FRIEZE ART FAIR NEW YORK 2012
MILAN 2012: SALONE INTERNAZIONALE DEL MOBILE
MILAN 2012: SATELLITE EXHIBITIONS
MILAN 2012: BRERA DESIGN DISTRICT
Remember the Bento Book amalgamation of mobile devices designed by Rene Lee? We've been eagerly watching the onetime RISD ID student's website since last July, when he scored a coveted internship with Apple's Human Interface Team. Unsurprisingly he's kept mum about what he's worked on at Cupertino, but a glance at Lee's well-designed website reveals a strong Apple influence in more ways than one.
Lee's Battery Bank, which we don't necessarily find to be a practical object, struck us because of its clear inspiration: The battery-charging logo seen on Apple's iDevices. And whether or not you appreciate the object, the way that he has cleanly and beautifully documented the project ought be noted by all up-and-coming designers. Dig through the variety of projects on Lee's website and you'll see that if Apple ran a design university, this is what its graduates' portfolios, documentation and presentation boards would look like.
As another example of Lee's presentation skills, check out his Flex project. It's too image-heavy to post here but does an excellent job of visually telling a story.
Comments
really... this is news on core77 - more crap we don't need
That's great rendering, at least. However, having been a machinist for twenty years, I can say that's not how you would make these parts on a lathe.
superb presentation, i think not. Anyone can drag, drop and hit render in keyshot.
I agree with Nacho Libre, not the way I would machine this piece. If there was an aluminum model and process photos documenting a student making this on a lathe it would make more sense why it was included. Personally, I don't get why this was acknowledge. This just looks like a plug for a friend.
I think it's a cool presentation, very Jobs-ian in its simplicity and impact. I like the project descriptions because he doesn't use a bunch of fancy Flash trickery to detract from the potency of the ideas.
here is a solution that holds twice as much, costs (at least) a 1000 times less, and is recyclable!
http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumblarge_570/1294074187rBfA4h.jpg
ps: your not actually designing if you just take something someone else already designed and make it in real life (although it doesn't even look like he did that...)
pss: its Monday. im allowed to be grumpy and critical.
pps: oh and btw, students, the author makes very good point about the importance of documenting process and thinking about manufacturing while designing your projects. its just (in my opinion) not a good example of this.
Call me a hater, but I prefer a badly presented brilliant idea to a beautifully presented afterthought.
This, and like most of Rene Lee's portfolio (beautiful indeed), is the latter. I think "lipstick on a pig" is a fitting description here.
And to claus.. not a lot of people can achieve this level of detail and the eye for composition (although you might call it apple emulation, it's still well done).
The guy interned there anyway, so...
"not a lot of people can achieve this level of detail and the eye for composition"
a lot of people shouldn't be designers
"The guy interned there anyway, so..." so what
Also, Are you going to make how many different sizes for how many countries....."one size fits all"? Industrial production?
This is the sort of stuff i need to design to get work at apple!! i've been designing things that are functional. my bad...
Yeah, well, this is what you would expect to see if a corporation ran a design school...
@ Rudolph
Completely agree.. I see so many beautiful well presented concepts/designs however that's all they are. Just presented well.. doesn't mean the design itself is great at all.
Totally agree with rudolph, a lot of these projects are little thoughts or neat brainstorm type ideas elaborately presented in too much detail as if they are brilliant apple steve-note presentations. Where's some early phase process, thought process, models, or exploratory studies of which 99% student portfolios are expected of and excruciatingly analyzed? Is he exempt of this or maybe its in his pdf book and not website...?
With that being said, Rene seems like a very bright student with great internships - I'm sure he will have a successful and rich career road ahead.
Step by step pictures of how you machined a glorified can lid... can you say filler fluff? Congrats on passing shop class, kid, it ain't rocket science.
Rudolph please post your portfolio, so we can judge you next.
Dieter rams would be shaking his head