Veronica Orecchia, IDSA

Design Strategist Veronica Orecchia is a Design Strategist in Atlanta, Georgia. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Design with a minor in philosophy from Virginia Tech in May 2018. While there, she was involved in IDSA all four years and eventually became vtIDSA President in her senior year. Since coming to Atlanta in May, Veronica have been active in the community here. She informally worked with the IDSAatl board in 2018 to then become a Board Member in 2019. Veronica is also a part of the OpenIDEO Atlanta Chapter planning team. She is always excited to meet new people and strengthen the presence of design in Atlanta.

Activities for Veronica

20/2X Recognition | 2020

As Chair of the IDSA-Atlanta chapter, Veronica Orecchia, IDSA led the way in switching to virtual events. Though she and her chapter team were preparing to put on their second annual Southern Design Summit at Georgia Tech in 2020, fresh off a series of successful “Brew Crew” chapter events in 2019 and a rousing National Industrial Design Day celebration in early March, the rise of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. necessitated a change of plans.

First, Veronica and the other IDSA-ATL chapter officers held a twist on the classic 5 in 5 format event—5 speakers, 5 minutes each—with designers sharing their stories of working from home. It was the first cross-chapter virtual collaboration, co-hosted with the newly formed IDSA-Austin chapter, and more Zoom events followed that encouraged other IDSA chapters across the country to host their own virtual events for their communities.

“This year definitely taught us how to pivot,” Veronica says. “Going from a very physical event structure to moving fully into digital was a tough transition and an accomplishment on its own. We’ve learned a ton about how different that is and what opportunities come with it. We’ve been able to collaborate with people from all over the country and it’s been very exciting!”

After the 5in5 event, IDSA-ATL held an “Anything But COVID-19” virtual Brew Crew to talk about, well, anything but COVID-19. Next came a Design Discussion with Krystal Persaud, followed by the panel discussion “Kitbashing a Toy Design Career” with the Toy and Game Design Association (TGDA) and designers Luis Schittone, Katie Lim, and Omar Gonzalez.

Even during this difficult and uncertain time, Veronica has found ways to stay inspired and keep going. “It’s tough to keep motivation up, but it also gives us time to really focus and hone in on our skills and what brings us joy as designers,” she says. “Personally, I’ve been inspired to get more hands on with my work again and have started taking blacksmithing classes. It allows me to appreciate technique, time, and hard work put into creating things. And it has inspired me to find more specific and unique topics to learn more about in our events.”

Veronica also credits Vice Chair Josh Madwed, IDSA, for maintaining IDSA-ATL’s presence and voice on social media, and for more than doubling the chapter’s Instagram following (shout out to @idsaatlanta!)

“As a chapter, we want to take our ability to be super concentrated on topics digitally and find a way to blend that back in with the IDSA-Atlanta local identity,” Veronica says. “We want to find more ways to get people involved and truly feel like they are a part of the community and learn about things specific to their experiences as designers in Atlanta.”