Round Out Your Portfolio - Build Your Tool Box

As a designer, we are inherently interested in venturing into new arenas of product development/design for any number of reasons. David Whetstone is doing his part to develop his portfolio by doing independent research and development for Taylor Made golf bags. His sketches are fun and playful while being informative. This kind of initiative is what employers look for in employees. If you are interested in entering an area of design in which you are not familiar with, I suggest you do what David has done. Don't let others dictate your future to you, build your portfolio around your talents/skills/interests and send it off to those who can give you feedback so that you may achieve your dreams of being a transportation designer/soft goods designer/or whatever. All you have to fear is failure, a trait product development professional are all to familiar with. Who knows, you may be able to bring a new perspective to an industry that is yearning for change.

Concept Exploration Using an Underlay - Gatorade Packaging

What is an underlay? Why do designers use them? How can I use an underlay to develop solid solutions for my client? Christopher Lavelanet, an independent contract designer who travels between the US and the EU, has utilized underlays to easy overcome the spacial and volumetric hurdles designers sometimes face when developing design solutions. An underlay is a reference image used by designers to eliminate the need to redefine overall proportion each time they begin to develop a new concept. In the example shown above, the underlay is a simple line drawing, probably taken from a 3D cad drawing, the defines the volumetric considerations the designer needs to stay within as he develops his solutions. He then places another piece of paper, perhaps vellum, tracing paper, graphics 360, etc. on top of the line drawing and uses it as a reference for his design explorations. Underlays also serve to eliminate the need for the designer to redefine the perspective, scale, and proportions that are more easily tackled by using an underlay. This is only a tool used by designers to speed up their process.Once the sketches and simple shading are completed the designer can then take the newly defined concept and add some color so that they are more easily read by those that aren't as visually enabled as the designer.