ID [PNW]

Leon's concept interior for a Puma retail store was inspired by the temples and Japanese architecture. He is a senior industrial design student at Western Washington University. . Last spring I gave my junior industrial design students exercises in spatial form analysis. This is Leon's rectilinear space, with an awareness of designing the negative space within a volume. Leon's refined form was done without knowing that it would turn into retail design project. Low planar shelves, rectilinear lines, neutral colors and symmetry add to the quiet, temple-like atmosphere. This is a scale model about 10 inches (25 cm) tall, using wood, paper, plastic and lights.  Leon chose to emphasize the Puma bold red logo by using color sparingly. To see more of Leon's work, go to:  http://issuu.com/leonwolfendale/docs/leon_online_astro_portfolio_2013

Part 3 of 5: Office Atmosphere and Building Alliances with Clients ( click here for part 1 and part 2 ) Figure 1: Teague drafting room, New York City, circa 1938. photo by Stowe Myers. Office Atmosphere     How did Teague run his office?  What was it like to work at WDTA during its heyday?   In 16mm film shot by partner, Stowe Myers, the 1940’s staff of Teague is shown at work and at play in their New York office studio.  Drafting desks are arranged in two long rows, all facing the front of the room, where the most senior designer or architect would be working.  The film also shows office parties, which included drinks and group singing.  It also documents a casual office art exhibition, where staff could display their personal artistic works, painting, drawing, and watercolors.  Although everyone worked rigorously, he allowed occasions for staff to celebrate their hard work and talents with parties and other creative events. Stowe Mye...

The IDSA Western District Conference has 2 new amazing additions to the line up: Ryan Duke of Project H and Heather Fleming of Catapult Design ! Ryan Duke leads the San Francisco team of Project H Design working on socially-oriented design initiatives providing creative capital to those with limited access. As a project leader, he has led hundreds of volunteers, organized in small groups based on skill and commitment, through numerous projects that work to create impact in local communities.  Launching the first city-based group, Ryan has helped Project H define processes and establish strategies for effective project implementation as Project H develops within the evolving world of social design. Heather Fleming, Founder | Chief Executive Officer, Catapult Design Heather is a designer, an engineer, and an entrepreneur motivated by social inequality. In 2005, she helped found and then led a volunteer group of engineers and designers focused on humanitarian design projec...

Mariana Amatullo, Art Center's Designmatters Patrice Martin, IDEO I'm excited to announce that we will have Mariana Amatullo , Vice President and Director of the Designmatters  Department at Art Center presenting at the IDSA Western District Conference.  Also joining us will be Patrice Martin , Co-Leader of IDEO 's social innovation domain .  The conference "Social Impact!" is addressing the question "How can Social Design be Financially Sustainable?" " Mariana Amatullo founded the college-wide initiative Designmatters at Art Center College of Design, based in Pasadena, California in 2001 with a task force of faculty, chairs, staff and students. In her capacity as the lead of the program, she develops strategic educational partnerships and oversees a portfolio of research collaborations, communication campaigns, exhibitions and publications that enhance Art Center’s commitment to be at the forefront of international design education...

Socially responsible design can make positive changes within a community, and it can be personally rewarding to a designer.  But, can doing socially responsible design be financially sustainable?  This conference will offer success stories from designers and organizations that are able to do good and do well. It will address questions such as: How can you target non-profit organizations as potential clients?  How can social design work be billable, not just pro-bono? Is there fortune at the bottom of the pyramid? Or is it a money pit? How can I apply social design to my career? What opportunities are there for designers to get involved in projects within their local communities?    This is the question that we will address at the IDSA Western District Conference in San Jose, CA, May 6th and 7th.  Speakers are being selected now, so if you have suggestions, now's the time to let me know! Registration is open.  Register early and take advantag...

When Disney wanted to get people excited about the upcoming sequel to TRON, TRON: Legacy, they created this exhibit at ComicCon 2009 to reveal the design of the lightcycle. See video below. showcasing drawings by designer Daniel Simon and a full size model of the machine. This gives a great perspective of the exhibit. This one shows the drawings and lightcycle in more clarity. I find it interesting that the concept designer is given such prominence, even over big name actors, directors or other factors. But I'm not surprised.  I've been a big fan of the original TRON, which was released in 1982 when I was eleven. I was/am a computer geek, designer, video game fanatic, and sci-fi follower. Even then, I felt that the real star of the movie was the world that was created by legendary designer and concept artists, Syd Mead and Peter Lloyd. (To give credit, a whole team of computer programmers realized each image frame by frame using 1981 computing power.) ...

