Travel

On Friday a few of us headed back to Herman Miller’s Design Yard to meet with engineering, color & materials specialists, design facilitation, and research to go over our prototypes.

We brought with us detailed specifications of our work which included information about how we intended to assemble them, as well as the materials we were thinking about using.
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Last week the 3D Department and I went to NYC for 3 days to soak up as much as we could from designers, museums, galleries, and show rooms in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

While intense in terms of pacing, the lasting effect was one of informed excitement. We were able to see the work and studios of many of the big names in our field- IDEO, Rich Brilliant Willing, The Rockwell Group, Antenna Design, Ecco, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien Architects, Bill Moggridge, AMT Studio & Jan Habraken, Jason Miller/Roll&Hill, and others.
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Trapeze LED Table Light by Peter Stathis & JOBY

In a week from today (July 5th) I will be in San Francisco starting an internship with the industrial designer, Peter Stathis. I am really excited to be working on some lighting and other projects that are to be getting under way. A lot of my focus this past school year has been on lighting, so spending time at Peter’s studio should be hugely beneficial to me and my own design practice. Peter is really on fire this year; producing some exceptional and award-winning lighting projects like the Horizon Task Light (with Mike McCoy) for Humanscale, and the Trapeze LED Table Light and the Obus Indoor/Outdoor Light in a joint venture with Joby.

I can’t think of a better place for me to be this summer!

So Saturday was ICFF concentrate. By that I mean I flew into NYC Saturday morning and flew out Sunday Morning. After dropping off my toiletry kit at the hotel (why bother with a change of clothes?), I headed over to Javits. I started running into people I knew pretty quickly, which is nice and means that I am in the right place. With a couple of friends of mine from Blu Dot, I headed over to the ICFF stage to hear an interview with Marcel Wanders. The conversation was slow getting off of the ground but I think ultimately got at some substantive talk (e.g. the power of storytelling, advice for young designers, focusing on the new as an empty pursuit, etc).

Here are a couple of images from that discussion (note the footwear and lack of socks- very nice):

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Today we drove to Grand Rapids Michigan to visit Davidson Plyforms and Steelcase. It was an extremely interesting and informative field trip. Davidson Plyforms has long done the molded plywood work for Herman Miller’s classic line of Eames furniture (LCW, Lounge Chair and Ottoman). To be able to see stacks of components from these iconic pieces as well as watching them being produced was thrilling.
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My previous blog entry was from December 17, 2008. That blog was focused on my final furniture design project toward my BFA at the Minneapolis College of Art. I graduated shortly thereafter.

After a period of decompression (I had been working full-time at Adobe while attending classes for almost all of the 2 years I was at MCAD), I sent an email to the senior designer at Blu Dot Design and Manufacturing asking if they were hiring (HA! not likely in the middle of the economic meltdown) or taking interns. After submitting my portfolio, and a bit of back and forth over the time period for the iternship, I start in February.

Working at Blu Dot had long been a dream of mine and certainly a place I had my sights on while at MCAD. To actually work with the people who designed many of the iconic pieces of furniture that I admired, was really great. Plus, they’re really great guys!

In many ways, I fit right in. I had plenty of building skills, a complimentary design sense, and the ability to pick up CAD and rendering software quickly (They use Solidworks & Rhino). Soon I was working on multiple projects at one time; helping design pieces for client presentations (Blu Dot does a lot of design work and/or manufacturing for companies like Target, Crate and Barrel, etc. in addition to their own label), building functional prototypes, designing parts and having them machined locally, sourcing materials, helping to compile demographic/presentation narrative material, designing labels for Target, creating assembly instructions, as well as designing a modular shelving system that is now being offered by Crate & Barrel called ‘Payton’.

Payton Shelving System Designed while at Blu Dot

Looking at dimensions of sofa concept.

Finished product

At work on a task chair prototype in the Blu Dot shop.

Functional prototype of forthcoming task chair

After my time at Blu Dot was over (sniff!), my wife and I moved down to Iowa City so that she could complete her Doctorate in Psychology with a year-long internship at the VA. Iowa City is a charming college town and we have had a great time being here thus far.

Our temporary residence in Iowa City

While spending time in Iowa City, I worked a bit at the design department at the University of Iowa on a couple of small projects, a chair and a bird feeder. The latter produced a brief obsession over producing laser-cut and heat bent acrylic bird feeders and houses. Here is a sample.

At the beginning of 2010, I spent a lot of time getting my portfolio put together and then sending it off to grad schools. I ultimately decided on Cranbrook Academy of Art (I applied to the RCA and RISD as well). We’re moving to Michigan this summer. I am extremely excited to begin my next chapter in design at such an incredible place with talented and focused artists and designers.

This blog will cover my time at Cranbrook as well as design-related matters. I would like to document and share my experience there as well as my internal processes regarding the projects that I will work on. Hopefully other designers and students can find some value in this. I know I had looked for this sort of information when I was looking into grad schools and did not find much more than portfolios of finished work and projects.