I’ve moved to Blogger.

For those of you following anything on my blog, I’ve turned to the darkside and moved to Blogger. I may update this blog occasionally, but designersunderground.blogger.com will be more active.

Who needs design when you have a motorcycle to play with?

I happen to be in an extremely boring rut of projects at work now, so my creativity jumped ship and swam to my garage. About a month ago I bought an old Yamaha, a TX500 from 1973. My brother picked up a bike the same week and we live about 1250 miles apart so we’re doing a long distance “biker build off” online. Since my personal design content is suffering on here right now, I thought I’d share my hobby with you. Here’s the bike, as it sat when I picked it up:

After brainstorming, studying the bike, deciding what I wanted to ride, soaking in a LOT of other bikes, sketching, and photoshoping, here is what I’ve decided to build:

I’ve dubbed it “TX Massacre” which sort of explains the splatter on the gas tank, although not many things bleed orange. I want it to look like the bike just flew through something at 100mph and kept going. The fun part is going to be painting it. I think I’ll hang the tank facing up, dip a sponge in the paint, and throw it at the front of the gas tank. Should be crazy, Jackson Pollock style. Should be able to terrorize a few old ladies with this.

The power of “what if?”

An interesting thing happens to a parent when the arrival of a new little one is near.  It’s called the nesting instinct, and fathers aren’t immune to it.  For the last week I have been sorting through old storage and tossing anything we don’t need anymore.  I’m really quite surprised at how much “stuff” my wife and I keep!  But I ran across some old design projects, notes, ideas and thoughts that were fun to relive.  Then later in the week I ran into an old classmate who’s working in the automotive field and I began to get nostalgic.

I grew up dreaming to be a car designer and worked my hardest to get there.  Until I got embedded into it in college, then I lost the fire.  (Rather the fire spread to other interests).  Car design seemed to be less about solving problems and more about trying to impress someone else with your cool sketching style.  For instance:  during a sponsored project the sponsor would send someone from the design department to come coach us for a day or two.  One would say “spend more time on wheels because cool wheels can make an ugly car look good.”  The next would say “don’t waste any time on wheels, just indicate them.  We want to focus on the overall form of the car.”  Later another would say “tighten up your sketches so they look clean.”  And then someone higher than that guy would come in and accuse you of “staying in the lines as a kid.  Have fun with your sketches, let them get messy.”

I didn’t know any better then, but I understand now what turned me off about that experience:  no progress.  We were all so worried about drawing the way someone else wanted us to draw that real good ideas got left behind.

I did have one amazing experience which taught me what real design, automotive or otherwise should be about.  Honda sponsored the project and only asked for 2 stipulations: that it be intended for young people, and good for the world.  We were free to define those terms on our own turf, if we could justify them.  For instance, when everyone else was making their cars hybrid or fuel cell powered to be good for the world, mine focused not at all on how it’s powered, but on creating a tight-knit society of owners who interracted because of the car and therefore it was good for society.  My argument was that they asked for the vehicle to be good for the world, not necessarily for the earth.  I called it the FlipSide, inspired by young people’s tendency to individualize their cell phones.  The idea was an open space frame (like maybe a dune buggy or jeep) with flexible body panels that would be reversible.  When I say body panels, I really mean sheets of plastic or similar rather than sheet metal.  The idea is to be able to pull them out, reverse them to change the car’s color, or store them if you’re going naked style (they’d lay up against each other in the garage like we all do instinctively with plywood, drywall, or whatever it is you have in sheet form leaning against your garage wall).  If you were on a road trip and came across someone else with the same car, you could swap a body panel as a souvenir.  Instant new friend!  It’d be like making MySpace real!  Or of course, if you were wanted by the law, a quick reversal of the body panels would hide you a little longer… (that’s one of the bugs of the system).

My point is this: design is concerned with more than just cool sketches.  I used to think it was just a business tool also, but it’s more than that.  It’s the desire, power and initiative to change.  Let me leave you with a few more what ifs I had with this project 6 or 7 years ago that I still find interesting after reading them over again (some are actually happening now).

