Wednesday 31 August 2011

Inkling - Wacom releases it's inkling of the future of sketching.

As industrial designers we all think we have an inkling of what the future may hold.... welcome to the future. The wacom Inkling is now released and will be available in October. Industrial design sketchbooks are critical for developing skills and this product is an exciting addition for students and studios who use the Wacom 21UX and Sketchbook Pro. The Inkling captures the freehand and remote location concepts for designers who are setup in the studio with digital tools. The portability and capacity to transfer direct to your laptop or device will suit many industrial designers.


Wacom inkling for freehand concept sketching.





Concept sketches like these bus shelter sketches by RMIT industrial design student Soo Hyun KIM can now be created using the Wacom inkling and be transferred direct to a digital environment, like the RMIT Wacom Lab with 21UX Wacom tablets.


Decor - Egg cups

Decor egg cups in original clear faced packaging are a welcome addition to my collection of locally designed and manufactured products.


1960s egg cups by Decor - Brian Davis Plastics.


Set of 1960s egg cups and spoons by Decor  - Brian Davis Plastics.

Tuesday 23 August 2011

Willow - Made in Australia for 120 years

RMIT University industrial design final year students recently visited Willow Australia and were treated to a comprehensive factory tour and product development presentation by Head of Design David Flynn. It is vital students link design process with manufacture and the opportunity to experience first hand at Willow the processes from concept to manufacture and finally the despatch bay was invaluable. Industry collaboration and links like these are fundamental to industrial design education. Willow products were featured in the exhibition 175 Years of Victorian Design and they have been manufacturing in Victoria for 120 years.


Willow Australia Head of Design, industrial designer, David Flynn with final year industrial design students from RMIT University.





Saturday 20 August 2011

So good he bottled it - Julian Ditchburn

Cascade is just one of the local beers that is enjoyed the world over. Industrial designer Julian Ditchburn is not a brewer but his mark is on every bottle. The distinctive bottle shape, color, and signature Tasmanian tiger stripes at the base of the neck tell you it's a cascade as you reach unsighted for a cold one in an ice filled bath. A graduate from RMIT University industrial design Julian, now Senior Product Designer for O-I Australia, has designed glass packaging for many other household Australian products. I taught Julian in second year and we caught up recently to discuss industry collaborations with current RMIT students. The Cascade 375ml bottle featured in the exhibition STILL09....Cheers!



Cascade 375ml bottle designed by industrial designer Julian Ditchburn.


Industrial designer Julian Ditchburn pictured with the Cascade bottle he designed in 2004. 



Friday 19 August 2011

Mr Wong...it's Mr Wong

To my surprise and delight I received an email today titled...Dropped in for a visit....

The spooky thing is that it was from industrial designer Andrew Wong who I had only minutes before mentioned in my last post. Andrew was one of my students at Swinburne University who lives in Germany and works for Frog Design. We managed to meet up for a beer, a meal and terrific catchup.

Frog Design is iconic as an industrial design consultancy and for many Australian industrial designers it was the full page advertisements on back covers of magazines like UK Design and our own Design World that enchanted us all. The identity, the photography and art direction, the projects and the clients constantly amazed.

The copy of Issue 11 1986 of Design World has the classic Apple IIc and perhaps is burned into my memory more than most. This issue included the Baker Perkins Mini Rotel Oven that I designed with John Westwood in the Australian Industrial Design Survey for that year. 1986 was my first year out of University and the Mini Rotel was one of my first products in production. This copy of Design World is also an issue with many classic designs from consultancies like Designlab, PA and Nielsen Design that featured in the exhibition STILL09.


