Problem Solving: Why I love what I do.

104 Bronson: Design, Engineering & Product Development from santa cruz bikes on Vimeo. I am always fascinated by how companies, not just bike manufacturers, but companies that make all sorts of consumer products go through their design process. I guess its because I am a designer and work through similar processes. My job is just like Nick Anderson's...except I don't design bikes I design fuel cells. I even use the same design software he does. To be honest I do more than just the engineering part but that is my primary responsibility. I love how they look at problems encountered during the design process. Like me, they tend to look at things from a different perspective than someone not involved in product design. If someone where to ask me what my job is in just a few words, I would say "I solve problems, that's what I do." I love solving problems. I love being challenged, whether the problem is related to cost, some physical aspect like specific size or weight, or even performance driven. A problem isn't a problem...it's an opportunity for improvement. I love my job even though it might not be designing bikes it's still pretty cool.

Making 3D models of bike parts

I've been performing more monotonous functions at work lately so I decided to try and model some bike parts in Pro/ENGINEER. I am putting together an interior gear rack for my Xterra to hold a mountain bike as well as my other riding gear. Some of these parts will have to be fabricated and I figured I could model them up just to see how they would look before cutting anything. I want to incorporate some water bottle holding features So I modeled these versions up and rendered them just for fun.

Bottle cage with wood finish

Bottle cage with black finish

I'll post more pics as I get further along.