man working with cables

Working at Dolmen was a great opportunity for me to get direct industry experience as an industrial designer. I was able to improve my skills and learn from a really talented and supportive team.

Winner of the James Dyson Award, Joel developed his professional skills while on co-op.  He shares about how this experience helped him to start his career. 

Tell us a bit about yourself, what course did you study in UL, what has your career looked like to date?

My name is Joel Olympio, I’m a past UL student from Cork. I studied Product Design & Technology. Here my final year design project really springboarded my career after it won a James Dyson Award. The award motivated me to start my own startup called Chapter Technology where we are developing consumer wearables that enhance focus. Alongside this I’m doing a PhD with University College Dublin’s SmartLAB in the research area of Inclusive Design and Creative Technology.

Tell us a bit about your co-op placement, what organisation did you work with and what year it took place?

In 2022, I did my co-op with Dolmen Design & Innovation. It was arranged by UL’s co-op team and I was delighted to get the chance to work at Dolmen. They are an award winning design consultancy based in Dublin that work with multinational and startup clients in the areas of medical and consumer products. They have an over 30 year history in design and have recently expanded their team.

I worked as an industrial designer there on a variety of projects that allowed me to apply my learnings from UL in real world applications. It was great because I could be involved in the very early stages of the design process all the way to the final stages. I was given a lot of responsibility over my work which allowed me to learn fast and have confidence in my design skills. At Dolmen, I also learned about the fast paced environment of design consultancy and how to make efficient design decisions to deliver high quality work. I applied these learnings to my final year project.

What impact did your co-op placement have on your future career?

Working at Dolmen was a great opportunity for me to get direct industry experience as an industrial designer. I was able to improve my skills and learn from a really talented and supportive team. I was offered a graduate position at the end of my internship which I took after I graduated from UL. During my time at Dolmen, I also got insights into the business side of product development which has been insightful for my own startup. I learned what I did and didn’t like about industrial design and I think this is important as you should highlight your particular skill set as a designer.

What piece of advice would you give to students going on co-op now?

My advice would be to use the time to make mistakes and learn from them. I would also say it’s a good time to start thinking about your final year design project and what kind of career you would like to have after you graduate. You can align your design project with the kind of career you are interested in and this can put you in a better position for prospects afterwards. I was very interested in consumer technology and inclusive design so I tried to get involved in projects at Dolmen that tailored to that and then focused my final year design project in that field as well.