design is in the making
I believe in making ideas; giving them physical existence early in the design process.
A computer screen is always right. Industrial processes and materials have their own limitations. Humans have their own ergonomic challenges, cultural biases and cognitive intuitions. When creating products and new physical experiences, it is by experimenting in the physical world that a designer can think and plan for the best outcome.
Good design is not something you sprinkle on a cake when it’s done. Good design is the recipe that determines the ingredients, their exact quantity, along with defining the mixing, baking and even serving processes. Good design is the whole cake… And the silverware that comes with it.
If you are making a new cake with different ingredients, the chance for it to come out perfectly as expected the first time are very slim. Product development is the same.
TROUBLESHOOTING & FIXING
Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works”
31. “Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
09. “The alternative to good design is bad design. There is no such thing as no design.” - Adam Judge
60. “It’s not about knowing all the gimmicks and photo tricks. If you haven’t got the eye, no program will give it to you.” - David Carson
64. “You can use an eraser on the drafting table or sledge hammer on the construction site.” - Frank Lloyd Wright
75. “The best way to accomplish serious design…is to be totally and completely unqualified for the job.” - Paula Scher
80. “They enjoy giving form to ideas. If designers were made of ideas, they’d be their own clients.” - Rudy Vanderlans
“the bad engineering execution of a product is Almost always called a bad design.”
good design IS as intended -
- Steve Jobs
(oh yes, very cliché to have a Steve Jobs quote on an ID website. I actually never thought I would ever do that, but today, in a world of designers of pretty things that break easily… In a world where design students are taught by the other student who just graduated the year before… In a world where Industrial Designers have become Industrial Designer CG Artists… Yes, it is more relevant than ever)
Understanding how things work and being able to fix them has always been attractive to me.
From taking apart (and sometimes breaking…) my Christmas presents when I was five years old, to working on my own mountain bikes in my teen years, and now rebuilding motorcycle engines, designing complex tech products and medical devices, machining my own wood products, I have come a long way. The drive however stayed exactly the same.
The curiosity turned into a mindset, and then almost became a way-of-life. I believe this naturally feeds my design work in support of product development beyond the computer screen.
problem solving :
not two of the same problem always have the same solution.
innovation: just because you’ve done it right 10 times using process X does not mean process Y is not an option.
approach: setting things up for success is in the process, not always the action.
constant growth - innovative
big picture - laptime
cutting corners hurts the big picture.
Shaving a tenth of a second on one corner may make you loose a full second in the next one, or worse, send you off-track…
Motorcycles do not have a reverse, braking distances are longer and most of them are a lot faster than the average car. By nature, it requires more anticipation and engagement to ride a motorcycle.
I believe that the same foresight comes intuitively in my design projects. Reverse is not an option, while it is possible to back track on some aspects of a product development, it is very inefficient and cost prohibitive. Most likely, the morale of the team will take a hit as well (nobody “enjoys” driving in reverse).
