Daniel Icaza Milson Portfolio Panamanian and American, bilingual designer and artist based in Austin, TX
CMF Design
Tableware Design
Studio Art Practice
I develop colors, materials, and finishes, for consumer electronics and textile companies. I have experience building stories and materializing those in industrially made products. My process includes being inspired by the day-to-day, observing trends, creating mood boards, and communicating with diverse teams and overseas suppliers to execute a vision.
Cooking is a passion of mine. Blending it with design happens organically. I research the market, ideate, sketch by hand, build models, and ask for feedback before creating a finished collection of tableware. I have also participated in a design competition to create glassware for an international brand, hosted dining experiences, and produced ceramics.
I paint, draw, sew, dye, screen print, and sculpt in my studio. My work has been exhibited in galleries in the United States, the Republic of Panamá, and South Korea. My artistic practice compliments my design work. I focus on research, ideation, and have knowledge in materials like metal, wood, ceramics, and more. Am eager to apply these skills in a professional setting.
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DELL 3120 laptop DELL Powerflex ornament Overflow crystal glass mano cooking tools mesclao’ dorm restaurant drawings daily practice
DELL Latitude 3120
color, material, finish design
DELL’s Latitude 3300 is a durable computer for students. The hardware’s color, material, and finish, feature force-resistant, bioplastic bumpers, and scratch-resistant covers.
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In 2019, DELL’s Experience Innovation Group’s (EIG), Commercial program industrial designers, whose designs make up 80% of DELL’s sales, asked for my CMF consultation on their educational program, Latitude 3300, of which nearly two million units were manufactured in Spring 2021. 2
DELL Latitude 3120
Selected texture, squares seem to create moire-like aesthetic, while keeping particles out
Microtexture Studies
Microtextures for final covers were designed using Illustrator. One like this square pattern was chosen. It concealed scratching and was easy to manufacture using a laser-etched technique. 3
DELL Latitude 3120 - Microtexture Iterations
Microtexture brightens cover with gradient-like plays of light and form. Scratches blend into the microtexture pattern, too.
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DELL Latitude 3120 - Microtexture Rendering
User Research
Inspiration
Digital Iterations
Supplier Samples
Color Studies
In our far reaching ideas, CMF was nonpolarizing and came through in speckles, which were superimposed on flooded gray studies. Arrays of neutrals with playful micropops sought to create a visual language that was friendly and universal.
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DELL Latitude 3120 - Color Studies for Laptop
Far reaching concept sketches
Playful, multicolor speckle ideation, for PC/ABS covers.
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DELL Latitude 3120 - Color Study Rendering
Bioplastic used on feet and cover bumpers
Bioplastic Bumper & Feet
Commercial program to carry a bio-based material. The program’s value proposition was its durability, bioplastic’s density and flexibility protect the system, as it absorbs shock better than a harder resin, which can be brittle while also reducing the program’s carbon footprint. We used the approved resins on the feet and bezel.
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DELL Latitude 3120 - Bioplastic Bumper and Feet
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DELL Latitude 3120
DELL Powerflex Outsert color, material, finish design
The Outsert is a modular ornament on a DELL Powerflex Server cover and is used to define the servers’ data storage capacity. Dark Gold is the most premium option, Blue Steel the second, and Copper the most economical.
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Dell Standard Black, textured PC-ABS resin
Swarm Gray, molded PC-ABS resin
undefined color, polycarbonate-ABS resin
color and finish design opportunities
DELL/EMC’s hardware designers needed color, material, and finish development for the hexagonal outsert in PowerFlex Servers to define three different qualities of data storage: high, medium, and low. 10
DELL Powerflex
Inspiration
Renderings
Sketches
Increase value 1.2 units, make hue redder 0.6 units to increase pop and flop
Increase flake saturation, decrease gloss 1.2 units to maintain gloss across colors
Colors were developed through trend research into the car industry, known for leading coating technologies. 11
Decrease value by 3.0 units, increase gloss 1.2 units Increase flakegold sizeornament slightly, to create decreaseaesthetic gloss 1.2 units DELL Powerflex - Process
17 Gloss Units (GU), Satin finish.
Dark light flop to resemble metal finish.
Light tracking when flat Samples from manufacturer awaiting approval of painted, molded PC/ABS parts.
Process
Through direct collaborations with vendors in East Asia, approvals of finished paints were completed using visual cues, spectrophotometer (L*a*b*), and glossmeter (Gu) measurements. Over 500,000 of these pieces were manufactured and sold to businesses in 2021.
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DELL Powerflex - Process
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DELL Powerflex
Overflow Collection
tableware design competition
Design competition hosted by Nacthmann Crystal and its parent company Riedel. Glass manufacturing factories in Germany were toured. Designs incorporated research-intensive studies of water and adapted its movement into crystal glass.
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Travis Vase
Barrington Nut Bowl
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Linsey Tumbler
Clayton Highball
Overflow Collection
Inspiration
Initial inspiration came from observations of water in rivers and my interpretations of its movement with sketches in addition to market research of Nachtmann’s existing product lines.
