a spirit of innovation rooted in practical experience.
This modern imperative requires rethinking our approach to instruction and embracing a model that values both technical proficiency and the soft skills of critical thinking. Beyond merely teaching students how to execute design methods, we must guide them to question underlying assumptions, evaluate potential impacts, and decide which challenges are worth pursuing. Lifelong curiosity and resilience are as crucial to their development as technical expertise. Though this strategic direction presents significant challenges, it lays the groundwork for nurturing designers capable of tackling them. In an era where technology and market needs are in constant flux, evolving our design education is not just beneficial—it is essential for cultivating leaders skilled in both analysis and creative expression.
IDSA continues to advocate for curricula that move beyond conventional boundaries, promoting interdisciplinary approaches that merge conceptual insights with real-world applications. This vision requires educators to collaborate with industry professionals and integrate cross-disciplinary knowledge, drawing from fields such as sociology, environmental science, and computer science. For example, some pioneering programs now embed project-based learning, giving students firsthand experience in problem-solving, ethical design, and innovation management.
Today, boundaries between disciplines are increasingly blurred. Creativity, technology, and cultural understanding converge to create fertile ground for innovation-a phenomenon some have termed “expanding horizons.” Furthermore, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence Al are reshaping the design process itself. Al is not merely a tool; it is revolutionizing the way we think about customization, efficiency, and user-centric design. By integrating Al and other innovative technologies, educational models can empower future designers to harness data, optimize processes, and even predict trends- pushing the boundaries of what is possible within our field.
Reflecting on this evolution, Elham Morshedzadeh, PhD, IDSA, Assistant Professor of Industrial Design at the University of Houston, says, “I believe industrial design has had a decent history in creative and adaptive teaching methods over decades of its existence. What began as hands-on practice within four-walled studios has expanded into immersive learning experiences that take students to streets, homes, hospitals, and even the depths of human thought and emotion.”
For Morshedzadeh, this journey highlights design education’s capacity as a catalyst for innovation, empathy, and societal impact. She emphasizes that design education is fundamentally about training designers to “understand, adopt, [and] evolve to create the most fit solutions.” Moreover, she argues that, with an emphasis on adaptability and observation-based solutions, design educators must structure projects and curricula to allow students to integrate new tools and technologies as project needs and industry advancements emerge.
Adding another dimension to this discussion, Annie Abell, IDSA, Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Ohio State University, offers a parallel perspective from engineering education. She explains: “I am part of a team conducting a years-long project to modernize and completely redevelop the undergraduate mechanical engineering curriculum at Ohio State. A major hurdle is the speed of a comprehensive curriculum redevelopment project compared to the speed at which technology and industry is changing. For example, if it takes us four years… to develop and implement a new curriculum, what has changed in those four years? We will likely already be behind the times.”
Abell’s insights underscore the inherent tension between the deliberate pace of academic bureaucracy and the rapid evolution of the commercial world. She stresses that the solution is to create curricula that are “agnostic to specific software, specific tools, or specific technologies” and focused instead on adaptable skills and a mindset of active learning and problem solving.
Ultimately, as we reimagine design education, it is essential to create learning environments that foster collaboration, adaptability, and forward-thinking strategies. By embracing an interdisciplinary framework that values robust technical training alongside the nurturing of critical soft skills, we can prepare designers-and engineers -to lead, innovate, and drive meaningful change in a complex, ever-evolving world. The bridge between academia and industry grows stronger when educators are not isolated in their ivory towers but remain actively engaged in the professional realm. Many academic programs already benefit from part-time professors who work full-time in industry; these educators bring first-hand experience and up-to-date insights that help schools stay in tune with the rapidly changing demands of the market.
When academics actively participate in industry projects, research collaborations, and professional networks, they not only enrich their own teaching but also inspire their students to embrace real-world challenges. This symbiotic relationship ensures that classroom theories are constantly informed by the latest trends, technologies, and practices from the field. It transforms the educational journey into one that is dynamic, relevant, and immediately applicable-a crucial factor in an era where change is the only constant.
