No matter how well developed a form may be, or how robust the electronics, a product always boils down to the user interaction with the hardware. After a lot of form development (see part one), the piece was constructed in CAD using Solidworks. This was then rapid prototyped.

The best part of working on a project for such a long time is when you finally get the material object in your hand. You have a relationship with it that no-one else does and probably ever will – you created it, after all. For me, the pleasure came with the size of the RP pieces. It was so much smaller when I actually grabbed it that I had expected. This was mainly due to having spent such a long time on the detail in the CAD, with it being large on screen, that I had forgotten how small the dimensions actually were.

Then came the fun part – the finishing. This is something that is overlooked by a lot of university courses it seems. To that extent, at the New Designers show in London, there were a large number of student’s concept models which weren’t made by the students at all – they were all outsourced. Where is the fun in that?

First and foremost, the RP pieces needed to be smoothed down. This involved using grey primer and yellow filler primer, along with various levels of sandpaper, to smooth it all out. Top tip: Using two colours means you can see how much you have sanded away when doing alternate layers.

This was then repeated for the end caps and the buttons, which needed to be especially smooth for the next process.

Both the end caps and buttons were made of rubber. This meant that the product had a greater resilience to being dropped (the end caps stuck out further than all other points), as well as helping with grip. To do this, a mould of the pieces was taken. Top tip: The silver balls (removed when casting the second piece)help to align the two bits of the mould when done.

Finally, once the end pieces had been cast, all that was left was to paint the main casing. This was done in a bright yellow, to aid the visibility of the product if dropped.

The end result?  Not too bad if I do say so myself.  Not only did the prototype work, but I saw it through every step of the way.  I worked on the sketches, on the form, on the electronics, on the CAD, and on the manufacture and finishing of the final piece.  Never underestimate how much you learn from doing a project end to end.  It’s something that in my opinion, every designer should do at least once.

I believe in products that work. You only have to go on a lot of design websites to see some beautiful concepts and renderings of products, that have no proof that they work, and indeed are often implausible or impossible.

When it came to this project I didn’t just want to create a concept. I wanted to create a working product. Something that could, possibly, be taken forward into production.  With the evolution of the research and the development leading more towards an electronics process, I decided to go all the way and start to prototype a GPS unit.

Just to add to the challenge of this, I had never done any electronics of this sort before, with the exception of spending two days coding a robotic arm to move a ping pong ball.  This was in an entirely different league.  Nonetheless, I went and bought myself an Arduino Uno and began to play around.

Tutorials on sites like Ladyada and Libelium were all really helpful, but very few people appear to have released code on creating data loggers using the Libelium GPS module (which I preferred due to its size).   After connecting up the GPS, the Uno and an LCD screen though, I started getting GPS data through.

This could then be combined with coding for the buttons and a menu system. Again, there is little in combining menus with GPS, especially for someone with NO knowledge of coding.  One incredibly useful site though was Coagula, who gives a really good analysis of a menu system (as well as the best code I found for one).

Once I was happy with the way the system worked, I moved down to a smaller board. The Nano is amazing for its size. It allowed me to fit all of the components inside a 39mm diameter tube – not bad for off the shelf components.  If you wish to see how it all fitted together; the schematic is below..

This was probably the biggest challenge I faced through my final year. I have to say, it is a great learning process, but if you aren’t into coding, stay away from an electronics based project.  If you are up for experimenting though, Arduino is the way to go. Some of the things you can do with it are unbelievable.

Background:

The numbers surrounding tree planting are scary.  Really scary.  With the introduction of Glastir in Wales in 2012, the Welsh Government is looking to plant 100,000 hectares of trees over 20 years.  If you plant one tree every 2m², that means a tree has to be planted every 2.5 seconds.

One of the biggest disincentives though comes with the recording of all the data that is needed to apply for woodland grants; farmers need to record compartment boundaries, as well as itineraries of the trees they are planting.

To make this process easier, the woodland plotter combines GPS technology and user entered meta-data about what is being recorded; all connecting to the MyForest system.  This allows users to record all of the information needed, in situ, then upload it straight into a woodland management system.  No tape measures, no graph paper, no fuss.

Below:

Shown here is a sample of some of the form development work that went into the woodland plotter.  This came from the angle of ergonomics and aesthetics, as well as the practical side of fitting in all of the components.  The product had to feel rugged and dependable, whilst also giving a positive emotive response when data was recorded, encouraging new planting.

