Interview by Pavlos Amperiadis

Stacy Wolff is the Global Head of Design for HP Inc’s Personal Systems business, responsible for the company’s leadership and focus on design innovation. Global Design News discusses with him the secrets that make a product design unique, innovative, and evergreen.

Stacy’s global design team drives design excellence across consumer and commercial products by aligning leading edge technologies with customer insights, aspirations, and experiences.

During his tenure with HP, Stacy has been instrumental in restructuring the design team by taking it from a technology driven developer to a trend-focused design leader.

Stacy was personally responsible for delivering the award-winning HP Spectre and Envy product lines. He also brought the next level of design excellence to the business notebook category by creating the new HP EliteBook and HP ProBook families, featuring the world’s thinnest and lightest business notebook.

These elegant, forged aluminium designs have received several honors, most notably the Good Design Award by The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture, Design, Art, and Urban Studies.

Prior to HP, Wolff was director of design for Compaq’s Consumer Products Group where he helped deliver several industry firsts, such as the multi-award winning TC1000 Tablet Computer.

Before joining Compaq in 1995, he served in various roles ranging from lead designer to design manager within other Fortune 100 companies.

Design isn’t a job — it’s a passion and enjoying what you do is the true and sometimes only reward

GDN: What made you become a designer?

Stacy Wolff: I couldn’t get into to med-school?

My father, he was an Industrial Designer.

My greatest highlights are the designers I’ve worked with

GDN: What are your design philosophy and your sources of inspiration? Who/What do you consider the most influential figures and/or references for you?

Stacy Wolff: We should always try to learn, explore, apply, and hopefully progress!

Best inspiration for me is everyday things.

My father was probably the biggest influence on how I approach problems.

A balance of dreaming and being pragmatic at the same time.

GDN: Is design (supposed to be) fun? How about personal fulfillment in your work?

Stacy Wolff: Design isn’t a job.

It’s a passion and enjoying what you do is the true and sometimes only reward.

It’s hard to put in words, but the connections made are probably the most important parts of the journey

GDN: As an established industrial designer, what do you view as the greatest highlight of your career thus far and why? Which were the most important stops on your journey?

Stacy Wolff: Greatest Highlights – the designers I’ve worked with and the successes they’ve beyond our work together.

It’s hard to put in words, but the connections made are probably the most important parts of the journey.

Design is a passion and enjoying what you do is the true and sometimes only reward

GDN: How do you reconcile design challenges? Is it primarily “Form or Function”? Ιn your own words, “Tool or cool”? Is there a step beyond for future design?

Stacy Wolff: Change is never easy but can be part of what makes the solution great.

Yes, please…I’ll take form and function.

The two are forever connected and when either one becomes more dominate, the solution tends to suffer.

Form vs function or Tool vs cool have always been debated, but the future is more of an action not thing…

Change is never easy but can be part of what makes the solution great

GDN: After many years of experience and many projects and ideas becoming real designs, has anything changed in the way you approach your art?

Stacy Wolff: Biggest change after 35 plus years for me is learning to listen more and speak less.

GDN: HP has been consistently winning Good Design Awards and was recently awarded the 2021 Green Good Design® Awards from The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design. What does that mean to you as a designer and what responsibilities does it come with?

Stacy Wolff: Awards and/or the recognition have never been the goal.

The key responsibility of design – never design for yourself.

We want our designs to live long and have the ability to have multiple lives

GDN: How do sustainable design and green projects realistically affect consumers?

Stacy Wolff: Sustainability and the consumer are forever connected. Many fail to realize resources are finite.

We need to drive to a better, connected, and more circular relationship.

Design should solve problems, not create new ones

GDN: What is the future of sustainable product design, not just for HP, but in general? How does soft technology come into play?

Stacy Wolff: Sustainability isn’t a thing or a stunt, it is a strategy and mindset.

Design should solve problems, not create new ones.

We need to think about the things we design as a life.

We want our designs to live long and have the ability to have multiple lives.

The key responsibility of design – never design for yourself

GDN: Can digital technology products be designed as a master of all trades, i.e., being at the same time eco-friendly, innovative, practical, lightweight, stylish, and warm enough to elicit an emotional connection to the user?

Stacy Wolff: Balance is the answer.

When in balance, there is a relationship created with user and device.

GDN: What is —according to you— “user-friendly” technology nowadays? Is it a new form of expression and lifestyle?

Stacy Wolff: Technology should be easy to love.

It should work for you, not make you work for it.

Technology should be easy to love; It should work for you, not make you work for it

GDN: Last but not least, are there any other interesting innovations and projects you would like to tell us about?

Stacy Wolff: Innovation in HOW we make things is the next big thing!

*Portrait images and video are all courtesy of HP Inc. and project photos courtesy of The Chicago Athenaeum Archive