{"id":18476,"date":"2019-06-20T16:22:55","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T20:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/?p=18476"},"modified":"2019-06-20T16:22:55","modified_gmt":"2019-06-20T20:22:55","slug":"shaped-by-human-connections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/2019\/06\/20\/shaped-by-human-connections\/","title":{"rendered":"A Design Career Shaped by Human Connections"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Travis<\/a><\/p>\n

Written by Stuart Hall<\/em><\/p>\n

If Travis Baldwin\u2019s professional moves were to be plotted by push-pins on a global map, then the path would be as wide as his experiences have been diverse.<\/p>\n

They would mark Raleigh, Spain, Denver, Houston \u2014 twice, actually \u2014 San Jose, San Francisco and currently Bristol, located in southwest England. As for background, he\u2019s been an industrial & strategic designer, a space architect, worn the hats of advisor, consultant, and entrepreneur, and has also taught \u2014 at the University of Houston\u2019s ID program and currently at the University of Bristol Innovation Masters program.<\/p>\n

For all of his work experience over the past 21 years, Baldwin, who graduated from NC State in 1998 with a Bachelor of Industrial Design<\/a>, says what has propelled his journey was not only doing good design work in his varied roles, but also the human connections.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost every new job was not just a blind application to a job posting,\u201d said Baldwin, who founded Cr\u00e9a\u00a0Inc. Design LTD<\/a> in 2004 and has nurtured the company\u2019s growth through the years amid various career moves. \u201cIt\u2019s meeting someone and making an impression, knowing a colleague at a firm or being introduced to key people through projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like the time in 2008, when Baldwin was working for a startup in Houston. He went to a local design event, struck up a conversation with some members of a NASA design team and met noted industrial designer Ross Lovegrove, who, at one point in his own career, worked at a firm Baldwin had also previously worked \u2013 Frog Design. Within a month or two, Baldwin came across a job posting for NASA\u2019s Habitability Design Team, and because of this experience he had a connection with the team there<\/p>\n

\"travis_baldwin_apollo_visit\"<\/a>
Baldwin (background) during a visit by Apollo Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Gene Cernan, John Young (not shown), and Harrison Schmitt to review full-sized model crew area for the new Altair lunar lander (2009).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMy experience was also quite focused around skills they needed: aviation experience, vehicle human factors, and a student NASA project,\u201d said Baldwin, who attended space camp as a child and later worked with NC State Engineering<\/a> on student lunar lander concepts. \u201cI got the interview, it went well, and I joined the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along the way, Baldwin has been a part of some compelling projects. One, in particular, was the design for the UK\u2019s Britannia 10MW offshore wind turbine in 2009, planned by a CA turbine manufacturer to be the largest in the world (but was unfortunately never built). It recently won an A\u2019 Design Award in the Energy Products and Devices Design Category in 2018-19<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a great project, challenging because of the scale and materials,\u201d said Baldwin, who also considers his time working on crew habitation areas at NASA as a top experience. \u201cOur work was to develop new interior crew area architectural design for the fleet Constellation project spacecraft … new kinds of 0g and planetary habitats, vehicle cockpits and even parts of the new pressurized rover.\u201d Other projects were based on different space human factors challenges such as sleeping and food systems\u2026 including a 0g space coffee cup. The cup design happened on personal initiative, taking an experiment done by astronaut Donald Pettit and turning it into a more human product \u2014 later picked up by design blogs. It eventually led to a meeting with Ast. Pettit and the fabrication of concept models for testing.<\/p>\n

\"Baldwin's<\/a>
Baldwin’s most important design at IBM was the internet appliance (2001). It was meant to blend into the home when not in use. It won an IF and CES award.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Baldwin\u2019s career ascension, which began at IBM in nearby Research Triangle Park right after graduating NC State, has also included trying and uncertain times. While working for Antelope Tech, a struggling tech startup in Denver, he suddenly \u201cspent a couple of weeks homeless, not sure what to do,\u201d he said. That quickly led to Baldwin’s first go-round in Houston after the company won a new round of funding, staying with another product engineer in a guest house owned by Antelope\u2019s new main investor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were working in a warehouse at his waste treatment plant in Pasadena (Texas), driving past oil refineries and cracking plants on the way into work, and smelling like chemicals every night when we left,\u201d said Baldwin. The first project there was an accessory that not only solved a problem with their flagship tablet pc and won a major contract, but also let to the team being rewarded with an office in a downtown Houston skyscraper.<\/p>\n

