Chad D.

Experience

• Director of Industrial Design Optimal Design a Deloitte Business · Full-time Oct 2018 – May 2025 6 yrs 7 mos Chicago, IL, United States Lead, mentor, and inspire our Industrial Design team from early research efforts to developing beautiful and comprehensive visual design languages, strategies, products, and user experiences. I strive to provide manufacturable designs that offer a meaningful experience to the end user. My team works in tandem with our engineers to ensure that every deliverable is realistic, cost-effective, and ready for manufacture.
• Industrial Design Manager Newell Brands · Full-time Jan 2018 – Sep 2018 8 mos Chicago, IL, United States Responsible for building, nurturing and inspiring the Industrial Design and Engineering team on a daily basis; personally contributed to and oversaw the development of all projects within the Contigo, Bubba, Rubbermaid, and Coleman portfolio; worked directly with the Product Marketing Manager, Sr. Engineering Manager and Sourcing Manager to spark and create highly innovative market-winning solutions for this portfolio; drove innovation and delivered high quality development programs that were on time and on budget.
• Lead Industrial Designer Newell Brands · Full-time Jan 2016 – Jan 2018 2 yrs Chicago, IL, United States Closely collaborated with cross functional teams including: Program Management, Marketing, Brand, Research, Usability, Engineering, Supply Chain, and external Suppliers to lead design intent (leveraging input from the design team) from concept through mass production; aligned concepts to Visual Brand Language and Business goals, always focused on the end user; interpreted and translated complex technologies into simple and beautiful products and user experiences; managed all issues that impacted design, understanding and rationalizing feedback and issues that arose from the above teams; led by example and showed an exceptional eye for detail in the creation of world class product design and experiences.
• Industrial Design Expert in Residency IDEO · Contract Sep 2015 – Jan 2016 4 mos Chicago, IL, United States
• Design Lead - Wearables Motorola Mobility · Full-time Jun 2011 – Sep 2015 4 yrs 3 mos Chicago, IL, United States Led a team of designers in the development of future programs; maintained design vision through manufacturing, worked daily with engineering and other cross-functional teams; visited with multiple suppliers across China to provide onsite production support; developed all production assets to clearly communicate CMF; communicated design & experiences via brainstorming, storyboarding, photo-realistic renderings, and 3D CAD.
• Senior Designer IA Collaborative · Full-time Mar 2010 – Jun 2011 1 yrs 3 mos Chicago, IL, United States Led brainstorming sessions; created research stimuli (sketches, storyboard illustrations and rough 3D mock-ups); conducted research observations; and applied research findings to develop designs through 2D concept ideation, 3D surface modeling, and photo-realistic rendering.
• Senior Designer Insight Product Development · Full-time Jan 2001 – Mar 2010 9 yrs 2 mos Chicago, IL, United States Led multiple fast-paced programs which involved all aspects of the design process: strong client interaction; market and design research; brainstorming; scenario building and storyboarding; rapid 2D sketch visualization; 3D surface modeling; CMF exploration; physical model form development; and design for manufacturing.