Riding the el and no one looks happy about it

Originally uploaded by georgeaye.
Something that I’ve been meaning to tell you all about for months and months now, is finally ready to come out. The cat is officially out of the bag.

Starting tomorrow at 8am, I will become the new Lead Designer for the Chicago Transit Authority. I accepted this newly created position a couple of months back and I gave me notice to my studio (IDEO Chicago). While I thought it would be best to give me office the benefit of an extended lead time (mainly as I wanted to finish my final project properly and on good terms) I think that two months is way too long. After the announcement, everyone was initially sad to hear the news, then very soon after, people were like, ‘Are you still here?’…

I can say though, that my final project was a blast and the final presentation was a hit with the client (some very sweet doctors and administrators for a new children’s hospital in Orlando). My final day at IDEO was a huge rush of very many mixed emotions. Excitement, sadness, some disappointment and then huge excitement again. For seven years, landing in Chicago just before turning 25, IDEO became my life, my work and in many ways, helped define who I was. It was a crucible in which I learnt everything I know about what design means, what it’s capable of and what immense impact it can have to society. I will look back upon my time there with great fondness and never forget that I was lucky enough to have worked some of the brightest and best in the world.

So, wanna know more about this new CTA gig, huh? We to be honest, there’s only so much I can tell you as I still don’t know what it will all entail. Will I find frustration at the speed of bureaucratic process? Probably. Will I have a chance to have real impact here? Most definitely.

I still can’t quite believe that I managed to make this transition from design consultant to public servant. Did you know that the CTA carries about 1.5M people a day! Holy crap that’s a lot of people. And from what I’ve seen, many of them look about as happy as these people in the photo.

Watch this space. Wish me luck!