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Guest Ivy Ross
Speaker 1 0:02
Hey everyone, welcome to unique ways with Thomas GIRARD, an audio podcast we have a notable guest on today. She’s an American business executive designer and Chief Design Officer for consumer devices at Google. She’s worked at Google since May 2014, prior to being appointed Chief Design Officer, she led the Google Glass team at Google X, her metal work in jewelry design is in the permanent collections of 12 international museums, including the Smithsonian and in February 2019 she was named one of the 15 Most Powerful Women at Google by Business Insider. Please join me in welcoming and celebrating. Ivy Ross, welcome. Thank you. Thrilled to be here. Are you ready for 20 Questions? I am okay. Question one, tell me a little bit more about yourself. What do you
Speaker 2 0:49
do? I make magic. I make something from nothing with others. Right now, I see myself as the orchestra conductor that gets to know my instruments really well. We align on what we want to make or what the symphony is that we want to play. And my job is to say, hold that vision and hold that line and say a little more drums, a little less trombone. So that’s what I do now with an incredibly talented group of folks at Google. I mean, I basically created this department almost from scratch. Google was not doing very much around designing physical things, so I’m very grateful for the opportunity to have built this discipline great.
Speaker 1 1:45
And just a quick note for the audience, if you guys are interested in other 2025, episodes, check out the episode with industrial designer Kareem Rasheed. That was a big one for us. Number two, what’s a key piece of knowledge that makes you different? Hmm?
Speaker 2 2:08
Maybe the fact I’ve studied making the invisible visible, or I see things beyond what they appear to be. And I think part of that, my dad was an industrial designer, and he taught me how to look at everything and pay attention to what gets my attention, and then how to extrapolate that information and apply it to other things. But I’ve also studied bio geometry, which is kind of the science of shape, and really looking at how different forms and shapes give off different energy. I’ve studied energy medicine. I’ve studied sound and vibration. So I have a number of other interests that I believe make me who I am.
Speaker 1 2:58
Great. So number three, why this? Of all things? Why do you do what you do?
Unknown Speaker 3:07
I
Speaker 2 3:10
love making things, manifesting things. I think we make in order to know ourselves better. And so it’s quite an intimate process. And throughout my career, I’ve always been a maker, and I realized that, you know, there’s a real special connection between hands and mind, and I love that connection, and I love bringing personal expression forward and solving problems. I should say I really design is about solving problems. So it’s the combination of a personal point of view and expression while solving problems for large numbers of people, because I’ve also, you know, done one of a kind work, or, quote, unquote, been an artist. And I think an artist puts their soul on a pedestal and hopes that someone comes by and resonates with it. A designer solves problems that millions of people are going to hopefully respond to.
Speaker 1 4:26
Great some people struggle with number four, and the question is, what does your future look like?
Speaker 2 4:36
I’m super excited about it. My future looks multi dimensional on many ways. I just continue to I wrote a New York Times best selling book. Co authored your brain on art, how the arts transform us. So I’m very interested in besides design in art, and now that the science is here to. Prove what some of us have known intuitively, that the creative arts and design our bodies are wired to engage, whether it be being the receiver or the maker, and it aids in our health and well being. But when I say multi dimensional, I
Unknown Speaker 5:20
am interested in so many things,
Speaker 2 5:23
and I think the future is continuing to weave them and bring them together in different layers that will connect my work in sound and vibration that I started 40 years ago is becoming more relevant, will become more relevant in the future. So I think some of these things I intuitively have studied will become imperative soon.
Speaker 1 5:50
Great Five, we say, is unique to this show. The question is, let’s talk about location. How does the notion of place play into what you do?
