Design Portfolio

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Sebastian Howard

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F DE S I G N

LOUGHBOROUGH DESIGN SCHOOL

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a collection of ideas and work from the last 3 years of my design career.

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Hi, I’m Sebastian Howard BSc Product Design and Technology Loughborough Design School

An organised and highly creative individual who strives to design innovative and beautiful products that have a positive impact on peoples lives.

Comfortable working within a team or as an individual to deliver a first-class solution within a fast paced and professional work environment.

When not designing, my main passions include sailing, cooking and travel.

After my A-levels I took a year to work and travel the world providing me with a greater perspective of world issues and the ways people live. In previous years, I have sailed in the national circuit for the Laser class progressing to the selection stages for GB squads. Cooking is a passion that has provided me with great inspiration in the past within my design career.

I consider myself a well-rounded designer, with strengths throughout the design process from ideation to final design. I am a practical and logical person with an ability to design around the constraints that come with complex briefs, however, I enjoy to push the boundaries.

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experience Airbus - Work Experience One week work experience; undertaking challenges and projects in 5 different departments.

Rotork - Design Commission Commissioned to design a hot drinks carrier for the office environment.

Observation, design, production.

International Expociencias A 3 month project, designing a new product and producing a high-fidelity prototype to present to an audience at an exposition in Tampico, Mexico.

Network Commercial Systems Summer internship at a commercial furniture manufacturer. Working as a machine operator; working closely with the CAD team to deliver the commissioned products.

Waitrose A returning employee at the Keynsham branch - working as a branch chef in the cafe. Invited to return to work on every academic holiday. Teamwork, task prioritisation and time management are essential attributes demonstrated.

skills

Adobe Creative Cloud Solidworks Sketchbook for Enterprise Website Design MPLAB Proficient in OS and Windows

awards & achievements

Arkwright Scholarship Awarded the prestigious engineering scholarship in 2014. Numerous selection levels were passed to receive this award.

Design Exposition Selected to represent the Arkwright foundation and the United Kingdom at the international exposition in Tampico. Included a 3 month design and manufacture project, culminating in the team of 3 students travelling to Mexico to present the project at the annual exhibition. Awarded with a “special commendation” for the project we presented - an autonomous litter collection robot.

education Loughborough University Product Design & Technology 2017-2021 Year One - 2:1 Wellsway Sixth-Form 2014-2016 4 A-Levels A*ABC Wellsway School 2009-2014 11 GCSE’s A* - C

00_what’s inside? p003_design week

an intensive seven day project, to design a product for the student household, incorporating live hinges.

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p003

p007

p013

p017

p027

p007_redesigned toaster

a new approach to the household toaster; designed for the busy young professional.

p013_sustainable water purification a water purification system for sub-Saharan Africa, powered by renewable energy.

p017_injection moulding tool

a 5 week project, looking at the design and manufacture of a promotional widget for Oral-B.

p021_internet of things (work in progress)

p022_app development

a 1 week personal project, aiming to develop my UI skills and tackle an issue close to me.

p027_photography a selection of my photographs.

p030_about me my contact information.

p022

01_balneo: design week

balneo_January2019_Individual_1week

a bathroom organiser for the student home

A project as part of the Loughborough Design School year two syllabus, with a short delivery period. The project lasted one week, receiving the brief on the Friday and delivering it on the following Friday. The brief was to “design a product for the student household that incorporates live hinges�

The Focus With students living by themselves at university, often for the first time in their lives, there is often a tendency for them to be messy in the period of time getting used to the independence. Through initial research, it was discovered that shared bathrooms are one of the most common problem areas - with tenants leaving their bathroom products and toiletries in disarray on the side; resulting in liquids leaking onto the surface.

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balneo_January2019_Individual_1week

-brainstorming

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-initial concept development

balneo_January2019_Individual_1week

The sketches shown to the right have been taken from the initial from ideation for the product.

