Blog

Reconfigurable Displays for GM

Partners In Crime:
Michael Levy, Alex Riegelman, Jimi Okelana

In the Summer of 2007, I was hired by GM along with my team members to research the area of computer reconfigurable displays for General Motors cars. Specifically, we focused on the Cadillac CTS and the Chevrolet Impala. We carried out this work in the comfort of a windowless room in the Human Computer Interaction Institute on Carnegie Mellon’s campus.

In the first phase of the project, we went to car dealers to get an idea of what an Instrument Panel (IP) means across as many brands as possible. After we had gathered this information, we spent over a week discussing the past present & future of the CTS and the Impala, and how our digital IPs would help further that future.

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Feb 05, 2010 | Categories: Design | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

Apparently there are no women in Apple’s marketing department

If there were, they would have named the iPad something else…

Also, I hope someone turns this into a drawing tablet, thereby making it actually useful. It would also be awesome if I could listen to Pandora while drawing drawing on said tablet. I know Steve Jobs hates the stylus, but a $500 Apple-branded drawing tablet would seriously cut the Cintq down.

UPDATE Core Toon Win!

(posted via Wordpress for iPhone)

Jan 27, 2010 | Categories: Opinion | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

State of Shelter

I was just reading Ernest Beck’s State of Shelter over at Design Observer. The Haitian earthquake has made an estimated 1,000,000 people homeless. Until a permanent housing solutions can be found, a lot of people are sleeping in the streets and it shouldn’t be that way.

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Jan 26, 2010 | Categories: Design, Sketches | Leave A Comment »

Bamboo Radio

Bamboo Radio, 2007

Bamboo plywood + Blackened walnut veneer + Brass

This radio was inspired by the Gramophone from the late 1800’s. I used this form factor as a way for a small radio to project sound 360 degrees. Inside its guts, a wireless card will allow the user to stream music directly from their computer, as well as listen to normal radio stations (for the purposes of the working mockup, I used an Apple Airport Express to demonstrate the principle). By allowing the the sound to echo in the lower sealed chamber, I was able to maintain the good bass response for which the Tivoli is known.

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Jan 17, 2010 | Categories: Design | Leave A Comment »

Mapping Our Activities

The first step to understanding how to design a product or service is to determine how and why people do what they do now. Is it efficient? Bone-headedly moronic? A conceptual model can find this out.

A visual map of how people create, carry and share photos.

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Jan 17, 2010 | Categories: All, Design | Leave A Comment »

Spaceship Monday

I haven’t done as much free sketching as I’d like to lately, so i decided to draw some spaceships on the good ‘ol Cintq during lunch.
ship_pers (more…)

Jan 11, 2010 | Categories: Sketches | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

New Decade’s Eve

A bunch of photos I took while home for vacation. I headed to Brooklyn for the big night and we celebrated the new decade with bagpipes played by our host!
Mike (more…)

Jan 07, 2010 | Categories: Photography | Tags: | Leave A Comment »

Laser Cut Glassware

Partner In Crime: Zoë Pinfold

My friend Zoë and I used a laser cutter with an attachment for round objects to create some designer chair themed presents. We got our hands on a fancy converter for the laser cutter that automatically rotates a round object. If someone told me laser cutters weren’t designed to make presents, they would be lying. (more…)

Dec 17, 2009 | Categories: Design | Tags: , | Leave A Comment »

Hedron

Glass + Aluminum
Pen and finger powered touchscreen

Though the idea of a touch screen PC is already in the market, the current solutions are still adapting a normal PC to attempt to satisfy the size requirements of a sketchbook. At some point in the process of using the computer to create, everyone has said, “I wish this program would just let me do _____ the way I see it in my head.” Hedron will help it happen.

Hedron (more…)

Dec 15, 2009 | Categories: Design | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

Stitch Table

Maple + Mahogany

This coffee table has 3 stainless steel pots that hold anything from plants to pens. The name is derived from the way the mahogany “stitches” the maple surfaces together.

This table took about 40 hours of hard labor in the shop. I had to be extremely precise in constructing the stitches (to within 1/64″). I chose mahogany as the accent wood for two reasons. First, as it ages, the color of the wood darkens and richens over time. Since I have taken these photos, the wood has taken on an even darker and deeper color. Second, I chose it for its stability. As a tropical wood, its high resin content allows it to resist warping and dimensional change. This prevents a lot less shifting in the table surface than other woods.

Stitch Table (more…)

Dec 13, 2009 | Categories: Design, Furniture | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments »