Every professional athlete has certain places where they know it's going to be tougher for them. It's a mindset more than anything else. But I guess for me, it's a little more than that.

I was on a roll before that. But that set me back. It was probably the low point of my career.

The first time I made it to the NFR and didn't win, I was sure I'd have other chances. I was just excited to be there. But later on, I started to wonder if it would ever happen.

What got my attention was their wealth of varied thinking. They've done [everything] I can possibly get involved in.

I grew up in a time when Eames and Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright and other architects were putting their furniture and objects on the market. You could buy some of those objects on the open market. Eames was a huge influence on all of us in school.

Good design to me is both appearance and functionality together. It's the experience that makes it good design.