Portfolio Micah Simon Industrial Designer 2017
About Me My name is Micah Simon. I’m a recent graduate of the University of Houston. I have a passion for design and research and am out to make an impact on the world, subtly or boldly. The two major influences in my life are my love for design and my studies in Chinese. Both have presented challenges and delight; both have made me proud and have humbled me. Both shaped me into the person that I am today. Take a look at some of the work I’ve done and I hope I can make a great addition to your team.
m_j_simon@outlook.com (1)281-725-3381
Micah Simon Industrial Designer Education - University of Houston Bachelor’s of Science in Industrial Design Bachelor’s of Liberal Arts in Chinese Studies
Skills Rendering:
photoshop, illustrator, indesign, premeire, after effects, muse, solidworks, keyshot, sketching (quick-vis & detail rendering)
Prototyping:
3D printing, spray painting, metal-working, woodworking, ceramics, casting, microcontroller programming, sewing, laser-cutting, CNC machining, vacuum-forming, fiberglass, rapid foam modeling
Languages:
English (native), Mandarin Chinese (conversationally fluent), Korean (beginner)
Other:
statistics knowledge, product photography, Solidworks FEA, Office suite, friendly, able to work with engineers, design for plastic injection molding, design for sonic welding.
Experience Internship:
Neutral Posture
August 2016 - December 2016
- Redesigned a single product. - Gained valuable ergonomics, engineering, and marketing - experience. Industrial Designer:
Imaginationeering
March 2017 - Present
- Responsible for managing and completing multiple projects by myself or in collaboration with engineering team. - Interviewed and corresponded with clients throughout projects - Made promotional materials for the company as well as graphic design jobs for clients
Contents
1 Pylon
21st century street light
4 Sidekick
Your laptop’s best friend
2 Emblem
3 JuiceBox
5 DongXi
6 NeXtep
Ergonomic tattoo machine
East-West fusion bench
Battery vending machine
Ergonomic footstool
Pylon
The Future of Street Lighting An updatable and replaceable approach to street lighting that will reduce the number of lightpoles a city requires as well as providing feedback and additional functionality. Junior - Fall 2015 - 8 week project
Problems in Lightpole Design Our lighting systems are a haphazard mess of add-ons, expansions, and repairs.
1950’s
1970’s
2010’s
2020’s?
Poor integraton Lights cannot respond or provide any feedback about their surroundings
Undue complexity through crude modularity New functions are bolted on in an unseamly fashion
Obsolete technology inefďŹ cient an ununiform lighting of roadways
47, 500
miles of roads
1,000,000
2,500,000
miiles of water lines
miles of gas lines
Additional Issue: Utilities in the United States Public utilities are in need of a serious overhaul. The three main causes for concerns are: - Use of obsolete sodium bulbs and the lighting of unused roadways - maintainance from broken mains costs $50.7 billion dollars a year - old, broken gas pipes are dangerous and wasteful All of it will need to be replaced eventually. The cost is essentailly already spent. But how can we make this easier on us in the future?
Ideation
Pylon Lightpole System The pylon lightpole system is designed around being endlessly modular and expandable. The main selling point is that the top and bottom geometries are the same so that any component on the system can ďŹ t onto other parts. The easily accessible additional space inside of the body of the tube allows for additional functions. Anything from as advanced as wiďŹ or city backup batteries to a simple bench or trash can can be easily integrated into existing system.
Features Better Lighting with Fewer Poles Control the size and direction of lighting footprint to cover a larger area in more even light
Upgradable & Replaceable Sections can be swapped out in minutes if they become damaged or obsolete
Control Sensor bar allows for integration into smart systems that make sure lights are on only when they are being used.
Integration direct feedback and control of linked utilities using a nework of light poles outďŹ tted with communication antennas
Data Analysis Data from utilites can be analyzed to detect failures as well as improve efďŹ ciency
Intuitive System by using a simple geometries, making new additions to lighting systems standard and good looking for many years to come
Pylon
Emblem
Ergonomic Tattoo Machine Emblem is a modern redesign of the tattoo machine which has existed, largely unchanged, for more than 100 years. It is designed to be more ergonomic, comfortable and easy to use. Junior - Fall 2014 - 4 week project
2 1
Tattoo Machines The original tattoo machine design has remained unchanged for the past century. While practical, there have been several areas that can use some improvement.
3
Areas for Improvement 1
center of mass is above and off-center from grip 2 3
vibrating components rest on top of the hand
tight pen grip fatigues ďŹ ngers during long sessions
Ideation
Final Concept
1 2
1
contact pin
2
35 mm connector
3
rubber vibration dampener
4
single coil
5
needle
6
resistor
7
tip release
3
4
6
5
7
Emblem Tattoo Machine Emblem aims to provide a comfortable, compact, and easy to use platform for the novice and expert alike. It’s monocoil design and reďŹ ned handgrip places the weight in a less fatiguing position and a rubber buffer placed between the magnet bar and coil reduces vibration.
