Beyond Welcomes Fernando Mier
This month we welcomed Director of UX/GUI, Fernando Mier to the Beyond family! We sat down with Fernando in our Ravenswood courtyard to get to know him and his background. Please read more on Fernando’s diverse background and his road to Ravenswood below!
Thanks for sitting down with us Fernando! We’re excited to have you on board and get to know you and your work better. Let’s begin…
Where did you go to college and what did you study?
Ha! That’s a funny question for me as I changed my mind quite a bit while in undergrad and grad school. I even transferred schools twice looking for something that clicked and felt right. I always knew that I wanted to study something related to human behavior in the creative realm. Years ago there wasn’t a UX / HCI program or even big exposure or visibility into the human-centered design field when I was in high school. Naturally, I gravitated to product design and architecture as they were the only fields I knew of that offered what I was looking for. I also had had a brief stint in film school as I worked for a couple of advertising agencies during high school and originally thought that was how I wanted to change people’s lives and perspectives of the world, through film.
Getting back on topic, I started my undergrad degree at Monterrey Tech back in Queretaro, Mexico where I pursued a dual degree in Architecture and Industrial Design, and that is where I fell in love with Mies Van Der Rohe, Moholy-Nagy and the whole concept of Mid-Century Modernism and the New Bauhaus (now the Institute of Design at IIT). When the opportunity to study abroad in Chicago and transfer to Illinois Tech appeared, I jumped at the chance and finished my undergrad and later grad studies here in the city. By the time I fully retired from student life I had taken classes in almost every college at the university – including Intellectual Property Law classes at Kent and Marketing and Business at Stuart where I got one of my two masters.
Wow, that is quite the class load! Where did your career take you after finishing up your studies?
Before I joined Beyond I was working at Constellation Brands, one of the world’s largest alcoholic beverage companies. You might indirectly know of them since they own Corona, Modelo, Svedka, and Kim Crawford, among others. I was Constellation’s UI / UX Lead focusing on building a design practice and teaching people about human-centered design in their growing tech department. It was a really interesting job, as a big part of what we were working on was an ecosystem of different platforms and dashboards that provided their sellers with on-the-go analytics, marketing assets, survey tools and more, and it really changed the way they plan and conduct business, making the sellers life easier and work more dynamic. I also got to work with Constellation’s Innovation team and the Constellation Brands Academy during my time there building more consumer-focused apps and sites for a diverse amount of things, including the rebranding of Constellation’s main site and the creation of company-wide personas for research.
Before Constellation, I’ve also worked for Bose, Microsoft / Nokia, and Leo Burnett, amongst others. I’ve also done a lot of freelance work since I was 15. I actually got my first UX job as a consultant for Warner Bros Mexico – Harry Potter marketing team.
You mentioned you worked as a consultant in Mexico, is that where you grew up? How did you eventually come to reside in Chicago and our studio in Ravenswood?
I’m half Mexican and half Spanish and I’m originally from Granda, Spain; but I lived in Mexico for most of my life. I grew up in a city called Morelia. It’s a really Spanish-style colonial city where the Mexican Independence Leaders were born and not too far from the town where Dia de Muertos originated. I was able to spend a lot of time with my grandparents from my mom’s side in Mexico City and other parts of the country like Acapulco and Tequisquiapan in the state of Queretaro where we have a family vacation home and my grandparents retired at.
When I turned 17 I moved to New York City to study film, but I learned pretty quickly that it wasn’t what I wanted and moved to Santiago de Queretaro, Mexico where my mom and sister had relocated to be closer to my grandparents after they retired. Three years later a great opportunity presented itself and I was able to study abroad in Chicago and intern for Leo Burnett HQ, and since I was (and still am) obsessed the whole concept of Mid-Century Modernism it felt like a great fit. I enjoyed the experience so much and fell deeply for the city that I decided to transfer and finish my studies and go to grad school at Illinois Tech and the rest is history as they say!
What are some of the projects you worked on before Beyond that you are most proud of?
