Exposure - Photo Journal'ing

I am beta testing a new photo journal website called Exposure.  I just created my first post from a hike to Weston Bend State park.  There are a few beta bugs but overall using the site was an enjoyable, intuitive, and fun experience. Check it out https://sketchy.exposure.so/

Thanks to Field Series for inviting me! http://fieldseries.com/

PS - I love my new 35mm 1.8f lens. 

New Gig: Insight 2 Design

I just finished the first two weeks at my new job at Insign 2 Design. According to the company website, "Insight 2 Design is a one-stop product development company, specializing in battery lighting and camping equipment". Controlling the design and manufacturing in a consultancy environment was very intriguing to me. I'm also exciting to be working on the ground floor of new energetic company and with it's clients. I also love camping and the outdoors which is the primary market segment for I2D. The company created a fun welcome press release and interview to introduce me to the rest of the company:   http://www.insight2design.com/#!new-employee--alex-marshall/c491

Edge 510 Team Edition

Screen capture of the Garmin home page - click the image to jump to the product page 

The Edge 510 team special edition launched a few weeks back.  The "team" referring to the cycling team Garmin sponsors every year, shown above. I worked on the design of the original Edge 510 so naturally I took over the design of this product. The challenge was translating the team graphics and colors onto the unit without it getting to garish.  Hopefully, I achieved the right balance of team flavor and refined design. 

Maker Bot and The Next Industrial Revolution Event

I had a great time at the latest IDSA KC event. Here's a full recap of the event:  www.idsa.org/makerbot-event-recap  I didn't have much to do with the planning of this event but I was able to help out a little bit. This event was part of the annual KC Design Week and bunch of people showed up to check out 3D printing, the hammerspace workshop and a special presentation from Rob Giseburt , a local tinkerer and writer for the Make Magazine blog.

About 60 people showed up, success! 

Loved the overhead projector background image.

Approach S2

Sometimes when a team is working really well it's hard to tell who "owns" the design.  The latest project I worked on it one such example.  I lead the project owning the CAD and overall design while the new members of our team came up with the lens artwork, bezel decoration and that snazzy "S2" on the front face.  I handed the project off after the design freeze as I transitioned to the fitness team but clearly I left the project in good hands.  Nice job guys!  Link

Empty Your Pockets

Edge 810 & 510 Lauches

Keyshot rendering of the Garmin Edge 810 and Edge 510 for the CES announcement. 

Well it's been a long year of development but the two big cycling products I worked on last year just launched at CES.  The Edge 510 and 810 are touch screen cycling computers with more features than you can imagine (I had a hard time trying to test them all during development). Their biggest new selling feature are the connected services which are described in the Garmin blog post, "The Edge 810 and 510 are Garmin’s first dedicated cycling devices with real-time connectivity and combine the most popular aspects of the industry-leading Edge 800/500 while adding advanced connected features through a smartphone. The new user-friendly interface, along with live tracking, social media sharing and real-time weather updates make them perfect for training, touring and riding on the trail."  For more info check out the announcement on the garmin blog.  

Since the Edge 810 uses the Edge 800 form factor not much changed from an ID perspective.   As lead designer of the 810 I basically worked a color study to differentiate the device from the Edge 800.  I tried out my hand in graphic design for the front case IMF and also the lens artwork of the 510.  The 510 required an all new form factor so I guided the project through the whole process from sketch, CAD, tooling, resin matching and final production.  The marketing team created a couple sweet videos to accompany the launch which features some team Garmin riders, check it out here and here.

Kickstart W/ KEM STUDIO

Over the past year my role as IDSA Kansas City Chapter Chair has been rewarding, fun and at times very stressful.  Our last big event with KEM STUDIO was something I am very proud of.  Above is a video of their presentation (video 3 and 4 will be uploaded soon).  

The venue was at the beautiful Amigoni event space in historic West Bottoms of Kansas City and conveniently located right below KEM STUDIO. The house was packed. Food was provided and the first drink was free.  (Look at all that professional networking going on!) 

The barrel room was the presentation stage, it was a perfect fit. 

Sometimes you get so wrapped up in planning something that you forget to enjoy it! But I thoroughly enjoyed learning about KEM STUDIO's process and their Kickstarter journey.  For more pictures check out my blog post on the IDSA KC blog: Here

Out front mount

I'm pretty proud of this little mount. It was a quick fun project that I really enjoying using.  Rendering is keyshot.  Product announcement here.

Modify sketch tool

If you do a lot of moving SW sketches around to ideate ideas (in this case the position of compliance markings) modify sketch is right for you. I learned about it awhile back and don't know what I did without it (Oh what, I remember, I used move sketch tool like idiot!).  The catch is that no entity of your sketch can be relationed or dimensioned to an entity outside of it, such as the origin.  This allows you to freely move, scale, and mirror your heart out in one simple command window (below). Creating blocks works in a similar way but the problem is you have to create them, save them and keep track of them... weak.  And they don't allow the freedom of modify sketch.

The glorious command window of infinite possibilities:

The trick is to use your mouse to make your adjustments, click and hold left click to move drawing.  Right click the origin to reflect.  To scale, just type in .9, .8, etc into the "factor" bar and click enter.  Hit is more than once to keep scaling... AMAZING. So go check it out and add it to your "S" pop-up toolbar.