How Creativity, Persistence and Skills Will Get You Just About Anywhere

Renee Collins, B.S. Industrial Design ‘18 went to high school at Sussex Tech and obtained her cosmetology license there. When her best friend was admitted to NJIT, Collins came along for the campus tour and thought, “This is pretty nice,” and applied. “I think I had an idea of what Industrial Design was but I didn’t really understand. I wanted to design products for the beauty industry instead of being a hairdresser. It was a lot larger than my conception of it. I was thinking ‘artist’ or ‘engineer’, but didn’t really understand what Industrial Design is.”

When Collins started her program she was accepted on the strengths of her creative and artistic talents. “I was good with my hands. I had no STEM background. I didn’t even take math or science my senior year in high school, I was in the salon for half the day every day, so I didn’t have a foundation in STEM at all. At Hillier College I had to take precalculus, calculus, which I failed the first time, statistics, and physics. I got an A in calculus the second time around, it was the biggest comeback ever! The people who were in our section were almost all design majors so we helped each other out. I made friends with architects in math class.”

On top of managing to get through all of the STEM classes Collins also had to learn a lot of software. “I had not used any of the design software at all, I had to learn everything, all Adobe, all the Solidworks, Rhino, 3Ds Max. I learned these all freshman and sophomore year. I did not have a knack for it. I am very good with 2D programs, but the 3D modeling was really hard for me.”

After graduating Collins worked in product design and manufacturing. “I worked in luxury accessories when I graduated, I was designing handbags, they hired me because I had 3D printing experience, so even though I did not have a fashion background, a lot of our bags were cast in metal. There were molds involved and mass manufacturing and they were interested in that experience. While I was there I did both product development and our website, and did all the digital assets, inventory and product development.”

Currently she is working as a contractor with a few different companies and says that for now, “I am so deep into what a digital product is and my place in that, I don’t want to go back to physical product design yet. I’m not designing the product but I am bringing the product to life. Recently I've gotten to work with small businesses, local design agencies, and international advertising companies. I've learned so much and have really enjoyed working on a team where everyone brings their unique skill sets."

When asked what was the best part of it all, Collins was clear, “Personally the biggest thing I got out of NJIT was not the classes, it was the people. Our industrial design community was awesome, I could forget every class I ever took and not be a designer and still feel it was entirely worth it just because the people were so great. Everyone was supportive and wanted to collaborate, there was only ever healthy competition, no meanness. Being in IDSA was also a big part of my NJIT career, I was secretary and then the president.”

When reflecting on what is next for her, Collins says she would like to start her own digital design business, in advertising, website and graphic design and give back to her alma mater by providing opportunities for internships. “We didn’t have a lot of industrial design alumni, I want to mentor people from the same community I came from at NJIT. ”

You can view a recent example of her work at the NJ Teen Arts website, and a portfolio of Collins work on her website ‘reneethedesigner.com here.