After working with many Fortune 100 companies while leading design teams for IDEO and Razorfish, Rachel Switzky, FAA ’93 & ’98, reflects on how her experiences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign shaped her and influenced her vision for the future of the Siebel Center for Design.
Why did you decide to come to Illinois?
I wanted to go to biggest school possible. I was from a teeny, tiny town. I grew up in Sycamore, Illinois. I wanted to go somewhere with a lot of opportunities, where I could meet lots of people and see the world. In that moment in my life, Illinois was a really big campus.
What was your major when you started?
I was in general studies in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. I was interested in so many different things. Then, I discovered industrial design. It’s not an easy major to find. It doesn’t come naturally out in the open, you have to seek it out. It’s a very interesting melding of different kinds of viewpoints. Some people come from liberal arts, others have an arts background, some are interested in architecture and others are from engineering.
How do you think coming to Illinois for college shaped your future?
I was raised a Midwesterner. And Midwesterners have that build-a-barn, roll-up-our-sleeves and get-to-work mentality. The fact that I’m from Middle America helped me in my career. I’ve explored design in New York and London and all through Europe. But we put people at ease as Midwesterners. It has helped everything in my design career, especially with people skills and talking to clients.
Did Illinois shape how you view design?
Absolutely. I was taught the design process here, especially the viewpoint of human perspective. It was a great foundation for the rest of my career. It gave me perspective.
How did you start in the design world?
During the summers, I interned at the Art Institute of Chicago. I was interested in design and art history, and I had this industrial design background. A lot of students in my program went to work at a design firm. But I wanted to complement my industrial design experience with something different. I grew to love exhibitions – understanding not just product design but how people map educational surroundings and move through space. Then, after graduation, I got an internship and a job at the Smithsonian.
So, how did your career progress after that?
When I was working at the Smithsonian, that’s when the internet got big and Wired magazine came out, and I started thinking about this aspect of how people move through space. I was familiar with physical spaces, but what about virtual? I transitioned from exhibitions to the internet.
What was that like?
It was the birth of e-commerce and communicating online. I started to think about: How can you express a brand or service, designing for people so they don’t get caught up in the technology? At Razorfish, I spent a lot of time thinking about how to take complicated topics and help people to simplify them through design. At IDEO, I was able to think about concepts and the practices of design thinking across a spectrum of disciplines.
What excites you about your new position at the inaugural Director of the Siebel Center for Design?
I’m so excited to learn from and collaborate with all of the amazing people across the university. I enjoy working with teams of all different people. They are all there to help you – designers, engineers, economists, artist, humanists. It feels very natural to me to have everyone working together.
What would freshman Rachel think about the new Siebel Center for Design?
Freshman Rachel would be very excited. This is going to create the same kind of discovery for others that I had in finding industrial design. When you’re a student and you find your niche, you think, “Oh yeah, this is where I’m supposed to be.” That’s how I feel taking this position.