As promised, here are a few concrete results of the assignment. The banner design featuring elements of the new corporate identity has been photoshopped into the actual surrounding, to give the client a better impression of the final result.
Benchmark Electronics‘ lead designer contacted me today with an interesting job offer for this summer. The job consists of graphic design based consultancy regarding the corporate identity and marketing strategies of Benchmark Electronics. Graphic design is an integral part of the multidiscipline that is industrial design engineering, so this job offers a nice playground for my skills.
New graphic elements will be introduced, which will be tested by creating creating several large banners sized 2.5x4m, to be positioned at various places in the company building. It will be the first time for me to create visualisations on such a large scale, which is pretty awesome. I hope to be able to update you on the results soon.
At the moment I’m just finishing up the last subjects, and I’m actively looking for a postgraduate internship in the UK to finish my Master’s degree. I noticed that for some odd reason a lot of sites offering internships in the UK do not have a section for engineering. O_o
In a country with a long list of big design firms such as IDEO, Dyson, Seymourpowell, Tangerine, Native, PDD Group, Arup, Creactive, JKR, Babcock International, Designit, Curventa, ?What If!, etcetera, one does hope for amazing (internship) opportunities and experiences.
I’m open for any leads and/or tips, so if you know someone who knows someone who knows someone, let me know please.
Today I had my final bachelor presentation including exam and defence, to evaluate the result of my assignment as well as my general performance at Benchmark Electronics. It was about time I finished my bachelor to be honest: I had nearly completed all of my master subjects already. >_>
The presentation went very well; both the university and the company awarded me a 9 out of 10. As a present, the lead designer gave me his copy of “The Art of Innovation” by Tom Kelley – lessons in creativity from IDEO, America’s leading design firm. It’s a book I was planning to buy, and I really appreciated the gesture. If you are not familiar with IDEO or their approach to product development, here is a link to ABC’s Nightline “The Deep Dive” from 1999 documenting an example of IDEO’s creative process.
Working at Benchmark Electronics was a great experience: the people were very nice and helpful, and I am really thankful for the experience I gained there and all the opportunities they offered me. 🙂
I’m about to head out for the annual AED and CPR refresher course. Living in a rural area where medical aid may take a tad longer than desired, AEDs are placed in strategic locations to use in time of emergency. Even though they come with written or even spoken instructions, it is useful to familiarise yourself with the AED – especially considering how many different types are out there. Of course, AED and CPR go hand in hand, so CPR is covered in the course as well.
An incident in London during my last visit made me aware how important it is to be able to fall back on knowledge and experience in case of emergency. Knowing how to check for signs of heart arrest, how to clear the airways, what information the emergency service’s phone operator is after, etcetera — it is very reassuring to know how to (re)act.
Just a small notification: today I moved my portfolio to a different URL. It is merely a cosmetic change to better reflect the fact that this is a portfolio site. Carry on..
Pretty awesome: last week Christian Suurmeijer, the lead designer at Benchmark Electronics, approved my design to be rapid prototyped. After a week of negotiating prices with several companies, today I received a big box with all the components for my model. ^^
SLS was the technique chosen for the model since SLA fell slightly out of the budget, so I will have to spend a bit more time sanding stuff down to achieve the surface quality I’m after. Sadly my time at the company is nearing its end, but this is such a great opportunity that I’ll gladly free up time to do the extra work and hopefully also manage to collect user feedback to include in my report documenting the project. Ah exciting times! 🙂
Don’t get me wrong, I really love my old Volkswagen Beetle, but between you and me: I think it was trying to kill me this morning. >_>
This morning the brakes failed on me, so I need to spend some time this weekend to try and fix that. As with any older car, my Beetle has had its fair share of issues. The beauty of an older car however is that you can fix the vast majority of those issues yourself. There is also something very gratifying about working on your car and seeing your hard labour pay off, though that feeling of satisfaction is even better on days when your car doesn’t try to kill you. :p
My curiosity about Eadweard Muybridge’s work on animal locomotion was piqued while working on the amplified walker concept, so I was pleasantly surprised to hear about an exhibition of his work at Tate Britain. It was fascinating to see his stereographic prints and zoöpraxographic motion sequences, though one has to wonder about the scientific value of the “chickens scared by torpedo” series.. O_o
Earlier we went to the Tate Modern to view Ai Weiwei’s “Sunflower Seeds” in the turbine hall. Sadly the public was no longer allowed to touch the seeds or walk on them (interactivity was supposed to be part of the installation), but regardless that sea of porcelain seeds was a spectacular sight.
There was another pleasant surprise as well: one of my favourite sculptures happened to be on display at the Tate Modern, namely Umberto Boccioni’s “Unique Forms of Continuity in Space“. It’s a genuine masterpiece of futurism, perfectly embodying Filippo Marinetti’s manifesto. Of course futurists were quite the mad hatters in the way they glorified war and violence, but their work is absolutely stunning.
All that was rounded up with a visit to the Design Museum. I have to say I really love browsing their book shop; I never seem to be able to leave empty-handed. So today was definitely provocative for the mind.
I just got home from my first day of work at Benchmark Electronics in Almelo as intern product developer in the mechanical engineering department. It is very interesting to work alongside experienced industrial designers and see the work they do for some quite impressive clients. Time to soak up as much experience as possible. :O
Sadly a non-disclosure agreement prevents me from sharing any further information, so I will not be able to update you on my progress with the project.
