This TED Talk features designer Ingrid Fetal Lee,

recorded live at TED 2018.

It's 2008,

and I'm just finishing my first year of design school.

And I'm at my first year-end review,

which is a form of ritual torture for design students,

where they make you take everything you made over the course of the year

and lay it out on a table and stand next to it,

while a bunch of professors, most of whom you've never seen before,

give you their unfiltered opinions of it.

So it's my turn, and I'm standing next to my table,

everything neatly lined up,

and I'm just hoping that my professors can see

how much effort I've put into making my designs practical

and ergonomic and sustainable.

And I'm starting to get really nervous,

because for a long time, no one says anything.

It's just completely silent.

And then one of the professors starts to speak,

and he says, your work gives me a feeling of joy.

Joy?

I wanted to be a designer because I wanted to solve real problems.

...