Kareem Collie works as the Head of Design at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) CreativeStudio, and has a deep love for education. He spent much of his time in academia, taught at the Pratt Institute, pursued a master’s degree at NYU’s School of Individualized Study, and became a d.school Teaching Fellow in 2016—where he says he found “perfect alignment.”
Navigating ambiguity
Before Kareem came to Stanford, he was working on a complex thesis exploring the narrative construction of reality through mass media, using Obama as his subject during a transformative period in the American media landscape. It was work that helped him to reflect on his own role as a designer, navigating the unknown, shaping and guiding communication.
"Sometimes you have to start where you are. That might be in the middle of a poppy field. And also, where you are, in the middle of that poppy field, is amazing. Navigating ambiguity is to be aware of where you are from there you'll find the tools you need."
Seeking a larger tool box is what led Kareem to the d.school. “That space felt so alive and aligned with where I was at that moment,” said Kareem. “I knew that I needed to get out and reimagine my career, I needed to transcend where I was. It was a great place to practice bringing in that foundational work of culture and narrative—a notion of a more layered communication that I’d practiced in my thesis work.”
“As a cohort, we were asked to create the curriculum for the d.school’s Design Thinking 101 course with no syllabi. Talk about navigating ambiguity! It was such a great place to synthesize what I’d been working on,” said Kareem. “It was the foundation for so much of how I approach design and my sensibilities around communicating as a teacher and as a leader.”
Shooting for the stars
After his time at the d.school, Kareem went on to help establish the Center for Creativity and Collaboration at the Claremont Colleges, meeting the needs of five liberal arts colleges and helping to get a design degree started.
Today, Kareem works at NASA’s JPL as their Head of Design of their in-house design team, CreativeStudio. “I’m supporting the communication of the outstanding, profound work that happens at NASA to the next generation of humans.”
Recently, they created a six-floor activation at SXSW, framing the themes of NASA around sci-fi using art and storytelling within the Austin library. “One of JPL’s big imperatives is to create global inspiration,” he said. The team also created a scavenger hunt through the stacks, bringing over 20,000 people through the doors.
Flow state
“To me, design is water,” said Kareem. “Design is so pervasive, so embedded in so much of our lives, and it needs to be considered more holistically. It’s the good and the bad.”
Design determines the way an organization feels and operates—something that Kareem is paying attention to right now at JPL. “The walls between teams aren’t as fluid as I want them to be, to support the community of designers to grow and flourish,” said Kareem. “So, I’m in the middle of redesigning this organization’s operational flow.”
At the end of the day, Kareem is intensely moved by others. “I am inspired by just being a part of humanity.” Collaboration has always been a major part of his process. “I have a team that I really enjoy working with, a great group of folks, super smart, who love what they do. They’re always surprising me, saying ‘Hey, check this out!’ after having just transformed some complex scientific idea into a thing of joy and beauty.”
Advice to young designers
Intention has played a big role in Kareem’s career, working with career coaches, mindfulness workshops, and using design tools to set his career goals and create alignment between work and life. To young designers, he tells them, “Move in a way that you feel is real to you. Move towards your values and your creative joy. Be aware, in the moment, of how you feel. How you feel matters, and you have agency in changing that experience.”
And though Kareem has walked a winding road, he’s never lost sight of his values. “Leading up to this role, I did a lot of self-reflective work on values. What is it that you’re looking for? You have to balance between one’s values and enjoyment of the work. If you can find balance in those places, you’re good. If not, you won’t be successful.”
Kareem says that design is a day-to-day thing—a practice that you can observe and take note of. And while it doesn’t always have a clear answer, the ability to “meld and mold a path while walking it at the same time” is a strong tool to navigate and find answers of your own.
Credits
Thanks to Tran Ha and Amalia Rothschild for originally interviewing Kareem for the d.school’s “This Is Design Work” exhibition; Mark Grundberg for shaping the interview content; Second Peninsula for producing the video; the d.school’s academic team and teachers for guiding generations of designers; Eli Ramos for writing this article; and Jenn Brown for her persistently collaborative editing.