Inspiration has been taken from existing bathroom products and products including live hinges by Joseph Joseph. The overall colour scheme would be subtle with a feature colour such as the peach colour used within this project page.

“our bathroom shelf is always cluttered� situation: Emma is currently in the second year of her degree, and is sharing a bathroom for the first time.

She is sharing the bathroom with three other boys and they are all untidy: leaving their toothbrushes on the side once used.

persona: Emma Hayward age: 20 textiles student location: Loughborough

goals: Emma wants an affordable and aesthetic solution to the issue of containing bathroom products for at least the four people she shares with.

The product should be compact and easily stored in a bathroom cupboard or a car when being transported from home to university and vice versa.

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balneo_January2019_Individual_1week

-modelling and visualisation

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02_ulana

ulana_June2018_Individual_8week

redesigned household toaster

A project as part of the Loughborough Design school year one syllabus, with a strong focus on the manufacturability of the design. The brief was “re-design the toaster. Take the toaster as a way of ‘crisping bread products’, rather than the existing household product“.

The Focus With young professionals living in cities having less and less time in the morning, resulting in over 25% of people skipping breakfast. Furthermore, with space being at a premium, it is desirable to have a toaster that is efficient as well as compact and stylish. As a result, Ulana has been designed: a one/two person, space saving product which aims to provide an efficient and user friendly experience, whilst looking modern and stylish within the average professional home.

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ulana_June2018_Individual_8week

-design references

functionalism, minimalist, tactile.

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ulana_June2018_Individual_8week

-initial concept development

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-scenario of use 1

VENTILATION GRILL

2 - Alter the settings to the desired

CONTROL DIAL

VENTILATION CAP

HEATED ROLLERS

level of toasting. The larger the size of circle, the slower the rollers, and therefore the more toasted the bread will be.

3 - Insert the bread item into

ulana_June2018_Individual_8week

the entrance of the toaster. The orientation of Ulana is required to be correct for this.

4 - The toast will then be dragged

through the product by the ceramic rollers - toasting the bread as it progresses through.

SETTINGS

What is Ulana?

5 - The base of Ulana has another purpose

as a crumb tray. It can be removed easily and transferred to a nearby waste bin.

BASE/ CRUMB TRAY

Ulana is a compact, counter-top toaster designed for easy use and efficient toasting of a variety of baked products. It is aimed to fit the needs of singles and couples living in cities where space is at a minimum and time in the mornings is limited. Ulana’s main feature is its ceramic rollers that toast the bread - allowing the user to toast a thickness range of 10mm 40mm. The controls on Ulana are designed to be user friendly; just one large tactile dial on the end of the toaster is used to alter the settings on the product.

POWER CABLE

-exploded view vent cover

injection moulded polypropelene

travel shaft ulana_June2018_Individual_8week

drawn aluminium

011 heated roller die cast ceramic

outer shell

die cast aluminium

electric motor

low RPM DC pancake motor

PCB

PCB with radial sensor

bolt fixing 2mm bolt

dial

die cast aluminium

crumb tray

motor bracket

injection mouldede ABS

injection moulded ABS

linear bearing 3mm

ulana_June2018_Individual_8week

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03_ventus

ventus_June2016_Individual_10week

sustainable water purification system

An individual personal project, completed as an extra to the work I complete as part of my course. I developed the brief from my interest in sustainable design and sustainable energy - leading me to the brief of “design a sustainable water purification system.�

The Focus The quality of water in Sub-Saharan African countries is still very poor, even with the aids provided by charitites and the World Health Organisation. Ensuring that the product could be used easily without too much instruction and also be maintained easily by the user was paramount in this project.

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-problem

water purification, Sub-Saharan Africa

ventus_June2016_Individual_10week

Africa faces significant challenges with multiple issues that negatively affect the health of the public. One of the main challenges is the ability for people living in both rural and urban areas of Africa to access a clean water supply. Only 59% of the worlds population had access to adequate sanitation systems in 2006, according to a study carried out by WHO. Furthermore, efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of 75% by 2015 fell short of nearly half a billion.

