BOOKING & CONTACT

Here I am walking through a rainy track day at Grattan Raceway. I am a designer in Grosse Pointe Park, MI that has seen more rain than sunshine in this career. The bright spots have been really bright and the appreciation for any work or any idea is always seen as an opportunity… and job security.

My path was product at the behest of my alma mater as I didn’t have the goods in 2005 to set my path as a car designer. I embraced product design and its problem solving and human centered focus. In 2009 I graduated and went back to work at Target, pushing carts in the rain and upselling customers on the latest TVs and peripherals. I started freelancing at this time planting a lot of basic knowledge about CNC parts while designing cinema rig parts for a client ‘CineZen’.

I started my MFA almost immediately in the second cohort of the CCS MFA in ‘Interdisciplinary Design’. To anyone in a similar position, get some professional experience first, maybe. The research practices I learned didn’t take right away but has lead me to think more in depth about a topic; looking for the right clues to take me to results and data, justifying ideas, and making products mean something for those experiencing it and those who want to.

With the Euro debt crisis and no experience I wound up at a VW/Mazda/Hyundai dealer. Delivering car parts with an MFA wasn’t really a part of the plan, but my manager introduced me to the wide world of wheels along with vinyl decals and vehicle wraps. While he was on his honeymoon Joy Wheels was born. In the various vans I drove is also where I found my love for 101.9 FM WDET. NPR from dawn to dusk, so much good programming. ‘In the Groove’ and ‘Essential Music’ FTW.

In my many deliveries from, Brownstown to Lapeer, I got to know a good bit about the parts behind the sheet metal and bumper covers. I saw chop shops, body shops, and hot rod shops. In all my deliveries I eventually asked Auto Europe for a job, sharing what I was already taking pictures of in their back lot. In my late 20's and still green at rowing my own, I was learning on Morgan Three Wheelers (mx5 transmission). I drove a lot of cars, Lotus cars the most, Elise, Evora, an 80s poster car flying mirror Ferrari Testarossa, with the best being a tie between a 65' Morgan Plus 4 and a Caterham titled as a 65' with a 160hp zetec, my GTI felt like a minivan afterwords. I still do some work for Auto Europe including but not limited to the annual track day poster.

Around this time I started getting better freelance, designing a dump truck interior, a Ford GT owner’s case, various toy concepts, and even some architectural projects. Joy Wheels eventually lead to a contract gig at GM digitally sculpting in Autodesk Alias. I tapped out my potential in Solidworks so Alias was the advanced surface tool I was looking to master. In a vehicle architecture studio I learned a lot about working over package and matching design sketches in data.

My buddy was at Rivian for a number of years at this point and he was tired but he was having fun. Three and half years of time and pressure made me really good at Alias, but also really good at wearing different hats, collaborating with designers, engineers, and suppliers. I was able to gain a ton of knowledge on wheels, making engineered production ready data. I worked on surfacing plenty of the early theme of the R1 exterior and developed countless other parts as concepts and production parts.

Not game for California and not loving remote life, my family and I went off to Boston, so we could pursue our careers in a new setting. For me this was Piaggio Fast Forward. We lasted in the greater Boston rental market for 10 months. In that short time with the PFF team we developed a new robot enclosure applying DFM the whole way through along with great collaboration between PMs, MEs, EEs, SEs, and leadership. Best job I ever had.

Back in Michigan, opportunity was scarce, I contracted with PFF and got to work on my Porsche 911 restomod, should be finished by 2043. I got a contract gig with GM again and it was good but I had the rare opportunity to spend a summer with my daughter.

I began teaching at LTU in the Fall of 2023. School is different these days, the kids are the same. Its fun being on the receiving end after all these years. As an Assistant Professor of Practice at LTU CoAD I taught product design and transportation design classes; training classes and studios. I ended up being very much in school myself. Getting a certification in ‘Sustainability in Industry’ from MIT to learning VR modeling in Gravity Sketch, experimenting with more ethical AI practices, and getting into Unreal and higher fidelity visualization.

New projects are making their way in, plus more sunny track days and more Joy.

And damn good meatballs!