Hector Silva, IDSA

Founder, Advanced Design Hector Silva brings over 7 years of teaching experience at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Notre Dame and the Academy of Art University at their nationally-acclaimed industrial design programs. Recognized for his contributions in academia, Hector was awarded the Young Educator of the Year by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA). An active professional in the field, Hector works as an industrial design contractor through his own studio, H Design, partnering with Crate & Barrel, DesignLab, Nickelodeon, LeapFrog, Foster Grant, Insight Product Development, Lund & Company Invention, as well as various entrepreneurs. Hector is also the founder of the design nonprofit, Advanced Design (AD), an organization awarded the Special Achievement Award by the IDSA for making design education more accessible and through disrupting the mediums through which design education has been traditionally offered. AD continues to grow today, connecting students and working professionals to foster a community of design excellence. Most recently, Hector founded Offsite, a 12 week pilot program catered towards furthering design education outside of traditional academia space. This program was developed to translate the needs of the industry into course content taught by design industry leaders. The goal is to help students develop the right skill set and mentorship to thrive on the job and support them along the way.

Activities for Hector

Speaker | International Design Conference | 2022
Advance Your ID Career with Offsite

Offsite is a 12-week online program disrupting design education that offers a real-world view of the design profession through the instruction of industry leaders. Filling the gap between academia and industry, Offsite covers those practical skill sets often lightly discussed in school but learned on the job, including: business of design: how stakeholders outside of the design studio affect design; design for manufacturing: showing the real world constraints of materials, processes, and cost; design discourse: developing productive opinions in speaking about design; CAD for visualization: giving students up-to-date rendering skills to best display their work; real world sketching: drawing a distinction between beautiful sketch art online and the real sketching designers use as a vehicle of communication; and professional self-presentation: putting all these components together to tell the story of a student’s work.

During this lecture, you’ll get to hear from two of our instructors: Michael DiTullo, IDSA, and Spencer Nugent. You’ll get a sneak peek at what Offsite is, how we foster community, what our curriculum looks like, and why we believe Offsite is helping close the gap between academia and industry.

Chapter Officer | 2020, 2021
Speaker | Education Symposium | 2020

Panel Discussion: A Classic Debate: Is Grad School Worth It?

We’ve heard it plenty of times: “nobody goes to grad school for design.” But is it true? And even if it’s not true, is going to graduate school worth it? What makes it worth it (or not?) This panel will bring together professionals with a variety of experiences to duke it out, debate-club style, with plenty of time and opportunities for audience participation. Statements will be prepared, and rebuttals will be encouraged.

Moderator: Carly Hagins, IDSA – Assistant Professor, Western Michigan University

Panelists:

  • Benjamin Bush, IDSA – Assistant Professor, Auburn University
  • Derek Cascio – Department Chair of Industrial Design, Wentworth Institute of Technology
  • Hector Silva – Executive Director, Advanced Design
  • Rebecca Ngola – Senior Creative Designer, USAA
Speaker | Midwest DDC | 2018

Sketching Stories

Industrial designers use sketching to establish context, communicate ideas and—perhaps most importantly—tell stories. Telling stories is natural; it’s an intuitive method to visually explain methodology, think through a problem and define a final solution. During this interactive workshop, Hector Silva and Carly Hagins will guide participants through the process of using storytelling to make their sketches more meaningful. Participants will leave the session well-equipped with tools and techniques to bring their sketching to the next level.

IDSA Award Winner | Young Educator | 2017

IDSA Awards Young Educator: 2017

Words such as enthusiastic, motivational, inspirational and collaborative come to mind when describing IDSA member Hector Silva’s passion for design education. And in August 2017—those and other attributes helped the chair of IDSA’s Chicago Chapter and new research assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame—earn the title of IDSA’s Young Educator of the Year.

However, it may be the word determination that best defined Silva when he first dove into the creative. The Chicago native attended Curie Metropolitan High School—a public school known for its performing arts program. His sculpture and technical theater teachers pointed him in the direction of design.

Silva then applied to the scenic design program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) —but wasn’t accepted. So he joined with an undeclared major, took introductory courses in scenic design and fine arts—and found out he wasn’t quite a fit for scenic design after all.

Silva had a challenging start. “I wasn’t the very best student,” he concedes. “I procrastinated a lot.” At the end of his “foundation year,” Silva scored an interview with the ID chair. He didn’t get in to the ID program. But he appealed—and the second time proved to be a charm.

When he graduated, it was 2008, and the economy had collapsed. “Only about five out of 35 kids in my class got hired,” recalls Silva. “Designers are problem solvers—now we had to apply those skills to our real lives. I focused on marketing myself.” Silva also founded H Design and freelanced for Nickelodeon, DesignLab, Foster Grant, Insight Product Development and LeapFrog. But he was tired of “being on this carousel” of freelance work. In 2010, Silva joined the IDSA Chicago Professional Chapter as student liaison, then became vice chair in 2014 and chair in 2016. He calls the chapter “the most important part of his bio.”

Silva applied to grad school at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), as the School of Design was separating from the College of Fine Arts. “My class was small and we were the guinea pigs,” recalls Silva. “I was excited about that!” In 2015, Silva focused his graduate thesis on medical design, specifically in diabetes care. He graduated in May and became an adjunct instructor in sketching at UIC in August. In 2016, his diabetes wearable concept won the Core 77 Student Notable Consumer Product Award.

Silva then became an adjunct assistant professor at UIC—teaching introductory courses in design and design sketching. He held weekly Sketchwars to showcase the handiwork of professional designers and founded Advanced Design Sketching, a collaboration among UIC facility, UIC IDSA Student Chapter and IDSA Chicago Chapter. All-day sketching workshops once a week for 12 weeks in the summer attracted top sketchers including Jeff Smith, IDSA. And with the help of Autodesk, Silva set up a one-of-a-kind library with more than 60 sketching videos featuring interviews from designers around the world—andin October 2017, organized a conference built around design sketching: SQ1CON. Silva himself was named among “10 Analogue Sketch Pros You Need to Know” by Coroflot.

In 2017—a new journey began—as Silva was asked to “bring his energy” to Notre Dame by IDSA Board of Directors Education Director and Notre Dame ID Professor Scott Shim. It is yet another challenge that Silva is more than eager to take on, to inspire the next generation of designers. “I am shocked and humbled by the opportunity,” he says.

Silva does see the need for more diversity among designers. “One of the biggest reasons why I look up to (IDSA member and former UIC visiting professor) Alex Lobos—he was the first non-white designer, educator I came across; and subconsciously that was important to me. It definitely made me think more about a design career.”

Silva also acknowledges a gender gap. “I know industrial design is a very male dominated field right now. I started Advanced Sketching with a clean slate—let’s get more female student designers to come forward and lead. Most of the students involved are dedicated women. But we have a long way to go. You never really finish something; it just evolves to make it a better situation for everyone.”