Cooking for Geeks.

One of the joys of being an industrial design consultancy is sometimes you have no idea what you are going to be working on. Sometimes it's a straightforward project like the mechanical engineering of a headset, other times it's a blue sky project about something that might come out in 5 to 10 years. Other times it's a project in a closely related field that isn't strictly yours. This time it was graphic design. We all use the same basic programs, we just usually use them differently.

Jeff Potter (I've known him for 9 years) came up to me last year asking for help making some charts for a project he was working on. 60 charts and multiple variations later (and one whole year of Jeff's time at 70-80 hours a week) Jeff's book Cooking for Geeks was released by O'Reilly. It is currently holding at around #350 on Amazon's sales rank of all books sold and Jeff has been interviewed in print/web, audio, and video by everyone between the BBC World News to the Today show.

It was fun to help Jeff out on his project working on everything from charts and graphs to building a lego ice cream maker. I enjoyed being a guinea pig on the recipes as well.

Go check out his website for the book: http://www.cookingforgeeks.com

Here are some examples of the charts:

Scary Warning Graphics

Despite my fear of the man on the back of the package, I purchased these scissors yesterday. I don't know if they had the intern do this or if they were shooting for a "This could happen to you" theme, but I fear the begoggled man.

As shown above, the find edges and live trace tools in Adobe Creative Suite should be wielded with caution kids.

-Clint

Maker Faire 5/23/10 Report

(Finally . . . DO/CO's Maker Faire 2010 update! )

My wife, some friends, and myself attended Maker Faire 2010 and had a really great time. We checked out a fun and literally electrifying musical Tesla coil performance by ArcAttack of Austin, TX.



I purchased a really cool belt and U-Lock holder from Fabric Horse that will allow me to carry my Kryptonite lock sans-backpack. Carrie, owner of Fabric Horse, was super-cool and showed-off all the wares that she brought out to Maker Faire all the way from my old stomping grounds of Philadelphia, PA.

Out in the open spaces of the San Mateo County Event Center, we found some completely sweet human-powered and alt-power vehicles created by Fun Bicycle Unicorn Club, a hot rod Little Flyer Wagon, and Giant Cardboard Robots. There was something to simultaneously stimulate everyone's imaginations and/or inner nerd. We'll definitely be back next year!

-Clint

Seward St. Slides, San Francisco

Two weeks ago, my wife and I moved to a new apartment over in the Castro. It was an incredible sunny and warm day to explore San Francisco, so we decided to go for a walk in our new neighborhood and trekked on up to Kite Hill. While there, we had a magnificent view of the city and a delicious picnic lunch. I thought that fine meal on the hill would be the coolest part of our meandering journey that day, but we discovered something on the way home that surpassed the beauty we'd just experienced.

While walking home, we came across a park on Seward St. with some truly fun concrete slides that the locals (logically and) affectionately call the "Seward St. Slides." We originally heard about the slides while reading Broke-Ass Stuart's Guide to Living Cheaply in San Francisco. As it turns out, this mini-park in Eureka Valley has quite a history. After doing a little research via iPhone, we found some interesting details: A) It was designed by a 14 year old girl named Kim Clark in 1973 during a "Design the Park" competition. B) Locals enjoyed this space so much that they fought for almost 7 years to keep the park and community garden from being developed into a 104 unit apartment building. C) The park celebrated it's 30th birthday in 2003, cementing its status as a community staple with a big celebration. You can find out more information on the slides' fascinating history by clicking here.

As I mentioned above, the slides are constructed of concrete, so they're not too kind to trousers. Many have realized this, so you'll find sheets of corrugated cardboard strewn about the top and bottom of the slides as pants protection. This cardboard also serves the dual purpose of allowing you to go faster on the slides due to its smooth surface.

Last weekend, we invited our friends Dave and Jen to check out Kite Hill and the slides with us. We took some video and pics to capture our time on the slides (see below). As you'll see in the video below, they definitely dig it too!





As most of my friends know, I like to go fast. Though the cardboard definitely helps in the speed department, we think that we can make things speedier. Dave and I are working on some ideas on how to mix cardboard and local materials to create an amplified affordable adrenaline rush at Seward St. -- Stay tuned!

-Clint

DO/CO Portfolio Updates

Some clients just made their projects public and we just completed the design of some internal projects. Thanks to those happy events, we made some nice additions to our internal portfolio.

You can check out the work that we did for Clean Bottle and Nearlife via the links below.

http://bit.ly/auDipm

http://bit.ly/bZGxE2

Also, our latest addition to our Mechanique lighting line is up. You can view it here: http://bit.ly/ctpj18

Thanks to these and other projects, things are getting exciting around the office. It looks like coffee will be our fuel for the next few months. :)

-Clint

First Big DO/CO Press Release of 2010.

We are working on a really fun project with a client that we really like. It just so happens that AT&T likes what we're working on too! A press release with all we're allowed to talk about is below.

http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=30662&mapcode=

We'll put-up some pics of this very cool device and tell you a bit more about it in the very near future.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned!

-Clint

And now for something completely different...

Hello there, it's Aaron from DO/CO,

I enjoy when something comes our way and throws our brains in a twist. A project that's fun, quick and a complete departure from the everyday. We recently were

contacted by a company called Nearlife. (For the Boston folks, they are the people behind the Virtual Fish Tank at the Museum of Science) Nearlife is in the process of taking their fish kung fu and turning it into a toy, game, internet experience and television show. They asked us if there was any way we could take their fish side views and develop CAD files and prototypes. We of course said YES! (I have a weakness for things that sound fun.) After some crazy CAD sessions, we got in contact with www.stereolithography.com and Nick helped us out with our 68 part prototype. (I know, thats a lot of parts, they were really small and annoying also.) We received parts about 3 days later on a Friday and after a frantic weekend filling, sanding, priming and painting, we dropped off parts to Nearlife on Monday for electronic build out. Nearlife is still developing the software side of this concept, when it's ready to go, we'll post more details.

Tulip Architect Lamp -- Prototype Accomplished!!

Hi, it's Clint from DO/CO,

Aaron and I have spent a significant amount of our time talking about our Tulip lamps since our last blog post. We found that we needed materials that were more significant than plastic. SO, we've moved from our original plan to use acrylic and polycarbonate to using a more robust combination of stainless steel for structure and frosted acrylic for our shade material. The look is a cross of Industrial Revolution, Arts & Crafts, Art Deco, & Art Nouveau. It's a bit Steampunk, but we're liking what the renderings and prototypes are looking like.

We also have come-up with the comprehensive list of lamps that will be in the Tulip line. We'll be having a launch party this Spring to celebrate the lamps manifested in 3D & ready for sale.

Together, we've talked about the basic aesthetics of the Tulip line, and our goals concerning these lamps for "makers" and "creative DIY types". However, Aaron himself has been spending most of his free waking moments actually doing instead of just talking. He is majorly streamlining & refining how DO/CO designs parts 'a la laser cutter' using flat stock to generate 3D form. He's found the intricasies of tolerancing parts and the limitations of the laser cutter. He's also sweated through ways to make unique and effective latching details that still keep our unique aesthetics intact. Finally, he's coordinated a great relationship with a local laser cutting shop near Boston that's very excited to cut our parts.

We're extremely pumped to see everything coming together. I (Clint) could not be more appreciative of Aaron right now. He's pushing our dream of selling products that we design into reality.

DO/CO's Tulip Architect Lamp prototype is pictured in this post. It's constructed from masonite and acrylic. Some details will be changing to improve structure and cord management, so keep a look-out. Wish us luck as we push forward into our first run of lamps in our final material -- STAINLESS STEEL!!

-Clint