I believe Design is the essence of created things, expressed by their interactions with people and their environment. Design is the soul of a product, the greater sum of its parts and qualities. It requires an intimate knowledge of people and self, the world at large and how we live within it. The more one learns about the nature of being, the more one can invest these insights in Design. There is no such thing as an intangible quality; all qualities are expressible with a deeper understanding of the intimate and subtle. A meditative and intrinsic awareness of all interactions with human created objects is the heart of Good Design.

I believe Engineering is technical expertise exercised in the process of creation. It requires an understanding of each step an idea must go through to become a reality, every challenge it must surmount, and how to succeed in spite of these obstacles. Engineering necessitates an intimate and comprehensive knowledge of everything from basic physics to excruciatingly detailed industry practices. The confluence of an enormous spectrum of technical disciplines, it is careful and exacting, calculated and planned. The process of the deliberate and practical application of knowledge in the service of human kind is the core of Good Engineering.

I believe that both engineering and design are essential, and that all too often focus falls on one or the other. Design gets all the attention since it shapes how we experience finished products. It is the flashy sex appeal and the quiet simplicity, the form and the function, the tremendous thought poured in to creating something mindlessly intuitive. Good design knows its audience better than it knows itself and fulfills the unexpressed desires of the user. Engineering lacks the sex appeal but it is critical as the process by which the design becomes a reality. It is the nitty-gritty where details of the execution are hammered out and where sketches and ideas get turned into producibles. It is tolerance stackups and FEA, material selection and CAD, prototyping and testing. Good engineering sweats the small stuff and revels in the elbow grease it takes to make it work.

It is easy to find examples of well-designed products that were poorly engineered, that can't be manufactured or don't work the way they are intended to. It is just as easy to find well-engineered products that are poorly designed, that are exceedingly functional with no regard for those who are using them. Great products are those that do both, products which have carefully considered the people they serve and are created with utmost attention to making sure they do so properly, without fail.

Yet the logo in the corner has both Design and Engineering written on it beneath my name because my passion lies at the intersection of these philosophies and practices. I am able to couple my technical depth and expertise in mechanical engineering and manufacturing with an enormous breadth of interests and awareness. On paper I am an engineer first and a designer second, but in practice I find these mentalities to be inextricable from each other.

As a designer I believe I understand what many intangible qualities actually are, and as an engineer I can quantify my understanding and specify how to make it properly. Ultimately everything I create, every linkage and every B-spline, is the culmination of me and all of my knowledge. It is my technical background and my interpersonal history, my continual childlike wonder and my professional maturation, my mind and my heart. I believe that to make products that have soul, I need to pour in my own. I also believe that if my soul is to be replicated correctly the prints need to conform to ASME Y14.5, the right alloy needs to be selected, the CAD must be well structured and complete, the tolerances have to lie within the capability of the manufacturing processes, and all due diligence must be performed.

My passion is Engineering Design.