As we build and reinforce this bridge, it becomes clear that the future of design education relies on a model in which industry and academia work side by side, each challenging and informing the other. In doing so, we create a feedback loop that continually updates curricula to reflect emerging trends, nurtures innovation, and ensures that graduates are equipped with both the timeless wisdom of foundational skills and the agility to adapt to new technologies and market realities.
A Q&A with Brand Strategy Expert Hannah June Lueptow
A Q&A with Brand Strategy Expert Hannah June Lueptow
Spotlight articles shine a light on designers we admire, asking leaders in the field about their work and their design journey. In this interview, we spoke with brand strategist Hannah June Lueptow. As Head of Research & Strategy at Manyone NYC, Lueptow navigates the intersection of emerging technologies and consumer applications across global markets. Her work reflects a keen ability to translate complex research and insights into meaningful brand strategies.
Photo courtesy of Hannah June Lueptow.
A graduate of Pratt Institute, Lueptow’s design approach blends a deep knowledge of cultural behavior with strategic thinking. Her career has taken her across seven countries, conducting projects for clients such as Magic Leap, LG, Ford Motors, and Panasonic. At the same time, she channels her creative energy into Hannah June Design, her Brooklyn-based ceramic studio. Her contributions to the design industry have earned her a Red Dot Award, an iF Design Award, and recognition as a Core77 Design Award finalist, jury member, and an IDSA Design Award finalist. We asked Hannah about standing out in a competitive market, failing fast, and how we can all think more like brand strategists.
Q:
Can you give us a simple definition of brand strategy?
A:
Brand strategy is the heart and soul of what a brand is. It is truly the foundation of how you interact with the world. And I want to say the world—not just your customers or your end user—because it is about your core values. It is how you engage with your own team, with your creative process. It’s about your approach to business and the world, and the change that you want to make in the world. That means it’s all the more critical that you define what that strategy is, so that everyone can know about who you are, what you represent, and what you can offer, and people can either buy in or opt out of that. It’s about who you, as a brand, are in the most authentic sense.
Q:
What are some common misconceptions about brand strategy that you’ve encountered?
A:
Sometimes people think that brand strategy is just what something looks like; what the font you use, the color palette, and that sort of thing. But that is the least of what I do. I’m an industrial designer by trade, and now I’m on the design, research, and strategy side of things. When we talk about brand strategy, it’s about that initial positioning in the market. It’s not just, What’s our roadmap? How are we making money? It’s a lot more emotionally driven than that, more like, Why are we doing what we’re doing? What is the meaning behind that? How can we make sure that that is felt at every touch point in our process, from discovery to purchase to last use to disposal? What is that full cycle? Where are the opportunities to reach people in meaningful ways? That to me is the strategy. It can be a mindset. It can be a product. It can be messaging.
When we think about brand strategy in 2025 and beyond, it is omni-channel. It is an ecosystem. It can no longer be only product-centric. We are in a product world, so it needs to be about this bigger vibe.
Q:
Your philosophy emphasizes failing quickly and iterating efficiently. How do you do this?
A:
I think it changes almost every day. I feel like a broken record saying this, but AI has really helped me fail faster and more efficiently. What we learn in design school is, Make your pretty perfect thing, and make sure it’s absolutely perfect before you put it in front of anybody or put it on the market. I think that’s a really dangerous approach. As a researcher, all I want is to put dirty, messy things in the market so that people can react to them, and then you get customer feedback. At the end of the day, you’re always building for that customer. If you put something too polished in front of them, they’re not going to be honest with you about it. At that point, you’ve gone really far down a single path on a single bet.
A lot of strategy is doing your due diligence and understanding the market, testing a lot of different things. You take the scientific approach of having a hypothesis, putting it in the market quickly, getting those reactions, and then adapting the outcome. You want a customer-driven solution that continues to change, because customers change. Our world moves so fast. What you liked last week is different from what you like today. I don’t think people are loyal to brands anymore. I don’t think people should be loyal to brands anymore. What have brands given us? I want, as a consumer, to be able to explore and have fun and push brands to continue innovating. Fail fast, fail often, push things into the market, iterate quickly—that’s how you stay competitive, that’s how you stay innovative, and that’s how you stay exciting and have fun as a brand as well. That’s where those magic bits really happen.
