Well, I just realized that I have made 9 posts in more than 11 months.
And 3 of them were just so I could share pictures with other people. And two of them didn't even have sketches. It is a good thing that nobody reads this blog.

I don't really feel like writing anymore though. Hopefully there will be more. I'm still not sure about transportation design school, but no matter what I try to do (products, transportation, architecture....) being able to draw will help.

lets see:

More Summer Vacation

Well, as is expected, it has been quite a while since I've updated. Its a good thing nobody reads this blog, or I would be embarrassed. If in the future somebody does read this, they would have to look at the dates to know how far in between things are, and nobody would go through that much trouble.

And hopefully they won't look this far back anyways. Lets be honest, these past couple weeks have yielded some rather shitty little sketches.

This first batch was intended for the ID sketching
weekly competition. It is a vacuum cleaner design based off of the ever popular dyson ball idea.

I know dyson likes to push the engineering aspect of their designs, but I guess I don't see why all of there stuf has to be ugly. What is worse is that now all the other vaccums on the market have followed suit and are ugly now too.

They should really take from the hair dryer designers and put out some nice, slick cool designs. Oh well, what can ya do?



I don't know if Ill submit these or go back to the drawing board tomorrow. I might be a little embarrassed to post these where somebody else will see them.

Below is the back view and what I entended to be the final sketch of the series.

Another interesting note, these are the first sketches that I have ever done in a coffee shop. I felt like such a designer. Maybe I'll go sketch there tomorrow just to feel awesome.

You know, dyson really should go into the hairdyrer market. They've already got a pretty good handle on the soccer-mom market. Might as well corner that air-manipulation market.





The next two are just some more cars. It seems like lately I've had two main styles that I've been working with. These are the red series. The top one was kinda shitty and I got bored and didn't finish it. The second one was done wile watching some Kevin Spacey movie about criminals. It was excellent (like most kevin spacey movies).

I don't actually know if this is the front or the back. Didn't really seem important to me at the time. Those are some red lights on the bottom though, so I guess its the back.
So I guess that makes this the blue series.

This series was initially based off of some sweet little sketches by some british dude who's name I forgot. He kicks a lot more ass than I do though. I think a lot of that comes from that RCA transportation degree. His are a lot more lose than mine, but I've been using it as an excuse to practice rendering chrome. Still a ways to go, naturally, but Its been fun.

These sketches were made while I was watching some documentary on modern pilosophers. It was kinda interesting, I guess.

I really need to get back into reading. I don't even have the slightest background necessary to comprehend Heidiggerian philosophy. Oh well, I guess thats why I try to draw pictures.



Ideally, some of these will turn into some aftermath motors concepts, but I dunno.

The sketches are slowly improving, but i'm not sold on any of the designs that I've come up with. Back to the drawing board I guess.

This one below is probably my favorite of the series thus far. It was initially inspires by a model that some kid at the french transportation design school did, but I changed the style quite a bit. The resemblence is hardly there at all anymore.

Is it obvious that I'm only including these words because I don't want the images to be floating in space. These words mean nothing. If you haven't stopped reading yet, you should probably do so now. I promise, you aren't missing anything.



I'll finish it up with this attempted marker render of a chrome cupcake. Now, before getting judgmental on the lack of skill, try to imagine the state of sobriety required to initiate the notion of a chrome cupcake. yea. sorry.

-kyle

Actually, I really hate the centered images. It just looks kinda crappy. I'm to lazy to change it now, but I'll have to keep this in mind in the future. Really, this site kinda sucks as far as its ability to format things easily. Jut sayin...

initial sketches for the comic

this is mainly for you to look at mountain (click to enlarge)

Summer Vacation

Alright, I have been trying to sketch a lot lately.
Lets see what I came up with...


I'd just about kill to work at hotwheels, here are some quick sketches I did last week.

sedan-wagon type of thing, personally my favorite type of hotrod. One day, hopefully, there will be a chopped and channeled mid 30's something in my garage.













...and some trucks. Personally, Like many, I think, I'm quite the fan of orange and blue. Probably see it a lot in the future. I'll upload most of last week's hot rod sketches tomorrow night.






This is an early 70's gremlin with no doors, raised with some sort of 4wd drivetrain, probably from an sx4.

Kinda ran with an idea that I saw on coroflot of some guys quick ideations with an old chevy truck.










