“The Brothers Lay” have been collaborating with each other on various client projects on a professional level since 2005. We became official partners in July of 2006 when we started Hybrid Design.

Though we both have degrees in Industrial Design - Chip received his Bachelor of ID from Georgia Tech, Rusty received his Masters of ID from Auburn University - our individual life experiences and professional design experiences have enabled us to combine forces to spawn a unique spectrum of creativity (the “collective superbrain” that you may have read about on our welcome page) and provide a wide range of innovative ideas, design solutions and services.

• Our ability to impact the world and make it a more excellent place through better design is, for a large part, directly related to you, our client. If you have a similar vision, if you want your product to go beyond the arbitrary, the “me too”, and make a positive impact on the market and the society through quality design, then we encourage you to contact us, Hybrid, who shares your vision.

How Rusty emerged as an industrial designer:

As so many young males did in the 80’s Rusty grew up with MacGyver as a hero. Sometime during his high school years, while enjoying art classes and entering “Invent America” competitions, he was told that to be a MacGyver and to solve the problems people face on a daily basis he should study Mechanical Engineering. So, Rusty went off to Vanderbilt University with the vision of improving the world with the knowledge of an engineer. After a few years he realized that improving the world through engineering was in fact a possibility, however, it was not exactly the type of improvement he wanted to make. After the close call of almost being assimilated by the Borg of routine, sterility, coldness, and lack of creativity from 2 years of mechanical engineering studies, he did what any logical person would do when the darkness of number crunching closed in. He changed his focus of study and became an art major.

With his new (and opposite) surroundings of creativity, freedom of thought, and encouragement to challenge the ordinary, Rusty’s mind and the excitement of the possibilities for this world were re-awakened. He felt though, that he considered ideas and the communication of those ideas, a bit differently than the majority of the artistic minds around him. Soon, he felt it important to apply the precision, the detail, and the intentionality from his engineering background to his creativity. Artistic interpretation was fine and dandy but he wanted his ideas to be communicated in a way that allowed clarity and understanding, not guesswork and speculation. “Architecture” someone suggested. “Architecture requires creativity and precision”.
So, after completing his art degree with a new focus on architecture from Vanderbilt University, and studying abroad with the Syracuse University’s architecture program, Rusty worked at Earl Swensson Associates architecture firm for a year as an architectural model builder. He loved it - creativity, precision, craftsmanship. Here’s where the story gets good!

While he was enjoying his work at ESa, his friend Ken Henley, the architectural illustrator for ESa, introduced him to a industrial designer who was doing contract work for ESa at the time. This was Rusty’s first introduction to the field of Industrial Design! As the designer explained what he did, showed some samples of his work and the process behind it, Rusty again had visions of improving the world. Years of problems and frustrations with everyday objects, as well better and new solutions to those problems, came flooding into his mind. He realized, for the first time, that there actually was a means, a profession, that prepared the creative mind to seek out and solve the problems, to improve upon the existing and shoddy solutions, to beautify the haphazard forms that products had been given, and to make the world a more inspiring, beautiful, and excellent place.

Soon after his epiphany, Rusty entered the Industrial Design masters program at Auburn University. He enjoyed, questioned, fell down, stood back up, learned, taught, created, thrived.

Upon completing his formal education at Auburn, and the internships he held during his Auburn years, he began his “real” education and joined Concept Center International, the team responsible for the industrial design of Ryobi, Ridgid, Craftsman, Milwaukee, Homelite and other brands of power tools and consumer products. He felt blessed to join CCi, as it was an incredible group of people to work with, learn from, and live among for 40 - ? hours a week. At CCi, Rusty learned about tooling, practical engineering, marketing, materials, research, working and communicating with a team, working and communicating with Asia, and eventually decided that, with increasing freelance work, that these experiences, this real education, could and should be part of the groundwork for he and his brother, and fellow designer, Chip, to continue, and in many ways to begin, their impact on the world by creating Hybrid Design.