Conner Stephen

Starting from scratch in late February, I designed a few garden trellis models and outsourced production. Using MailChimp and a Nikon, I created a statewide marketing campaign with sales from Sacramento down through San Diego. This experience has not only taught me invaluable lessons in business, but also kept me busy and focused through my ACL surgery and recovery.

With production and fabrication experience, I decided to take my part-time job on full-time. This really became my introduction to running my own business as well as assuming all production responsibilities. My freelance experience became the foundation for CS Steel Designs and helped shape my direction as a company and my role within it.

After returning from Australia, I decided I needed a position within the engineering/production field and couldn't pass this opportunity up. With a couple great guys for bosses, and the full access to CNC mills and lathes, I worked as both a machine operator and a part-time programmer. It was a hybrid position that started in the shop and began to swing into the office. As much as I enjoyed this position, it became clear to me that although I value the production knowledge, I wanted to pursue product design as my career.

The ultimate college summer job. I was a tower guard as well as a junior lifeguard instructor.
I'll never forget these days.