Young Designers Collective.

The foundation of success in the design industry is built on mentorship, knowledge sharing, and connection, and in a post-pandemic, and often hybrid, workplace, it’s been a significant challenge for new designers to access opportunities to engage with the industry in these ways. New members of any career field need to have a space to ask “dumb” questions and gain fundamental product knowledge, and this is especially true in the design world. 2021 University of Tennessee graduate Caroline Murphy sought to address these very problems and later was assisted by fellow UT classmate Allie Bierman on what is now Young Designers Collective. Murphy sought to create an organization and host events that would create opportunities to bridge the gap between classroom education and real-world connections. YDC is uniquely tailored toward Architects and Designers with five years of experience or less.

Product representatives and manufacturers in the A+D industry are eager to share their expertise and build lasting relationships with the freshest designers in the field. YDC has been a highly sought-after avenue by which they’ve been able to do so. Now, two years after its creation, YDC has become an enriching community with over 185 members, and we cannot wait to welcome more.

Young Designers Collective hosted our first event in May of 2021 at Rustler’s Hat Company, and we were proud to partner with our founding sponsor, FSA Lighting. We were excited to network with twenty-four colleagues at that first event, and we have only grown since. We have hosted monthly events since our inception almost a year ago, and each routinely draws between forty and fifty attendees. Our events include creative projects like mixology and abstract painting classes, and opportunities for professional development like our Mentor Night, which featured top female industry leaders, and our Personal Branding Night featuring Aaron Estabrook from OFS as the evening’s host. We also began hosting small group events in 2023 as we saw a need for more intimate opportunities for deeper community building. Our small group events are generally open to twenty members or fewer, and they have allowed our members to authentically connect with industry stakeholders and with one another. YDC prioritizes it’s mission to serve the community members it hosts through providing resources for education and networking. We look forward to welcoming the next generations of young designers into our beloved industry.