Bresslergroup bamboo bike project
That’s me today helping out Bresslergroup and the Bamboo bike project.
. @PennIPD students & @sarahrottenberg at our offices today, narrowing down concepts for their Ghana design project. pic.twitter.com/maccww2mFp
— Bresslergroup (@Bresslergroup) June 18, 2013
Single handed soap dispenser
Sometimes it’s the “Why didn’t I think of that!” This Joseph Joseph soap dispenser has a surface below the soap exit so that you do not have to press the top of the dispenser. This makes in one handed and also keeps the top clean. Via Bless this Stuff
Apple prototypes from the 80′s
A great collection of images of Apples prototypes from the
My “24 Cintiq
If I haven’t mentioned it before, I am now working on a “24 Wacom Cintiq. I was hesitant at first to make the transition to the much larger tablet that I have been accustomed to. I worked for a very long time on the “21 Wacom and briefly on the “22. The extra screen real estate is a nice to have. The absence of a rotatable screen was at first a big issue for me. But after using sketchbook for awhile I was able to get used to the rotate canvas tool . Now, anything less that “24 would unacceptable to work on.
http://www.wacom.com/en/creative/products/pen-displays/cintiq/cintiq-24hd
Photoshop CS6 video editing
Something that I just came across this week is the new video editing features in Photoshop CS6. What an amazing tool. You now have all the tools that you have to manipulate photos available to manipulate video. It also allows me to easily splice together sketches, annotations, and videos very easily to illustrate a difficult concept that could not illustrated with a static image. I have been using it regularly to touch up video content from Bunkspeed that I did not render completely. Photoshop allows me to reduce the noise out of these videos that were not fully rendered.
Artrage 4
Just want to share with you that Artrage has updated its digital sketching and painting to version 4. This version is the most refined yet. If you a Sketchbook pro user then you will enjoy Artrage. It combines the simplicity of Sketchbook with the power or Corel Painter. Killer features include, custom users stencils, a powerful brush engine, a clean interface, and good compatibility with Adobe. You must check it out now. You really can’t lose for $50.
Moved to Bresslergroup
I am happy to announce that I have taken a new position with Bresslergroup, a product design firm in Philadelphia. I am looking forward to the new opportunities and experiences at Bressler. For those of you that do know about Bresslergroup, I urge you to take a look at their site. With over 40 years experience in bringing innovation to the market, they are one of the most consistent performing firms in the country. I look forward to working with the talented staff there.
Web connected product use logging
I am following up on the recent post I wrote about the web connected box called Twine. My recent observations about this device revolve around product use research. In particular I find Twine might be very useful for designers and researchers to quickly “rig up” sensors which can track repetitive product use. Typically these types of observations are most easily made via video review or manually logging. Twine makes this process dynamic and automated. In only a few minutes I rigged up a sensor to my fridge door to log when it is opened. The points on the line are the times of day in which it is opened for more than half a second. The data is fed from the Twine device to a web service called ThingSpeak.com. The chart is dynamically updated when the fridge door is opened. All of this from a $99 device. Very appealing. The device currently has the ability to monitor magnetic switches, vibration, moisture, light, orientation, and, temperature.
I plan to experiment with different uses to monitor user habits with the Twine. I think the versatility of the device makes it appealing for designers to gather concrete data more efficiently.
Twine
I recently was gifted an amazing little web connected box called Twine. Twine is an web connected box that can sense motion, orientation, temperature, and an assortment of other variables. It not much too look at, because all the power is inside. Setup is super easy. I had it running in under 30 min. With the web interface you can output the data you collect in a variety of formats including, email, SMS, and Http request.
Below is a real time updating graph I created with the help of this quick tutorial. http://jpreardon.com/2012/12/22/temperature-logging-with-twine-and-thingspeak/
It is a real time graph of the temperature in my living room. The temperature is being curated by the Twine device and then via an http request to a web service called thingspeak.com. The data can then be fed to graphs such as this one. Me being a novice hacker had little trouble setting the connecting services up. Twine is in early stages right now, but I think we will see a lot from this little device and its parent company in the future.
Keyshot and Flash interactivity
A while back I worked with a Flash developer to integrate rendered image sequences into Flash with interactivity. The below Flash movie is simply a controller that displays an image sequence output from Keyshot. Image sequences are a common export format of most CAD renderers. In most cases these images are compiled into videos for embedding, which lacks interactivity. Adding control to the movie brings a richer user experience. Another sample here.
Lego automation
Growing up I was a Lego freak. But this takes the cake. An infinite loop of Lego automation. 600 hours to create. Check out his blog for more pics and vids.
iPad portfolio apps
I recently had the opportunity to move on to a new position at Design Central in Columbus, Ohio. As designers know that means portfolio time! Putting together your portfolio after an extended period of time can be a daunting task if you have not kept up with it. It’s difficult to decide on a format, graphic layout and, appropriate content. During school we used 11″ by 14″ portrait pages that provided large unobstructed panoramic views of the project. That was great as it allowed for large impressive page turning ohs and ahhss.
This time around for the latest job hunt I decided to go digital. But I found a way to make it a hybrid where you still have the feeling of a paper portfolio and also the flexibility of digital. The iPad gives you this. Of course you could use the stock photo app that is built in, but there are much better alternatives. Below are two videos demonstrating the flexibility that you can get with a good portfolio app.
The one below demonstrates the Portfolio for iPad app.This ultimately is the one I settled on. It had the best features and was the most stable, which is very important during an interview. It also had good Dropbox integration which made it easy to update the content. Overall it was just well polished and let my work shine through.
The video below shows Portfolio Pro for iPad. I did not end up using this one, but the video makes it looks rather promising. I would check it out.
Black and Decker Gyro
Introducing something I worked on for quite a long time while at Black and Decker. The new Black and Decker Gyro screwdriver is the world’s first consumer power tool controlled my motion. The video explains most of the functionality. The forward and reverse is controlled by the motion of your wrist.