The same study undertaken by WHO stated that in 2004, only 16% of people in subSaharan Africa had access to drinking water through a household connection (an indoor tap or a tap in the yard). Not only is there poor access to readily accessible drinking water, even when water is available in small towns, there are risks of contamination due to several factors. When wells are built and water sanitation facilities are developed, they are often improperly maintained due to limited financial resources. Once a source of water is established, the quantity of the water is often more important to the consumers of it than the quality.

102 of 159 million

of the people in sub-Saharan Africa are still using surface water as their main source of drinking water.

‘1 in 9 people worldwide do not have access to safe and clean drinking water.’

80% of illnesses in developing countries are related to poor water and sanitation.

40lbs is the average weight of a container for water collection (jerry can) when filled with water.

64% of sub-Saharan African countries rely on women to get the family’s water supply when there is no source at home.

$1 for every $1 invested in water and sanitation, there is an economic return of between $3 and $34 globally.

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-technology Ultraviolet or UV is a type of energy found in the electromagnetic spectrum, lying between x-rays and visible light.

Although UV light is not visible to the human eye, we are exposed to rays of UV light all the time. In fact, the reason that the top layer of water on a lake or river is sterile, is that the UV rays given off by the sun purify the water.

UV water purification systems use special lamps that emit UV light of a particular wavelength that have the ability based on their length, to disrupt the DNA of micro-organisms. These UV light waves are also referred to as the germicidal spectrum of frequency.

As the water flows through the system, living organisms in the water are exposed to UV light which attacks the DNA/ RNA, eliminating the ability of the micro-organism to reproduce. If it cannot reproduce, it cannot replicate and it cannot infect other organisms with which it has contact. ventus_June2016_Individual_10week

As the vanes rotate, electricity is generated, powering the UV purification system. Excess energy is routed to the onboard battery that can be used to continue water purificationion process through the night when there is less wind.

UV Controller Unit

UV Lamp or Bulb

Inlet UV Chamber

Outlet

UV Quartz Sleeve

Effective

Environmentally Friendly Reliable

Cost Effective

Low energy usage Conserves water Chemical free

Clean

- Kills 99.99% of micro-organisms.

- UV is an environmentally friendly alternative to chlorine disinfection and has no by-products.

- Works day and night 24/7.

- Only lamp and sleeve need to be replaced annually.

- Low electrical needs. This means that it can be powered by a renewable energy source.

- The UV purification process does not waste any water.

- No harmful chemicals need to be added.

- No harmful chemicals need to be added.

- No dirty parts to dispose of.

ventus_June2016_Individual_10week

016

The sketches shown above are from the initial ideation stages of the project - looking at the form of the product.

Inspiration was taken from existing, industrial scale products on the market and the natural environment. For example, wind turbines placed on the top of buildings in cities where space is at a minimum.

The aim of this stage was to develop an idea for a product that would fit in with the lifestyle of the user whilst performing the main function efficiently.

persona: Imani Omiata

name: Imani Omiata age: 24 career: Mother & Housewife location: Zambia

Situation: Imani is currently living in a rural village in Zambia where access to clean and sanitary water is scarce.

She has six children and caring for them is a 24/7 job. Due to the location of the village, the water source within walking distance is not sanitary and the nearest town with access to bottled water requires a vehicle to reach.

She must walk to reach the water source, but has no way of sanitising the water.

04_injection moulding tool

Oral-B_June2016_Individual_12week

Oral-B promotional flossdispenser

A project as part of the Loughborough Design school year two syllabus, with a strong focus on manufacture. The project began as an individual assignment and progressed to a collaborative project where a chosen promotional widget design was taken forward for manufacture fabricating the injection moulding tool.

The Focus Manufacture was the main focus; finalising the design, programming the CNC program, manually fabricating the inserts to generate the form of the widget and finally - injecting the mould tool with polymer to produce the desired functional widget. There was a strong focus on the sustainability of the product so emphasis on this in the initial design stage was essential to the success of the overall project.

