Would anyone consider moving to the St. Louis area for a career in Product Design? Even if it was just a stepping stone? Is there anything out there to do? Is it a growing area for design? All questions I need to consider about relocation, future employment, and so on. I checked out some C.O.L. differences and St. Louis is cheaper. I want to make sure I’ll be happy and so will my girlfriend. Thanks for the help!
Lived there for 2+ years and did Industrial Design about 2 years ago…moved from elsewhere in the midwest.
At first, my wife and I hated it…probably because it was all new and junk but after awhile it grows on you. Live out east now and I would love to settle down in StL if I could but your right, there is not a whole lot of opportunity there from growth for ID compared to somewhere like chicago or the west coast.
That being said, here are a few i know of: TRG (swiss army, timberland and callaway softgoods) is there, Cerf Bros (columbia sportswear) is there www.cerfbag.com , metaphase www.metaphase.com and that is all I know of. There are some smaller places but these are the better known ones…at least when I was there, things could have changed. Cardinal Brands, www.cardinalbrands.com , is out the outskirts…may have moved to Washington, MO. now. Rigid Tools has a design presence there somewhere…never did figure out where they are actually…somewhere by the lambert airport i think. Place called Objex Design is downtown…think they evolved from Premier Design and Manf.
Reasons we liked it: cost of living is very reasonable…kirkwood and webster groves are cool spots. Even dogtown is cool. lived in southcity as well, not bad but there are some rough spots. Central West End, U City and Clayton are all hip spots with lots of younger people, bars and whatnot to do.
Sure I might be leaving some out but Im tapped.
Best of luck in the loo.