Looking at the bigger picture has always been a tendency of mine. I’ve shaped who I am today, in part, because of my inclination to question.
Continue readingA Holistic Approach
Operation Birdhouse – Summer 2019
During the first few weeks of our internship, we heard talk of an intern project and a running joke about how the birdhouse is coming along.
Continue readingNot Your Average Graphic Design Internship
Before I had even heard of Tekna, the last month of my semester was spent researching and applying for internships at graphic design studios.
Continue readingSoda Stream
Soda Stream
Engineering
KitchenAid® Sparkling Beverage Maker Powered by SodaStream allows you to make refreshing, homemade carbonated drinks in eye-catching fashion.
Our engineers participated in benchmarking, concept development, refinement, a-surface modelling, analysis, pilot production run, mechanical development, CAD modelling, detailed drawings, and supplier interaction. Design credit: KitchenAid®
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Ranger & Scout Grills
Ranger & Scout Grills
Industrial Design / UX/UI
Traeger approached us for assistance in expanding and differentiating their Town and Country Series product line with a focus on enhancing features, technology, and aesthetics, as well as finding production efficiencies.
We began the collaborative process with 2D ideation sketches based on Century 2.0, Silverton, and Timberline’s visual brand language. Using production-quality parametric 3D CAD data, we identified ways to simplify assembly and reduce material waste, improving the customer experience straight out of the box.
Additionally, for the Ranger grill, we helped Traeger bring a new-to-the-industry feature (the WiFi ARC controller with a “keep warm” function) to market through rapid wireframe prototyping, tackling both workflow integration and GUI.
Timberline Mobile App
Traeger Grill App
Research / Branding / UX/UI
The Traeger Timberline grill has an accompanying mobile app that allows you to control your grill, monitor your meat, and set up recipes. We designed the workflow and initial interface design as well as usability studies to test our direction.
Using a mobile prototyping tool, we ran multiple user tests to determine initial use behaviors, icon recognition, and proper task completion. With each study, we were able to adjust the workflow until passing it off to a mobile app partner to do final design and development.
Automotive Center Stack
Auto UI
Center Stack
Center Stack
Industrial Design
Universal Mind approached us with the unique challenge to create an automotive center stack sales tool specifically designed to showcase a new user experience. The collaborative solution is a sophisticated and modular prototype that showcases the user experience in a portable package for the sales team.
Impact Athletic Branding
IA Branding
Research / Industrial Design / Branding / Production
Internally created for an opportunity in the athletic training market, the Impact Athletic product line showcases our ability to develop a branded family of products from inception to production. Impact Athletic successfully launched as a product line with a striking identity and became its own standalone company that was acquired by Rogers Athletic.
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Multi-Cooker
Multi-Cooker
Research / Engineering
The KitchenAid® Multi-Cooker is the ultimate all-in-one cooking system to simply create everyday dishes, one-pot wonders, or gourmet masterpieces.
Our engineering participated in market research, ideation of mechanical solutions, development of test models to measure performance, and creation of final working prototypes that were instrumental in the early development of new recipes. Design credit: The KitchenAid
Century Wood-Fire Grill
Century Wood
Fire Grill
Fire Grill
Industrial Design / Engineering
Traeger challenged us with finding ways to improve the overall product quality and, if possible, find ways to reduce the overall cost of the Century grill.
We began by conducting a basic component feature analysis to establish a metric for our design proposals. Through this activity, we identified ways to simplify assembly to improve the customer’s out-of-box experience while also creating a new to the industry feature– the warming drawer. In addition, paint failures were reduced by introducing additional shielding that was designed and optimized for cost using thermal analysis techniques.
The new Century was unanimously accepted by Traeger’s executives and sales team leading them to scale the Century design to a larger SKU and launched the products internationally as well as domestically.