 Frog Design full page back cover advertisement on Design World magazine featuring the Apple IIc



Thursday 18 August 2011

Swinburne Open Day - Sunday August 21st

The industrial design and product design engineering programs will be on show at Swinburne Open Day this weekend. Graduates Paul Taylor, Ian Dryden, Troy Nyssen and Mario Matkovich have been mentioned in previous posts. Troy was one of my students at Swinburne and others from that period include: Soren Luckins - Buro North, Andrew Wong - Frog Design, Ben Wilson - Braun, Jonathan Lawson - Kube Creative, Kate Hannaford - Moth DesignTom Seymour, Kate Luckins, Dean Phillips, Chris Peters - CP Design, and Luke Troja.



Designed in 1993 the Britax Nova booster by industrial designers Paul Taylor and Gerry Mussett featured in the exhibition STILL09. Innovative Australian design.



Award winning wayfinding by Buro North




Concept sketches for the Queens baton by industrial designer Jonathan Lawson whilst on staff with leading industrial design consultancy Charlwood Design.



http://www.charlwood.com.au


Innovative Australian design for underground water tank by industrial designer Luke Troja.

Holden designers honoured

Holden designers Michael Simcoe, Tony Stolfo, Richard Ferlazzo, Peter Hughes and Jenny Morgan-Douralis, were honoured by RMIT industrial design for their achievements in automotive design with each having a Wacom tablet named after them.


Automotive designer and RMIT alumnus Michael Simcoe.
Image GM Australia



Director of design GM Australia Tony Stolfo.
Image GM Australia



Automotive designer and RMIT alumnus Richard Ferlazzo.
Image GM Australia


Automotive designer and RMIT alumnus Peter Hughes.
Image GM Australia


Holden designers Richard Ferlazzo and Peter Hughes study the emerging skills of industrial design student Bao Pham during a visit to the RMIT Wacom Lab. Lecturer Bernie Walsh discusses graduate capabilities with GM director of design Tony Stolfo.


Automotive designer and RMIT alumnus Jenny Morgan-Douralis.
Image GM Australia

Sixties - Willow bin

The print design for this waste paper bin from Willow caught my eye. Is it perhaps influenced by Leonard French's work on the stained glass ceiling of the Great Hall at the National Gallery of Victoria? (See previous post)


Willow waste paper bin from the 1960s with very "graphic" design.


Leonard French stained glass ceiling. Great Hall - National Gallery of Victoria.

Sunday 14 August 2011

Launchpad Demo - Edwin Conan

Recent industrial design graduate Edwin Conan demonstrating the durability of the ipad kiosk product LaunchPad. An outstanding student whilst at RMIT, Edwin has proved to be a highly valued member of the team at Sprocket. In the style of "will it blend" and other YouTube videos...enjoy.








RMIT Open Day 2011

RMIT Open Day at industrial design before the crowds.



First Year industrial design at RMIT Open Day


Display of selected PhD research material from Zmood - Designing Holdens exhibition, curated by Ian Wong. Phillip Zmood studied industrial design at RMIT University and was the first Australian Head of Design at GMH.


First Year industrial design at RMIT Open Day


Final Year prototypes slide show at RMIT Open Day




Saturday 13 August 2011

Win - RMIT Open Day promotion.

To encourage industrial design talent and promote RMIT University Open Day Sunday August 14th http://ianwongresearch.blogspot is offering a lucky individual a chance to win a copy of Sketching the Basics an excellent new text for industrial designers from BIS Publishing. Simply like the Facebook page Ianwongresearch before September 1st to enter. Good luck.




New from BIS Publishing, Sketching the Basics shares drawing techniques from Koos Eissen and Roselien Steur. Eissen is associate professor at Delft University of Technology, where he is responsible for the freehand and digital drawing classes at the Faculty of Industrial Design. Steur is an experienced drawing lecturer at university and art academy level who now specialises in design sketching workshops.

Concept sketches - Kate Bissett Johnson

RMIT alumnus Kate Bissett Johnson is an outstanding industrial designer and design educator and has in particular demonstrated and developed concept design sketching skills amongst students at RMIT and Swinburne Universities. Kate graduated the year after me and was a GMH award winner for best second year student whilst at RMIT. The project shown here is from her period as a consultant designer with Catalyst and this Nylex jug was featured in STILL09 and is still in production. We worked together at RMIT and also more recently on several VEIL projects.


