Our next guest is Brittany Pierone, the designer behind DI PIERONI, a luxury goods brand grounded in high taste. With a focus on utility and minimalism, these fashion necessities are premium and functional for life and travel. The brand seeks to speak to culture and timeless aesthetics and be useful to a range of lifestyles. Her team is focused on designing modern products, by honing the relationship between timeless materials and modern design lines. The brand’s mission is to partner with non-profit organizations to raise awareness and means to support those in need. During our conversation, we talked about her humble beginnings at Arizona State, graduating with a degree in Industrial Design in 2014. Early on Brittany knew she had a love for making and building - from building a scale model of the Hindenburg blimp out of toothpicks to job shadowing her high school pole vault coach at Nike. Design matched her DNA. While in college Brittany interned for Nike, designing shoes in Women’s Training and Golf. Upon graduating, she returned to Beaverton to join the Nike Running design team. She spent a year working on color design and special projects before being promoted to Nike Field Sports team. International travel with Nike, exposed Brittany to living conditions all over the world, that both broke her heart and inspired her. In search of more meaning, Brittany quit her beloved role at Nike to go to Africa to work with women and children battling HIV in Ethiopia. Motivated by the joy of giving back and the freedom America provides, she returned to LA to build what is now her brand called DI PIERONI. Founded on the definition of compassion, Brittany was able to marry both her passions. Today, she continues to push the boundaries in product design, while raising awareness and funds for people in need all over the world. Thank you @b.pierone for being amazing and inspiring so many! Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!