15 Questions with Michael DiTullo (Part 1)
By Alexis Wagman
Michael DiTullo’s work as an Industrial Designer is extensive, over 25+ years of experience that continues to bring human-centric solutions to life. Michael has led product design for brands such as Nike, Converse, Salesforce, Biltwell, and Titleist, and now works as Creative Director for Carnegie Acoustic Solutions, driving innovation for our Kirei and Xorel Artform brands. In this exclusive three part interview we had a chance to catch up with Michael to speak about his experience as an Industrial Designer, his unique design process, as well as get some insight into his work in Acoustic Design.
How did you decide that Industrial Design was the career path for you?
When I was a little kid I loved imagining how things might be in the future. I was fascinated with the illustrations in magazines like Popular Science and I just thought “wow, that must be someone’s job”. Most days I would get home from school and open up the Sears catalog to a random page and then try to imagine what the future of whatever of that page might be… I was basically thinking like an industrial designer at 12 years old. That year I told my parents I wanted to “draw stuff from the future” when I grow up. By chance a few weeks later my father saw an article about the Italian industrial designer, Giorgetto Guigiaro. The article showed 4 objects he designed, a sports car, an ocean liner, a tennis racket with a larger sweet spot and a pasta shape that was designed to hold sauce better. Immediately I knew that was exactly what I wanted to do!
Talk about your design philosophy and describe how it influences your work.
I love designing things that impact people's everyday lives. I feel like good design should be approachable, friendly, and helpful. Most people don't live in a Frank Lloyd Wright home or have a Picasso on their wall, but they have countless everyday objects in their lives. I've done my job if I can help bring them something that not only functions well but also brings them a little joy in their day.
Where do you look to find inspiration?
Honestly, everywhere. It might be someone walking down the street, or the way a tree casts a shadow on the wall outside my studio. I might find inspiration in something I’ve passed by hundreds of times but for some reason that day it just hits me. I love going to coffee shops and just looking at people, observing them at the airport or the bookstore. I also find it important to immerse myself in other creative fields. I get inspired by an amazing meal, observing how a comedian crafts a joke during a standup show. Sometimes I’ll listen to the same song over and over and just try to pick out every instrument and try to figure out why they put what where… inspiration is everywhere if you are open to it.
How would you describe your design process?
I'm a very collaborative person. I love talking to all kinds of people early in the process. People in sales, engineering, marketing, operations, testing, they all have these interesting little kernels of ideas. I like to pull in a diverse group of people together early in the process for a workshop and through that I can usually generate dozens of ideas. My goal is always to produce a surplus of innovation so the best ideas can move forward. The process is like a funnel, I start out with many more ideas than we need and as we develop them they become fewer but stronger. Once the ideas are all out it comes down to having enough time to iterate, refine, prototype, iterate again. If a product looks too good early in the process I get nervous because that means I didn't push hard enough. To make something innovative you have to allow yourself the time to fail multiple times to figure it out.
In your book 365, One Year of Design Sketching Every Day you embark on a challenge to create a concept sketch everyday for an entire year. Is this an exercise you recommend to every designer? Why or why not?
My good friend and fellow designer Spencer Nugent did a “sketch a day” challenge the year before and I just loved seeing his daily posts. It really inspired me so I thought I would pick up the baton and do it the next year. The first few months were so fun… but as time wore on it actually got harder. I remember once I was at a trade show in Las Vegas and it was 2am and I remembered I hadn’t done my sketch yet for the day! By the time the year was coming to a close I couldn’t just put all of that hard work behind me. I thought a fun way to celebrate it would be to turn it into a book. Of course this was yet another project and it took me another year to get the book done! It was a great experiment though. I got faster and more effective at communicating ideas. I recommend any designer to regularly challenge themselves. It is so important to take the time to stay sharp as a designer. I try to never take anything for granted. My reputation might get me in the door somewhere but my skills are going to keep me there!
Click here for Part 2 of our conversation with Michael. To learn more about Michael, head to his website here. If you would like to submit questions on anything design-related for future installments of the series we'd love to hear from you! Email questions to: acousticdesignservices@carnegiefabrics.com.
