We had the good fortune of connecting with Thomas Overthun and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Thomas, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I loved tinkering and was constantly drawing at a young age. I credit my Alfa Romeo driving high school art teacher Mrs. Rox for encouraging me to consider a career in the creative field. And, by pure chance, state owned German TV gave me a first glimpse into the wonderful world of industrial design, with a documentary about the biomorphic design maverick Luigi Colani.

Today I work at the design innovation firm IDEO, and I feel lucky to continue to do this work!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
After a brief stint at a small industrial design consultancy in Germany I joined the design center of Philips in the Netherlands. For a young designer, to feel the might of a large corporation was both awe and fear inspiring, and I quickly learned to see design as a process of negotiation and persuasion.

When I moved on to IDEO, I learned the value of deep and empathic collaboration. No one person designs a product by themselves. It’s always a group of people who need to find their shared goals and rhythm. I have always been most passionate about driving a project to a conclusion, which in the case of industrial design means launching a product.

As designers, to do that, we need inspiring clients. Then we can build relationships that go beyond shared financial success, with output that has a chance to meaningfully contribute to culture.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My shoutout goes to the team that brought the OKAPA bottle to market without compromise: Hardy Steinmann, the founder of OKAPA, who has been an inspiring client through many projects together; my many colleagues at IDEO who contributed in the process; and to Beatrice Santiccioli, who envisioned the most beautiful colors for this project.

This project challenged the team to push an everyday object’s design to the extreme with its materials, performance and beauty. After the initial design concept was set, a multitude of contributors closely collaborated.

Website: https://www.ideo.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ideo/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ideo/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IDEOprofile/

Image Credits
OKAPA

IDEO

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