R Sloan Design Experiences » introduction

Work-style

R Sloan Design — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:57:07 +0000

So I am going on a year and a half at Informatica and I do have to say, I am pretty happy…and I wonder why. Looking at my track record I spend less than years in any position. Moreover, in the past, I would have start considering how to move on by now for one reason or another. But again, I am as pleased as punch with my current position and the work I have been doing for the last year.

With that said, I would like to call out reason for leaving and staying in a position or company.

LEAVING

Company – Reading the writing on the wall should be one of the tools any designer has in their ‘bag’. Having ridden the tsunami created by the dot com pop, I have left companies where the people where imploding. Having been part of more companies / business units that where is start up mode, I have seen these groups tear themselves apart via infighting.
Co-workers – Being in a teams has its advantages aand disadvantage

STAYING

Great location – currently, the location where I work is absolutely beautiful
Interesting work – being an industrial designer, my interest tend to wain as the time goes on if the work does not change.
No other job to be had – one of the best reasons to be in valley…options

IFA berlin 09 highlights – day 2

R Sloan Design — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:20:11 +0000

Comments
I am not claiming this is great design; however, I did have a thing for De Stijl when I was a product designer.

…my history with De Stijl
I created a concept for a De Stijl vacuum cleaner i when i was in DAAP. It was this concept that was of most interest when I was interviewing at Cranbrook. This idea resurfaced when I created a De Stijl Citibank user interface concept for Virtual Studio based on De Stijl.

FYI – Virtual Studio later became frog design Austin.

IFA berlin 09 highlights – day 2

from Designboom – Weblog

the IFA (internationale funkausstellung) show in berlin is the european equivalent of CES.
the trade show features consumer electronics, home appliances and almost everything in
between. it runs from september 4 to 9, 2009.

elac is the maker of the de stilj speaker system that is a direct homage to dutch artist piet mondrian. the system features two stereo speakers and a compact subwoofer.

elac de stilj speaker system subwoofer.

the hi-sleep by iceberg technology is a small pillow that has an embedded speaker that hooks up to any music player. this device allows you to fall asleep listening
to music without bothering any one else.

the dyson airblade is perhaps the fastest automatic hand dryer out there. using a thin ‘blade’ of air the device dries hands in a flash despite its odd appearance

love a frothy cappuccino in the morning but don’t have time to froth your own milk, try the gastroback automatic milk foamer. it produces 1 litre of tasty
foamed milk in only 3 minutes.

asuka is the making of this tiny tv and fm radio receiver that can hook right up to a larger tv display. the device is perfect for never missing your favourite program
and comes in a wide range of colours.

gastroback colour vision kettle features an optical color temperature indicator. the appliance illuminates depending on the temperature of the water in different
colors from blue to red.

Not the smartest kid in the room – an iPhone story

R Sloan Design — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 03:42:34 +0000

When I was growing up, i always worked harder than most of the kids I knew on their school work. I did not make A’s nor was I a book worm. Most things I was being taught at the time just held no interest for me…science captured my attention but more from a practical application rather than therorical or historcal scene. Sure, like all kids I liked dinosaurs and atoms but what was more interesting was invention– the creation of something from nothing.

I always relished the thought of some-THING that could make me more than I am. Not as much mech, like Ripley in Aliens (see alien breeder scene), or clever on the spot life saving inventions like McGever, but more like the know it alls alla James Bond and associated Q organization. Bond on most occations knew almost everthing there was to know about the topic at hand. Moreover the Q organization where always off inventing new and glorious ways of protecting their agents. Absolutly wonderful stuff…

So wonderful, when asked my junior year about my future vocation, my response was ‘inventor.’. This quickly became industrial designer…a jack of all trades and…well, we will leave the rest of that phrase for later…

Toddling into the industrial design field imparted ne with
So when I think of bond and Q, I think of me and my iPhone