Well… it’s not letting my put the sketch in… I’ll post it later.

Here are a couple of vest designs I found on the internet:

This one has a cool design and layout, but good grief... all the zippers! It's for fly fishing.

This one is a motorcycle safety vest. It definitely has a more sleek design, but I'm not sure about the fluorescent orange. We were thinking about adding some reflective strips into the front and back patterning, but they wouldn't scream "safety vest".

Woah... that's all I gotta say. It's a vest that was developed by Nike to keep Olympic athletes cool.

Why do most vests like to make it blatantly obvious that they're storing something? Is it a user issue or just does it look more manly? Also, it looks like the "carrier vests" (mostly worn by hunters and fishermen) focus most of the large pockets around the midsection. Heavier objects should probably go there.

• There are so many different kinds of bike models, that if we decide to make something for all bikes, it’s probably just going to boil down into a bag that we strap or snap onto a bike.  Things like this have been done before countless times… And to tell you the truth, its just not that interesting to design.  We need to make something that people are going to want to bring with them.  Something kind of like the weekly medicine container that serves a duel purpose.
• We could also integrate the kit with a custom bike frame.  Not only would this be costly for the end user, but who would want to buy a potentially more expensive bike that just has a wrench and a pump imbedded into it?  By going in this direction, we start to loose the essense of what we’re trying to do… we start to design a new bike rather than just a kit.

So after talking with Wes this morning, we’ve decided to try sketching out some new possibilities.  These ideas involve moving away from the bike frame and looking more towards the human body.  What are things that people need with them when they ride on a bike?  A person isn’t going to fall in love with a bag of tools, they’re going to fall in love with a product that they can enjoy using while the tools aren’t being used.  This would also remind them to take the tools with them. 

I think that products like these open up a plethora of new challenges, especially with the space allocation required for each of the items in a kit.  If we manage to pull this off, I think it would be a lot more rewarding than creating a plastic box that snaps onto a bike.

How does one become passionate about a project that they don’t have any personal experience with?

Also, this is funny:

Poor puppy...

This is it!  This is what I want to do with lighting.. redefining what a light is.  I think I drooled a little bit when they showed the wallpaper…

Here are some of my favorites:

Big Dog Robot

Sony Rolly

Big Dog looks incredibly creepy… but good god can it move!  If they were able to get a semi-realistic looking dog or deer skin on that thing, I doubt people would be able to tell the difference.  The Rolly not only looks awesome, but it lights up (squee!) and can also move elegantly.  It’s like a useful toy for grown-ups, which is what Industrial Designers seem to specialize in.

My group has done a plethora of field research and even more brainstorming.  It’s still difficult to tell what our final direction is going to be.  There’s just so many issues concerning bikers- pinpointing one seems impossible.  So far we’ve been to Piedmont Park, Little 5 Points, and Stone Mountain (an excursion I was absent for)… all locations all differing in area of study.  After class and group discussion, the problem that we’re hoping to solve is a product that will make novice bikers more comfortable… biking.  The lecture/discussion in studio today really helped us get some outside-the-box ideas onto paper.  

I’ll go into my group’s progression more as the events happen.  It will be interesting once we start sketching our ideas.  Wesley and Linda seem to think abstractly like me… which is excellent.

The past two exercises that we’ve done in studio really reminded me of work that I had to do back at the lighting companies.  I had to do things well, efficiently, and fast.  Because I was the only intern at both companies, I never really worked with a group, but I had to constantly go over things with my boss to make sure I was portraying his thoughts accurately.  The two exercises in studio both required the groups to make advertisement posters about biking and products for pedestrians and then pin them up within a certain amount of time.  During the first exercise, my group was the only one who made the deadline (with a pretty awesome poster I might add ).  Unfortunately, today, we ran into some printing difficulties, so we were only able to get the raw sketches pinned up in the nick of time.  

These exercises are like Industrial Designer workouts.  They’re awesome.

I have a very interesting view of design.  One might say an even conflicting view with most of the other students I work with.  I enjoy very much the technical aspects of design… not only the beauty.  It annoys me to know end when someone has a beautiful sketch or rendering of an idea that anyone could have thought of- and it gets praise heaped upon it because of how it looks.  I conceptualize.  I come up with many ideas and get them down on paper either through words or pictures.  I’ve been complimented on my “forward thinking” and quick thinking when it comes to new ideas.  The area where I lack is the procuring of said object.  My sketches and physical models aren’t the best in the world (though I do like to brag about my computer renderings ).  So that’s what I need to work on… showing my ideas… showing how these things work in a way that a person could understand with only a glance.

All this being said, I love lighting design.  I’ve worked with two lighting companies so far- CD+M Lighting, an architectural lighting design consulting firm (say that five times fast…), and HessAmerica, an outdoor lighting product design firm.  Both have given me a ton of experience in the field.  I’ve learned the companies, the fixtures, the technical jargon.  I’ve been to work sites to help focus lights. I’ve wired LED fixtures… and I’ve gotten to know Photoshop and SolidWorks like the back of my hand.  I -love- this field.  The beauty of a chandelier or a street light is not only in the form but in how the light affects its surroundings.  My favorite lighting company, TargettiPoulsen, merges these two aspects perfectly.  In the Poulsen PH line, not only do the fixtures portray timeless elegance, but the shades have been painstakingly designed so that one cannot see the light bulb no matter which direction they look at the light from.  My dream is to create my own line of lighting fixtures that would redefine the way one thinks of a light.  With the versatility of LEDS, a fixture doesn’t have to be a bulb with a shade anymore.  One can really focus on what the light is doing, by imbedding them in interesting shapes, colors, and textures.  This is a rather huge dream, but hey! it’s what you gotta do to be successful in today’s world.