ID [PNW]

This is a conceptual design of a haptic interactive digital object that intimately connects two people.  Designed by Spencer Denton and Carson Massie, junior industrial design students at Western Washington University, as part of my introduction to interaction design project. They found that "technology is amazing, but... Does technology make sense to serve us a foundation for our relationships?  Human interaction on a personal level is not translating well to the digital world." Their problem statement was "Technology has created relationships and social interactions that lack touch and presence.  Create an interface between two individuals, which acts as a platform that fosters intimate communication." digital messages are so easy that they've lost their meaning. How can we use technology to communicate intimacy? Connecting the long distance relationship with technology. Your partners caress can be seen as moving finger prints on a...

Students from Western Washington University’s Industrial Design program captured multiple awards in two recent design contests. "Dip," by Western Washington University Industrial design student Larisa Schulze of Gig Harbor, recently won a Silver Award at the annual Shaggies design competition. Larisa Schulze of Gig Harbor won a Silver Award at the Shaggies, a biennial design competition open to designers all across the Western United States and Canada.  She was recognized for the design of her wood laminated reading bench, “Dip,” designed for children. Samuel Martin of Seattle won a Bronze Award at the Shaggies for "Enfold," a design of eyeglass frames constructed of laser-cut tensile steel, rolled and press-broken to shape, and then powder coated to finish. The frames may be fit with any standard polycarbonate reading or corrective lens. Recent Industrial Design graduate Thomas Kloucek won a Bronze Award in the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" category f...

Here are some glue gun design concepts done by my students in the sophomore industrial design studio course at Western Washington.  They had just completed their introduction to the elements of form theory of Rowena Reed Kostellow.  The improvement of their designs is significant.  These are all physical models, not CAD. A glue gun inspired by crayons by Carson Massie by Kevin Courtney by Sean Braaten by Sean Missal by Van Vu