Designing in the Wild: The Industrial Design Podcast

Senior Industrial Designer Rob Irwin charts two decades of sustainable practice, from biomimetic lawn-dart redesigns to net-zero houses with $12 power bills. Along the way he demystifies lifecycle thinking: extraction, processing, manufacturing, distribution, use, upgrades, end-of-life, and transport. Rob critiques the limits of current LCA tools—“CO₂ is not the whole story”—and spotlights hidden health impacts like polyester microfibers. He closes with a challenge to designers: treat environmental criteria as a primary design requirement, right alongside cost, form, and function.Have ideas or just want to say hi, shoot me a note. Support the show

In this episode we speak to Jason Belaire about being different, cultural shock, designing amidst new cultures, sustainability, and the need for more to be educated on the direct impact the industrial design profession has on our environment, communities, and thought process.Have ideas or just want to say hi, shoot me a note. Support the show

Digital vs. Physical: When to Prototype—and When to Simulate Andre Brown, Principal Engineer on Amazon’s Transportation Sustainability team (and former Shark/Dyson R&D lead), joins Rob to unpack the art of knowing which problems need cardboard, which need CFD, and which belong in VR. From drag-cutting truck fairings and crowd-sourced race-car CAD to Dyson’s “egg-inspired” robot vacuum, Andre shows why flat hierarchies, cross-discipline sketch-offs, and procedural design tools accelerate innovation. If you juggle human factors, aerodynamics, and sustainability, this episode is your playbook.Have ideas or just want to say hi, shoot me a note. Support the show

Have ideas or just want to say hi, shoot me a note. Support the show

We sit down and speak with the amazing, Kip Doyle - Author, Inventor, Patent Defender. We talk about her painful story of inventing a product and then going up against Big Tech to defend her patents. She offers up invaluable insights on how to go about protecting your IP, which lawyers to hire, and her new book release, Blood In The Water: America's Assault on Innovation.BOOK LINK: https://amzn.to/3LxUm3YCONTACTEmail: [email protected]: @cardsharkwalletskinOTHER REFERENCESUSInventor.orgcardsharkskin.comHave ideas or just want to say hi, shoot me a note. Support the show