ROOHOLLAH MERRIKHPOUR
LEGENDARY INTERVIEW
Design Legends ("DL") had the distinct honour to interview legendary designer Roohollah Merrikhpour ("RM") for their original perspective and innovative approach to design as well as their creative lifestyle, we are very pleased to share our interview with our distinguished readers.
DL: Could you please tell us a bit about your design background and education?
RM : I am Roohollah Merrikhpour, an industrial designer from Iran. I started my education with civil engineering and I got my bachelor in 2003. Since I have been fell in love with industrial design I saw no choice but starting my education from the first in a very new and very different major. I successfully passed the national university exam and started studying bachelor of industrial design in The University of Tehran which is the first-ranked university of IRAN. Honored as an outstanding student I received a full scholarship from the university for studying Master of Industrial Design. I finished the MFA program and then worked for about 3 years as an Industrial designer in GIG which is a big holding company in Iran. As a hobby I also was designing small design-oriented products and was selling them in design exhibition around the world. I participated in several Design exhibition in Tokyo, New York, Seoul, Stockholm etc. In 2013 I decided to start another master program in College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI. Due to my good resume I got a scholarship and a dean award from College for Creative studies so I moved to the USA.
DL: What motivates you to design in general, why did you become a designer?
RM : Design is about changing and creating. This is exactly what I live and it makes me feel alive. You change your environment, you influence things around you, so you make sure that you exist!
DL: Did you choose to become a designer, or you were forced to become one?
RM : As I said I changed my professional way significantly to become a designer. So, yes I myself chose to be a designer.
DL: What do you design, what type of designs do you wish to design more of?
RM : I like to design products. Products that are having a big wow with themselves. We call them design-oriented products.
DL: What should young designers do to become a design legend like you?
RM : Becoming motivated based on their feeling and acting based on their logic. Becoming a designer needs to have an active brain in both left and right part. So, keeping child inside curious and fresh is very important as well as having a brain that work logically like a Swiss clock!