Several months ago (in fact back in September) I happened to come across some fellow students building themselves a roto-moulding machine.  As they told me their aims and showed rough diagrams of cogs and gears drawn on scraps of paper, it got me thinking.  Surely this could be done in a cheaper and versatile way?

One of the biggest problems that I see with ‘DIY Project’ equipment is the space it occupies.  A descent roto-moulding (or roto-casting depending on your terminology) machine is quite a bulky thing.  Add to that the limited space that you have as a student (or freelance product designer) and you have a dilemma – you would like the equipment, but need it to be stored in as small a space as possible.

The solution to all of these problems comes with a toy that I can honestly say set me on the course towards a career in design.  K’NEX.  This child’s construction toy is lightweight, strong, reasonably cheap and best of all completely adaptable for different purposes.  I liberated my old K’NEX and set about building a fully functional machine with a big enough space for descent models and projects.

Being the open source advocate that I am, I have spent a long while making easy to follow instructions on how to build your own one of the machine shown below.  Please give it a go!  Any feedback would be welcome in the comments section, and please pass these on to whoever you feel may be interested – children, product designers, serial hobbyists or model makers.  Just let me know what you come up with!

The complete instructions are located here:

knex rotomoulder

Just to prove that it does all work, here are some of the videos of the testing:

Happy building!

*Disclaimer: “K’NEX®” is a trademark of K’NEX Brands, L.P., which does not endorse, sponsor, or authorize these instructions.

It isn’t that I don’t like it, and it isn’t that I can’t draw.

Truth be told I’ve always have been able to draw at quite a good standard, but I have never really been able to sketch particularly well.  CAD, rendering, detailed design, model making, FEA, general 3D thinking… I can execute all to a high level, but getting those ideas down on paper quickly and loosely was always a bit of an issue for me.

About six months ago I decided to do something about this.

Never really one to give up on a challenge, I decided to try and build up my confidence in the art of loose sketching.  From the advice of a fellow designer, I invested in a tablet pc.  I managed to get a very decent Lenovo X61 from the guys at tier1online for a fantastic price.  I outfitted it with the latest Windows and managed to get a student license of the fantastic Sketchbook Pro for it.

It has made a real difference.

Now, for those of you who have never sketched with a tablet before, it takes a bit of getting used to.  The advantage of having the laptop version is that you can draw directly onto the screen – a must have for those who are lacking the confidence in their own abilities.  It has other benefits as well, such as being able to do other work on your laptop when not sketching, having simple things such as USB ports and of course that magical ‘I have a Mac’ moment*.

There are a few advantages to sketching on a tablet that, for all of the design related websites and forums out there, you will only learn through doing it yourself.  Here are a few that I found:

• Digital rubbers
• Sketching in the dark
• Tracing and referencing

One of the greatest tools in the tablet’s arsenal comes with the eraser tools.  When on paper, any rubbing out will tend to leave smudge marks or the faint history of your wrong doing (if you can rub out at all). When what you are concerned with is developing your technique, having the ability to actually delete a mistake can be quite a useful thing.  I’m sure that a lot of purists out there would disagree with this – having your mistakes is great because you can learn from them – but sometimes, just sometimes, it helps to be able to start over.

Now we all know that how stuff appears on screen isn’t how it would appear in print.  Again this can help.  Colours are more vibrant, lines are easier to see, and (drum roll please) you can sketch in the dark.  Never underestimate the advantage of being able to sketch when and where you like.  That ‘sketch anywhere’ notion of course has limits – battery life being one – but on the whole it means that during some spare time sat in the car you can quite easily draw an A3 page without much hassle.

The final big advantage of tablets comes with the ability to cheat.  You can open up Google and find images of what it is you are taking as reference. In extreme situations you can draw over the top of them.  Some say that imitation is the best form of flattery, well having a tablet allows you to learn how to sketch like the best.  This gets even better with video tutorials.  Sometimes what you need to develop your own style is to try someone else’s first.

Then you have to break away from the undo button.

After a lot of practice and many hours scratching away at the screen of my tablet I began to reach the point where my sketching was getting looser. I was much more confident in line weights and beginning to develop my own style in terms of page layout, lettering and general flow.  Still though, I was finding that pages were taking a long time to do.  Don’t get me wrong, it is a great feeling to have spent a long time on a page and have something really nice to show for it at the end, but I just began to feel that there must be a quicker way.

