A month ago, my fellow Herring designer, Doug, and I went to Crockett Elementary for a career day organized by iEducateUSA, an organization that helps elementary and middle school students to strengthen their math and science skills, as well as inspire them with possible career choices. Our goal was to get kids excited about design as a possible future career.

Neither of us knew exactly what to expect or how to approach the daunting task of capturing the minds of children. We did, however, end up picking the right strategy — we decided to make it fun for us and the kids.

We put together a presentation with images that spoke to our inner child, pleased our designer eyes, and showed the kids how virtually everything around them went through the hands of a designer to some degree. The stars of the morning were the old and the new designs for the Super Mario games, the Weather Kitty app, and the Boo-Berry cereal box designs.

We finished our presentation by asking the future scientists, doctors, artists, designers, etc. to unleash their creativity and design a new mascot for their school. Some of the kids stuck to the butterfly that is their current mascot. Others let their imagination fly and came up with some really fun ideas. It was a great experience and I hope it was encouraging to them.