Kodak Brownie Junior - Photo by J.A. Morris This summer has been busy with new progress on the Teague documentary and biography.  Here's a quick summary: New Alliances             Thanks to Vicki Matranga , I connected with Charlie Myers , son of C. Stowe Myers, partner at the Teague New York office.  Charlie has compiled films, audio interviews, and photographs and is offering them for us to use in the doc.  I just received a DVD of digitized 8mm film of the Teague office from 1939 to 1943.  It has great scenes of employee designers working, drawing, rendering, making models, smoking pipes and having parties.  Awesome stuff, thanks Charlie!             Gifford Jackson was a designer at the Teague office from 1954 to 64 and I was recently introduced to him through Budd Steinhilber.  He was personal friends with the Teague family.  He live...

This is an industrial design concept using Pranav Mistry's SixthSense technology. It is designed specifically for truck drivers by Mike Oldani. It is mounted on the side of the seats head rest and can be flipped around to project into the sleeper cab. Western Washington University Industrial Design Program, 2010. This is one of 13 projects done in the Junior ID studio.

Winner’s Announcement Pay It Forward Furniture Design Western Washington University June 7th, 2010 Four judges have reviewed and selected their favorites among 22 designs.  In addition to our panel of judges, students voted on their peer’s designs to decide a “students choice” award. The objective is to design and construct a unique furniture solution for storage.  The storage is to be designed specifically for another person or organization for their current needs.  The furniture will be then given to that person or organization as a gift. Mount Baker Products has generously donated all of the high quality FSC hardwood plywood for the project and has also donated $6000 for scholarships for the winners. Here are the winners: 1 st        Noah Jack , of Corvalis, OR. for Pitter Patter, an umbrella drying stand for the Whatcom Children's Museum.  $2000 scholarship from Mount Baker Products. ...

Here's the final edit of Form Function... Form Function , by Jason Morris and Western Industrial Design students.  This purely visual short film shows an industrial design creative process that starts with abstract sculpture and ends with a   functional object .  Music by Moby. Creative solutions are rarely found by using conventional problem solving methods.  Students must be encouraged to try alternative processes for attacking a problem.  Professional industrial design projects begin with a design brief, but because of preconceived notions the brief itself inhibits the designer’s creativity.  This creative process removes hindrances to creativity by restating the design problem in abstract, non-objective language.  This process begins with abstract form creation without knowledge of the design’s purpose. The form creation is done with guidelines made by the instructor, who creates the rules to correspond with the design’s objectives.  ...

Jon Takao was recently hired as an industrial designer for Specialized Bicycle and is a recent graduate of Western Washington University's Industrial Design Program, class of 09.  He will be speaking on Thursday, May 27th, at 5:30pm in room 347 of the Ross Engineering Building.  He will be telling the story of how he ended up getting his dream job within a year of graduation.  (When most of us have to do some crappy point-of-purchase displays before moving on to something better....ahem.)  And his impressions of the cycling industry.  See you there.

Senior Industrial Design proudly presents, Vessels A Libatious Design Exhibition Presented June 3rd at 6PM by Western Washington University at Mithun Architects, 1201 Alaskan Way, #200, Seattle, Wa.

Here's Kyle's SixthSense concept for driving, focusing on amateur car racing, yet useful for everyday driving.

This is a design concept by Cecilia Forsgren, our exchange student from Sweden.

I just got notice that both of my short films have been selected for the Northwest Projections Film Festival !  One is Form Function , the one about my design students projects transformed from sculpture. The second is called The Tree Was Here, and that was my documentary project from last fall, about tree ring science.  It features the work of Chris Robertson of Western Washington University's Environmental Studies Dendrochronology lab.  That was done with my class partner, Ryan Christoffersen.  They will show at the Pickford Cinema in Bellingham, April 16th-18th.  

Here's is Part 3 of 4 of Hoima Bicycle.  An experience in designing a bicycle with Ugandan bicycle couriers.  This part shows the reaction of the first prototype.

A Biographical Documentary about Walter Dorwin Teague begins Development. Walter Dorwin Teague (1883 - 1960) is considered one of the founding fathers of industrial design as well as one of the most prolific American industrial designers in history.  He established his design office in the late 1920’s, which continues today as one of the important design institutions in the world.  His most notable design work includes all of Kodak camera’s from 1927 to 1957, Texaco’s art deco gas stations in the1940’s, the Boeing Stratocruiser and the 707 aircraft.  His legacy led to the design all subsequent Boeing aircraft including today’s 787 Dreamliner.  He directed the design and architecture of the 1939 World Exposition.  He was also an architect whose work includes the Texaco exhibition hall at the 1935 Texas Centennial Exposition in Dallas, Texas, the Ford pavilion for the California Pacific International Exposition (1935) in Balboa Park in San Diego, and the 1961...