There are a lot of examples of companies that have gotten far too comfortable, thinking that they have dominated a market and that their customers will be loyal to them—Xerox is one—and they become these giants that can’t shift efficiently or quickly enough. They get lazy, they get complicit, and then a startup swoops in and takes their market share, because what consumers want is something that benefits them. So you just can’t get too comfortable. You always need to remember that the customer is your client.
I came in at the very beginning, and that’s my favorite moment of working with startups; when they have this great idea but they don’t really know how to position it or message it yet. Very early on we started with these three questions: What does the world need? What can I offer? Why does it matter? Just those three questions kicked off an amazing workshop session.
Interwoven Design worked with Hannah June Lueptow on an adaptive lingerie line for Even Adaptive.
We conducted that workshop with Even Adaptive to start aligning on their vision and their values, and to make sure that those became a foundation for the very exciting stage of visualizing and then designing these products and services. What my role really was—sometimes I joke that I host a lot of therapy sessions with entrepreneurs—was to get them in the room and ask those hard questions. You make them make choices. It’s really easy to say, We’re going to be the Uber of fill-in-the-blank. That’s okay, but what does that really mean? Why is Uber different from their competitors? Once they start thinking about their own brand in that context, it facilitates really interesting discussions. A tool I love to use is looking across different spectrums. So, Are we playful or are we serious? Where do we fall on that? It’s not to say we can’t be both, but we need to create that initial alignment on where we’re going because we do need to have a cohesive brand and consistent messaging. I think that was my core role; helping to be that therapist and understand what our message needed to be. Then I was able to come in and start talking about different visual and verbal positionings that we could take.
Q:
What were the key elements that IW developed for the client?
A:
Rebeccah’s team were the experts at prototyping and soft goods, and I would say I did pretty much everything other than that. I ensured that we were creating a brand that could carry the beautiful products that were being designed by the industrial designers on the team. We started with a lot of mood boards to identify the visual direction. Those informed the font and the type face, which informed the logo and the logotype. We played with the different logos and logotypes to create an emblem for them. That also led to color palettes, hang tag designs, and visual and verbal universes; How do we talk? What type of adjectives and language do we use? What is our form of communication? That was paired with the visual, What is our visual communication? What does our Instagram look like?Are we serious? Are we clean? All of that was packaged into a single brand book that was handed off to Even Adaptive to be able to then move into a photo shoot. Rebeccah and the team facilitated that photo shoot and it looked absolutely amazing. The book also helped to build the website and start implementing the visual assets that I helped define.
Q:
What are some of the elements that were used to position the brand to emphasize adaptability and inclusivity?
A:
It started with those questions I mentioned before, determining how we wanted to frame the story. Everyone should be inclusive, in my mind. That is not always the case, but I think that, in our ideal world, that’s a given now. I really wanted to push that messaging. Is it magical that we’re adaptive or is it empowering that we’re adaptive? You can already start to see how different tensions and imagery comes to mind depending on what you choose. It’s not to say that both of those can’t be extremely inclusive and adaptive creative paths, but it starts to transform the way you think about it.
I came up with a lot of different adjectives that allowed us to share this idea of adaptability and inclusiveness and empowerment but frame them in slightly different perspectives. Then we went into a work session with the team where we had some examples of copy and imagery that would tie very nicely into that interpretation of adaptability, and they shared their favorite elements. I think it’s typical for clients to respond to a mix of the options. They like this about this and that about that, and you gradually funnel down into the final creative territory.
Q:
How do you see adaptability and inclusivity shaping the product design market?
A:
We live in such a chaotic world. Right now what I’m seeing a lot in the inclusivity space is being very sensitive to over stimulation. I think that is very hot and needed in the market, How can we be inclusive within our environments?How do we create spaces that are inclusive? I’m seeing more energy go into that rather than into physical products, especially for the elderly population. There’s a lot of disposable income in those markets, and it’s also completely underserved.