Concept sketches by industrial designer Kate Bissett Johnson.


Nylex Eski jug designed by Catalyst.


Bessemer - Thermo Serve

The packaging graphics in particular were of interest in this latest Lionel Suttie designed product for my collection. The bright yellow Thermo Serve is from the early 1970s and in perfect condition.


Bessemer Thermo Serve designed by industrial designer Lionel Suttie.

Friday 12 August 2011

iPhone - Connecting with Solidworks

The iPhone 4 is an excellent introductory form to build understanding of basic CAD modelling for RMIT industrial design first year students. In addition to building the CAD model students are expected to consider layout, proportions, perspective, and composition which is aided by the high quality image rendering capacity within Solidworks.


iPhone 4 solidworks render by Richard Piccani.

iPhone 4 solidworks render by Ben Custance.

iPhone 4 solidworks render by Alex Schoenmakers.

Michael Simcoe - GMIO

Michael Simcoe recently returned to Melbourne as Executive Director General Motors International Operations (GMIO) Design. Micheal graduated from RMIT University industrial design in 1979.
Moving from his previous position of Executive Director North American Exterior Design and Global Architecture Strategy for GM, Mr Simcoe, 53, has stepped into a newly created role, which will focus on further developing GM’s operations in Korea and Australia.
Micheal returned to Australia for the role, after six years with GM in North America.
“This role will allow me to oversee the growth in GMIO design in both Korea and Australia, and to bring with me many of the learnings from my time with GM in the US,” Mr Simcoe said.
“And, of course, I’m extremely pleased to be returning home to Australia, and to once again be working from the world-class Holden design centre, where I began my GM career almost 30 years ago,” he said.
Mr Simcoe commenced work with Holden as a designer in 1983 and had subsequent appointments as Senior Designer and Chief Designer before becoming Design Director in 2001. During this time he oversaw the genesis of the highly successful VT Commodore and WH Statesman/Caprice model ranges and subsequent VX and VY upgrades, as well as VE Commodore.
In 2003, he became GM's Executive Director Asia Pacific Design, a regional design role that incorporated responsibility for Holden design.
Mr Simcoe moved to the US in 2004, and in his current role as Executive Director North American Exterior Design and Global Architecture Strategy, is responsible for all Exterior Design in North America. He has led design development of a long list of GM products including: GMC Terrain, Buick LaCrosse, Chevy Camaro and Equinox as well as Cadillac CTS Sedan, Wagon and Coupe.
While his new role will have an Asia-Pacific focus, Micheal will be based at Holden’s Port Melbourne headquarters.


Automotive designer and RMIT University industrial design alumnus Micheal Simcoe.

Image copyright GM

Nike Designer - Hodong Sung

Designing shoes for Nike, Adidas, and Globe was a dream come true for RMIT industrial design graduate Hodong Sung. In a presentation to students he emphasised the need for hard work and passion and a determination to succeed.


RMIT alumnus industrial designer Hodong Sung sketching on a 21UX tablet in the RMIT wacom lab.


Nike, Adidas and Globe footwear designer Hodong Sung presents to students at RMIT industrial design.


Hodung Sung with lecturers Professor Kjell Grant and Dr Scott Mayson and inspired RMIT industrial design students.



Eco footwear concept design by industrial designer Hodong Sung.


Concept sketches for Globe shoes by industrial designer Hodong Sung.



Kick Start - Shoe design sketch concepts

RMIT industrial design students are currently sketching concepts for mobility footwear using wacom tablets and sketchbook pro. See previous posts on footwear designers Hodong Sung and Derek Yuen.

Shoe concept sketch by Roger van der Drift.

Roller Ski concept sketch by Dustin Bailey.

Shoe concept sketch by Tommy Hew.

Inline skate concept sketch by Yining Shao.