I started to have a look at what it was that was really slowing the process down.  These, I have discovered, are the downsides to tablet sketching:

• The screen size
• Shading
• The ‘undo’

The tablet is great in terms of visual interface, especially with Sketchbook Pro. The biggest limitation comes with the size of the screen.  I generally like to sketch on A3, which makes the tablet about 1/3 of the size it needs to be.  This isn’t actually as much of a problem when it comes to sketching as you may think.  You can quite easily zoom in to the area you want to sketch on and scroll around.  It is the zooming process though that slows you down.  I found that you have to constantly zoom out and in and scroll in order to focus on what you are drawing and also to see the page as a whole for reference.  This means that although you get great drawings, they take a heck of a lot longer to do.  Half your time is spent adjusting your perspective.

Shading is one of those catch-22 subjects.  On the computer you have all the tools you could possibly want, whether it be brushes, spray guns, marker pens… the choice is huge.  You also have every colour under the sun only one click away.  This means that you can very, very easily be sucked into the trap of shading and painting everything you sketch.  This is of course a very personal decision and will depend entirely on what it is that you are sketching.  I quite like colourful images and rendered forms.  The more colour you add to a sketch though the longer it is inevitably going to take. A little splash is more often than not all that you need, and having all the capability can often lead you to do too much.

It is the final point really that takes the most getting used to, for it is after all the tablet’s biggest advantage and disadvantage all at the same time. The undo button.  When you are getting into sketching, the power to go back and do something again is a godsend.  You can try, try and try again until you get the piece looking how you want.  The more you do it, the better you will get at doing it right first time.

What is hard is letting that go. At being able to leave the lines that didn’t work out how you wanted them and just drawing another one. That is when you start to really sketch.

It took me a long time to get there, but I now rarely use the undo button. I am quite happy to sit down and sketch.  In fact, I am trying out the whole ‘sketch-a-day’ concept for a while to see what difference it makes (no tablet for that, just plain paper and a pen).

So what are the general conclusions from all of this?

If you are lacking confidence in your sketching, get a tablet.  For the price, a refurbished laptop version will do great and it can really help you to develop.

Keep at it.  Every lecturer or mentor I have ever had have said that you just have to practice these things, and they are right.  The more you do, the more comfortable you will get.

Remember the pen.  Tablets are brilliant things – they really are – but sometimes it is just quicker, easier and smarter to just use an old fashioned biro.

Sketching is a fantastic tool, and something that I want to be good at.  Luckily, I like a challenge…

*The ‘I have a Mac’ moment is where a fellow designer walks in with a gorgeous looking Macbook and looks down at another designer for carrying the industrial looking IBM relic under their arm.  This smug look disappears rather swiftly when the relic styled laptop transforms into a tablet.

Gaining notoriety in 1953 with Audrey Hepburn and the film ‘Roman Holiday’, the Vespa scooter has become a staple piece of design in the world of urban transport. Manufactured from 1946 onwards, the scooter was initially designed to be a modern and affordable form of transport in Italy. Since then it has transformed in to what is arguably the most famous and instantly recognisable brand of scooter.

Vespa has branched out into many avenues of products, but the scooter maintains to be their number one design. The hope was that the heritage and design resonance of the Vespa brand could be adjusted to the realm of child kick scooters; a market that since its emergence in the late 1990s has been filled with a range of products, the majority of which are designed for commuting or tricks. What if the design features and social status of the Vespa scooter could be used in the kick scooter market?

During development, an existing scooter was reverse engineered, CAD modelled and stress analysed to assess whether it conformed with British Standards (it did not).  A major redesign was then undertaken to make the product a) conform with British Standards and b) suit the Vespa brand language. The finished model (shown below) underwent FEA testing and numerous iterations to design a product that was fit for the kick-scooter market. The final concept folds into a smaller footprint than the original with the back wheel sliding into the main body, all the while trying to offer a high quality option and the chance to pretend and play. The design brings a prominent status to the scooter, which in the end is what the Vespa brand is all about.

