- As seen in Humber Today Winter 2012 issue
Mike Avery is passionate about his industrial design career, designing sales displays. But when he started university, he didn’t know anything about the industry.
Uncertain what he wanted to do after high school, he chose to study psychology at university.
“I wanted more out of my education. I mentioned my interest in design to a friend and he told me about industrial design,” Avery, seen above, recalls. “Once I found out more about it there was no turning back.”
At Humber, Avery took the one-year Design Foundation certificate program to study basic product design skills. In order to get a job in the field, he knew that he needed to learn more.
Avery chose Humber’s four-year Bachelor of Applied Technology – Industrial Design degree program because of the experienced faculty and the practical nature of the program, with numerous competitions and a paid work placement.
Patrick Burke, the Industrial Design program coordinator, says students learn practical studio skills.
“Studio courses occur in every semester. Students are given a design challenge and have to create a solution,” says Burke. “The curriculum stands out from other programs because it is studio driven, and gives strong emphasis to fundamental skills, such as drawing, rendering, 3D CAD (Solid Works, Alias), model making, and graphic creation and editing, including learning Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver.”
Avery was able to take this knowledge and use it at his internship at Straight Line Design in Vancouver.
“I participated in the design process, product manufacturing, promotional events and got my hands dirty around the shop. It was a fantastic experience,” says Avery.
Now, he works full-time at Array Marketing, where he primarily designs point-of-purchase displays. He also teaches in Design Foundation, the program he started in at Humber.
“I’m really pleased with my choice to attend Humber,” Avery says. “I take great joy in teaching and working with a new group of industrial designers.”
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Read about automotive design at Humber in Driving Automotive Design.
View video of the Industrial Design thesis show.
