Sketch Practice

My courses during my semester abroad have not really required that much sketching, and I feel my skills starting to slip slightly, so today I decided to get back into regular sketching.  Usually when I draw outside a project I'm at a loss as to what to draw, so I looked at the back topics of idsketching.com's weekly sketch challenge and picked a few to start with.  You can tell the lines aren't that straight and the confidence is lacking a bit.  I've always been a nervous sketcher...but perhaps with practice I'll get there...

Boomboxes/iPod speakers and such.

An external hard drive playfully inspired by an iceberg.

IDEO C60 Redux

So....I look at my blog after a few days of not checking and theres a post there that I didn't post....that TED talk video down there.  Noooo idea how it got there, but it looks interesting so I'll leave it there.

Anyway, this popped up on Core77 a few days ago.  Its the IDEO C60 Redux concept.  I first saw this when I read "I Miss My Pencil" by Martin Bone and Kara Johnson of IDEO.  I have to say it was a beautiful book, filled with great pictures, humorous text, and of course thought-provoking concept designs.

This particular concept really stuck with me because I love music, and I love vinyls and the physicality of music.  I am a DJ and own two turntables, though I don't use them much for performance anymore.  Even still, nothing beats the feeling of manipulating music with your hands and really feeling it.  This IDEO concept aims to bring some physicality back to music in a digital way, while keeping modern benefits such as playlists and shuffling.

I stole some pictures from Core77, they say it all.  And also a video from Vimeo.

Love it.  I want one.

Coroflot Overhaul

Sooo.....my Coroflot profile is getting a pretty major overhaul and you should all check it out! I'm going to be putting up my work on this blog as well as separate stand-alone pages too.  Until then check out my work
HERE

Ramazzotti Lounge

One of the projects I'm a part of in my semester abroad is designing a lounge for the Italian liquor company Ramazzotti for use in trade fairs, fashion shows, and similar events.  The company will actually produce our final design and hope to have it in use by January, which is very exciting but the whole process seems very rushed.  The class is rather large, and we are only producing one final design in the end.  It will be interesting how this works out...

Sampling Ramazzotti glasses.  No alcohol though :(

I had never heard of Ramazzotti before coming to Europe... According to popular opinion, it seems its a drink for old people, but Ramazzotti wanted our lounge design to tailor to a young professional target market...Perhaps looking for a change in brand image?

They have a very interesting glass design.  It's very heavy and holds deceptively little liquid.  Just what you want for a bar glass I guess.

With a class so large we came up with almost 100 different concepts for various aspects of the lounge from mechanical drink holders to crazy drinking games.

We then split up into smaller groups to work on individual concepts.  A group of 20 is really impossible to work with.

An Update at KISD

So last week my official first week of KISD projects started.  Currently I'm in one service design project about interventions in public spaces to promote physical activity, and another one about designing a lounge.  I have to say, the atmosphere here overall seems more grown up and intellectual compared to RISD, but RISD has a much more fun and tightly knit vibe. 

EDIT: Picture deleted - that bright orange was bugging the crap outta me.

That's what we spent most of our time doing this week.

EDIT: Picture deleted - so was the orange in this one.

Oh and brainstorming.

The school has a cool cafe type hang out area where most people go between classes.

Our professor for the lounge project.  Funny guy.

The Laws of Simplicity

Today I finished a book I've slowly been reading and absorbing this week: The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda.  Yes, the RISD one.  I found the book sitting on my flat mate's book shelf here in Germany.  I had no idea he was this famous...

Anyway, I found it to be an enjoyable read that was easy to follow.  The book is divided into ten laws, each of which has a small section about it.  Many of the concepts outlined could be applied to industrial design too.  Its strange reading a book by someone you've met and talked to.  You can almost imagine them saying the words.

A test post

Just a test post to try out a new way to present my work.
View in full screen for best experience.

Dabbling into product photography

I've always wanted to be able to photograph my design prototypes properly and do them justice.  A few weeks ago I found the time to do some more detailed investigation into product photography.

On exchange in Deutschland

So as my friends will know, I'll be spending this semester away from lovely RISD in Cologne, Germany studying at the Koln International School of Design (KISD? I thought that was hilarious).  So, here are some pictures of this place and how I got here.

A stopover at Zurich Airport.  By far one of the nicest airports I've ever seen. 

I love the Swiss colors.

Managed to snap a picture of this very Euro looking guy.

Cool roof of the train station at Frankfurt airport.

The inner mechanism is revealed.  I thought it was quite cool to watch.

Smart car! There are loads of these here!