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Overflow Collection - Inspiration
Process
Process included research into cymatics, a natural phenomenon that happens in vibrating surfaces. Cymatic conditions were more regulated than river studies and allowed for less subjective interpretations of water’s movement. 17
Overflow Collection - Process
0.05s
0.10s
0.15s Using high quality photographs, individual beads of water flow from being relatively flat to elevated puddles. The camera’s frame, which captured the entire transformation was also used as inspiration. Foam cutouts of these shapes were created to transition from 2D to 3D. 18
Overflow Collection - Process
Foam shapes were stacked while preserving the order based on the time (0.05s at the bottom, 0.10s middle, 0.15s at top) and wrapped in paper. Upon making many of these forms the shapes, which came through resembled cymatic patterns. Vaccum molded plastic containers of these shapes were made from the paper studies.
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Overflow Collection - Process
Observations of how water would flow through and out of the containers were used to arrive at the final form. After marking the way water flowed out of the vessels, lines were cut into the plastic, revealing water overflowing out of the vessel. 20
Overflow Collection - Process
textured ornamentation
serving
*
consuming
wavy ornamentation Crystal glass, molded, yet maintains cut glass aesthetic.
Market analysis revealed that the tableware Nachtmann lacked were for serving and which had more textured ornamentation. The vase, serving dish for appetizers, and different sized tumblers were selected for the final collection. 21
Overflow Collection - Process
Ornamentation is too artistic, in reference to clients portfolio, and difficult to mold due to undercuts.
Streaking blends artistic and textural ornamentations. Possible option.
Too textural, not loose enough. Does not resemble studies in water.
Ridges may be too difficult to accomplish in glass molding process.
Next plaster models based on Overflow studies were taken into Rhino. Photographs are of the tumbler, plaster iterations.
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Overflow Collection - Process
In Rhino, cymatic-like shapes were sculpted into models. They preserved the fluid aesthetics of the initial studies.
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Overflow Collection
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Overflow Collection
mano Collection
ceramic tableware design
When cooking one sometimes takes measurements using tools like tablespoons and cups. This project sought to define forms for tools used to measure ambiguous units like pinches, smidgeones, and dashes. Forms were devised through an informal study of pronounciation, while color and finish were inspired by a French, Arts & Crafts-era ceramicist’s functional cookware.
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Handfuller
Smidgeoner
Dasher
Drizzler
Pincher 26
mano
smidgeon /ˈsmijin/
drizzle /ˈdrizəl/
/ˈsmi
jin/
/ˈdri
zəl/
/da
/SH
/pin
(t)SH/
/ˈhæn(d)
ful/
dash /daSH/
pinch /pin(t)SH/
handful /ˈhæn(d)ful/
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mano - Process
Drawings
Diagrams of pronouncation, derived from sound and photographs of mouth studies inspired a drawing session and work with plasticine led to the ambiguous measurment tool’s final forms. 28
mano - Process
Deep blue contrasting with ochre
Contrast between high gloss and matte
Color-Material Inspiration Inspiration came from the ambiguous words used in cookbooks to measure food and Auguste Delaherche’s ceramic work. Delaherche’s glazes, which were used to express depth and function, also measured ambiguous units.
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mano - Process
Matte vs. Satin gloss finish.
celeste
bone
nice
toulouse
bleu
versaille
burgundy
tournesol
Process
Final designs were developed into plaster molds and eventually slipcast. Four different colorways inspired by Delaherche’s work were selected and tested using a variety of glaze chips.
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mano - Process
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mano
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mano
mesclao’
spatial, object and food design
A Providence, Rhode Island dining experience run out of my bedroom while studying Industrial Design at RISD. For the price of the usual choices students had, our fun, fixed-menu dining experience incorporated custom objects and interiors.
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mesclao’
Handmade Bowls, turned wood, used in mesclao’ event #3
Oak Bowl
Juices from protein go into bowl, which reveals a soup underneath
Sip n’ Dip Bowl
JUS Bowl
Objects
A dining experience for creatives where environment, objects, and theme were as important as food. My bedroom became a canvas for new spaces and kinds of serving of dishes. 35
mesclao’ - Objects
Trougher Table Fabrication
Jus Bown Fabrication
Strawberry Desert Mold Fab
Veggie Puree Mold Fab 36
mesclao’ - Process
Marketing
In print around campus and online. Attracted 15+ customers per event.
UX/UI for reservation system 37
Example of print advertisement posted around RISD’s campus
mesclao’ - Marketing
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Drawings
a daily practice
Including three projects: Grid Fabrics, Pandemic Drawings, and Silkscreens.
Grid Fabrics
Pandemic Drawings
Silkscreens 39
Surface design. Fabric silkscreen printed polyester and cotton. (2021) 40
Drawings - Grid Fabrics
Upcycled paper drawings made during the pandemic. (2020 - 2021) 41
Drawings - Pandemic Drawings
Silkscreens on plastic surface material explorations. (2019) 42
Drawings - Silkscreens
Thank you! dicazam@gmail.com +1 617 943 6181 IG: @dash.ing.dash