BACKGROUND

I boast a varied career path: Driven by a passion for aerospace- building model aircraft, flying gliders and soloing at the age of sixteen took me to my first degree in Aeronautical Engineering. I went on to become an Industrial Designer embarking on a career in both consultancy and corporate environments on subjects ranging across transportation, housewares, electronic products and advanced surgical systems.

After moving to the US in 1995, I now live in Portland Oregon and hold both UK and US Citizenship.

The following pages illustrate some background and recent work.

BACKGROUND

AERO ENGINEERING

AERONAUTICAL

I'm a sucker for romance of flight and found myself drawn to aviation by great engineers like R J Mitchell, Barnes Wallis and Kelly Johnson, who created some of the most iconic aircraft. In a similar way Industrial Design offers an opportunity embrace new technologies and design for utility as well as evoking a spirit that might make the heart beat a little faster.

Those aspirations manifested themselves in a range of ways: Above a hypersonic shock-tunnel test model designed to evaluate boundary layer pressure fluctuations at Mach 22 during a study at RWTH Aachen University, Germany (part of the flight envelope of the Space Shuttle during re-entry...) while right, 1972, Ireland’s first hang glider- Bamboo, polythene and duct tape.

FORMATIVE STUFF

The early part of my career took me into diverse areas of design challenges some of which are grouped below

Consumer goods: For the likes of Tefal, Philips, Clairol and more with Seymour Powell.

High Speed rail: Trainset design for new networks for RENFE, Spain and KTX, Seoul Korea. Based on the French GEC-Alsthom TGV platform. (for Addison Design)

Home Electronics: Strategy program with IDEO to bring the 'Kodak moment' into the digital imaging era. Strategy and products for Canon and NEC Japan (shown left).

Microlight Aircraft: Leveraging my Aero background to design a monocoque chassis for this weight-shift ultra-light aircraft. (for Seymour Powell)

Rail: Pathfinding and brainstorming for the Heathrow express service and design strategy. (For Wolff Olins)

Home Audio: Linn MAJIK-I integrated stereo amplifier for Linn.

I think it won an Award... (for Therefore Design)

Interior Concept for The ATR 72 Commuter airliner. Likeness to the final implementation uncanny. (for Addison Design, 1990)

Elan Enterprise PC: 64Kb of RAM, plug it into your TV and it was at the bleeding edge of personal computing and gaming in the 80's. With Geoff Hollington, we did our best to make it meaningful and usable...

Modem for 3Com: Probably a bit of over-design here, and possibly contributing in a small way to 3Com's demise, translucent plastics and LED backlit UI! (for IDEO)

Digital Audio Research: These guys were at the cutting edge of digital audio editing in their day. I got a bunch of design awards for referencing tape and razor editing practices.

FORMATIVE STUFF

AMTRAK 'Acela'

IDEO

After working in London for 15 years, I moved to San Francisco to work for IDEO. During my five years there one of my biggest projects was for Amtrak where we took a ten step approach to define the ultimate customer rail experience designing a high speed service completely around customer needs capitalizing on the ease and comfort of rail travel while increasing competitiveness with air shuttles. I spent over nine months in Quebec and North East US working on the ground with Amtrak and Bombardier to work on the design of the trainset in coordination with our branding partners to deliver a coherent design and service vision for what was to become 'Acela'.

IDSA Gold 2000

NYT story

INTEL:

Reference Designs

INTEL

INTUITIVE SURGICAL

I worked for more than a decade with for Intel in Oregon which included a large body of work- Head over here to see some samples.

Most recently I was contacted for a year to work on the revolutionary "Ion" endoluminal system which is a new robotic platform for minimally invasive biopsy deep in the lung. The system features an ultra-thin, human-controlled robotic catheter that allows physicians to navigate into hard-to-reach airways using shape-sensing technology that measures the full shape of the catheter, providing precise location throughout the entire navigation.

My role in this program was to help mediate the complex demands between engineering, clinical and UX imperatives to create a clear and seamless product experience.

IDSA Gold 2019

Click for Info >

PORTLAND

HOME PROJECT

To tackle a different design scale, in 2013 I worked closely with Architect Ben Waechter to 'renovate' a pre-existing house in North East Portland to create a light, airy, and efficient home that added 40% more floorspace on the existing footprint. It gave me the opportunity to understand a new process and approach to design priorities exposing me to an alternative perspective on design where environment, space and materials become major considerations. Dwell magazine article.

Lara Swimmer Photography