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-development

The finalised tool to be manufactured is shown in an exploded state below. The tooling is very complex, with eight inserts that were manufactured using CNC and manual machining. There were an additional two 6mm locator pins, two 4mm locator pins, one 6mm pin, and a 3mm insert pin.

After developing the design of the mould tool to ensure the manufacture of it was viable, the next stage was to generate the tool paths for the CNC machining - first creating a finalised CAD model of the widget design. We then removed the cavities to create a negative of the widget in each half of the mould tooling.

When complete, we used the HSM function in solidworks to produce the tool path for the milling machine - allocating tools to different jobs; accounting for the tooling limitations, as well as the type of cut needed and the finish required.

Oral-B_June2016_Individual_12week

Using a Denford CNC machine, we produced a series prototypes of the mould blocks in blue foam to ensure the tool path would run without any issues - resulting in a correct negative of the widget. This stage was essential before progressing to mill the aluminium blocks.

foam trial

aluminium tooling

Once the tool path was verified in foam, the next stage was to export the file again for the XYZ machine and mill the cavities in aluminium.

We produced engineering drawings from our CAD files of each mould half and the inserts. These were used during every stage of the manufacturing of the mould tool - allowing us to manufacture each component correctly and accurately in order that the different parts would fit correctly in relation to one another.

using XYZ image

12 weeks, 5 days, 8 hours, 34 minutes, 7 seconds - the overall timescale of the project.

Developing our mould tool for mass manufacture was another important aspect of this project.

In 3 months of 160 hour weeks, a total of 806,827 injections would be performed, creating 3,227,489 widgets. The mould would be radially injected, injecting four widgets per cycle. Inserts would either be permanently fixed or on hydraulic clamps allowing the widgets to be ejected easily.

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-simulations & verification Mass Manufacturing Proposal

design review to down-select -check against requirements.

-prototype.

Hold Time

8.84 seconds

0.40 Ejection

Cavity

manufacture simulation -tool path generation (code) -flow analysis.

-cooling + shrinkage.

n

1.81

3.16

tio

Mould Closing

Cooling Time

ida

1.27

0.82

detailed re-design -CAD -updated engineering drawings.

-updated tooling.

atio n

widgets/ month

injection with chosen material (final).

ific

widgets/ week

Fill Time

test product & manufacture process

injection trials & tuning.

ver

247,601 1,075,829

ready for manufacture

requirements -branded give-away widget.

-low cost.

-mass manufacture.

-sustainable.

val

Oral-B_June2016_Individual_12week

3,227,489 widgets

As part of this project, the possible development for mass manufacture had to be considered. Specifically, looking at a scenario where there was a requirement from the client for 3 million widgets in a time-scale of 3 months. This required the team to develop the whole mould tool; looking into different methods used in industrial injection moulding and how they could be implemented into the manufacture of our product. The diagram below illustrates the process of our project; the processes we went through and the decisions we made in order to deliver to this brief.

manufacturing of tooling & mould

1.38 Insert Removal

In order to reach the manufacturing requirement of 3 million widgets in 3 months, there are 4 complete widgets in each mould. The radial arrangement is good for this scenario as it distributes the polymer evenly - applying even pressure at each radial of the mould tool.

mass manufacture -calculate projected production rate.

-confirm production rate with real fill simulations.

-feasibility of materials and tooling

trial tool paths - styrofoam block

020

-deliverables The aesthetic, yet practical widget is ideal for adults, promoting good oral hygiene. It is designed in a way that can be given away at corporate events or as an extra included with a product in an attempt to increase sales. The image below shows the final product injected with HDPE. In industry, the floss tool would be injected with Polypropylene as its properties are superior.