Emblem
JuiceBox Battery Vending Machine Juicebox is your one-stop-shop for mobile device charging in the form of a battery dispensing vending machine that’s been designed for convience and ease of use.
Junior - Summer 2015 - 4 week project
Design Prompt : How can we make life in a city easier? The Taipei city government issued the following challenge to designers:
“improve the lives of people in the city.� But the perfect tool for life in the city already exists...
“A city is a place where there is no need to wait for next week to get the answer to a question, to taste the food of any country, to find new voices to listen to and familiar ones to listen to again.” -Margaret Mead
Cell Phones : The Almost Perfect Tool Most of us would ďŹ nd it pretty challenging to get by without our cell phones nowadays. Whether in a new environment, in need of a friend, or just bored, the cell phone is now an indespensible tool for living in a modern city... as long as it’s charged. We all forget to charge our phones sometimes and in that case, what can you do? stick to a wall and wait for your phone to charge? carry around an extra battery that also has to be charged? be disconnected from your work and social life?
What if you could simply rent a juiced up battery only when you need it?
totally mobile
can’t forget it
cheap cost
Ideation
What is Juicebox? Juicebox is an innovative network of mobile device external battery rental machines. It allows individuals the freedom of knowing they will never need to remain tethered to a wall socket when their device inevitably loses power. Whether you are running to a meeting, going out to lunch, or out late, there will be a Juicbox to provide a portable charge for a small fee. Customers can walk up to a Juicebox and quickly receive an external bettery capable of recharging their mobile device to a full charge while on the go. Once charging is complete, customers can return the battery to any Juicebox location. This saves both the hassle of needing to carry a phone charger and the time wasted from being forced to wait in one place for your device to charge.
The business plan Juicebox machines will be strategically placed in high trafďŹ c areas such as subways, shopping centers, and airports. Like any other rental system, renters will be charged for a new battery if theirs is not returned in the alloted time.
The Juicebox The design of the shell of the machine is inspired by cell phone design. Mimicking the antenna bands on on the chassis of modern smartphones, the lines on the juicebox are skewed to reference the folded shape of a cardboard juice container as well. The machine itself is simple to use and build. Each battery goes into it’s own receptical that locks and charges the battery at the same time. After payment with credit card or mobile payment, selecting a battery is extremely simple. The user only needs to push on the one they want and it will be unlocked and partially ejected. Deposit is returned after the battery has been locked back inside of a Juicebox machine again.
Internals 1
2
3 5
4 1 5
3
step-down transformers VESA wall mounts credit card reader steel frame 240V plug
1
4
Charging Module 5
3 4
1
1
2
2
3
4
5
mini solenoid lock charge indicator lights USB-C charge port push detection switch pullout charge cables
JuiceBox
Sidekick
Your laptop’s best friend Sidekick can contain, organize, and protect your laptop connections and accessories in an intuitive way for the on-the-go person. Junior - Spring 2015 - 6 week project
Adapters New laptops and tablets have been on a trend of decreasing ports and increasing standardization. While this will eventually lead to an cohesive ecosystem of products using a single connection for all perepherals, in the meantime we have to use adapters to access older devices.
Power Bricks: The Overlooked Adapter Most of us don’t think of the power brick as an adapter. It is so ubiquitous that we hardly ever question if they need to be the shape that they are. They were an acceptable size when laptops were as thick as they were, but is time for an update.
Shape of The Pouch Flat, thin, rectanglar cavity is designed to hold flat, thin and rectagular objects such as books, tablets, and laptops.
Shape of The Object flat & thin rectanglar cavity is not designed to hold a fat box with two strings, and thus ďŹ ts awkwardly into the space.
Ideation
Sidekick Sidekick is the all-in-one device that interfaces with everything your laptop needs in a slim and convenient package. Simply pull out and use and put away just as fast. It keeps your laptop cables organized as well as safe while providing an excellect platform to store smaller everyday laptop accessories such as thumb drives, usb cables, and headphones. USB-C thunderbolt capability means you can run power plus every port on the sidekick through one connection for supported laptops.
