We love our time at VME! In particular, we really enjoy the opportunities we get to meet amazing top league professionals from a range of fields. In particular, we really groove our experiences with designers. This time we had the pleasure of interviewing Jane Vita – Concept and Product Designer, and Founder of Geist Institute and Service Sandbox. She is also a teacher at Aalto in the course, Designing Services with Emerging Technologies. So, may we present to you…. Our interview with Jane Vita… <3

What inspired you to follow a career in Design?

New possibilities in visual communication invaded the late 90s. It was easy to fall in love with MTV’s vignettes, Pink Floyd’s and Michal Jackson’s video clips and all the creativity displayed in magazine advertisements. I remember going to the library to browse propaganda annuals. It was a new era of communication possibilities, and I wanted to be part of it. Later, while finishing my bachelor studies, I became a trainee in a digital dealership, where I started my journey with digital strategy, services, and products.

What led you to Finland from Brazil?

Everyone involved with designing and developing mobile phones and interfaces knew that Finland was Nokia’s home. A country to develop a promising career for someone that would love to progress in digital Design. Once here, I engaged in interviews with a few companies and got a fantastic opportunity to work at Fjord, where I worked for two years, in 2008 and 2009. I moved back to Brazil after two years. Then, we moved back to Finland and stayed for more than six years. Following this, we moved to Canada, and now we are here again for the third time.

How/what do you think we can all learn from Design?

Design has many facets. I would say that it is almost impossible to find something that could not benefit from a good and well-structured design process and mindset. Designers work with processes, operations, products, services, and many other things. We need to imagine a holistic approach that considers people, and nowadays planet, to innovation and problem-solving.

For me, the core skills of designers include:

• Patience – to dig and make sense of all relevant information that can support a process
• Passion…
• Creativity – to make collaboration engaging and involving all the needed actants impacted or that influence what needs to be designed.
• Master the tools (of course) – to support excellent communication, collaboration, and craft the outcomes.

As individuals, most of the designers I know are optimistic, inquisitive, and critical individuals. They approach things with creativity and look for tangibility and clarity in everything they do. I believe we can all learn from that.

What advice would you give students studying Design?

Ensure you are always present in class – throughout your entire education. Don’t forget to start building your network and collecting things that can benefit you later, for example, a well-conducted assignment that could become content for your portfolio.

Remember that being a designer is embracing the learner mindset; as technology evolves, people’s behaviour changes, and we are more and more learning and uncovering the cascading effect of human solutions that will require a more holistic and broader scope for designers to think about when designing.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

I love travelling, playing basketball, singing, and playing piano. I also love being close to the design community, listening and discussing with brilliant minds worldwide.

Tip for the future: prevention will become part of simulations and collaboration with AI!

Thank you, Jane Vita, for all your inspiring work! Click here for more info on Jane’s latest and greatest.