Speaker 2 5:59
Well, I think space changes the way you think. So I place is super important, and I tend to I’m very I’ve worked hard my whole career, but I’m grateful to have a place outside of Santa Fe in a little town called Galisteo that is five acres in the desert, but you look out on that back portal, and it’s full of possibilities, just because of the open space. And I call that place still water. I can explain that in a minute. And then I have another place at Sea Ranch Northern California, that I call standing wave, which is right on the ocean that I sit on that deck, and it’s also looking out into the sea. I mean, we are literally on the edge, about 30 feet up. And I realize, and one is standing wave and the other is still water, because the place in Galisteo, I found out was used to be underwater the entire basin where I live. And now it explains it, because I get the same energetic feeling when I sit out on both decks, and I think it’s because I’m feeling the energy of what is now just still water. So those kind of places allow me to think about and create all kinds of possibilities. I feel like I need that open space looking into nature. I do my best thinking. There
Speaker 1 7:41
great, six if you had to start from the beginning, what advice would you give your former younger self?
Speaker 2 8:01
Don’t don’t let up on your intuition. Go deeper, and you’re here to only live the life that you’re here to live, not what others tell you
Unknown Speaker 8:16
great and what’s a day in your life like
Speaker 2 8:22
I uh, always chock full, always super different. So three days a week I drive down I live in Mill Valley. I drive to Silicon Valley. That’s about an hour and a half to two hours each way. So I listen to books on tape music, or use the time to have phone meetings. I get that down to the Design Center, which is I’m very grateful also Google let me design with an architect the interior of our design center, which very much supports the esthetic we’ve developed, so it’s not like any other building in Google, because space matters. So I remember saying to the architects, we need a design library. And they were like, well, what do you mean? We’re the company to digitize the world’s information? I’m like, No. Designers need to touch and feel and hold physical things, and so when you walk into the building, it’s like a three story high bookcase that follows the staircase up that’s exposed. And the little building is a tension of opposites. I call it masculine, feminine, analog and digital. You’d have to see it to understand but it represents the both and mode, not either or, which I’m a big proponent of. So then my day is filled with non stop, back to back meetings, everything from meetings on color and MA. Material to executive forums. I sit in to one on, ones, no, no. Day is the same. I come home, I have a sound bed that I lie on and listen to binaural beats, getting both halves of my brain together and other things to restore energy,
Unknown Speaker 10:27
and
Speaker 2 10:30
then the evening is after dinner is spent often on my other projects that I enjoy, like working on articles about the book, or I do this work with a partner called inner vision, which is using imagery to help women release any suppressed issues that are standing In the way of their success. So it’s chock full.
Speaker 1 11:02
Great. It is about lifelong learning, a popular topic. How do you stay up to date?
Speaker 2 11:09
This is probably what I major in, lifelong learning. I am always it’s how I got into sound and color and light and bio geometry and all the things I I’m someone who I will read. I read a lot, and as I said earlier, I pay attention to what gets my attention, and so when something gets my attention, or when I read something I am intrigued with, I will kind of like Alice in Wonderland, go down the rabbit hole and be relentless. I’m wanting to know more. I’m insatiable. I’m wanting to know more. So my, for example, my interest in sound started with me reading about a man in France that was he was a jazz musician, and then he started bombarding cancer cells with musical notes, and had pictures of what under the microscope, of finding that resonant frequency and like exploding the cells, I’m like, Oh my God. And this was early in my career, like 30 years ago, and I hopped on a plane and ended up studying with him for a week. So I, I find what gets my attention, I trust it, and that led to a whole 3040, years of understanding and studying with everything from ancient technologies of sound and vibration to contemporary ones. So I think that’s how I stay a lifelong learner. As I pay attention to what gets my attention, and I’m relentless about when I feel a connection to something. I could feel it my body, and I know it’s something I need to know more of. It’s part of my journey.
Speaker 1 12:56
Nice nine is about tools. Can you talk about your use of digital and or analog tools.
Unknown Speaker 13:04
I think tools.
