EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: STEFAN ANDREN
SENIOR DESIGNER @ NIKE CORP.

Swedish born Stefan Andren has a dream job at Nike. Interview and article by Peter Meyer.

Recently I had a chance to talk with the very talented Stefan Andren. He is currently working as part of Nike's TechLab group, a new, very small team within Nike focusing on expanding the consumer electronics products the corporation is venturing into. He is a tall Swedish man with a powerful stance and blonde hair. A modern day Viking, yet he is as approachable as an old friend that you cannot wait to catch up with. His subtle disposition is matched with his unwavering confidence in his design work, which is then sculpted into his personality with a high intelligence. I was able to catch up with him at a party on the north side of Chicago. He was dressed casual in screen painted pants and a distressed wool coat, and he had a glass of red wine in his hand. He was hanging out with a mutual friend and network designer, Arlan McMillan, both had attended University of Illinois at Chicago together. I was up near the pool table when they arrived and we had a merry chat, it was the day after Christmas, and everyone was in the spirit. As much as I wanted to give him an interview right then and there, I realized that the four glasses of wine I had and the impending pool match would disrupt the creative banter. So we arranged another time and place.

I must say it was a pleasure to discuss design with Stefan, and his words and products will speak for themselves.

DE- What is your background? (Education, Internships..ect.)
SA- I grew up in Stockholm, Sweden, spending most of my time doing sports, and as a late teenager I got really into motorcycles. I joined a Harley club and built a bike from scratch based on a '61 Panhead engine.
After high school I went to the US on an athletic scholarship to play tennis. I spent one year in El Paso, Texas - that was a culture shock never having been in the US before. I then moved to Chicago where I attended The University of Illinois at Chicago. During school I had a chance to intern at Electrolux' global design center in Stockholm, Joss design , and a few other places in Chicago. I think the internships taught me as much as school did, maybe more.
After graduation I felt that I had some gaps that I needed to fill. During my internships I had seen that some designers always worked on the cool stuff, like innovative consumer electronics stuff or blue sky explorations, while others worked on pontoon boat graphics and toilet bowl flotation devices ; stuff that i found less creative. I decided this had to have something to do with how good they were. I decided to go to Art Center in Pasadena to improve and fill my gaps. Through my design mentor Sabrina Tongish, I had gotten to know a teacher there - Stan Kong. So I rented a car, filled it with what I thought I would need, and drove there. It was one of the best decisions I have made, I think. I learned a lot, and met some fantastic people.
After Art Center I went back to Chicago after accepting a job with a consulting firm called HLB. I t was a great first job for me. There was an awesome atmosphere in the office, and during my time there I had a chance to work on a very wide variety of projects for companies like Dell, Kodak, Motorola, Nike, Microsoft, Sunbeam, Amgen and many others.
After HLB I went to Motorola, where I first spent time at the head quarter in Chicago, and then a few years at the European design center in Milan, Italy. At Motorola I had a chance to work more focused - just on mobile phones and accessories. I also had a chance to work on design strategy, being involved in the company's design identity and brand building.
During my time in Chicago I also taught design at The University of Illinois at Chicago. In Italy I had the opportunity to guest lecture at the master's program at the Instituto Europeo in Milan. Teaching is absolutely great! I think I get just as much out of it as the students.
Since the fall of last year I have been working for Nike's TechLab group, primarily focusing on the company's line of portable audio products. After a slow transition period from Italy, I now live in Portland, Oregon with my beautiful wife Nicole.

DE- Are you a Futurist?
SA- What does that really mean exactly, I wonder. No, I don't think I am. Perhaps a "near futurist"
As a designer working on commercial stuff, I don't think that it is always ideal to be a pure futurist. The average consumer is often not interested (or willing) to make big jumps forward. There are examples of products that have failed because they were too new, too different, or too advanced to appeal to the mass market. Doing your job as a designer well often mean to be one step ahead of the competition, not too many.

DE-What was the catalyst that made you follow form as a profession?
SA- As many others I know I kind of stumbled across the profession. I started studying architecture in college, but found it stuffy and old school. Not knowing what to do, I was recommended to check out industrial design. I had never even heard the word before. I almost immediately knew that this was the thing for me. I had no idea you could do this stuff for a living!.

DE- Do you like blondes, brunettes or red heads?
SA-hahahhahaaha! I have never been asked that question before. I don't think that has never really driven whom I like. There are so many things that matter more. Besides, more often than we think, blondes are really brunettes, brunettes really red heads, and so on.

DE- If given an opportunity to design something that would change the world, without fanatical concern or technical concern, what would design?
SA- Wow, let me think about this one for one more day. What a great responsibility.

. Designs co-created with David Sagan who works for Arctic Zone in Chicago IL
Their line of clothing is currently in need of a producer.

DE- What computer assisted design tools do you use? Why?
SA- I have always used illustrator. I think it is a fantastic program - so easy to use and not in any way confining. it is ideal for tracing sketches and starting to refine proportions. Of course I use programs like Photoshop, but not as much any more. it's been a while since I did an old school Photoshop rendering. I tend to use Alias more and more for building 3D data. it is such a great software package - especially for organic surfaces. ProE is a program that I would like to learn better. I work with a lot of people that use it every day, and it just amazes me how powerful that program is. I often use it to add rounds to models I have built in Alias. I am right now stumbling a little bit looking for a rendering package that I like.

DE- What can we do as designers to further our expression to the consuming public?
SA-I think that the whole design profession is starting to enter into the focal point of the general public. Companies like Target showcasing product lines by top designers and making their names part of the advertising and packaging, is a good example of this.

DE- Who are your muses in life that focus the creative angle you strive for? Designers? Engineers? Midget's?
SA- Hahhahahaha! I think i understand the question. While midgets might work for others, i try to make sure that I have an inspiring environment both at home and at work. In general, I do better when I do more of a full submersion rather than a clear canvas isolation. I also try to draw inspiration from unrelated things, like looking at car geometry and part-lines as a reference for a small object, or looking at architecture as a reference for a graphical layout of something.

DE-What projects are involved with at Nike that you can share with our audience?
SA-I haven't been at Nike that long. I wish I could show you what we are working on. Soon!

DE- What is the most provocative piece of design to come out on the market recently?
SA- My answer is perhaps a bit of a cliché, but one product that comes to mind is Apple's iPod. The design is quite nice, but even more impressive to me is that this product launched the entire pay-as-you-go on-line music business through the iTunes store (now, or soon, also offered by many other companies), and that the product also started the whole HDD Mp3 player product category.

DE- Lets talk shoes, what are the materials you will be using in the future for there design?
SA- Since I work for Nike's TechLab group, my focus is not shoes. But for sure, I will try to find the opportunity to do that too some day. My friend Dave Sagan and I have had this idea for a type of metal shoes for some time now.

DE- What does it take to be a first class designer?
SA- Not positive I belong in that category myself, but being very curious and having a great appetite for learning has really helped me. The fact that I am pretty stubborn probably also helps me out.

DE- What is your favorite expression?
SA- Don't really think I have one. But it is a lot of fun to take an expression from one language and literally translate it to another. The stuff just sounds insane. For example: "Now the boiled ham is fried!" it is a literally translated Swedish expression that is equivalent to "Now you've done it!" Just image how "it's raining cats and dogs" sounds literally translated to another language.

Swedish born Stefan Andren has a dream job at Nike. Interview and article by Peter Meyer.