Here are some race cars influenced by the
old GT40 and the King's STP car. Mainly
working on the marker work.

And here is a photoshop rendering drawn over the above marker sketch







the rest are just some other marker sketches.

I kinda like the red shadows, but clearly there is a long way to go. But, hey, it is a starting point right?

To establish a goal

Alright, it's not really the beginning of a year or anything, but I feel like its time to make a quick assessment of my life and set a goal for the future.


Today is the 23rd of February 2o1o. The reality of the situation is that I am about a year and a half from graduating with an industrial design degree from a somewhat shitty school. Well, not a shitty school, but a shitty school for industrial design. I have no direction, little talent, and even less good quality work to show. In reality, I am in the same situation that I was in during the last few years of high school. Through sheer lack of research, I decided that I might a well go to the university that I chose, why not? An undergraduate ID program is an undergraduate ID program right?

...well, no. But this isn't a rant blog. In fact, its really not a blog intended for writing, but I'm making this one exception.

So lets consider the positives of my situation:
1. In a year and a half, I will have a bachelor's degree in industrial design. No, it isn't worth as much as I would like it to be, but it is at least a starting point in the right direction.
2. I still have a year and a half to get my shit together. That is still quite a bit of time.
3. Unlike in the past, I now know how to scower the internet for resources to better myself. I signed up for Car design News, I avidly check idsketching, arch daily, coroflot, and other websites. I just ordered a book about sketching and will continue to shamlessly exploit and rip off anything I can find (for practice, obviously, not to claim credit).
4. I am learning German. I love it.
5. I should have a lot of time, I only have 31 more required credits for 3 semesters. That averages out to about 10 hours a semester (which is badass).

I have decided that I am going to transportation design school.
It will be expensive. It will be intense, and as I sit, there is no way that soeone with as little skill as I could hope to get in.

That is what this blog is officially for, starting now. The admission deadline for the Pforzheim Hochschule is 3o April. That is more than 14 months. During this time, these are the following goals:
1. Gain a working understanding of German:
I am not a German student, and there is no way that I will be anywhere close to fluent by next April. And I dont expect to. But I would like to be able to comforably get around. I think this will be possible.
2. Kick ass at Thesis:
lets be honest, there weren't a lot of impressive final projects last year or the year before. But if I can do something that turns out well, obviously it will be a big help in getting in to grad school.
3. Internship:
Somewhere! anywhere!
4. Sketch everyday:
And upload a few sketches every week.
5. Alias
6. Get Aftermath Hodrods off the ground:
I think in 14 months, I can get at least two cars done, and maybe some back story. I think I need to set a deadline for myself. How about launch website before next spring semester. That way it won't get in the way of thesis.

Hopefully, this will be the wordiest post this blog ever sees, I'm going to go draw something.

I'm optimistic about all of this. When they reject me next year, I think I'll try again the following year. I'm also happy that nobody reads this blog of knows that it exsists. So when I fail, nobody knows but me.

Well, future self, do me proud

-kyle

Mat + Proc Final

Here is Clayton and My final Materials and Processes presentation:
[click to enlarge images]

Öliblock

The company currently makes these

different amorphous blocks that are kinda cool that feature

magnets and friction fit

joints that kids can put together to build ambiguous structures.

The problem was to come up with a building block product tha

t the company could market that would use a similar language, but have more linear forms.

Having talked to a friend of mine (a mother with five kids) we came to the opinion that the blocks were boring, a little too ambiguous to hold the attention of

young kids. Though they had ample construction capabilities (the "logic") the lacked any other interesting or useful qualities. Also, the friction fit joints were difficult for small children to assemble and disassemble.

note: by "explotation" i definitely meant "exploration." I fixed it in the presentation, but I guess this is a slightly older vertion, lol

Here are some process shots and a concept map of our ideas

We decided to go with a customizable night light for a couple of reasons. First, it gave us the oppurtunity to work with lights and circuitry. We thought that the opportunity for a light to glow every time two things were connected would provide for a certain wonder in children, and an opportunity for them to experiment and learn.

We also liked how a night-light gives a child comfort in his darkest hour (hehe) and believe that a personal connection through a customizable light source may play upon these ideas.

Also, we think LEDs and circuits are cool.

The blocks themselves are three sided. There is a male end, a female end, and a magnet. In order for the piece to be injection molded, the actual interlocking pieces are made separately (investment molded steal) and put in the machine with the LEDs so that the EVA (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate) can be molded around them.

