Community Highlights: Meet Blair Hasty of Crafted by

Today we’d like to introduce you to Blair Hasty.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’ve always been drawn to how things work, not just mechanically, but emotionally. As a kid, I was obsessed with products. Not just how they looked or felt, but what they meant to people. That curiosity turned into a career in industrial design.

After earning a Master’s from Auburn in 2004, I spent the next 20 years helping brands turn ideas into real products. I’ve led internal teams, launched award-winning designs, and helped bring everything from consumer tech to medical devices to market.

Over time I realized most design failures weren’t about creativity. They were about leadership. Teams weren’t struggling because they lacked ideas. They were struggling because they didn’t have someone who had done it before and could guide the process. That’s what led me to start Crafted by. It’s a product realization agency that helps companies move from early concepts to manufacturing-ready design, with the flexibility to work inside or alongside a team.

I live in Roswell with my wife and daughter. Crafted by is a reflection of how I work and how I think. Creative, direct, and focused on helping people build things that matter.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Definitely not smooth. Building anything real never is.

The biggest challenge has been managing uncertainty—financial, emotional, strategic. When you run your own business, there’s no roadmap. You’re constantly switching between big-picture planning and small, unglamorous tasks. One minute you’re pitching to a C-suite team, the next you’re fixing a broken printer or chasing a late invoice.

Another ongoing struggle has been visibility. A lot of great design work happens behind the scenes, so it’s easy to get overlooked if you’re not constantly promoting yourself. That’s not something that comes naturally to me, but I’ve learned how important it is.

And of course, there’s the balance with family. I’ve got a wife and daughter, and I want to be present for them. That means I’ve had to turn down work at times or walk away from projects that didn’t align with my values. It’s the right call, but it’s not always easy.

That’s just the price you pay to build your dream. Every setback has sharpened the business. Every wrong turn has taught me something I now use to help clients avoid the same mistakes.

As you know, we’re big fans of Crafted by. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Crafted By is a Product Realization Agency. We bridge the gap between concept and manufactured product for hardware companies. That distinction matters. We’re not just designing pretty renderings; we’re designing things that actually get built.

Most design firms hand off a CAD file and wish you luck. We stay in the trenches through tooling, DFM, vendor selection, and first article inspection. Our sweet spot is taking a product from “we know what we want to build” to “it’s shipping.” That’s the hard part nobody talks about, and it’s where most hardware programs stall or fail.

What sets us apart is that we operate as a decentralized agency, drawing from a deep network of specialized industrial designers and engineers I’ve built through 20+ years in the industry and hundreds of conversations with practitioners. This means clients get exactly the right expertise for their specific challenge, whether that’s a precision medical device, consumer electronics, or space robotics, without the overhead of a traditional agency. We scale to the problem, not the other way around.

My background includes managing a $2B+ hardware portfolio at Verizon, leading product development at Griffin Technology, and working across categories from consumer electronics to QSR. I’ve seen what breaks at scale, and that perspective is baked into everything we do.

What I’m most proud of is that we’ve built a reputation for honesty about what it actually takes to bring a product to market. Through my work with Industrial Designers International, a 2,500+ member community I founded, and my content reaching thousands of designers on LinkedIn, I’ve made it a mission to cut through the hype and educate the industry about manufacturing realities, timelines, and what “production-ready” actually means.

What we want people to know: If you have a hardware product that needs to move from prototype to production, or if your current design partner keeps delivering work that manufacturing can’t actually build, that’s exactly the problem we solve. We speak both languages: design intent and factory floor.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
Industrial design is at a crossroads.

On one hand, more companies are starting to understand the strategic value of design. They’re bringing us in earlier, asking for help beyond just making things look good. That’s a good shift.

But at the same time, a lot of design is getting commoditized. AI tools, copycat products, race-to-the-bottom pricing, it’s putting pressure on studios and internal teams to move faster while somehow staying original. That tension is only going to grow.

I think the next 5 to 10 years will belong to the firms and individuals who can operate like true partners. Not just designers, but decision-makers, translators, and strategic guides. The ones who can lead a product all the way through real-world execution.

The work is going to get harder, not easier. But the impact design can have on business, on behavior, and on culture is only going to grow. The role is expanding. We just have to be ready to grow with it.

Pricing:

• Project engagements are scoped to complexity and stage of development
• Projects start in the low five figures
• Monthly advisory retainers available for internal teams

Contact Info:

• Website: https://craftedby.agency/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/crafted-by