Connor Hayward

This photo was at our last in-person final critique prior to the pandemic. Final critiques are always, to me, a celebration of all the hard work my classmates and I have put into the term, and reminds us of how far we have come as designers. The photo is of my roommate Henry (left), who is also a product designer, and I (right) after we had finished our critique sessions and were enjoying everyone’s company and beautiful work.

Degree: BS, Product Design

Graduation Date: Spring 2020

I’m From: Le Roy, New York

Why I Came to the UO and How I Chose My Major
I chose the University of Oregon because it combined a hopeful passion of mine at the time (Product Design) with my at-the-time passion (and continued love) for all things running and track & field in its popularity as TrackTown USA—a sort of best of both worlds. My favorite thing about the College of Design is, unequivocally, the community that stems from the cohort within the product design classes that we take. The product design community is one that shows such incredible support for one another, both from the professors as well as the students. While designing and creating incredible things is something that I am beyond grateful to have studied for 5 years, what truly resonates with me is the friends and culture our product design community has created.

Growing up, I was a huge fan of LEGOs. Even up until high school, I was consistently building and creating things with LEGOs without using instructions. During my sophomore or junior year of high school, I was beginning to think about what I truly wanted to do professionally, and I conducted a Google search, asking what major you needed to design for LEGO, and that was product design.

Unique Qualities I Bring to My Studies
I was a competitive cross country and track runner in high school (and still am), but what some people don’t realize, I think, is how much crossover there is from what you learn in sports and the skills and challenges you face in life. The skills, habits, and dedication I devote to running many miles and minutes on the roads or trails translates to the same kinds of things that keep me productive in the studio—good sleep schedules for recovering from training reflect on how much energy I’ll have to be creative and productive, and attention to time doing drills or strength training creates an equally sharp attention to craft and detail in one’s design work.

My Influential Professors
Trygve Faste and Kiersten Muenchinger have been most influential during my time at the University of Oregon. They both operate very differently from each other, but the ways in which they bring their own personality and uniqueness to their work was inspirational for me allowing my personality to properly flow into my own work. Moreover, there can be a lot of pretension and condescension in product design just as much as there is in any other field or major, but not once have I thought that either Trygve’s or Kiersten’s success had created an unfortunate ego. Their kindness and consideration, on top of their professionalism, is what separates them from any other professor I’ve had. 

My Extracurricular Activities
I was a part of the University of Oregon Running Club. What was most unique to me about the club was the opportunity to be immersed in the diversity of majors outside of product design and to combine that exploration with my love of running.

My Greatest Learning Experience at UO
Perhaps not something completely new to me, but instead there was a reiteration of how far hard work can get you. Hard work and the willingness to consistently and constantly put in that work truly shows, and my time at the University of Oregon, both with running and product design, have only solidified these ideas for me.

After Graduation
I believe that as designers, we have the responsibility to use our skills to pay it forward to the community, so in terms of a life after graduation, I have no specific company or group I’d like to work for, but instead wish to continue my work on designing shoes for people with disabilities while working at a company or organization that is reflective of these pay-it-forward ideals. My education from the College of Design has equipped me with the skills that I will use to give back to the community through designing a better world one day and one project at a time.

Your Gift
This award is important to me because it grants preliminary funding for prototyping and manufacturing shoes for my company, Ever Run, which as mentioned, seeks to bring brace-supportive shoes to the adaptive community. This award allows me to properly iterate and prototype the beginnings of something that I think is very special.

Not only will this funding be the first step in creating a product that gives back to the community, but occupationally, having been given this award will hopefully open some doors that might have otherwise remained closed. For all these reasons and more, I cannot properly say how appreciative and grateful I am for this award and funding. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!