Decoding the Art of Design and the Science of Influence with Bruno Serge - S3 Ep.8

Join us in this episode with Bruno Serge, Sr. Manager of Product Design at Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. With over two decades of cross-disciplinary design, writing, and technology leadership experience, Bruno is a true creative mastermind. From renowned brands like Guitar Hero, Blizzard, and Bungie to contributing to Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's success, he solves complex human problems with boundless creativity, leaving a lasting impact on the design industry.

Discussion points -

• What inspired you to choose a career in design, and how do you see the intersection of engineering and design in your professional journey? 1:26
• Engineering & Design - How do these two worlds meet in your opinion? 4:52
• How did your background in different cultures and countries impact you as a professional? 8:35
• Rapid fire round 18:43
• What are your thoughts on the widespread adoption of the new vision pro and its potential impact on culture and society? How will designers and individuals cope with its addictive nature and the influence of the reward economy? 31:19
• With the convergence of various technologies like AI techniques, voice interfaces, and advancements in AI, what role do you think it will play in the field of 3D design? 34:11
• What advice would you give to young professionals who are just starting out in this field? What actions should they take, and what should they avoid? What's the mantra for success in their career? 39:04

Show notes - 

• Throughout my life, I've always been eager to build things. And it was kind of a divide between an artistic form of building things and engineering problem-solving. 
• As a generalist, I was never able to really focus on one thing, I always wanted to learn more and more in terms of what I like, to broaden my horizons, and learn multiple skills in order to adapt and combine them. 
• We were applying research and best practices to make the games more addictive , which was a great problem-solving approach from a business perspective. It allowed us to sell more games, and indeed, we achieved that. However, I also had moments of reflection where I questioned the social and cultural implications that might arise from this. It led me to reconsider the ethics of what I was doing.
• There's nothing that a human being can create, be it problem-solving, or a machine, anything that doesn't have a little touch of artistry to it. 
• When you build a website, it's not exactly like painting, you have to consider the limitations of technology, you have to consider how users will perceive it, and how they will interact with it. So there's a lot of best practices, a lot of rules that go into that.
• Throughout my career, I've encountered this situation numerous times: while trying to solve a human problem, I get interrupted by a business problem that I haven't quite cracked. These two issues are not exactly the same thing.
• There is inertia toward having more visual interfaces, and I believe the Vision Pro is a symptom of that. It will undoubtedly steer things further in that direction in the coming years.
• I believe a technology like (AI/VR) will always have a little bit of an osmosis effect, influencing the development of anything related to 3D, due to the heightened awareness that customers will have.
• Designers should be more selfish, particularly when considering their portfolios. The nature of a designer is iterative, focusing on solving problems and creating better experiences for humans, which is great. However, in our current system, designers also need to consider how their work will look in their portfolio in the long term.
• A while back, I switched from Dribbble to Behance. And I'm much happier in the way that I can showcase my portfolio. 

 

Links - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theartist/  Twitter:https://twitter.com/sergesfeed  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brunosthings/  Company’s website:https://brunoserge.com/  Portfolio/website: https://www.behance.net/brunoserge