I was joking with a co-worker this morning, saying that the silver lining I see with Ozempic is that at least people are paying attention to women over 50 now, and showing that people are living extremely successful, fulfilled, amazing, active lifestyles. We tend to forget about that. As innovators, I think we are conditioned to look at the generation below us. What’s Gen Alpha doing? But if we’re thinking about inclusive design, we shouldn’t only be looking at the younger generation. Actually, it’s much more exciting and challenging to look at, Who’s older than we are? What has been done already? There’s a lot more opportunity in underserved markets, and that’s where I get really excited.
Q:
With so many products on the market, how can a brand stand out?
A:
I think the answer is to be a little messy right now. Intentionally be messy. I think there are two factors.
One is that I believe the millennial brand is dying. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, but I think that came about with the rise of Instagram; the trend of hyper curation and everything looking perfectly in place. It was a very aspirational lifestyle. I know I just said don’t only focus on the younger generation and here I am talking about what the younger generation is doing but, if you look at how Gen Z approaches social media and their life, it’s messy. I think that is the type of authenticity that people are craving right now. That’s one facet of it.
The other facet is AI everything. We’re seeing such trash AI art and whatnot on the internet. And I already said that I love AI. I use it every day. It’s an amazing tool, but it is a tool. It is not the end outcome. There’s so much AI infiltrating our digital spaces, and I think there’s fatigue coming from that. Where I see these converging is a need for messy, authentic humanness. What does it mean to be human and not the polished, perfect, AI version of a brand? I think we’re craving that messiness. The more that brands can not try and follow trends, not try and hop on an algorithm, and just own the niche and the space that they’re in, people will find them. That’s the beauty of the era of the internet that we’re living in right now; the people who identify with you will find you, but you have to deeply know who you are and own that and articulate it well. And that’s why you need good brand strategists.
I think people are exhausted, honestly. We’re seeing a lot of no-buy 2025 trends. People are sick of constantly being fed stuff that they’re being told they need in order to keep up with the expectations of society. Brands that adapt to that and accept the not-perfectness of the world that we live in, that’s what feels real. That’s what I think people want. People want real.
Q:
As someone who has been both a jury member and a finalist for design awards, what do you think sets award-winning design strategy apart from the rest?
A:
The bar is really low. I participate in a lot of design awards and juries, and I tell applicants to show process, show thinking. Anyone, especially in this age of AI, can make a pretty product. That is the baseline at this point. I want to know why it looks like that, what decisions you made along the way, and what impacted those decisions. And so we go back to the need to fail fast and fail often. I want to see how many times you failed. I want to see all the different versions that this design went through to get to this outcome because, at the end of the day, I’m judging on thinking and process and methodology, not on the render.
Q:
You’ve conducted strategic research in many countries. How do cultural behaviors influence global design strategy?
A:
Humans are so different, and culture is such an important and fascinating aspect of how we engage with the people, the products and the environments that we use. That, to me, is what is so amazing about customer experience design. You need to be tuned into all of these elements. How do people engage with the products they use? How do those products then interact with the environment that you’re in, and then also with the people that are in that environment as well? When I do international research, it is often with US-based companies that have a product or a technology that is already well established in the US market and they want to expand into an emerging market. Luckily, a lot of these clients recognize that there are unique behaviors and circumstances in other countries that we can’t anticipate.
For instance, I was working with Ford on a car that would be sold in the US but produced in Brazil and India. There was a new scratch-resistant coating that Ford wanted to put on the car, and it was kind of pricey. My initial approach was to question the value. It doesn’t actually protect against dents, even though that was the original pitch. But it turned out to be the highest rated feature for this potential car. And why? Because there are a lot of stray dogs in India and they like to sleep on the top of cars at night, because they’re warm from the sun. The dogs stay warm, but they also accidentally scratch the paint on your car.
