
Even by the strictest reckoning, Jordan Nollman has had a spectacular career as an industrial designer, evidenced by a quick look through his website, which features successful products for Virgin Atlantic, Bose, Dell, Burton Snowboards, Polaroid, Nokia, Nike, and dozens of others. After six years on the staff of San Francisco-based Astro Studios, Jordan recently decided to leave, focusing on his personal design firm Sprout Studio, and expanding a long-term role designing personal grooming and related products for Clio Designs.
Over the past decade, you've designed product, environment and packaging for IDEO, Ziba, Razorfish, Astro, Altitude, Eleven...an astonishing array of high-profile consultancies, but you decided to pack it up and work independently. What makes working for yourself more appealing than for some of the world's top firms?
For me it's a personality thing, and it's about having more freedom. Working independently, I can really drive projects, whereas when you consult for large client firms there are all sorts of other factors. You can work for a year or more on a one or two million dollar project, and it'll get killed before release. Or the division that was supporting it gets cut. All sorts of things.
At the end of the day, you want to get some stuff made, and working at a consultancy for larger clients that's often not the case. Working independently for Clio, on the other hand, I had seven different products go to market in six years, and that was just through freelancing on the side. It's exciting, getting to see your design get made, and the cycle tends to be faster with smaller companies. I designed an iPhone case for Press8 Collective, for example, and it got made in two weeks.

How do you find clients as an independent?
I've got a really good network. Back in school I really latched onto anyone I could, to the point that a lot of my clients now are actually referrals from other designers. Working for Astro in San Francisco was a real network-expanding experience as well; it's like venture capital central there, and I'd get a call every other day from someone who was cashing out from the tech industry and wanted to develop a product of some sort.
You were in the Bay Area for 6 years. Why the move back to Boston?
Three main reasons. First, Clio made me a fantastic offer, essentially making me their chief creative designer if I'd come out here. Second, I have a daughter now, and my whole family's in Boston, and it's important to have that around. But on top of that, the design culture in Boston has really come up recently. Maybe it's the fascination of the Big Dig, or all the schools, but there are a huge number of design firms here, and the IDSA Boston chapter is maybe the only really strong chapter I've seen. I love San Francisco, and may go back eventually, but it's super-saturated with designers...I had a lot of peers there, but here in Boston, I've got a lot of mentors.
Continue reading "Questions for Jordan Nollman of Sprout Studios" »