Left Side 3x USB-type C HDMI USB 3.0 35mm jack SD card reader
Middle Variable output dial for different laptops
Right Side 35mm jack passthrough USB type-C (power in) LAN HDMI passthrough VGA DVI
Sidekick
DongXi
East-West Fusion Bench A functional artpiece meant to symbolize the exoticness and familiarity between East and West. It’s name comes from the Chinese word “ 東西”. meaning “a thing” but literally translates to “east and west” Study Abroad- Summer 2015 - 4 month project
Taipei Jiufen Yingge Kaohsiung Taichung Seoul Beijing Cizhou Datong Yungang Suzhou Shanghai
臺北 九份 鶯歌 高雄 臺中 서울 北京 磁州 大同 雲岡 苏州 上海
May 2015
June
July
Cultural Research As part of the Northeast Asia study abroad program, some of our studio went to Korea and China to gain inspiration from local crafts and traditions as well as learn about design in Asia. From making our own ceramics, to watching local craftsmen carve sculptures, to touring design agencies, we got a unique glimpse into Chinese and Korean design culture; both ancient and contemporary.
Philosophy Abstracted into Furniture Design While the main difference between eastern and western philosopgy is that eastern philosophy developed in the East and western philosophy developed in the West, there are trends which have impacts on the thinking of the peoples in those cultures. This thinking then gets distilled into everything within that culture to some degree, but is most evident in artisan crafts.
Ontological East Emphasizes general knowledge/wisdom
“Understanding the whole is more important than understanding each part” interlocking peices
orthagonal construction
hidden jointery
Eastern traditional furniture often focuses more on the whole of a design. Jointery is hidden and interlocking. It’s humble shape is often offset by ornate designs and plays with the negative space of the object as well. Use of secondary materials is mainly limited to decorative use.
Empirical West Emphasizes the specificity of knowlege
“Understanding each part is how to understand the whole” metal fasteners
curved design
exposed jointery
mixed materials
Western traditional furniture is about a demostration of skill, often displaying very curved forms and a decoratice shape to the form overall. Jointery is out in the open and it is apparent how a peice is put together. Secondary materials can be used anywhere on the design, including structural members.
What is DongXi?
Western Furniture
Western Philosophy
Dichotomy
Eastern Philosophy
Eastern Furniture
Design Elements
Maple Wood Common in East Asia and throughout Europe.
Metal Fasteners Western practice of mixing materials and focusing on individual elements
Tete-a-Tete constrast & sameness of two sides
Hidden Wood Joints Symbolize the Eastern philosophy of focusing on the whole of an object instead of its parts.
Ideation
Final Product
The DongXi Bench DongXi is a pastice of traditional Eastern and Western funiure design elements. All in a modern style. This along with the tete-a-tete form of the design, is meant to juxtapose the supposed exoticness of each culture to each other is a way that is somehow familiar to both.
DongXi
NeXtep
Ergonomic Footstool A more ergonomic alternative to the traditional foot ring on stool height chairs. Internship - Summer 2016 - 2 month project
Neutral Posture Inc.
6
Body-centered Vertical reference
24º (± 5º)
49º (± 20º) 90º
Body-centered Horizontal reference Mic One-G line of sight rog rav ity line of s igh t 122º (± 24º)
39º (± 11º) 12º (± 6º)
36º (± 19º) 128º (± 7º)
200º (± 10º) 133º (± 8º)
111º (± 6º)
10º 15º (± 2º)
The Neutral Body Posture Position that astronauts sleep in space and babies rest in the womb. Shown to be the least stressful and ergonomic position for the body to stay in.
NTune Furniture System Neutral Posture Inc. incorporates these principals into a standing desk system meant to improve the health of employees.
Current Product: the NeXtep The current solution for how to maintain the health and correct posture of ofďŹ ce and factory workers is the NeXtep. It is essentially a footrest attached to the chair and serves the function of raising the ground up to a comfortable height when sitting at a standing desk.
Why use a NeXtep over a footring? Provides a footrest to be used when standing next to the chair. Extends the angle that the knees are bent to be more ergonomic than a footring setup
Problems with current Design 1
foot rest doesn’t extend far enough for most users
2
original design is bulky and visually heavy
3
platform is in the way when entering and exiting the chair 1
2
3
Ideation
Final Concept The Cantilevered base peice holds the footrest legs just above the ground; allowing it to easily swivel when under little to no weight but contact the floor when stood on as well as allowing the entire footrest to retract into the base.
The Redesigned NeXtep The new design more closely follows the ergonomic principals of the neutral body posture. It is less obtrusive, easier to operate, and has a more elegant design without an increase in price. The Nextep is easy to extend or retract from a seated or standing position. Allowing the user to have the convienence of a footring with the beniďŹ ts of a footrest. The Nextep is also unobtrusive in its retracted state. Allowing others to pass very close to or manuever the chair with ease in the crowded conditions of an ofďŹ ce or factory.
125ยบ
freely swivels feet make contact with the ground under weight
60ยบ
5th percentile female
95th percentile male
does not exceed the diameter of the legs when retracted.
NeXtep