This motion capture camera debuted at Siggraph 2012.  Completed with OptiTrack, Priority Designs (with Ryan Eder).  Rendos and sketches here.

Major website refresh and launch of the Nike Covert Driver.  It’s been fun to code all weekend; a nice break from the usual ID work.  Check out the full story here.

I just uploaded some work from my portfolio: Halliday Wachs Joint Light Tactical Vehicle.  I don’t normally do automotive projects, but this was too much fun.  Feel free to read more about it, here. 

My project was featured on IndustrialDesignServed.com!  Thanks to Behance for selecting my work.

Just published material for the Mogo Sport project: the world’s first flavored mouth guard.  To find out more, check it out here.  

Exciting milestones include: first Red Dot Award, first full product animation, first musical score composition.

Thanks to the IDSA for choosing the Weldon Scenestar as an IDEA finalist in 2012.  Check out the project, here.

I just uploaded some graphic work that I completed for my band’s first album: Villains.  For more pics of the artwork, click here.  To listen to the album and find out more about the band, check out www.drawingairplanes.com

UCID 12 Critique - Part 2

Continuing from my first entry about the UCID ‘12 show, the second over-arching theme taken from the students work is:

The Young Entrepreneurs

During my final quarter before graduation, I focused heavily on my thesis as a gateway into an Industrial Design profession.  I was far removed from how the business world works, how products really make it to market, and the pathway to commercialization. 

On Tuesday, it was inspiring to see the energy of young entrepreneurial spirits overtake the discussion of Industrial Design skills.  We weren’t talking about perspective drawing or 3D modeling, we were talking about starting viable businesses.

Of the projects presented, more than half (of Tuesday’s presentations) were entrepreneurial in nature.  These students are anxious to forge ahead on their own, establishing high-quality products through sound problem solving and a deep passion for their product’s market.  On more than one occasion, the critique turned into a mini consulting atmosphere as judges suggested to the students a pathway to commercialization: “Do you know how to protect your ideas?” “Have you shopped this around yet?” “Are you thinking about doing a Kickstarter?”

The accessibility to investors for launching a product by yourself is now attainable through the advent of Kickstarter.  One student even put on their graphic panel: “Kickstarter coming soon”.  

One realistic challenge for this graduating class, despite their skill, is still a slow job market.  Perhaps an entrepreneurial spirit is the natural result of not having access to as many job opportunities as other generations. But, why wait for a job offer when you can create your own?  The goal is seemingly no longer to “work for the big brands”, but instead, “to compete with the big brands.”

UCID 12 Critique - Part 1

I had the opportunity to go down to the University of Cincinnati to critique graduating Industrial Design students’ capstone projects. First off: the UCID 2012 class represents some of the strongest talent I’ve seen in years.  Their project selection, communication, and visuals are relevant in both aesthetics and social/cultural issues.  Many thanks to the professors and students at UC for the invitation.  I won’t delve into the specifics of the projects (get down to DAAP and see it for yourself!!!), but I believe the work can be summed up in a couple over-arching themes, the first of which is:

The Marriage of Hardware & Software

This marriage is no surprise as the dominance of apps is proven in both utility and profitability.  Additionally, we’ve all seen student projects where there are suggestions of an application or software component.  This isn’t anything new.

The more interesting takeaway is the depth of the application development accomplished by traditionally trained Industrial Design students.

Around 40% of the projects (during Tuesday’s critique) utilized a software element to complement, or enhance the hardware.  The consideration for unique gestural interaction, skeuomorphic interfaces, and the execution of deep application features showed great passion for the products’ entire experience.

In a couple of instances, students had the ability to project the evolution (or complete elimination) of their hardware component, understanding that the user experience remains intact as software only. This raises the other side of the discussion: as students focus’ shifts to the software, how much time is there to really develop killer industrial design solutions? The number of skills that an industrial designer requires has always been high: research (qualitative, quantitative), 2D skills (illustration, perspective drawing, marker and digital rendering), 3D skills (modeling, rendering), manufacturing and processes… on and on and on.  You can now add animation (after effects, keyshot animation) to an industrial designer’s bag of tricks, by the way.  

Can we add interactive design to our skill set without spreading ourselves too thin?  

Deep Interaction Design skills (wireframing, concept modeling, testing, and programming) should be left up to the experts.  However, a broad understanding of interaction design is necessary to ensure that Industrial Designers’ are cognizant of the tools available to them to create the most fulfilling product experiences.  

So, Industrial Designers crossing over into Interactive Design?  Why not?  Interactive Designers have been taking our titles for a while now! :)

Evidence is available for ID’ers as IxD’ers.  Products have been creating experiences longer than iPhones have been around: tables, lamps, golf clubs, a lacrosse head, stereos…  Those products are meant to conjure within the user the same reaction as current day apps: functional purpose, entertainment, delight, confidence, inspiration, and other personal, emotional reactions… and I’ll continually look forward to future ID generations expanding our discipline’s boundaries. 

I was invited to give a sketching/rendering demonstration to The Ohio State University Industrial Design juniors.  The brief was to expand upon Keen Footwear’s existing brand, and I was to do a demo of a bag and some shoes.  Well, that quickly became a mini-project as I needed to do proper homework on Keen in order to illustrate the appropriate design language. Knocking out a project like this over a weekend was definitely a fun challenge.