Featured on the luxology homepage- very nice indeed

Awesome ad- so over the top ridiculous.

Sweet- The Quattro grill I designed was featured on uncrate

Just got featured on the Luxology Image Gallery- Sweet!

http://ernestincardesign.blogspot.com/
Looks like he is part of the Quattro design team. Sweet work.

Sketch vs CAD-If you are ever curious about what Industrial Designers are viewing online, the view stats on the videos on my youtube account show no doubt- Sketching wins hands down- a 2:1 walloping in some cases. This has always been a interesting factoid to me- given the amount of time I slog in CAD. Also when putting together training sessions with schools, a sketch presentation seems to generate far more visceral excitement. Is this simply a function of in-house design vs consulting?

Typically the farther into a project the exponentionally greater is the stamina required- you get pounded on the details from tooling, mech engg, marketing and the normal bunch of crazies. Unless the designer is embedded you dont get to participate in these scrums.
I would be the first to tell you that sketching is one of the super-weapons at my disposal, especially at meetings when the rest of the team has a hard time jotting down visual suggestions- but I have been trying to figure out the most ninja ways to use my tools- most bang for least effort, and it seems to be at odds with what the profession at large thinks.

I notice that with certain Engineering teams that are evaluated on throughput, they have less tolerance for potentially awesome but risky ideas, simply because it takes more time. I wonder if sketching is so highly valued in the profession because many consultancies are involved in the initial phases of a project and the great ideas are handed over to the internal teams to further develop. Internal teams rarely if ever advertise. They are tied up by so many NDAs you only know of their existence from job postings or design awards. Consultancies on the other hand are compelled to talk of their projects at every opportunity. They control the evaluation metrics so to speak, and I wonder if tools such as breadboard prototyping, CAD and model making are not proportionally valued as a result.

PS: This is my subjective view into the ID industry. Please comment if this resonates with you, or if you have had an opposite experience

http://www.stokgrills.com/

Ipad 2: Visual Consolidation of all the talk and rumor

Ipad 2nd Gen CAD Visualization: Screen Grabs

Artrage 3 is a really good sketch tool. Was trying out the demo today
www.artrage.com

Fun project illustrating a story for a friend.

Background model in Solidworks, and quads exported from moi3d.
Blender 3d, for character modeling, fluid sim and rigging. Maxwell Render for image above.
Needs further work in Photoshop to fix artifacts here and there.

Thanks to Andrew Price from Blenderguru.com for invaluable tuts as well providing .blend files that I could dissect and use for the image above.

Always nice to get a best overall design
-excerpt from Pop Mech review.
Congrats to Hans and Benson-the design referred to as "straight out of an industrial design textbook"
Sweet!

Popular Mechanics had a great review of the Job Max system here
I did work on cleaning up overmold colorways, vent patterns and boot designs.
Also did a lot of work on how the heads engage with the tool base.

The Tek4 line in general was cool to work on. This camera though was a bear. We had to come up with a construction method that was tough and waterproof,a UI that was intuitive, while ensuring that the product made sense for the worksite. This meant stripping out complication from existing UIs while creating functionlity like a time-lapse feature that allows the user to set the camera going and then document a build. It also has the capability of attaching a memo audio recording to an image.

The large battery compartment provides a good grip area. The product has a distinct old-school feel to it. Its built like a power-tool after all.

Oddly enough- this small flashlight has been one of my favorite projects. We were able to convince the team to go with quality metal components and castings. Also it is really packed pretty tight. When you pick it up it feels heavier than it looks-and all of it is functional.
The engineer on this project gave us a nice little surprise. Usually there is a thin reflector that is faced with a sheet of glass or plastic at the front. The glass and the reflector were consolidated into one acrylic component, making for a super tough bezel. The best part is the light itself which provides a clean beam for quite a long distance. All parts are sealed with o-rings-brings a smile to my face..

Little Entertainment design on the side for Dr Grordbort's Raygun Shootout-a design competition from Weta.

PS: If you like it please do me a favor and vote for it at http://www.raygunshootout.com/submission/340

Fighting Phoenix from Thomas Parel on Vimeo.