Northward: Canada's Design Future
Northward: Canada's Design Future
Podcast Description
Northward is a podcast about how design can unlock a new future for Canada. Featuring the country's most thoughtful design voices, host Michael Grigoriev talks with Canadian leaders and explores what it will take to build a design-forward nation.
projectnorthward.substack.com
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast discusses various aspects of Canadian design, including its evolution, societal impact, and community engagement. Specific episodes explore themes such as the importance of human-centered design featuring guests like Ian Chalmers, who emphasizes the challenges facing designers in Canada and the need for a national design council.
Northward is a podcast about how design can unlock a new future for Canada. Featuring the country’s most thoughtful design voices, host Michael Grigoriev talks with Canadian leaders and explores what it will take to build a design-forward nation.
05: Joseph Hofer on designing for commercial success
Host Michael Grigoriev and Joseph Hofer — product design strategist and founder of Hofer Studio — get in depth on how design is a vehicle for commercial success.
Hofer reflects on lessons learned at BlackBerry, where he helped shape some of the company’s most iconic devices, and how those experiences inform his current work with entrepreneurs. He outlines his “three R’s” framework — relationships, risk, and ROI — and his two-phase process: first validating the right product, then refining it into the right product for manufacturing and scale.
The conversation also explores aesthetics as a strategy, the challenges of building hardware companies in Canada, and why design remains essential to turning innovation into lasting businesses.
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