• What if the vehicle were motorcycle sized to cut congestion, but didn’t require the skill to drive that a bike does? (seeing this now among private tranportation mfgs.  Check out http://flytheroad.com/)
• What if the car could change/morph to the owner’s whim?  (go to gizmag.com and search ”holographic exterior”)
• Could it be operated without a license altogether?
• What if an off road vehicle had tires with a special center rib that would inflate to high pressures on the road for less rolling resistance and better fuel economy, and deflate off road for traction?
• What about a vehicle made for 4 people to explore off road that had a footprint smaller than the cumulative foot prints of the 4 passengers, had they been hiking instead?
• Remember the Simpson’s episode where the motivational speaker has a car that’s powered by his own self worth?  That was awesome.
• What about photosynthesis?  Can that teach us anything about creating clean energy?
• What if the NAV system was holographic and presented in 3D, so you could recognize landmarks instead of having to read street names?  And maybe it’s removable like a stereo face that you could take with you if you still need walking directions?  (This is coming soon, I promise)
• What if, instead of “Performance & Luxury” option packages, you had Mtn Biking, Boarder, Water Sports, Dirt, or Climber option packages?
• Then, what if the vehicle’s tool kit is for more than just the vehicle?  Bike tools, fiberglass patches for surfboards, kayaks, canoes, etc.
• What if the car steers and leans like a skate board?
• What if it was 3 wheeled and leaned like a motorcycle?  (this one is no longer new, several companies are making them already.  Again, see www.flytheroad.com)
• What if you could set the “mood lighting” inside the car?  (also commonplace now)
• What if the car changed colors with the time of day?  Or temperature?
• What if the license plate was digitally displayed, so you could actually read it at night?  AND as soon as you get a new plate, the DMV just uploads it to your car and you’re set?  Which would also solve a lot of problems with uninsured drivers, unrenewed plates, etc.
• What if the seats would pinch your butt to keep you awake on long trips?

And it just keeps going.  Granted, some of these are a little cheese.  If you’re stuck in a rut, do yourself a favor and take a break; look out the window and tell yourself what you see.  Then ask yourself (since it’s listening to you now) ”what if…”

Pendulum Line (aka: designer’s paradise)

 Talk about fun!  Rogers acquired Pendulum, and along with that came new direction from a very energetic individual.  Well received by some, not so well by others (particularly those afraid of change), this initially was to be a simple redesign of existing products to conform to our manufacturing process and look.  One day this bundle of energy said,  ”The look is too soft.  We’re not in the ‘pink leotard’ club industry.  These are athletes who think they’re warriors!  It should look like gothic ninjas train on these machines!”  Inside I was screaming “HELL YEAH!”  Until he left the room, and basically the idea was shot down by others in the room.  Something inside me snapped and I decided to hell with what you think, I’m going the gothic ninja direction, slipped on the headphones, grabbed some Metallica and others from the playlist, and stayed late that night.  The concept was the “Death Row” row machine.  It had pointy edges, lines that would curve, and then sharply retreat back on themselves, linkages that looked like sword blades, and so on.

 Long story short, that emotion made it into the design, and others felt it.  The decision was made from higher up that the entire line would have this edgy look, and that I would direct the design that engineers were to work around.  Granted, now that they’re officially released and production ready, they’ve been watered down slightly, (the Death Row is now called the 3 way row, boo!), but overall I’m ecstatic with how they’ve turned out and the reception they’ve gotten.  By far this is the most fun I’ve had with my job, and the most time I’ve spent at it.  (Interesting how those coincide when they’re linked in the proper order…)

I hope you enjoy them as well:

Cougar Drive Sled

This was the first “gimme” project I’ve had.  But it’s one of my products, and inspired by my Alma Mater, so I’m including it.  Basically, the BYU coach said “boy, it’d be great if I could have this.”  And pretty much spelled it out for us.  So, we made several for him, showed it to other schools, and apparently it’s a big hit!  No moving parts, just a big, heavy sled for meatheads to push, pull or drag.  I’d like to try the Iditarod on one someday…

Next:  The Pendulum Line

Monster Machines

An interesting bit of information cropped up after our racks / accessories were released.  A lot of coaches appreciated the versatility of the racks, but were from bigger, well funded school or franchise that HAD space to fill up.  They wanted more individual machines.  So these 2 machines, the Incline and Twist, were designed as stand alones that performed the duties of the Monster Incline and Horizontal Arms, respectively.

