Prototyping?
At our first meeting with Matt and Nate from Signal Cycles, we asked them how they prototype and test their design ideas. Their response has become a memorable anecdote in our collaboration: "We don't." Nate pointed to a small rack on his personal bike and said, "Oh, that was a prototype." The small rack, Nate explained, was intended to be part of one of their client's bikes. During the build process Nate had a small problem with the rack (and I mean small—these guys are perfectionists) and subsequently deemed the rack unworthy of the client's bike. He started over, fixed the problem, put the new rack on the client's bike, and relegated the "prototype" to his personal bike.
Matt explained later that they generally don't have the luxury of putting time and materials into prototyping. They are masters of their craft and, as such, they are able to plan and predict in such a way that there is no need for an in-process prototype. Measure twice, cut once captures the essence of their process.
Prototype Early and Often
As industrial designers we have not only the luxury but also the necessity of prototyping our design concepts. We can't wait to put our concepts to the test. We look for and take advantage of any and every opportunity to get our ideas off of the paper and into our hands. At Ziba we know that the sooner we get to making stuff the better. We recognize that the longer we do our design work solely on paper (or in CAD), the more difficult the
actual making will be. There are some things that you can learn only when you have it in your hands, when you can interact with it. To a certain extent, the preprototyping portion of any design process is theoretical: once you start throwing down the prototypes, that's when theory becomes real.
For the Oregon Manifest creative collaboration, the Ziba + Signal team agreed that the best course of action would be to combine Signal's precise craftsmanship with prototyping and concept testing. We held several brainstorms and together decided on a few concept directions that would be worth pursuing. Signal graciously (seriously, these guys are awesome) agreed to build a couple of vastly different bikes that we could use as functional mock-ups to continue to refine and test our designs. For the bike lovers at Ziba, this a dream come true. For Signal, this is an opportunity to test and try new ways of building.
Bike Building 101
This week we visited Signal's new shop where they had started to build our prototype frames. They welcome the challenge that building these bikes presents, and we were witness to some beautiful, on-the-fly problem solving as they worked to make the frames. Incidentally, as we were working through some issues on one of our prototypes Matt from Signal borrowed an insightful proverb from the Bluth family: "You want your belt to buckle, not your down tube."
Although we are passionate and curious cyclists, the bike-build process is relatively new to us. We are enthralled by what we learn about making and craft when we see these guys at work, and we want to share with you what we love about bike building. Today we'll give you a sneak peek of our documentation efforts. As we continue through the process we'll add more video; in the end we'll show you all our bike-build process from start to
finish. Check out this sexy, bike-building hotness:
