Senior Thesis Update

Video

This video was made about my enculturation into the sport of sled hockey.  For my senior thesis I am redesigning a sled for disabled ice hockey.  I am the one in the video wearing all black getting knocked over all the time.

Titan Stop Motion

Video

This was a project at my last internship.  We created a surgical robot for engineers to test the parameters of the arms crashing into each other.  This is a short stop motion video we made to show how it worked.

Hockey Skate

I have been wanting to get into hockey design for a while.  This is a 2.5 hour render that I attempted at skates for the first time.  I would love to land a job at a hockey company.

Chair Finished

So this quarter was definitely the most demanding quarter. I think I really learned how to organize myself and start working smarter than longer. Overall great quarter, really glad it is over now. Learned a lot about work ethic.

Staying on Track for Development

This quarter I really tried to concentrate and stay away from getting to far off of the upward sloping graph line of production. Not that design is a perfect process, however in the past I think I have strayed from staying concentrated on continuously developing an idea, and really following a process. In the past I would choose one idea and not want to develop it any further. I would be content with where it was. I had spent so much time on the idea already that further development was unnecessary and there wouldn't be enough time left. That wasn't yielding the results I wanted so I over compensated. I would then keep changing ideas after the ideation phase until I had something that seemed revolutionary. As opposed to continuing to develop features or details of a chosen direction I would keep changing directions and would just be spinning my wheels. I think this was another thing I really learned an got better at this quarter. Following a design process and sticking out with the selected idea and continuing to develop until it was time to build or finish. I think now that I have learned this that I can start to refine my specific process that I like to follow.

Innovative vs. Well Designed

So the chair quarter is finished. I think I really struggled at the beginning of the quarter to figure out what I was going to do with the chair. All of our projects in the past have been based around creating an innovative design feature or product. That is really the goal to do something strange and different, and that is pushed on you. "You are a student do something crazy." I totally agree with this statement. However I was having trouble translating it to the chair project. The chair is something that has been around forever and had millions of variations. At first I was trying to think of something innovative. For the chair quarter I think this was the wrong approach. I didn't need to create some innovative feature. I could still do something different simply based off of the design. The innovative things were going to be in the design details, in a new or interesting shape. This really was the turning point and helped me focus in on my design. I really learned a lot this quarter about work ethic and design overall.

Dutch Furniture

For this project I tried to really create a product based off the ability Dutch design has to make the strange blend in beautifully as normal. Overall I think in the end I did a good job but after discussion at crit I could have removed the alarm clock or changed it to swivel somehow. Also all of my boards this quarter I have been happy with, however I wish I had tied them together more. Chet's boards always are obviously together and it just makes his presentations jump off the wall that much more. We determined the best way to do this was to have similarities but not exact similarities, which can end up being more distracting.

Modern Ornamental Audio

This is a project I finished for our Design Communications class. The speakers are supposed to follow a product trend I see in the market. I think the combination of modern design with classic ornamental or decorative designs is something that is becoming very popular. So with these speakers I tried to achieve that with combining design elements from a phonograph along with elements from a modern speaker.

3 hr design challenge

So today our professor came in and asked us what all of our favorite fruits were. He then told us you have three hours to design a ring based off of the fruit we had just named. It proved to be a really great experience. I think that often in the workplace this is something that can happen often. A boss may ask to have a design for a certain object in 2-3 hours and they expect something that looks nice. I enjoy doing shorter projects like this. Sometimes I feel this is when I do my best work. Often spending to long on a project I feel that is gets muddied down and some of the magic of the original idea is lost. Apple is my favorite fruit and here is the final render I had at the end of the class.

Chair Revision

Currently in the process of revising the front of the chair. After meeting with some fiberglass experts it sounds like the mold I had planned on building would create complications. Here is the direction I am leaning towards, more minor revisions to come.

Final Design for Eyewear

The image I think doesn't have the same chemistry between my alarm clock and it's image board. I think that is simply because of the choice of wood for the glasses. I wanted to use minimal materials like on my image board. Also I wanted to take elements of the simplicity of the designs. I think in this way I achieved following my image board. However I think it was more impactful last time when colors were similar and added cohesiveness to the two images. This is something I plan on trying to do again for the next project.

Inspiration Board for Eyewear

Alarm Clock Render

Updated version of the alarm clock. I would like to take this further. Could have minute details changed but this is close to the final idea.

First look at the Chair

Sorry for the lacking updates on chair sketches/photoshop renders. Here is the current look I have going for my chair. It consists of a fiberglass seat and wood legs. The legs may change to steel rod if engineering problems occur which seems likely.

Alarm Clock

How do I percieve getting up. I think most people who sleep in base getting up on how far they can push back their chores for the morning before they have to leave. This alarm clock takes that to a literal sense and has the alarm start at the desired time and go off every ten minutes just like a snooze button. Except every time you decide to hit the snooze button as opposed to ten minutes passing it informs you of what you won't be able to do if you decide to continue sleeping. I think it is a fun simple way of looking at the alarm clock system. This could turn into something fun to discuss at work to. "I have been getting up a Pee? like every day (see image)." The image below is a quick representation of what the product will become. I am currently in the process of developing it further and will post when ready.

Visual Resumes

Recently we have been working on visual resumes in class. I think this is going to prove to be a great tool to add to the skill set. Beyond resumes it can help bring interest to inspiration boards as well as research graphics. Here are a few examples of some of the boards I have put this new skill to use on. Included in order are my experience of being in Chicago, my inspiration for my RVCA USB's, my experience of being at UC, and my inspiration for an alarm clock project I just started.

Placement

Well it's about time I get back to blogging. Recently I have been doing a lot of thinking about where I want to go with my career. I may be just seeing this because I have been frustrated with I.D. recently but many people that are extremely successful at their profession often don't start off traditionally in that field, or studying that field. Is this because they have a different perspective then every other person educated in the field or because they have a different process. With graduation fast approaching this is something that has really been staring me in the face. Back around February I kept having thoughts of where I wanted to go in design. I slowly came to the conclusion that I should just go with the flow and wherever I end up design is going to be the best fit for me. Anyways still definitely thinking about this every day and I am still completely lost in the fog. No answers yet, 2 years left to go hopefully I will figure something out.

Final Presentation Board

Course Evaluation

Overall this was an excellent course and I really feel that I learned a lot. I think I learned how to communicate my designs in a forms and details. Beyond learning technical skills I think the most important thing was learning how to speak. The layouts and the technical skills can come with practice and I supposed that speaking can as well. However we never really learned anything about who you are presenting for or what you are presenting. I think that is the most important thing what you are presenting? Did I ever really truly deeply think about that.

I think that the class was great the way it was. The only small changes I would have liked to see I guess are a little bit of interest in the sketches. We got to do sketching but not to much was learned about that. Secondly I would have liked to do at least one traditional crit. Because in the end that is how we present and you can do all the practice tools you want to help prepare for that. However like in sports practice can help prepare you and get you ready but you really get better from game experience. I'm not saying that we need to do them a lot because I really enjoyed the break from them. I would have liked to do only one so you could critique how we did that.

I do want to say thanks Michael though because I really enjoyed this class and feel that I really learned a lot, hopefully it benefited you as a designer as well because I'm told teaching does that.

Blog Critique

I think this blog was a good way to keep motivated and constantly thinking about design. I know I would not have done it probably had it not been required but I like to think I will keep it updated. It has proved to be a great tool with showing companies current work as well as friends and family. Hopefully I can keep up on the random writing about theories and such, because I know not many people are reading it so there is no pressure really in what I am saying. Also it has provided a good web between the class to see other people's work. I think that is the most important thing it has done. Like Michael said strengthening the class is always good and is only going to benefit yourself in the long run, and the sharing of ideas and thoughts on a blog is a good tool for doing that.

Personal Evaluation

I think this quarter as a designer I have really grown. I think I have a far better grasp of what creates a great product beyond form and function. You've got to sell it ....... tell a story. I really do feel that was my most lacking skill. Showing off my products on image boards, portfolios, and in presentations. I think that is what I learned most this quarter and I am again excited to update my portfolio and create something with some depth to it and a clear understanding of the value of the products I design.

Questions for a Professional Designer

I guess there are a lot of things I would like to ask a professional designer but if I had to narrow it down to three things at this point in my design career none of them would really be related to technical skills or anything of that nature. So here are the three I would ask.

1.) As a student I am struggling to find my identity as a designer and what I want to do. When I do you do suggest holding out for a job that I really find interesting or simply taking one gaining experience and hoping for the dream job later.

2.) As you progress in the design field and move up in a company how much less designing do you get to do? I obviously would like to move up, however if it means being far less involved with the design I would honestly rather stay at a lower position my whole life.

3.) What was a pivotal thing that happened to you as a designer?

Start to the interior of the Ice Shack

Housewares Design

This is the final presentation board that I had hanging up for the final critique in our Design Communications class. I will most likely try entering this into a Student Housewares Competition some time in the end of January.

Time to Work

Ready for some free time. This time not to slouch around as much. Oh it will happen for the first week simply out of recovery of being a complete nerd in DAAP and feeling like I never leave the place. After my week of doing absolutely nothing though I am really ready to start redoing my portfolio and finishing off a few projects from this quarter to be portfolio ready. This is the first time that I feel excited to put together a portfolio. I think I have finally reached the point where I am starting to feel proud of my designs and not having to struggle through creating a portfolio that I know looks bad. The skills are there now to create something good and that provides motivation and excitement for me to follow through. Only have to make it to December 7th then life can go back to normal and I can get going on the new portfolio. It's all about telling a story this time.