Pathways

by Brooke Thames

When asked to describe her decades-long career in industrial design, Bucknell management professor Gabriela Diego sums it up succinctly: “Designers are essentially good problem-solvers who happen to solve problems by providing products.”

Diego’s products weren’t quick-fix gadgets or utilitarian domestic devices, but entire atmospheres of fun. As a former design strategist at Playworld, an equipment manufacturer in Lewisburg, she led teams in the creation of playground equipment.

“I loved working with children and seeing how those spaces enabled them to explore,” Diego says. “You can’t be so serious when thinking about a design problem. Like children, you have to stay curious.”

The work blended Diego’s creativity and lifelong interest in architecture, which was sparked during her own childhood in Mexico. She relocated to Lewisburg in 2001 after earning a master’s degree in marketing from the University of Guadalajara. Last fall — after 20 years at Playworld — Diego joined Bucknell as a markets, innovation & design professor in the Freeman College of Management, where she’s teaching the next generation of problem-solvers to think imaginatively.

“It’s beautiful teaching design to the people who will go out into the world and lead innovation,” Diego says. “I’m excited by their questions, ideas and visions for the future.”

photograph by emily paine

Pathways

Gabriela Diego smiling with her arms crossed in front of a playground

by BROOKE THAMES

When asked to describe her decades-long career in industrial design, Bucknell management professor Gabriela Diego sums it up succinctly: “Designers are essentially good problem-solvers who happen to solve problems by providing products.”

Diego’s products weren’t quick-fix gadgets or utilitarian domestic devices, but entire atmospheres of fun. As a former design strategist at Playworld, an equipment manufacturer in Lewisburg, she led teams in the creation of playground equipment.

“I loved working with children and seeing how those spaces enabled them to explore,” Diego says. “You can’t be so serious when thinking about a design problem. Like children, you have to stay curious.”

The work blended Diego’s creativity and lifelong interest in architecture, which was sparked during her own childhood in Mexico. She relocated to Lewisburg in 2001 after earning a master’s degree in marketing from the University of Guadalajara. Last fall — after 20 years at Playworld — Diego joined Bucknell as a markets, innovation & design professor in the Freeman College of Management, where she’s teaching the next generation of problem-solvers to think imaginatively.

“It’s beautiful teaching design to the people who will go out into the world and lead innovation,” Diego says. “I’m excited by their questions, ideas and visions for the future.”

photograph by EMILY PAINE

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