I feel the more innovative of the 2 is the Twist, which is really 2 of the same subassembly bolted together to mirror each other.  This allows teams on a budget (like High Schools) to buy and use one half, then add the other later.  My favorite thing about this machine is the convenience of loading / unloading weight plates on the arms.  Rather than walk around the machine with weights in your hands before you get to workout, the weights are right there waiting for you,  just slide them off the storage pin and onto the arm’s pin.  In fact, you’re only responsible for the weight for about 6 inches from one pin to the other.  Some may say “but this is weight lifting”.  Yeah, but if you’re training for functional strength, do you want to waste your time & strength carrying weights in a fashion that has nothing to do with what you’re training for, or get busy with your routine?

Next:  Drive Sled

The Jugs Cart

No, it’s not a bra.  Although I probably wouldn’t object to research in that area if I was called upon to do so.  There’s a football throwing mechanism called the JUGS Machine, you can blame them for the name.  All I had to do was design a cart that held the thing.  My research showed competitors’ carts as cheesy, ugly, square meshed framed contraptions that most junkyard dogs could build in their garage.

All it takes is a little time spent putting yourself in the shoes of the user and you’ll be on your way to a better product.  I’m surprised so many companies don’t understand that.  What did I find?  Well, you need a place to hold footballs, and a place to sit a generator to run the machine if your field isn’t powered.  So that dictates 2 fairly large spaces on the cart.  But if you just make it a big rectangle, like everyone else does, it forces the operator of the machine to either stand on the edge of the cart, off balance, while trying to load and fire footballs, or to stand on the ground leaning in to reach the machine, and bashing their shins on the cart when getting carried away with aiming the machine.  Why not bring the structure of the cart in narrow where the user is, so he can stand on solid ground, and load, aim and fire with complete control?

By the way, it looks better too.

 

Tred Sled Facelift

Once Design began to permeate the product line, it also exposed poor looking existing product.  This one, the Tred Sled, was basically black metal box, with a rubber tread.  Or at least that’s what your impression would be when you looked at it.  And the computer was impossibly inconvenient to use for either the coach or the player when it was nestled into the sled, flush with the tread surface.  It was just too far out of reach.

 So, the sides of the sled were revised with some shape, to resemble runners on a sled, to tie in our football line, and then given some relief, in the form of 45deg bends in the sheet metal, to also blend with the weight equipment.  That allowed for a cool 2 tone paint treatment with a seperate ”branding plate” which bolts on seperately, and allows much more maintenance room than the previous access doors.  And of course the computer moved to a functional position. 

Next:  The Jugs Cart (no laughing)

Monster Arm Storage Rack

So we ended up making so many accessories for these Brute Racks, that people needed a place to put the extras when they’re not in use.  As simple as it is, I liked this job a lot because there were less stipulations to get in the way.  A rack that bolted to the wall and held Monster Arms and accessories.  No prob.  It could look sleek (the floor frame mimics the arch at the top that gives it added identification and kind of a reflection) while performing its duties.  My favorite “cleverism” is that you can bolt another rack to the back and you have a neat free standing storage rack, which I think looks better than just one on the wall.

Next:  Tred Sled facelift

The Jam Pad

Here’s an example of what Tom Kelley calls “cross polinization” in his book The Art of Innovation (if you haven’t read it yet, you need to).  The thought process:  “hmmm, we have these cool free motion arms on our racks, and we’re known for our football sleds…HEY!  What if we could put a football sled guy on the arms to bring outdoor training inside for the off season?”

Next:  Monster Arm Storage Rack