There is a point to Baldwin\u2019s Denver-to-Houston story that serves as a teaching moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersistence and having thick skin is a huge part of success in design,\u201d Baldwin said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to put yourself out there and track down the opportunities.\u201d It\u2019s also been a great recipe for a small business, where you have to find new companies and projects all the time.<\/p>\n

Current he is a teaching fellow at the University of Bristol\u2019s Centre for Innovation<\/a> 1 day a week, where he identifies with a particular type of student.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersistence and having thick skin is a huge part of success in design. You\u2019ve got to put yourself out there and track down the opportunities.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cYou see the ones who are going to do well\u2026 \u00a0the ones working really hard and putting in the extra effort, making connections and being personable as well as talented. It\u2019s going to be a combination of things [that make them successful].\u201d<\/p>\n

While helping grow University of Bristol\u2019s fledgling Masters in Innovation program, inspired by programs such as Stanford University\u2019s d.school, there is a passion for helping all students succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have students from computer science, physics, history, theatre, geography, anthropology, psychology, electrical engineering, business, and more making up the multi-disciplinary cohorts \u2013 much like teams in the real world. They are adding this 1-year Integrated Masters into their three-year undergraduate program to have an extra edge in the industry when they get out,\u201d<\/p>\n

He said. \u201cWe get them into the classroom to work together on projects while being taught about entrepreneurship and the innovation process. To be honest, it\u2019s kind of like the design process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"

