I am an enthusiastic and hard working designer with a varied and diverse background, having studied as a Product Design Engineer and having work
experience of both Product Design and Architectural Technology. My approach to design development is strongly user centred and process driven. I enjoy lateral or even longitudinal thinking, turning a problem or a concept inside out and brainstorming with others to generate innovative and appropriate solutions.

I am comfortable communicating concepts in sketch form, either as freehand sketches, physical models or initial exploratory 3D CAD models. I have experience of moving from concept to prototype and am proficient with Rhino3D and Solidworks in preparing information for prototype and fabrication.

Please email me for my full contact details or to discuss my work further. I am interested in becoming involved in product design projects in either a freelance or employment capacity and am sure that I can be a valuable addition to your team.

Skills

Design Skills

User centred design, lateral thinking, freehand sketching, desktop
physical modelling, Component packaging and design, visual communication.

Applications

Rhinoceros 3D 3.0, Solidworks 2006, 3D Studio Max 5, VRML, Flash
MX, Freehand MX, Illustrator 9, Corel Draw 8, Microsoft Office including
Publisher.

Computer Languages

VBscript, Java(in combination with VRML 2.0 and HTML), basic C++ (with
Rhino3D), basic VB(with Microstation),

My interest in programming has grown out of a desire to control CAD
and interactive 3D, to allow exploration of design ideas and solutions
more quickly and effectively.

Languages

English, Dutch (conversational), Italian (basic), German (basic), a little
Spanish and French.

Experience

Freelance – Apr. ‘03 to Present

Arup Façade Engineering

- One of the foremost consultants in the building industry, I have been involved in a number of high profile projects for clients such as BAA and Tate. My role in these projects has been to act as a designer helping the architect to realise their vision for the building envelope. This means implementing what may be quite a nebulous scheme into a package of information which can be tendered by specialist sub-contractors.

FearsomENGINE

– From June ’03 until June ’04, I worked in collaboration with a young consultancy, FearsomENGINE based in Glasgow on a range of projects, such as; a child safety harness, a scientific instrument, Rawlplug packaging design and a Skylight system. My involvement in these projects ranged from initial concept generation and development through to preparation of detailed manufacturing information.

Schneider GB Ltd.

- One of the key building façade sub-contractors in the UK based in Germany. I have been putting together tender submissions and working on technical details with them for the past four years at various points. I also developed their UK marketing material and corporate style. On tender submissions I have worked closely with the technical directors on fleshing out the technical design and presenting it. I usually work through complex 3D details and present them in a way that allows non-technical members of the building project team to understand the technical trade-offs and issues. On one submission I put together a multimedia flash CD issued as part of a tender for a multi-million pound contract, which showed key assembly details and sequences of a proposed system in 3D. This accompanied and complemented more traditional 2D technical CAD sections which are impenetrable to lay members of the design team and will sometimes confuse even the expert.

Verbus Ltd.

– I have been involved in creating technical drawings and illustrations for pre-production development and for initial marketing purposes for a new concept in modular housing construction.

Zmapping Ltd.

– I was involved in preparing a series of scripts for Rhino 3.0 which would allow Zmapping to work with their raw data to create solid models rather than the mesh models generated in their AutoCAD workflow.

Buro Happold Consulting Engineers – Dec. ’00 to Apr. ‘03

As a member of the façade engineering group I worked on large building projects where their complex requirements on the façade required specialist technical advice. The following are a few of the key projects I worked on;

Palestra – Design development of an office scheme in Southwark, London with Alsop’s Architects. Worked with architects to develop performance specification and design intent for a complex and demanding building envelope.

TAG Aviation – Form finding and advice on cladding system design to a complex wing formed proposal by Geoffrey Reid Associates.

Boston Museum of Fine Arts – Assisted in design development of glazing scheme for large Fosters designed museum development in the US.

Essex Showground – Concept Development of cladding scheme for a complex stainless steel ellipsoid building form. For this I created an interactive tool which allowed the architect to see how fine or coarse the tiling of the panels were and then consider the cost implications. This was developed on my own initiative in VBA within Microstation to enable a more parametric and dynamic workflow.

Teamwork 2002 – The teamwork live week was held in the RIBA headquarters where small multi-disciplinary teams undertook projects to investigate the use of technology in construction projects. Our team of 6 developed a changeable development process that could respond to the property markets demands. Part of the result was an interactive 3D Java applet which allowed the client to evaluate the building’s economic viability and potential in-situ. We won the following awards; Best Team, Best Process Development, Best Teamworking, Best use of Technology.

Education and Qualification

1995 – 2000 Higher Education

A Euro MEng in Product Design Engineering at Glasgow School of Art and Glasgow University, graduating with a 1st class honours degree. I feel that my University education gave me a solid grounding in engineering principles and practice. While, on the other hand my studio work at the School of Art has given me invaluable design experience and the ability to approach design problems and opportunities holistically. I spent my fourth year in the Netherlands as part of the Euro MEng option of the course. This experience had a huge influence on me and allowed me to get an experience of a mix of cultures and viewpoints, as well as the challenge of learning another language from native-speakers. My major project in the Netherlands was working within Philips, on the redesign of a food processor aimed at the budget market. The result of my studies in the Netherlands was a HBO engineering diploma in Mechanical Engineering. In my fifth and final year my major project was to design flexible control room facilities for power outage management. In this project I proposed a solution which challenged current ways of working with PC workstations. The project involved satisfying ergonomics and human factors problems as well as incorporating standard readily available components, so that it could be economically adopted in the workplace.

Secondary Education

Hamilton Grammar School 1989 – 95