RIT was 'instrumental' in career of Lyft designer

As a product design systems lead for Lyft, Linzi Berry ’09 (new media design) performs many tasks. Among them are defining the look and feel for mobile products and working cross-functionally to design attributes and components for all Lyft products. 

In addition to working for the San Francisco-based ride-sharing company, Berry’s professional career includes years with design agency Odopod. Before that, while at Rochester Institute of Technology, she earned prestigious internships with VH1 and Big Spaceship, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based digital agency. 

Berry considers her experience in RIT’s new media design program as being “instrumental in my career in design.” She credits RIT’s faculty, innovative teachings and exposure to (and relationships with) industry as chief reasons why.

Question: How well did your education at RIT prepare you for post-graduation? 

Linzi Berry: RIT’s diverse curriculum made us all a jack-of-all-trades. By constantly learning new skills — 3D, animation, UI/UX (user interface/user experience), graphic design, Javascript, etc. — what I actually learned was how to pick up new skills quickly. This industry changes so frequently that being able to adjust on a dime is an art not many have. Being a technology school, we were taught to think systematically. This prepared me for the job I have today. We actually just used an RIT paper on the visual arch to determine our typography set sizing.

Question: What was your experience like in the new media design program?

LB: RIT has a culture of doing, not slacking. The students of the new media design program while I was there were some of the most talented and hard-working people I’ve met in my life. The faculty believed you could do better and would push you to do so. I see some of the futuristic concept work we did back then becoming a reality now!

Creative Industry Day and the promotion of internships were crucial for me to learn what real projects were like and, honestly, made the connections that got me to where I am today. Everyone is connected in this industry. 

Question: Is there a faculty member at RIT who was especially helpful?

LB: Adam Smith (new media design undergraduate program co-director and associate professor). The guy is a legend. My junior year he quickly flipped through a bunch of state web designs and asked which ones were worth talking about. I knew on that day he was going to be one of those life coaches you never forget. He was the definition of tough, but fair. We all wanted to impress him. He wasn’t afraid to nitpick and our work improved dramatically because of it. On Creative Industry Day he would direct us to certain companies and tell us which work to show off — which he still does to this day with current students. Upon graduation, when New York wasn’t hiring, he told me and a few others to go West — and here we are, loving every minute of it. He’s just, the best.

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