Speaker 2 13:08
I think all of technology is a tool for man and so and I started as a craftsman. Or, do you say crafts? Woman? I don’t even know. So I love I love physical tools. I love their ingenuity. I think I mean hands are tools as well. And I love digital tools that take some of the rational things off our plate. I think
Unknown Speaker 13:39
I use tools
Unknown Speaker 13:42
for efficiency
Speaker 2 13:44
or for creative expression, but mostly for efficiency, so that I can have time to be more human.
Speaker 1 13:54
Nice, beautiful pathway number 10, life work balance. Work life balance. How do you deal with it?
Speaker 2 14:02
I my husband’s sitting across the table. He could tell you that I am, I’m actually okay. I think about I work really hard and I play really hard, and, you know, luckily, it’s been a different situation at different stages in my career. It was a lot harder when I had a daughter at home. It’s kind of the beautiful thing about getting older, you go through different stages. And so now I can find more of a balance between the work and, you know, I It’s funny, because I think that boundary as I’m saying it has broken down in that I love my work is my passion. So I. Yeah, it’s all one thing. Now that I have no kids in the house, it’s, it’s pretty seamless. Actually. I think of them as one. I don’t Did you say work? Life? Was that what you said?
Unknown Speaker 15:16
I say life, work or work? Life,
Speaker 2 15:19
life work. Yeah, the great news is I love what I do for work so much, and it’s so much a part of the life I live in terms of design and creation that Sure, I have a job I go to, but it’s very fluid, more so than ever. Now in my career, I think in the past, it was more distinct line, but now I find when I think about it, there’s a lot of fluidity and dynamic between it, so it’s hard for me to even, like, I don’t intentionally have to create a balance. I think it just naturally happens, like, My heart aches when I don’t get to Sea Ranch enough to walk along the ocean to clear my head. So it’s kind of this natural rhythm that I get into knowing what I need when I need it.
Speaker 1 16:30
Great. 11, if you weren’t doing what you do now, what might you be doing?
Speaker 2 16:37
Yeah, the only thing I think about is maybe being an architect. You know, I think I’m a builder at heart, in terms as an archetype, in terms of, I realize I build, even when I did my metal work, my jewelry, it’s built. It’s building small. It’s building physical things, building teams. I’ve even built a company, or building houses. I love the process of building a house, whereas most people hate it. And so the only thing I ever think about is, huh? I wonder what would have happened if I had become an architect, but I think I’m a builder, because I think I’m a builder at heart,
Unknown Speaker 17:19
nice. What would you not like to do with your career?
Unknown Speaker 17:25
Have it go backwards?
Speaker 2 17:28
What I said, What I mean by that is, I’ve never done the same thing twice, and I don’t want to ever do that. I think life, I learned early on that life is not about the end goal. It’s about the journey. And I learned that because when I was in in my 20s, I got my metal work in like 12 museums around the world, because I invented some new techniques. And here I was 22 in 10 museums, and there are people that spend their whole life saying, If only I could get my work in a museum, and the ego trip lasted two weeks, and then life was back to normal, and I realized, oh my god, this was a gift to realize that it’s not about some end game, if only I was or became. It’s life is about the journey. And so I made it. It’s interesting. People see my resume and they say, Well, wait a minute, you were a metalsmith, a jewelry designer. You design toys, you design you work for Calvin Klein, swatch watch. Are you? Are you a toy designer? Are you a shoe designer? Are you a tech? Technologist? What are you? And I smile, and it’s because I never want to have the same experience twice. I want to take myself with me and my learnings and apply myself to a new challenge. I mean, that’s what I think of in terms of leading a living a creative life. So I guess the answer would be, I never want to do something I’ve already done again in my career.
Speaker 1 19:07
Great 13. Do you have a favorite word, quote or sentence?
Unknown Speaker 19:14
My favorite word is resonance. I
Speaker 2 19:20
probably have a favorite quote, but it doesn’t come to mind. I’d say resonance, because I think I am more into quantum physics than I am a material list, and I think we’re all vibrating atoms. And I learned just from even the man that was breaking up cancer cells with musical notes is that it’s all about coming into resonance with things, with people with ideas. And so I learned that word from studying sound and vibration, and I find it useful even when I think about, well. Life, am I in resonance with this place? And it’s hard to describe. It’s not. It’s a big feeling. When I feel like I’m in residence, you know, with a place or a person. It’s a word that goes, I think, is broader than lots of little details.