I’ve been really lucky to say that I’ve worked on a couple of things that my inner-geek considers really cool! There is no doubt that the projects I hold the closest to my heart are the Bose Hearphones and its companion the Bose Hear app. I am so proud of those because not only was I working for a company that I’ve always loved and grew up around, but also because we were on the frontline of fighting to change the hearing world and give a generation of people back the ability to have crystal clear conversations in loud environments with the latest tech and at a great price.
Traditional hearing devices are so expensive ($5k or more) and individuals have to jump through hoops to buy them and that’s not including the amount of stigma around wearing them. With the Hearphones we tried to change the game and create a category of conversation-enhancing headphones that are specially designed to help you hear in louder environments while they blend with the environment.
Images courtesy of Bose.
I worked on the UI of the physical product and part of the next-gen, as well as the whole Bose Hear app (from concepts, to wireframes / prototypes, to end product) and did a lot of research to understand the users of the product and make sure the device and app were easy to use, not too attention grabbing and not distracting regardless of age or circumstances. Additionally, I also helped the team design a couple of patent’s documents and even got one under my name (US9894452B1). I also helped to sell a couple of the first units at a special event in Bose HQ on Framingham, MA with the rest of the team and got a gold Edison Award for innovation.
“My favorite part about the Hearphones is that every time I saw the positive impact on a user it made my life as a designer feel fulfilled because being able to communicate is what makes us human. That’s what our goal always was.”
I enjoyed working with the team the most though. The Bose Hear team is really solid, and working and learning from them really changed the way I approach design. I’m glad that I can say that every one of them is an amazing friend and I’m looking forward to the next-gen products they produce.
Why are you excited to work at Beyond Design?
I think that what attracted me the most to Beyond Design is the fact that we’re a design firm like no other I’ve seen. A lot of companies that do UX focus primarily on software engineering, and while knowing how to make a digital product from beginning to end while being agile is essential, during my time on the client side of the equation I found only a couple of agency partners really understood what it is to be a user advocate when designing. Few actually did the UX grunt work, not just fancy graphics that might or might not resonate with users.
I think Beyond Design having evolved from an entirely Industrial Design firm to a full-service design consultancy over the course of nearly 25 years, really gives us the edge on the constantly changing design world. The fact that the company and its members are trying to establish themselves as the go-to consultancy for IoT products, instead of only physical or only digital, is fascinating as the lines are blurring more and more. Beyond is a practice like the one I always envisioned to partner with during my time as a client, it is what makes me really excited to be here.
“For me, UX and UI are not a step in the process, but they are the living soul of a product.”
Enough about work, what do you like to do in your free time?
As you might’ve gathered from my time in NYC in film school, I’m a film buff. I love to collect movies and I have over 700 blu-rays at home. I still think the physical format is better than digital if you have the right equipment. I’m also currently the president of the Associate Board of the Chicago International Film Festival and I’ve been a member for the last 4 in a half years, helping to promote year-round activities Cinema / Chicago does, planning events for young professionals and fundraising money for our educational program that bring kids and teenagers of the city to watch and discuss films from around the world; exposing them to other cultures.
I also enjoy automating my house and making it smarter…to the dismay of my partner. I’m a geek and that’s why I work on what I do, so finding new products or tech that I can review, analyze and try always makes me happy. Plus it really makes me think as a user when designing new things – even the research is primordial – and is an excuse to buy the latest video game consoles and gadgets. Side note… I’m a console gamer.
And last but not least, we have 3 dogs: two westies and a silky terrier. I spend a lot of my free time training them at different places in the city as we compete on Agility and Obedience and Remy (the oldest westie girl – 3 years old) is also a therapy dog. You can follow their adventures on Instagram at @hausofterrier.
Images couresy of @hausofterrier.
Thanks for giving us a glimpse into your life Fernando! For more information on Fernando please visit our about page and if you’d like to work with Fernando and the team please shoot us a note here or call our office at 773-290-1797.
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