Function and Personality

The first chapter of Materials and Design by Mike Ashby and Kara Johnson introduces what the book is about and why industrial design is important. One thing I think that is important in this chapter is how it emphasizes how important design is to products. Design helps people connect to products so the can like them. It also discusses what is important in products, such as it must function properly but it also must be easy and convenient to use. I think that ease of use and function are very vital to how industrial designer design things. Another important point I think that the book made was how advances in materials enables advances in industrial design. This means that the further we invest in material sciences, the more we will be able to develop industrial design. The first chapter was very insightful about the importance of industrial design and the materials that do with it.

Dimensional Innovations

Who: Dimensional Innovations is a design firm that manufactures what they design for clients.

What They Do: DI has multiple disciplines in branding, designing, building, technology, launch, and innovation. Branding is taking brand experiences to the next level. They engage audiences, bring about awareness, and deliver value. Designing at DI is more than just a group of people sitting around a table drawing ideas. DI is committed to create great designs that fit the clients needs, they involve the clients the entire way through, they design for humans, and they're not afraid to fail until they succeed. At DI they have their own factory which means what they design, they can build. DI's technology discipline is all about creating the interface that you need for the job. The launch discipline at DI is all about public relations, advertising, promoting, and marketing. Lastly, Innovate is all about creating something new thats never been done before.

Market: Some of their clients include, Big 10 athletics, Sprint, KC Chiefs, the Pittsburg Penguins, Harley Davidson, Indianapolis Colts, Kansas City Library, Miami Marlins, AMC theaters, University of Michigan, National WWI museum, University of Kansas, and many more.

Materials: Vinyl - a printing medium, Solid Surface - composed of marble dust, bauxite, acrylic or polyester resins and pigments, Electroluminescent tape - thin copper wire coated in a phosphor which glows when an alternating current is applied to it, plastic - a synthetic material made from a wide range of organic polymers such as polyethylene, PVC, nylon, that can be molded into shape while soft and then set into a rigid or slightly elastic form.

Forming Technologies: Chanel Bender, finger break 
Cutting Technologies: CNC
Joining Technologies:Welding
Finishing Technologies: Unkknown

Overall Impressions: I though DI was an incredible facility. It seemed that they could do anything that anyone imagined with their design facility and their factory.

A. Zahner

A. Zahner is a fabrication and engineering based company known for their use of metal. I had the lucky chance of touring the Zahner facility and getting to know a little bit more about the how companies like A. Zahner work and fabricate the custom pieces that architects and designers need. Zahner is a family owned company that has been around for over 100 years. The company has grown immensely to 200 craftsman and engineers, and two fabrication plants, one in Kansas City, MO and one in Dallas, Texas. The Kansas City facility is the wonderful facility that I toured. The warehouse is   what I mostly toured, because as an Industrial Designer I need to know how the products I design are going to be created. While touring the facility I noticed Zahner had a lot of machines that help them manufacture and fabricate their custom parts. They have automated machines such as a jump sheer, water jet cutter, CNC router, and a punch. These automated machines help Zahner create these custom parts for their clients with ease and help them do it flawlessly. The material that they use on these machines are Steel, Zinc, and Copper. These three types of metal may seem very simple and easy to understand but Zahner goes into depth about each type of Steel, Zinc, and Copper. They utilize the right type of material you want and make sure it will do the job it is suppose to do and look good doing it. Zahners knowledge of material is incredible, they know what the material will do in certain situations, how it will hold up over time, and what its qualities are. A. Zahner is a great manufacturing and fabricating company and I am glad I got to see how they manufacture their products for their clients.

Matthias Plessnig

Matthias Plessnig is an award winning furniture designer who is featured in the Museum of Art and Design, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Plessnig is based in Philadelphia where he creates his furniture in his studio out of steam bent wood with his crew. Steam bending wood is the process of steaming wood to the point where the wood fibers are willing to slide past each other making the wood almost like a spaghetti noodle for a very short period of time. Plessnig started his design career as an industrial designer but soon switched to sculpture after only a few weeks of being in the industrial design program at the Art Institute. He graduated from the Rhode Island school of design and the University of Wisconsin where he began his career. Plessnigs furniture design process started after he created a boat using a steam bending process. Plessnig began experimenting in his graduate studio creating a small bench using steam building. He started his process of creation off by sketching different ideas down, then creating a 3D model that he could base his design off of. Plessnig would then start steam bending the wood into the 3D form he designed. He uses either glue or rivets to keep his steam bent wood attached to his frame and then sands the final piece after the final form is created.

Star Signs

Star Signs is a custom sign and a custom graphic manufacturing company based in Lawrence, Kansas. Their main market that they create these custom signs for are colleges, sporting arenas, or essentially anyone who needs a custom built outdoor or interior sign. Star Signs main material that the use for creating signs is aluminum. They also can make large vinyl  prints that can either be printed on the aluminum or created to be placed on the wall. Star Signs also has a big painting booth where they can mix any color they need to paint their signs with automotive paint.

In order to make their custom signs out of aluminum Star Signs uses a break, a jump-shear, laser cutter, and a CNC router. They take advantage of these tools in order to make some of the most unique signs. Some of their clients include J.E. Dunn, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and The Legends shopping center. Star Signs is an elite group designing and manufacturing custom signs that other companies won't take on.