Stephany Stamatis interviewed Sam Julka, a 2012 graduate of Herron’s Visual Communication Design MFA program, and now President of DORIS Research.
What year did you graduate from Herron and what was your thesis topic?
2012 — CoCreating Serendipity
What was your background before entering the graduate program?
I worked as a commercial interior designer for over five years.
What path did your career take after graduating?
I founded a Design Research firm called DORIS in the fall of 2012.
Where are you working now and what do you do? What does your daily work life look like, including environment, activities, and interactions with people?
I currently am the president of DORIS, a Design Research firm in Indianapolis. We use an eight step Design Thinking process to engage large groups of stakeholders in problem solving. Our projects typically focus on the intersection between physical workspace and culture within the organizations of the clients we are serving.
My daily work life balances between the day-to-day operations of running a small business and working along side my colleagues at DORIS to conduct our research projects. Within our research projects we do everything from ethnographic research and interviews on site with our clients, to data analysis and visualizations back in our office.
Our days are never the same, but always seem to be exciting…our only wish would probably be for a few more hours each day.
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Interview excerpt from medium.com