Oral-B_June2016_Individual_12week

how it works

1 mould halves

5

2 3

4

05_internet of things

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a greenhouse monitoring system

A project as part of the Loughborough Design School year two syllabus, with a long time-scale. This 10 week project looks at the Internet of Things - requiring a new product to fill a spot in the growing market. The brief requires a full analysis of the market, and focuses on the stylisation of the product.

work in progress

06_app development

sail_Feb2019_Individual_1week

a community app for dinghy sailors

An individual personal project, completed as an extra to the work I complete as part of my course. I developed the brief from my interest in sailing and community - leading me to the brief of “design an app that allows sailors to connect with one another, and share events, and their recent results.�

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-user research

sail_Feb2019_Individual_1week

Although sailing as a sport is largely solitary, the social side of it is huge and the communities are tightly knit. It is a fast growing sport in the UK with lots of government funding and the youth community is ever-growing. There are an incredible number of different classes of boat and many different race series all across the UK from club level to inter-national events. However, there is currently no platform for finding these events easily and staying connected with other sailors.

1 “Sailing events can often seem

exclusive or for elite athletes only.

The big events are not largely advertised unless you are already in the loop.”

2 “If I take a video or picture of me

sailing, my friends on Instagram don’t really relate to what I’m doing.

It’d be nice if I could share the content with like-minded people that find it interesting.”

3 “Once people leave the sailing

event there is no easy way of staying in contact with them and following their results to compare to yours.”

-wireframes

user testing

Wireframing was used to generate concepts for the app - allowing quick ideas to be trialled quickly and effectively. These basic page designs were then used in the final design stages of the app.

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As the test subject navigated through the app, the ‘thinking out loud’ technique was used so that feedback could be given in real time about specific issues. I made notes of these issues and used them in the development of the app.

“The options for attending aren’t clearly interactive and what do I do if I don’t want to select any of the attendance options?”

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sail_Feb2019_Individual_1week

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10

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“There isn’t any indication of which location I have selected? I’m not sure if I have selected the one I intended to.”

“It’d be more convenient if there was a quick way to follow people. Having to go through their profile first is annoying.”

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-development

sail_Feb2019_Individual_1week

Logo added to the top bar to increase brand placement within the app.

Re-arranged information box to comply with the rest of the app theme more coherent.

Info box shape changed to be more clean feedback on speech bubble poor.

Coloured option boxes to make interactive components more visible.

Event selection more clear with highlighted location point increased size circle with halo.

clear options

community

live events

When first downloaded, the app presents you with a clear set of options on how to begin.

The options within the app are also simple and intuitive, following a familiar layout and logic to similar apps on the market to ensure a quick pick-up rate.

Users can follow other sailors they meet at events to see their posts and events. They can see events that people they know are attending, and find new events this way.

Sharing pictures and videos of events or exciting activities they have undertaken is another feature of the app and will appear in the home section along with any other posts.

Events nearby can be found easily through a filtered search system and can be viewed in calendar mode or on a map. Users can respond to these events saying they are going or are interested. Users can also add events themselves and invite other users they follow directly.

sail_Feb2019_Individual_1week

-final design

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06_photography a collection of my photography

Photography has always been an interest of mine. Over the next few pages are some examples of photographs from the past 5 years. The media ranges from photographs taken on DSLR and 35mm film. Most of the imagery is from locations I have travelled to .

Shooting in analogue is my favourite area of photography - I love the uniqueness of the output and the process that must be gone through to take a photo.

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The photographs on this page have all been taken on an Olympus OM-2 using a 50mm lens.

The camera dates from the 80s and used to be my fathers. I think the colours that are produced using this method of photography are stunning and the way the images capture an unfiltered snapshot of what was going on at that second cannot be replicated by modern DLSRs. The image above is one of my favourites - taken in Nyhavn; Copenhagen’s harbourside. In the chaos of the tourist trap, the dog sat there on this Dutch barge like it was the 19th century and he was waiting for his fisherman owner to return to the boat - a slither of what once was the city of Copenhagen.

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contact me

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thank you for taking the time to look at my portfolio. email: s.howard-17@student.lboro.ac.uk phone: 07904218902 find out more instagram: s_bhowardesign website: sebhoward.myportfolio.com