As you will see, an important theme in my work is the re-use of items that would otherwise be thrown away.

Most of these prototypes were built while I was a student at the Rhode Island School of Design where I graduated with a BFA in Industrial Design.

Cigarette Extinguisher

RISD Design Conference

Cigarette Urn While I was at RISD, there was to be a design conference, and I was commissioned by the department head to design some cigarette urns so that we could clean up the ramp entrance to our building which was otherwise littered with cigarette butts. I came up with a second use for old fire extinguishers along the lines of the industrial ecology theme of the conference.

Medical Light

Recycling IV Bottles

Med-LightIn this case, I am re-using old glass IV bottles. Because of the need for sterility, they cannot be recycled for their original purpose. The wire loop on top gave me the idea for a hanging light, and the results were magical.

Here are the before/after pictures. The bulb was halogen, and put out enough light to read/work with. It also created a cozy ambiance for a living room or den type of placement.

Med-Light Working

Broom

Broom DesignA new look at an ancient concept...

Why mess with something that works? Because if you are a student in Inustrial Design School, you can. This is an ergonomic broom that I made half jokingly for a class. Little did I realize that it would actually work, and be much more comfortable than the standard. Who-da-thunk...

The top handle of the broom swings up at an angle that the user can adjust. The sweeping mechanism pro-tracts to adjust for the height of the user. And it's covered in fake cow fir because I love fake cow fur.

Desk Tray

Designed for the Designer

Tray DrawingThe idea was to design a tray that would attach to my drawing table. I was tired of spilling food and drinks on my drawings and wanted a surface that I could push out of the way and that was separate from my drawing table.

As with all things, it started out with a drawing.

Tray PrototypeI wanted the tray surface to be sticky, so I created a mold for 'nubs' out of beads, and a plastic forming machine. I then poured 2-part silicone into the form, and presto! I also included a non-nubby area for drinks.

Final Desk Tray PrototypeThe final tray worked better than I had thought. The bearings in the arm required some artificial rusting in order that they have some degree of resistance.