\"Travis<\/a><\/p>\nWritten by Stuart Hall<\/em>\n\nIf Travis Baldwin\u2019s professional moves were to be plotted by push-pins on a global map, then the path would be as wide as his experiences have been diverse.\n\nThey would mark Raleigh, Spain, Denver, Houston \u2014 twice, actually \u2014 San Jose, San Francisco and currently Bristol, located in southwest England. As for background, he\u2019s been an industrial & strategic designer, a space architect, worn the hats of advisor, consultant, and entrepreneur, and has also taught \u2014 at the University of Houston\u2019s ID program and currently at the University of Bristol Innovation Masters program.\n\nFor all of his work experience over the past 21 years, Baldwin, who graduated from NC State in 1998 with a Bachelor of Industrial Design<\/a>, says what has propelled his journey was not only doing good design work in his varied roles, but also the human connections.\n\n\u201cAlmost every new job was not just a blind application to a job posting,\u201d said Baldwin, who founded Cr\u00e9a\u00a0Inc. Design LTD<\/a> in 2004 and has nurtured the company\u2019s growth through the years amid various career moves. \u201cIt\u2019s meeting someone and making an impression, knowing a colleague at a firm or being introduced to key people through projects.\u201d\n\nLike the time in 2008, when Baldwin was working for a startup in Houston. He went to a local design event, struck up a conversation with some members of a NASA design team and met noted industrial designer Ross Lovegrove, who, at one point in his own career, worked at a firm Baldwin had also previously worked \u2013 Frog Design. Within a month or two, Baldwin came across a job posting for NASA\u2019s Habitability Design Team, and because of this experience he had a connection with the team there\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_18511\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\"]\"travis_baldwin_apollo_visit\"<\/a> Baldwin (background) during a visit by Apollo Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Gene Cernan, John Young (not shown), and Harrison Schmitt to review full-sized model crew area for the new Altair lunar lander (2009).[\/caption]\n\n\u201cMy experience was also quite focused around skills they needed: aviation experience, vehicle human factors, and a student NASA project,\u201d said Baldwin, who attended space camp as a child and later worked with NC State Engineering<\/a> on student lunar lander concepts. \u201cI got the interview, it went well, and I joined the team.\u201d\n\nAlong the way, Baldwin has been a part of some compelling projects. One, in particular, was the design for the UK\u2019s Britannia 10MW offshore wind turbine in 2009, planned by a CA turbine manufacturer to be the largest in the world (but was unfortunately never built). It recently won an A\u2019 Design Award in the Energy Products and Devices Design Category in 2018-19<\/a>.\n\n\u201cThat was a great project, challenging because of the scale and materials,\u201d said Baldwin, who also considers his time working on crew habitation areas at NASA as a top experience. \u201cOur work was to develop new interior crew area architectural design for the fleet Constellation project spacecraft ... new kinds of 0g and planetary habitats, vehicle cockpits and even parts of the new pressurized rover.\u201d Other projects were based on different space human factors challenges such as sleeping and food systems\u2026 including a 0g space coffee cup. The cup design happened on personal initiative, taking an experiment done by astronaut Donald Pettit and turning it into a more human product \u2014 later picked up by design blogs. It eventually led to a meeting with Ast. Pettit and the fabrication of concept models for testing.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_18513\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"]\"Baldwin's<\/a> Baldwin's most important design at IBM was the internet appliance (2001). It was meant to blend into the home when not in use. It won an IF and CES award.[\/caption]\n\nBaldwin\u2019s career ascension, which began at IBM in nearby Research Triangle Park right after graduating NC State, has also included trying and uncertain times. While working for Antelope Tech, a struggling tech startup in Denver, he suddenly \u201cspent a couple of weeks homeless, not sure what to do,\u201d he said. That quickly led to Baldwin's first go-round in Houston after the company won a new round of funding, staying with another product engineer in a guest house owned by Antelope\u2019s new main investor.\n\n\u201cWe were working in a warehouse at his waste treatment plant in Pasadena (Texas), driving past oil refineries and cracking plants on the way into work, and smelling like chemicals every night when we left,\u201d said Baldwin. The first project there was an accessory that not only solved a problem with their flagship tablet pc and won a major contract, but also let to the team being rewarded with an office in a downtown Houston skyscraper.\n\nThere is a point to Baldwin\u2019s Denver-to-Houston story that serves as a teaching moment.\n\n\u201cPersistence and having thick skin is a huge part of success in design,\u201d Baldwin said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to put yourself out there and track down the opportunities.\u201d It\u2019s also been a great recipe for a small business, where you have to find new companies and projects all the time.\n\nCurrent he is a teaching fellow at the University of Bristol\u2019s Centre for Innovation<\/a> 1 day a week, where he identifies with a particular type of student.\n

\u201cPersistence and having thick skin is a huge part of success in design. You\u2019ve got to put yourself out there and track down the opportunities.\u201d<\/blockquote>\n\u201cYou see the ones who are going to do well\u2026 \u00a0the ones working really hard and putting in the extra effort, making connections and being personable as well as talented. It\u2019s going to be a combination of things [that make them successful].\u201d\n\nWhile helping grow University of Bristol\u2019s fledgling Masters in Innovation program, inspired by programs such as Stanford University\u2019s d.school, there is a passion for helping all students succeed.\n\n\u201cWe have students from computer science, physics, history, theatre, geography, anthropology, psychology, electrical engineering, business, and more making up the multi-disciplinary cohorts \u2013 much like teams in the real world. They are adding this 1-year Integrated Masters into their three-year undergraduate program to have an extra edge in the industry when they get out,\u201d\n\nHe said. \u201cWe get them into the classroom to work together on projects while being taught about entrepreneurship and the innovation process. To be honest, it\u2019s kind of like the design process.\u201d"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Travis Baldwin’s (BID ’98) career since graduating from the College of Design has been shaped by innovation — not only in his designs, but in the way he has leveraged his relationships to pursue career opportunities that are out of this world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":18509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[19,6],"class_list":["post-18476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-experience","category-newswire","tag-_featured","tag-industrial-design"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":{"ncst_posts_meta_modified_date":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}