Also, the use of metal on the ends allows complete circuits to be made when pieces are connected together. The pieces can be joined (male-female) by putting together and twisting 90 degrees.

EVA is a recyclable, environmentally clean and safe material that can be molded like plastic. It is safe enough to be used around food products, making it preferable to the PVC (polyvinyl chloride) used to make öliblock toys now. It is also cheaper than PVC. In this case, it will be clouded translucent and colored.

The blocks get their power from a battery powered base structure that has three magnet connections (allowing it to connect to any of the three possible sides of the blocks). The low currency of the device means it is safe for kids, and emits a low glow, perfect for a night-light.

Pieces are stored on this base by placing the magnet end of the piece toward the center where it will attract to one of the two angled metal pieces. This arranges the pieces in a circular formation (we call it the shrimp

cocktail formation) for storage and shipping.

By storing them this way, we believe we can eliminate (or at least

drastically reduce) the amount of waste from packaging. Most toys, these days, come in cardboard or plastic packaging that lasts only as long as the car ride home. By incorporating the base, packaging, and container, we can eliminate the package waste that the current öliblock product line creates.

There are more slides that have material information as well as orthographic views, but Clayton has those. Maybe I'll upload them later, but probably not.

Just know that they are made of LEDs, injection molded EVA, and investment cast steal.

-kyle


PS:
Designed this toy and made this presentation start-to-finish in three days

Daft Punk Helmets (for sara)

For Sara:

First, I'd say that there are about 1,000 ways to do this and you could spend any amount of money (I think the real ones cost like $14,000 or something ridiculous).

This is how I would do it on a modest budget.  It will take a lot of time, but none of it should be terribly difficult.  I don't know how much experience you have making things, but if you go into the art and design common shop (nobody will ask, but if they do, just tell them you're a graphic designer or something) anyone working there cold help you and would probably get a kick out of it.

I made some quick sketches so it will be more understandable (hopefully).  Click on them to make them bigger.

1. I would carve the form out of foam.  My friend clayton says that there is some really cheap medium density modeling foam in the shop that would be big enough.  You 

can borrow some of halsey and my tools if you want.  The stuff should be really easy to carve down and sand.

2.  Once you get it to the right shape, you can use the plastic forming machine in the common shop.  I can help you with this it you want.  Basically, how the machine works it this: 

A large sheet of plastic is heated up and draped over your form.  Then suction from underneath provides a vacuum to pull all the plastic towards the form.  The reason we use foam is because it is porous, so the plastic should sit up quite nicely.  You'll want to make sure that you set the foam model on a podium of some sort so that the plastic sheet will be pulled up around the bottom.  After that, you'll simply cut the excess plastic of with a saw.

3.  From there, you'll need to carve out the foam.  It is important to get all of it out, otherwise the black visor wont look as nice (more on that later).  

3.5  I would make the little side deals separately though.  Use some 3/4 in MDF or plywood (there should be enough scrap either in the shop or my garage, you won't neet do buy it) to cut out the shapes.  Then glue them or screw them to the sides of the helmet.

4.  Painting would work two different ways.  

Black:  For the black part, you're going to want to shoot spray paint on the inside of the plastic. When you do this, it will give the illusion from the outside that it is tinted glass.  

Make sure you tape off the inside where you're eyes will see out of.  You can cover this with car tinting sheets.  I might have some around from the iSolate project that I did freshman year.  If not, they have it at walmart.  For the Silver helmet, you could do the entire piece like this, but the gold helmet has to complex of a curve, you'll need to use paint for it.

Gold:  There is an auto parts store on 6th street (and alabama? misissippi? Florida?  somewhere around there?  that sells spray cans of auto paint.  This is the best paint you can find, and it will look realistic if you use it.  Mask off the part that you want to stay black, and spray it on.  Make sure you rough sand it and prime it first (other wise it will look like crap).  

With painting, the more you sand it and coat it the better it will turn out.  

5.  From there, I would suggest getting some kind of bike helmet or something that conforms to your head and attaching it to the inside somehow.  This way, the helmet will sit on your head and not your shoulders and will turn when you turn your neck.

I hope this was helpful.  I usually use this blog to show people things, but Facebook wouldn't support images this large.  Let me know if you need help or have questions.  I don't really have much time for stuff this semester, but I do like projects, especially other people's

good luck,

-kyle