Monday, October 4, 2010

A Better World By Design

Wow, the conference was invigorating! I now feel secure that I will be able to have a meaningful carrear. I am refueled and ready to create something great!

http://our.risd.edu/2010/10/03/abwbd-isnt-just-better-its-best/ < John Maedia's Picutre of me!

Mt group also won the Core 77 One Hour Design Challenge for out "epiphany log" concept which would help accelerate the design process and act as a resource for cross the pollination and syntheses of ideas. Ill post more on that in a bit.

Find something you love an do it!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Project Update!

Wow, this quarter is flying by!

Augmented Tactile Interface, with a touch of... touch?



Im going to wait to finish my storyboard before attempting to explain my final direction. As a teaser, it's uses include way-finding, contextual awareness, text reading, and orientation via vibrational signatures.


Silicone idderations of different internal wire structures for my final model.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Great Saturday


Cincinnati Street Car Blog

Our studio are on the front of the Cincinnati Street Car Blog!
Awesome to see the Urban Transportation Studio getting some press!


Out this morning with Jince and Ben conducting interviews at Findlay Market, researching the mobility and lifestyles of market goers. Some great insightful conversations were created, most memorably a fellow from Covington who owned a new truck and liked to drive it... a lot (600 miles per week). After hearing about the truck we were surprised to find that he thought the street car was an awesome idea, and would be willing to take it to work every morning. We also found that a large number of the people interviewed were considering buying bicycles. (yes!) The times are ripe for change.

After the market we biked down to New Port and had a relaxing afternoon by the river!

Good Saturday!

Friday, July 16, 2010

All Aboard!

After having witnessed the great work from last quarter working at Livewell Collaborative, Im pleased to see this quarters transportation studio spreading the message!

On the 4th of July we hit the streets of Northside to promote discussion of Cincinati's public transit future.

Northside Parade from Cincinnati Transforum on Vimeo.



This quarter's Urban Transportation Studio is the third multidisciplinary studio in a three quarter sequence, aimed deliver the message if the previous two quarters studios, a unique undertaking by Livewell Collaborative. I was lucky enough to help facilitate and participate in last quarter's studio wile co-oping at Livewell.

Thanks to Matt Choto, my good friend and co-worker, for editing the video I shot above! (dont mind my squaky voice)

In the morning I will head out with a couple members of this quarters studio to conduct public interviews to post in the studio website .

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Instant Inspiration: Clovernook Tour

After spending an afternoon at Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired the fire is back in my belly! The design process is much more meaningful and passionate when you can really empathize with the people you are designing for.


This is a work station for zinc plate punching. Clovernook prints more than 40Million pages of braille a year for a number of clients including the Library of Congress. I was surprised to find that Terry, the machine operator, was able to use a standard keyboard to input commands despite having no vision. He only needed a braille display (black box next to the monitor) to receive information.

Zinc plate being flipped for second pressing on back. The lines of braille are offset so that both sides can be punched without destroying text on the other side.



These two friendly fellows who's name I didn't catch were proofreading text before being printed for the public. Clovernook regularly receives publication before release to transcribe into braille. These two seemed to be having a good time!



Braille can increase the size of a publication dramatically. The above is a copy of the same picket publication in braille.




Sunday, June 27, 2010

Summer Studio: Explorations in Blindness

















This Summer Studio is going to be a blast! I am finally working on a project that has meaning beyond cardboard boxes and perfume bottles.

My choice of tool was not easy. Having deliberated the options for weeks, I was pressed to find something that I felt truly needed designed, not just for the sake of design, but to have a real substantial impact on the life of the user. After all, isn't design about people? (I'm asking for a debate ;)

I am now currently working on a perceptual device for the blind, though not a power tool in the proper sense, it will fulfill my course requirements, and make my work rewarding.

I chose this project because of what I see as an underwhelming amount of real design in current products for people encountering disabilities. In particular, the symbolic white cane (used as a mobility tool by the visually impaired) is badly in need of rethinking. The current market is saturated by a hand full of models that , though functional and affordable, say nothing about the person holding it and look as if created by a mob of med students and engineers. Some of them have pseudo-ergonomic handles made from molded plastic. Even without a truly deep understanding of vision-impairment, I can see that there is much that can be improved with the status quo.

Check out my newly constructed DIY light blocking googles-














I plan to get into character this week, and really find out what its like to live without sight. I still have so much to learn.