AYSE BIRSEL: I AM STILL UNDECIDED ABOUT BEING A DESIGNER

06 APRiL 2010

In the seminar, the famous designer who achieved to be one of the thousand most creative people in America told how she was almost to quitting her profession.

Ayşe Birsel received education in America with Fullbright scholarship and made a name for herself in the world with her designs, and she created industrial designs for important brands like Renault, Toyota, Herman Miller, and Hewlett Packard. In the seminar organized in the first day, Birsel told how she advanced in her career and told that she nearly quitted her profession. Birsel told that after graduating from METU, she went to America with Fullbright scholarship, she said, “I felt really ambitions when a design we made was named after me. I was really confident even though I was newly graduated. It was a foolish feeling of confidence. My miserable times in America started in a shot time. I was not receiving any job offers. When I was nearly 30 I thought I had chosen the wrong profession. I was about to quit designing and do law master. I had just taken that decision and suddenly I received an important offer from Japan. I still think if I would be more successful if I had done law master.“

Birsel said that working in America was hard but important and she underlined that the companies were looking for ambition and desire rather than creativity and talent. Birsel stated that it was not important to be Turkish or young and said, "Industrial Design was a new subject for Turkey when I was graduated from METU. I was lucky. The most important gaining of design is what you learn from the project. I learn something from each project. We are working on a project about scent. Now, I am improving myself about this subject. If you make design, you always have a lot of things to learn.”

Ayşe Birsel, who is one of the most important names in Industrial Design in the world made design studies with İzmir University of Economics students for three days. Birsel, who came to İzmir as the guest of Department of Industrial Design shared her experiences in America with the students.