SolidWorks model of original scooter

Concept generation

Vespa Kick Scooter (unfolded)

Vespa Kick Scooter (folded)

Vespa Kick Scooter modelled in SolidWorks

FEA of handlebar iteration

FEA of scooter deck iteration

Vespa Kick Scooter

Working in cooperation with Dremel UK, the product was developed by myself and four others as part of a wider design competition.  The project was based around the premise of creating a completely new product for the Dremel Hobby range, looking to new opportunities whilst still staying faithful to the brand and relationship that Dremel has developed with consumers and users.

The development was based entirely upon self-initiated user research, leading to a final presentation of concept including research, ergonomic testing, CAD, renderings and prototype models.

Named as the Winner of the Competition, below are some of the product renderings that I produced, with a little information about the product’s features taken from the promotional booklet that was produced. Enjoy!

DREMEL AIR COMPRESSOR
The compressor has more functions than just pumping air. Being an integral part of the product, it acts as a base. Easily transportable and featuring storage for all of the extremities, it allows for an ethos of ‘plug and paint’ – set up, plug it in and unleash your creative side.

DREMEL AIR STYLUS
Why have a set of brushes when you can have one tool that does it all?
A wide range of nibs provides different effects for whatever the hobby. Nibs can range from precise for detailed model painting, variable wide sprays for priming and even shaped for calligraphy and scrapbooking.

COMPACT STORAGE
Keeping track of your accessories can be a challenge, especially when your work surface is covered in craft materials. With nib storage inside of the compressor shell, loosing components is not an issue. Everything is kept safe and secure in one place, away from dust and stray specks of paint.

PAINT POD
The last thing you want to be doing when feeling creative is spending your time cleaning. The stylus’ paint pod makes this process simple and quick. Just unplug the pod you have been painting with, insert a pod filled with water and spray into the holster. In seconds the stylus is ready for use again.

WALL MOUNTED
Not everyone has a work surface dedicated to their hobby. When space is an issue, the compressor can easily be hung from a nearby surface, freeing up the area for un-cramped creativity.

DRIP TRAY
When placing the Air stylus back in its holster, any drips or spills are caught and drained into the drip tray. This can then be removed to empty and wash. Simple!

DESIGNED FOR MANUFACTURE
The forms of both the stylus and the compressor allow for easy tactile grips and an ergonomic feel, whilst still comfortably fitting all of the internal components. The shells of both are designed for injection moulding and rapid assembly, keeping production and assembly costs to a minimum without reducing the value to the consumer.

Special thanks must go to the rest of the team for all of their work. Keep an eye out for Dan Lee, Dan Blackford, Ben Healy and Luke Broderick in future! In the meantime, also keep an eye on the blog here, as I shall try and post some of the ideation sketches soon.

Situated in and around Bargehouse at Oxo Tower Wharf on the South Bank; it housed 1500 square metres of design work over five floors, right next to the host of design related shops that the South Bank has on show.

Although I could quite easily write several long blog posts on the various quirks and genius pieces of product design located throughout the building, it would be better just to pick out a few of the nicely presented pieces that were displayed on your way through.

One of my favourites was an exceptionally simple and elegant way of encouraging nature on new build properties.  The bricks would house various forms of modified holders, whether to create habitats, flower pots or feeders.  It is one of those few projects that leaves you slightly sour with the taste of ‘why didn’t I think of that?‘

Few people can pull of apple design, but I think that this lamp does it quite well.  I know a few designers out there who’s bedside table this would quite happily sit on and not look remotely out of place.

Again with the environmentalist design, this particular gem went at it from an odd angle – how to combine the growing of plants with social media.  An odd concept, but something that I found intriguing nonetheless.

It isn’t a proper design festival though if you don’t come across this man – Duncan Iraci is one of those designers whose talent in design is only equalled by his talent at knowing everyone involved with everything.  Come to think of it, I have yet to go to a Design Festival (whether Bristol, London or Milan) where I don’t see him working his magic somewhere.

Speaking of the Bristol Design Festival, it was great to see a cooperative from Bristol out in Designersblock.  With the talents of The Ideas Monster, David Henshall, Uno Fuori Studios and George Pickup all being present, Bristol couldn’t hope for a better representation.

Some excellent development work was also on show on the top floor, my favourite being the development of a new cycle helmet.  All of the best designers still use cardboard and blue foam.

I should emphasise that these are just a tiny selection of some fantastic design talent.  Did you go?  What was your favourite part?

It may rain, it may absolutely bucket it down (and believe me, it did), but in my eyes, Designersblock will always shine through. Long live DB!