Being able to tell rich stories like that is the power of doing international research and the importance of doing research anywhere. I’m working with a massive client right now that touches all of our lives and they don’t talk to customers. Or, they talk to customers but only to their fanboys. They talk to people who are advocates, hero users, and they think that they’re getting great feedback. And of course they are, because those users won’t ever tell you it’s bad. Those people love you. But how are you going to build into new markets if you’re not actually understanding the users who are in those markets? So I think it applies everywhere and to every company, no matter what market you’re researching.
Qualitative research is especially important. We have so much quant data floating around right now. We are all aggregating data at an insane rate, we barely even know what to do with all that data. But who’s actually talking to people? How do you tap into the emotional drivers behind things? Why are we actually choosing the things that we do? A lot of the time it takes sitting down with someone for an hour or two to really get into that nitty-gritty and understand that. There is so much untapped value that companies could gain from sitting down and talking face to face with customers.
Q:
Can you share an example where research led to a major shift in brand positioning or product design?
A:
I was working on a consumer-facing tech product. I had done a ton of research and created a product roadmap for them along with a list of what this product needed to include. We call the key features hero moments. This is a term I love to use because it’s not just a feature. It’s more than a feature. What’s the thing that you tell your best friend about when you use something? That’s a potential hero moment. We defined what the hero moments of this product should be by talking to the core target user. OK, jump ahead to three months later. I’m completely uninvolved at this point. The engineers are working on these things in China with the client, and they realize that putting Bluetooth and this other sensor in it will increase the cost significantly. But they also realized they needed those features, because that’s what would enable the hero moment. They saw from the research that their product would have significantly less value to the end user if it did not include that hero moment, and their decision became very easy. Sure, our product’s going to be more expensive and we are going to now target a higher income market for this product. We also understand that if we don’t include this feature that will make it significantly more expensive, the product will lose all value.
That was a really exciting moment for me. This was a client that did not value research at the beginning of our engagement but—through working with us and through seeing these insights that were very actionable in the design process—they became evangelists of qualitative research in their own process, and referenced our work months in the future. Listen to your users!
Q:
How do you see brand strategy evolving in the next 5–10 years, especially with advancements in technology and AI?
A:
AI is making everything faster. What’s exciting is that we have a lot more resources to fail fast. It’s so much easier to get to something tangible, and maybe it’s not refined or thought out, but you can get something that is visual enough to get an initial reaction. What I hope and believe for brand strategy is that we are going to see a huge divergence in creative thinking and creativity.
The negative side is that potentially everything converges and starts looking like AI. But I think if designers and creatives and strategists use AI as a tool, things will open up and be a lot more creative, a lot more unique, and a lot more personalized. The future of successful brands is taking a strategic approach to personalization with their users. We already have niche brands and products and user groups, but I think we’re going to see the 2.0 of personalization because they’re going to be understanding our data in deeper ways. It’s our job as brand strategists to help these companies understand how to use that data in a way that isn’t creepy but brings value to the user in new ways.
Fifteen years ago, it was transformational to us that we could get two day shipping with Amazon Prime and anything could be on our doorstep. Today, I can call a car to my house with my phone. That was insane 10 years ago. Now it’s just what convenience looks like. I think we need to start exploring what that next level of convenience and personalization will look like powered by data and AI.
Q:
If you could give one piece of advice to designers looking to transition into strategic roles, what would it be?
A:
First of all, get into strategy. There’s no wrong way to do it. Strategy is what gives designers a seat at the table. Often, we, as designers, don’t think we deserve that or don’t think it’s our place. We design the thing and that’s it. But if you’re a strategist, you are thinking about the business as well. We are used to thinking about the product, and of course it’s important to think about the customer, which is a lot of what I’ve been saying here. I think the next layer is thinking about business implications, return on investment, and potential impact. The first step into strategy can just be thinking about the impact of a product or a service that goes beyond the core interaction. How does it work with the bigger ecosystem of offerings that this company has? How does this grow into the future? What does it evolve into? What additional benefits or services could spin off of this idea? Thinking about impact and value, that’s thinking like a strategist. You start thinking like a founder or a business person might think.
