Jessica Lea Dunn is an industrial designer from Sydney, Australia! She has a passion for creating useful designs for everyday products and loves that Pinterest allows her to organize her design ideas and inspirations! We recently caught up with Jess and heard everything about her two years spent in Indonesia and her life now that she’s back in Sydney with her husband and a new baby girl. Jess’ amazing design pins and 105 boards have helped her accumulate over 1.9M Pinterest followers!
When did you start using Pinterest and what drew you to make an account?
I started using Pinterest in January 2012 when it was still ‘request an invite’ only. At first I was using it mainly as a way to collect images for inspiring my day-to-day work as a professional designer and for personal projects. It solved a problem for me, which was being able to gather images and keep them somewhere safe and searchable. I also loved that I could trace the image back to the source for more information and share the image with colleagues in real time.
Why do you like Pinterest? What are your favorite boards to pin on and why?
Pinterest is extremely enjoyable. It fulfills my need to collect pretty things and get my daily inspiration fix of visual eye candy. My favourite and my most popular board to date is my “Product Design” board. This board has a little bit of everything. I also find a lot of material to pin to my “Furniture Design” and “Lighting Design” boards and have recently started a series of colour-themed boards which showcase products by hue.
You have gained over 1.9M followers. Amazing! What makes your Pinterest unique?
What makes my Pinterest unique is me! My boards are a direct reflection of the things that inspire me professionally and personally. I try to collect a lot of original content directly from the websites that I research almost daily.
It seems that I was an early adopter on Pinterest among those in my field of work. There was a lot of graphic, fashion and interior design material on Pinterest when I first joined, but not many pictures were useful to a product designer like myself. So I decided to make boards that were filled with best-practice examples of product and industrial design, for my own use, without even being aware that this would eventually appeal to such a large audience!
What got you interested in design and what kind of design do you do?
I think I always had a passion for design, even before I knew what it was. I loved creating things starting at a young age. I was obsessed with Legos and I loved to sketch, draw and sew. I thought I might end up doing graphic design or fashion design, but then when it came to deciding what university course I would take, product/industrial design really spoke to me. Before that, I didn’t know such a profession existed! I’m so glad it does.
Our daily lives are surrounded by designed products, whether you notice or not. The best functional designs are invisible. Think about it – someone had to design your toothbrush, choose the foam density under your car seat, measure the proportions of your fridge, make sure the lip on your kettle doesn’t drip, design the door handle so it’s easy to hold. It’s only when a product is not optimally designed that it annoys you and you notice it.
The best products are both visually interesting and also create a seamless or pleasurable interaction experience through the design. Much easier said than done! This is the kind of design I endeavour to do. When I lived in Indonesia for two years I had the idea of a folding helmet… but that’s a whole other story.
Tell us about your two years in Indonesia!
In 2007 I went on study exchange and lived in Yogyakarta, Central Java for a year. I had the most amazing time of my life studying language, photography and culture there, and also met my husband! I went back to Indonesia in 2009, this time to work as a Sustainable Designer and Production Coordinator for an organization called XSProject who worked with some of the world’s poorest people, trash pickers.
Working with some of Indonesia’s poorest people as a volunteer with XSProject in Jakarta
My role there included designing and overseeing the manufacture of several ranges of bags and accessories, the proceeds of which went towards funding scholarships for the children of trashpickers to give them a better future. This experience was both difficult and character building as much as it was also a beautiful and amazing opportunity that made a meaningful difference to people’s lives.
During this time in Indonesia, I married the love of my life, Antok, in an extravagant traditional village wedding with over 2000 guests and spectators! It was so crazy, that an impromptu market even popped up outside the reception, with people selling drinks, foods, carnival toys and cigarettes. It was hilarious! It’s hard to believe that we are now back living in Sydney with a beautiful daughter.
A traditional Javanese wedding ceremony in October 2009
We love your A Designer Life blog. Tell us more about it!
My blog is intended to be a space for me to capture, in a more curated way than the rest of my social media, certain little things about my life, things I have learned, advice I would give others, and things I’m grateful for and in awe of. My blog allows me to keep the beauty of the everyday. I called it “A Designer Life” not because my life is perfect by any means, but more because I wanted to explore how I could create and inspire a positive life from design by focusing on the little things.
Any current or upcoming design projects you’re working on that you’d like to share with us?
Actually, since April of this year I have taken some leave from my full time design job, because my biggest “design” project at the moment is my 3-month old baby! So at the moment my mind is constantly thinking up contraptions and inventions of baby-related tools around the home that would make my life easier – not that I have much time to do more than simply sketch the ideas down on paper!
What are your plans for the future?
I hope to live large and enjoy every moment, practice being the best person I can be, and continue doing what I love, which is designing! I’d love to travel somewhere far away (Europe is top of the list) and study for my masters degree in a business or design-related field. Who knows, in a few years maybe we’ll expand our family and give my little girl a baby brother or sister too!
Want to connect with Jess?