Unknown Speaker 20:20
And do you have a least favorite word, code or sentence?
Speaker 2 20:26
No, I don’t like yeah, the energy of I hate, this the word hate. I hardly ever use it, and I think even the vibration of it doesn’t sound good.
Speaker 1 20:39
So you’re choosing one word to describe yourself. What word do you choose?
Unknown Speaker 20:44
Curious?
Unknown Speaker 20:47
What keeps you up at night,
Unknown Speaker 20:56
worrying about my loved ones, family?
Unknown Speaker 21:01
Do you have a dream you’re chasing?
Speaker 2 21:11
I’d like to write a new operating manual for humanity with a bunch of others
Unknown Speaker 21:18
cool. What inspires you?
Unknown Speaker 21:27
Nature, beauty,
Unknown Speaker 21:35
awe. Like seeing something that
Unknown Speaker 21:39
I haven’t seen before. You know, you
Speaker 2 21:44
being confronted with new things and taking them in
Speaker 1 21:51
great last couple here number 19, any advice you’d like to share?
Speaker 2 22:02
You know, I think for others to tap into who they really are not and what makes you happy, what brings you joy? You know, I think success
Unknown Speaker 22:15
is a strange word.
Speaker 2 22:21
I think it’s deeper than the surface it really is. Are you living the life that you’re here to live? And if you haven’t figured that out,
Speaker 2 22:36
I think start figuring it out of you know, what is it that uniquely you can contribute and is and is really what your soul wants is, you know, I want some I was on the board of the National Institute for play, and the opposite of play is not work. People think it is. It’s depression. And he once taught, he taught me, if you’re ever stuck, think about when you were a kid, zero to five, you know, and you were happy playing. What was that play activity like? Literally, what were you doing? Were you building with blocks? You know? Were you making sand castles? And then look at what you’re doing. Fast forward today, and do you see a connective tissue in an abstract way? Obviously you’re not going to be building sand castles, but, and it’s never failed, there’s friends of mine, I’ve asked that, and you see this big smile come on their face as they remember when they were happiest playing as a child. And then they think about what they’re doing today, and those are really happy. It’s there is a connection in an abstract way, and I think that’s because when we come in to be a human, you know, we’re little souls unjaded By what society or our parents tell us we should be or we should do, and it’s just pure expression. And so I think the idea is, if you can remember when you were in that place, before anyone, the shoulds or coulds came in, or you’re not good at that, or you can’t do that, and you were just this little soul expressing yourself, what you what were you doing, and what could you be doing Today? That makes sense. That is close to that
Speaker 1 24:43
great and finally, number 20, how can our listeners keep tabs on you? And what’s our call to action
Speaker 2 24:53
right now? The call to action is bring more love and beauty into the world.
Unknown Speaker 24:59
And. Um,
Speaker 2 25:01
keeping tabs on me, I have to say I am not a big social media person for my personal life, because I have too many other things I’m interested in. I am on LinkedIn and Facebook, but I would say Google me every so often, or go to
Unknown Speaker 25:25
your brain on art.com
Speaker 2 25:28
and sign up for any news that comes out of that adventure, which is really how the arts and architecture can help us in health and well being so if you’re interested in that, go to
Unknown Speaker 25:45
your brain on art.com
Speaker 2 25:49
and otherwise, yeah, just google me. Every so often, you’ll see what I’m up to, or once a while, I’ll do something on Facebook or LinkedIn, but hardly,
Speaker 1 26:00
great. Well, thanks so much. It’s a true privilege to have you on the show, and I’m just so happy you’re here. Thanks.
Unknown Speaker 26:07
Oh, thank you. Bye.
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