Katharine Tessier has been working in Toronto as an Industrial Designer for the past 9 years. She works primarily as a Product Designer, Lighting Designer, Design Engineer, and Project Manager. She employs Design Thinking in all of her projects. As a Product Designer, Katharine designs, develops, and engineers many consumer products that are then sold through major North American retailers and through commercial outlets to Interior Designers. As a Lighting Designer Katharine treats every space as a canvas for great illumination. A well lit space is not only functional, it is pleasing, comforting, safe, and inclusive. Katharine has used her skills as a Designer and Design Engineer to create great, locally produced, lighting solutions. Her work can be seen at places like Holt Renfrew, Shoppers Drug Mart, Toronto Botanical Gardens, Body Blitz Spa, and Beth Tivah Synagogue for which she received an Award of Merit from the Toronto Section of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America. She loves to get her hands messy in making things. With this in mind, she joins CSI in order to improve the relationship between local manufacturers, local designers, and the local economy. This new initiative's goal is to increase the amount of good design that can be designed, produced, and sold at the local level. Oh, are you wondering what Design Thinking is? Check this good explaination here: http://www.fastcompany.com/resources/design/dziersk/design-thinking-0831...

Why I do what I do:

To live, work, rest, and play LOCALLY. Designers seem to have to accept that their work will be produced overseas, consume massive amounts of energy in production, and then be thrown away at end-of-life. They are more and more disconnected from the production of their designs. Manufacturing is seeing staggering decline. Yet, the market desires better goods that have been sourced, produced, and designed locally. There is solution here waiting to be actualized here. CSI will be part of it!