Nowadays I identify more with “small business owner” than “industrial designer”. I’ve pretty much come to terms with that, although I still think “industrial designer” sounds cooler. Honestly though, I consider building Po Campo to be the ultimate design project, and that keeps me pretty satisfied.
Regardless, there are times when I get to return back to the simplicity of just thinking about design (in the traditional sense), and these are fun, blissful moments. One such occasion is working on our print patterns. I love coming up with the inspiration and building it into the larger Po Campo story.
This spring, we introduced our first proprietary bicycle print, which we are calling Bike Ride. We had originally intended to launch it for Fall 2013 and wanted to do something kind of wintery. In building our Pinterest inspiration board, Russia-esque images of furry hats and snowy palaces kept emerging, which got us thinking about Russian constructivism. The more we looked into it, the more inspiring it became.
You can read more about how Russian constructivism influenced Bike Ride’s creation, from its role in industrial design history to its prominent female designers (a rarity then and now, sadly) in my recent post on Po Campo’s blog.
We are starting the journey again by working on a new print for Spring 2015. This, along with some new product designs, gives me a few days to be on a design vacation, which I cherish, before going back to the land of spreadsheets and sales presentations.
