We had the honour of hosting our latest Inspiration Session with New Zealand turned Singapore designer Jesse Keith. As Owner/Design Director of Vivid Origin Ltd, Jesse fit the theme of his session: Global designs start from humble beginnings. He started out at Massey University; he’s since worked in some of Asia Pacific’s most vibrant cities and alongside internationally regarded designers at Bang Design (Sydney), GE/Fitch (Singapore), and Haworth Furniture (Shanghai).

Jesse was in New Zealand for a visit home, and spoke to our group about what it takes to be a designer. His thoughts range from understanding customer values, technology, engineering, production, and project life cycles, to creating engagement with users, valuing simplicity, and discovering user insights.

He also shared some insights on what it’s like to work in China. He’s noticed a change in the level of design there: young Western trained designers are challenging the status quo and raising the bar. One trend driven from this change is the idea of designing a product as a platform, where multiple products based on the same platform could be customized in their own way, much like how cars are produced.

His experience with consumer electronics, commercial furniture, domestic hardware, bespoke environments, and 3D branding stories lead him to start his own company, Vivid Origin. Vivid Origin provides design and development services to clients throughout the APAC region and enjoys guiding its clients through the “fuzzy front end” of design strategy creation all the way to the nitty-gritty of product engineering and ultimate manufacture.

Check out Jesse’s presentation below, and check out his portfolio online at www.jessekeith.com.