My wife and I just returned from a two-day jaunt around CES, which is an enormous show. The acronym stands for " Consumer Electronics Showcase." Since I've been designing iPod accessories, laptop cases, media storage, automotive media storage, etc. for the last couple of years, I find it helpful to go to the show and see what the new bells and whistles are. It lets me get an industry pulse, so to speak, and gives me a chance to see what cool gizmos and upgrades are coming onto the market.
I enjoy product design. It's fun. It taxes a different skillset than drawing or painting does, and therefore, does not satisfy in the same manner, yet it is satisfying in its own right and puts bread on my table. I can't complain about that aspect of it. There came a point in my life when I decided that I really didn't give a rat's rump about what it was I was being asked to design, as long as I was getting paid. Of course, there are some things, categorically, that I won't do. Porn websites fall into the realm of "never", for example, but that opened some unexpected doors.
Bob Gurr, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Gurr - google the guy, he's amazing - spoke at the toy company I was working for in 1998 or 1999. He mentioned that he attended and graduated from Art Center with a degree in Automotive Design and basically got into some shop in Detroit for one of the "Big Three" automakers. Within a week, he realized he'd go absolutely nuts if he had to sit there and design dashboards all day for the rest of his career (I'm paraphrasing, but that's the general idea). A buddy invited him to try on Disney Imagineering for size, and the rest is history. Trial and error, along with a good reference manual and a lot of desire, continued to provide the education that has served him well for some 50 years. The man has a vast and varied project and client history and was responsible for much of the groundbreaking design seen at Disneyland. He went on to say that, if he had been glued to that original goal of automotive design and stuck it out, he would have lost out on a host of creative opportunities.
I'm sure the man doesn't remember me from Adam, but I internalized what he was saying. I had really wanted to get into animation, and had just picked up my first rejection - from Disney Feature (I figured I'd go for the big one first) - when an opportunity to get into the toy industry came up. I was young (still am), hungry in more than one sense, and had a wife and newborn to care for. I took the toy job and learned as much as I could. I figured I'd get into an animation studio within six months or so. When Bob Gurr showed up with a nice slideshow and a bunch of cool design stories, I paid attention. Six months had gone by and many of my friends and school acquaintances were getting canned and not re-hired. The face of the industry was changing rapidly. I found myself in a decent spot, being paid to do character design, product brainstorms, and illustrate all day long. It wasn't my original intention, but there I was, getting a paycheck and benefits while many skilled artists were looking for work. Since then, I've been involved with video game development, advertising, copywriting, branding, packaging, book illustration, and restaurant design. I even went down to see Bob's handywork in Vegas at Treasure Island for reference to help out with the restaurant.
I found that living in the small market of Southern Utah has given me the opportunity to stretch professionally and get into a variety of creative opportunities that I would have ignored in L.A.
I might get into furniture next, or maybe I'll finally get into fine art this year on a regular basis.
Whatever path I take at this point, I'm grateful that I'm able to walk the professional creative path at all.
The image I posted with this entry is of a carabiner-type clip LED flashlight. I created the final vector art in Illustrator, after a few marker sketches, and was thinking of the robot design in the feature film, Lost in Space (1998). It was designed for Plasticolor Molded Products of Fullerton, CA.
Happy New Year, and God bless.
p.s. go to www. laughingplace.com and search for "Bob Gurr". Some great articles that he wrote are on the site.
I enjoy product design. It's fun. It taxes a different skillset than drawing or painting does, and therefore, does not satisfy in the same manner, yet it is satisfying in its own right and puts bread on my table. I can't complain about that aspect of it. There came a point in my life when I decided that I really didn't give a rat's rump about what it was I was being asked to design, as long as I was getting paid. Of course, there are some things, categorically, that I won't do. Porn websites fall into the realm of "never", for example, but that opened some unexpected doors.
Bob Gurr, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Gurr - google the guy, he's amazing - spoke at the toy company I was working for in 1998 or 1999. He mentioned that he attended and graduated from Art Center with a degree in Automotive Design and basically got into some shop in Detroit for one of the "Big Three" automakers. Within a week, he realized he'd go absolutely nuts if he had to sit there and design dashboards all day for the rest of his career (I'm paraphrasing, but that's the general idea). A buddy invited him to try on Disney Imagineering for size, and the rest is history. Trial and error, along with a good reference manual and a lot of desire, continued to provide the education that has served him well for some 50 years. The man has a vast and varied project and client history and was responsible for much of the groundbreaking design seen at Disneyland. He went on to say that, if he had been glued to that original goal of automotive design and stuck it out, he would have lost out on a host of creative opportunities.
I'm sure the man doesn't remember me from Adam, but I internalized what he was saying. I had really wanted to get into animation, and had just picked up my first rejection - from Disney Feature (I figured I'd go for the big one first) - when an opportunity to get into the toy industry came up. I was young (still am), hungry in more than one sense, and had a wife and newborn to care for. I took the toy job and learned as much as I could. I figured I'd get into an animation studio within six months or so. When Bob Gurr showed up with a nice slideshow and a bunch of cool design stories, I paid attention. Six months had gone by and many of my friends and school acquaintances were getting canned and not re-hired. The face of the industry was changing rapidly. I found myself in a decent spot, being paid to do character design, product brainstorms, and illustrate all day long. It wasn't my original intention, but there I was, getting a paycheck and benefits while many skilled artists were looking for work. Since then, I've been involved with video game development, advertising, copywriting, branding, packaging, book illustration, and restaurant design. I even went down to see Bob's handywork in Vegas at Treasure Island for reference to help out with the restaurant.
I found that living in the small market of Southern Utah has given me the opportunity to stretch professionally and get into a variety of creative opportunities that I would have ignored in L.A.
I might get into furniture next, or maybe I'll finally get into fine art this year on a regular basis.
Whatever path I take at this point, I'm grateful that I'm able to walk the professional creative path at all.
The image I posted with this entry is of a carabiner-type clip LED flashlight. I created the final vector art in Illustrator, after a few marker sketches, and was thinking of the robot design in the feature film, Lost in Space (1998). It was designed for Plasticolor Molded Products of Fullerton, CA.
Happy New Year, and God bless.
p.s. go to www. laughingplace.com and search for "Bob Gurr". Some great articles that he wrote are on the site.
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