Nothing and everything all at once.

Everything changes whether you like it or not. Most people have a hard time embracing change and its about being open to these new ideas, cultures and ways of life that create and establish values, tradition and the products and systems that surround use everyday.

Overtime innovation may create new things, but it the roots that it stem from that give it value. The knowledge that is passed on and the people that have devoted their lives to creating the good. This is challenging in the design world. It puts designer at the forefront of change. In a way we are all designers, but there’s those that have been trained for many years to hone their skills to create better lives for themselves and everyone around them.

By creating design systems and strategies to implement change we can stay true to the cause for change. Always evaluating is this really going to solve the problem? What really is the problem? Are we just making things to make things to fill in time? What’s important is that before even starting anything is to have knowledgeable people surrounding you and dreamers that have the vision for better lives. I believe I am a dreamer a visionary. The tough part is taking dreams and visions and actually making them become true. Luckily, I know and have faith in the steps to get there. The design process is basically a process developed to make dreams become reality. First collecting the data to understand the users and needs which point out the struggles and problems with a system, service or product. The comes the hard part of ideating, but with time this becomes easier when you know what to mix and match. Following trends is not necessarily the best way to go and is short lived. If truly creating something that has long term value for many generations one needs to go far into the past and far into the future to really hone into what fullfills the actual need of anything. We all like shortcuts. Does it solve the problem? Maybe. Does it give us the satisfaction, pride and honor of the journey we take to get there? The reason why iterative simulations and test are made is because we are trying prove what actually works. Whats the actual reality of the service provided., the product which is supposed to solve a solution. These prototypes as we designers call them are the simulations the evaluations and tweaks which we dial in to specify drawings and truely identify what is and what isn’t and how to actually make something on a mass level. As you can tell this is something I’m profoundly interested in because creating imagination into reality feels like a gift. Its a special gift and when a designer is able to invision a system being used this is when you know you’ve got something good. All systems are born, grow, peak at maturity and fade away and die. What’s important is sustaining and recognizing when to change a system, product or service. When, where, why and how are extremely important questions for they determine exactly the reason why something exist. We are want to leave a mark in life and on the ones we encounter. This is a fundamental way humans make an impact. How far the impact goes and how many lives it effects is determined by those whom find it valuable and those who don’t.

To extend a product line service or system and create a lineage is difficult, but not so much when everything is already done. If you stem to far away from a brand its unrecognizable. If you barely change anything it won’t be noticed. The fine tuning slowly overtime eases society into innovative ideas and systems giving time to adjust and adapt to learn the benefits and how life can be better. Acceptance can be challenging and there will always be confrontations and others who don’t like different ways of life products and services. Especially if it threatens to potentially change rituals and traditions and upend families, countries and societies that use it.

The truth is finding an equilibrium. A balance between everything. This is the way and always will be. Balance is key. Its a natural way which all matter goes from chaos to organization. Balancing chaos and organization can be difficult because everything gets mixed up. As a product designer and trained mechanical designer you have to use both sides oor your brain. The logic and the creative. The aesthetic and the mechanical. The male and the female or opposites to make a hybrid. Hybrids are developed from the best of both worlds intertwined with the best attributes to survive in the current world. This is evolution very similar the nuclear fusion or fission, evolution of systems, products and services evolve overtime. They take the best and get rid of the things that aren’t needed anymore. The story of life. From new to old ways of living and to look around and see the old ways and the new ways and learn from them is soak them up and pass them on to those whom understand can make profound impacts. By doing this we can preserve the roots while also embracing the innovations and future of what could be. This is what I think about. How to make a legend revolutionary. How, when, where and why would you extend something that will die enevidably. Or do you make something brand new. To create something from nothing from absolute nothing to me is impossible. Thus you need the facts. the data and a lot of it to solve big problems and solve big problems. This is the core fundamentals of the greats. To take matter and manipulate it to create an idea to create reality is absolutely amazing! I love doing what I do because its like having the gift of creation. We all have this. We all create. Everything creates. That’s what energy does. It doesn’t stop creating apparently energy doesn’t disappear it just changes so I feel change is a good thing. It expands literally. It opens ideas and ways of life. It creates space for new to exist until it collides and the whole thing starts again. This is very similar the iterative process of revision control which is used to monitor and control all the systems and products and services. To prove something works is great, but to do it again and again is really awesome. To me its natural its life and it all tends to work out in the end. No need to force things because if you do you’re probably wasting a lot of energy to accelerate a process.

Critical thinking is a must have trait for any creator especially if they will be creating something new. This is the stuff that creates corporations, companies, large industrial complexes, government systems and public and private information. The creation of the digital frontier has lead to many changes to systems overtime. One thing that must be understood is that even though its digital you still need to have the box that it is in. Who makes this hardware? Designers…Product designers. I’m not talking about product designers that people think of today. You ask a product designer today to design the hardware and very few would probably know where to start. Do we need hardware? Do we need computers? Do we need cars and trains and planes? …. to be continued.

Zooom…Zooooommmmmmm. When starting a project sketching is a primary skill which I’ve enjoyed ever since I was young and has always been a way for me to wrap my head around a project to communicate the form and function. I tend to use old school techniques combined with state of the art tools to help transfer knowledge and make it real for clients and colleagues to critique and contribute to the design process. In turn, this collaborative effort leads to a design that all parties can be confident that it meets all requirements to function in the real world while also being appealing to the end user. Beauty is the hybridization of form and function, without one you cannot have the other. Finding the balance can always be difficult when juggling cost, use-case, material choice, packaging, over head and how the product is disposed of or material salvaged for future product lineages. These are the important things that need to be figured out early in the development of a great product and is a prime reason to have an Industrial Designer on your team.

Empathetic designer

14 years SolidWorks, Eye for aesthetics, CMF, Keyshot expert

Expert with product lineages, Design language

Integrates design concepts well with team goals

Creative critical thinker

Experience w/ overseas manufacturing, First Article Reports, Production Prototyping

Here's the links to my previous jobs just to give you an idea of my roots. Most recent is the top.

DT Engineering Associates, Inc.- Industrial Designer / Mechanical Designer

JDID  - Product Development

Schmitt Design LLC  - Industrial Designer and Fabricator