Juhan Sonin

Current

• Creative Director at Involution Studios
• Lecturer at MIT

Past

• Designer, Design Group Leader at MITRE
• Designer at MIT
• Creative Director at Cinoni

• Designer, Research Scientist at NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications
• Designer, Principal at The Media Cafe
• Product Deployment at Apple Computer

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Education

• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Lexington High School

Recommended

4 people have recommended Juhan

Connections

169 connections

Industry

Think Tanks

Juhan Sonin’s Summary

* Award-winning, on-the-shelf products and applications (from rapid prototypes to multi-million dollar, large-scale projects)
* Interface design, software design, information design
* Transforming complex, data-heavy problems to delightful, story-rich products
* Digital Storytelling - producing dynamic, interactive data-driven stories for adults and children
* Design and engineering management (people, projects, departments)

Experience:

* Apple Computer ('94)
* National Center for Supercomputing Applications - NCSA ('95-'00)
* Media Cafe ('97-'98)
* Cinoni ('00-'01)
* Massachusettes Institute of Technology - MIT ('01-'02)
* MITRE ('03-'09)
* MIT ('08-current)
* Involution Studios ('09-current)

Juhan Sonin’s Specialties:

design, user interface design, product design, experience and interaction design, open source service development and design

Juhan Sonin’s Experience

• Creative Director

  Involution Studios

  (Privately Held; Computer Software industry)

  January 2009 — Present (11 months)

  The Creative Director of the Involution Studios Boston studio, Juhan is responsible for all product design and service delivery in the shop. He also contributes to overall business management of Boston operations and participates in corporate Involution planning.

• Lecturer

  MIT

  (Think Tanks industry)

  2008 — Present (1 year )

  Lecturer for Course 2.009.
  http://web.mit.edu/2.009/www/index.html

• Designer, Design Group Leader

  MITRE

  (Non-Profit; Information Technology and Services industry)

  January 2003 — January 2009 (6 years 1 month)

  I'm a designer, group and project leader, entrepreneur, mentor, and apostle for Design and Open Source.
  
  Performance grade over my current tenure at MITRE: B+
  * built an internal design business @ MITRE (with lots of help from colleagues)
  * lead the Open Design Group, fluctuates between 6-10 designers and engineers
  * learning the entire business of service design and enterprise engineering
  * design some pretty cool services.. that often push the edges of MITRE and customer businesses, disrupt current processes, and ultimately doing Good for planet earth

• Designer

  MIT

  (Educational Institution; 10,001 or more employees; Higher Education industry)

  2001 — 2002 (1 year )

• Creative Director

  Cinoni

  (Management Consulting industry)

  2000 — 2001 (1 year )

  I was a designer and (pseudo) manager.
  
  Performance grade during my tenure at Cinoni: D+
  * I ignored my gut feelings on design, hiring
  * I didn't demand great design from staff, I didn't produce great design
  * I struggled with managing a team in India and locally in Boston
  
  Good outcomes: Longer-term learning goals... how not to run an organization/a team, how not to hire, and don't ditch great design for mediocre solutions (at best).

• Designer, Research Scientist

  NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications

  (Non-Profit; 201-500 employees; Think Tanks industry)

  1995 — 2000 (5 years )

  I was a designer, lab rat, and wanna-be research scientist and artist.
  
  Performance grade during my tenure at NCSA: B+
  * I began my career... by designing museum and web-based experiences for children and adults... to ignite curiosity, overcome apprehension, and plant seeds for later exploration of science and engineering.
  * Cut my teeth on web services, real-time installations, sonification and visualization apps and environments, and infusing a good Design mantra into technically oriented divisions and projects

• Designer, Principal

  The Media Cafe

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Consumer Goods industry)

  1996 — 1997 (1 year )

  I was a designer, entrepreneur, and business partner.
  
  Performance grade during my tenure at the Media Cafe: B
  * Learned what it takes to release on-the-shelf, consumer products (thanks Camille!)
  * Start-up highs (product releases, reviews, fun, and the potential to have big impact) and lows (broken trust, lack of cash)

• Product Deployment

  Apple Computer

  (Public Company; Consumer Electronics industry)

  1994 — 1995 (1 year )

Juhan Sonin’s Education

• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  BA , Art and Mechanical Engineering , 1994

• Lexington High School

  1986

Additional Information

Juhan Sonin’s Interests:

MakeLab, design, interface design, art

Juhan Sonin’s Groups:

•    Interaction Design Association
•    MITRE CONNECTIONS
•    Healthcare UX

Juhan Sonin’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• consulting offers
• new ventures
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch