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Design through a Lens

by Douglas Ball

“Sometimes I feel that my life was hijacked by design.”

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“All I wanted in those early years was to become a photographer like Robert Capa. In those days Life Magazine was the publication that attracted the work of the best photographers and I devoured every single issue that I could lay my hands on. For a young impressionable lad, becoming a war correspondent, seemed so glamourous and exciting.”

Early Years

met in Berlin was a young American by the name of Will Mc Bride who had By the time I was fifteen I had built studied art in the US and after serving my own darkroom. It included an a stint in the army took up residence in enlarger that I had built from a Popular Berlin where he bought an old Leica.

Mechanics plan. The materials were all Shortly after his arrival the Russians found in our home and included a large closed the Berlin Corridor. Fate played tomato soup can, a socket and light bulb, a huge hand here as the official Life black construction paper which was photographer was out of the city so it folded and became the bellows and by was McBride’s photos that were accepted sawing off the front inch of my mother’s by Life Magazine. After becoming an Kodak Box camera I acquired the lens. official Life photographer he was betting It worked, but it didn’t work well. There his career on the expectation that the was considerable light leakage and the Russians would eventually move their prints lacked contrast but I thought it tanks into West Berlin and he hoped to was sufficient to launch my career in photograph the opening shots of the war, photography. We all start somewhere. before somehow managing his escape to the West. He told me that there were, I convinced my hockey team to pose for supposedly, no Russian soldiers in East a group shot, at the end of our season, Berlin, but everyone knew they were and to show that this was a professional there. Since the Berlin Wall had not yet effort I asked .25 cents for each print in been built it was still possible to simply advance. Unfortunately my calculations drive into East Berlin, and so the next for the flash lighting were a little off day I went into East Berlin looking for and when the film was developed I was them with my camera and Lambretta. horrified to see that there were barely any images there. It was humiliating to admit This was the summer of 1959, and defeat and return the .25 cents to the with the exception of the main street, other team members. Luckily, from an East Berlin was still a shambles from early age, I had a lot of other interests and the Allied bombing. It was rubble most drawing was certainly one of them. Life everywhere. On occasion there would was not the only magazine in the house be odd old woman salvaging what she as my mother enjoyed ‘Ladies Home could from the ruins but I was hesitant Journal’ which used more illustrations to photograph scenes like this. However than photographs so it was this, more on my third trip into East Berlin, feeling than anything else, that steered me in the more confident, I ventured further from direction of art and design. the sanctuary of the Western city and as I drove around a corner I almost collided After graduating from The Ontario with a large Russian tank. The soldiers College of Art in Industrial Design I were simply standing around as I drove spent a year in Europe. While travelling past. I stopped and was reaching for my the continent on an old Lambretta camera when I noticed one of the soldiers scooter I had the good fortune to spend wagging his finger from side to side. I time in Berlin. Now Berlin, in those took this as an indication that it was best days, was one of the most exciting places to move on. So, the great photo, that in the world because at any moment might have wound up on the cover of the Russians were expected to roll into Life Magazine, never was taken, much West Berlin and World War 3 would like the ruined hockey pictures that were commence. One of the first people I badly underexposed.

In those days Berlin was one of the most exciting cities anywhere, and especially for a photographer. I remember going into the U-Bahn underground rail station, that ran between East and West Berlin. As I stood on the platform a train came in from the East and three people got off. It was immediately obvious that they were parents and son. He was most likely in his early twenties and wearing what appeared to be a brand new suit, shiny shoes and was carrying a cheap looking cardboard suitcase. His parents clothes, by comparison, were well worn and had the appearance of being perhaps of pre war vintage. The mother was in tears and it was obvious they were saying their goodbyes with the possibility they would not be seeing one another again.

Such an incredibly poignant scene just begged to be photographed but I left my camera in it’s bag because I felt that this was their private moment and I should not do anything to spoil the little time that they had together.

The same week I had the opportunity to attend the German Grand Prix that was held at the notorious AVUS track.

This track was completed in 1921 and subsequently used to demonstrate the prowess of the incredible MercedesBenz and Auto Union race cars from the thirties. In 1937 these cars reached speeds of 380km/h on the straights and 180km/h on the banked section. In 1959 they held the first German Grand Prix at the AVUS since the thirties and I happened to be in Berlin that week.

The track, designed for one purpose, which was speed, consisted of simply two long straights with a 43 degree banked turn at each end. The surface of the turns were made from brick and with such high banking, the cars were almost at flat out speed when negotiating the corners. Standing on the inside of the north turn I was actually able to

“On this sample the cast aluminum components were brightly polished which shows off the form of the legs and arms beautifully, and the seating unit takes on a new elegance.”

Photo courtesy of Douglas Ball

see into the cockpits of the cars as they sped by. I was watching the sports car race that preceded the actual Grand Prix main event. The Porsches that year had developed a reputation for being very fast in the rain and it was clear they were interested in demonstrating their advantage over the rest of the field. By the third lap several of the Porsche RSK’s were well in the lead when suddenly one spun out of control and disappeared completely over the top edge of the banked turn. There was absolutely no protective rail to stop the car, and since there was no visible evidence of the accident nor yellow flag, the other cars

Aside from the terrible tragedy of it all I realized that I had missed yet another opportunity to capture an important picture. I started to question any ideas of becoming a photojournalist. Maybe I just did not have what it took to become one. Even to this day I think about those two missed photo opportunities but rationalized that my camera, with it’s slow fixed lens, would not have worked well enough. However the simple truth was that I did not have the hunger to get them in the first place. In both cases I stood frozen and watched, much like a deer in the headlights of a car. On top The shock of seeing this unfold before my eyes put me off racing for many years. of all this I had recently learned that my continued at their high speed. It was in the same or very next lap that another RSK spun at exactly the same place on the turn. This time however, the driver was not as fortunate, as the car hit the lip of the track and broke in half. The driver was flung from the car and his body hit a flagpole by the side of the track. The French driver, Jean Behra, was killed from the impact. To this day I still have that image of his spread eagled body hurtling through the air, before colliding with the pole.

“I still look back fondly on this project and decided that being behind the camera was more exciting than watching someone else do the work. I learned a lot from shooting film. When shooting stills it is customary to shoot several different exposures to ensure that at least one exposure is correct. With film you must get it right the very first time. Therefore I learned the importance of setting up the correct lighting and then carefully calculating the proper exposure for the large set.”

“I mounted an extremely fast lens that was shot wide open producing a razor thin depth of field which was focused on the leg detail with the name Arconas.”

Photo courtesy of Douglas Ball.

hero, Robert Capa, had stepped on a land mine in Indochina a couple of years earlier. I slowly came to the realization that the design world might be a better option after all.

Was I terribly upset by this? Not really. What I did could not know at the time, was that Will Mc Bride would never got his shots either, because the Russians never came. Sometimes things just don’t work out as expected.

wiring was capable of providing. His job was to shout the second he smelled burning wire and we immediately turned off all the lights. This is why the job took so long to finish.

We liked the building so much that we moved our studio to another floor with great window light. We stayed there for 3 or 4 years before moving back out to the West Island where I found and bought a derelict old garage building that gave us ample square footage for our design studio, multiple I already had one foot in the design world but had no idea what model shops and photo studio space. In those days we were type of work I might be looking for. However that winter in cranking out new systems at a phenomenal rate and as soon London I had the good fortune to hear Charles Eames speak as we had production prototypes available we would set them and in his presentation, as he talked about his work, he showed up and do the photography for brochures and advertisements. countless images and films. Today he and his wife Ray are Everything was working as it should. It was simply a little bit remembered mainly for their marvelous furniture designs. But of heaven in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue. for me it was the amazing imagery he presented with his stills and film that I remembered the most. More than anything else it was this evening that convinced me that I could become Design Through Technology a designer and still continue to use the camera as a means of In January 1984 there was a pivotal moment in my career as supporting my work. It was this moment in time that allowed that was when the first Macintosh arrived on the shelves and me to see, for the first time clearly, what my road map for the represented the beginning of a revolution of sorts as to how we future might look like. would conduct our work. While still trying to understand the implications of all this a second bombshell was launched. It Career Life was the ‘Alias’ 3D computer modeling software that promised to really change how we would work. Our office had always When I returned to North America I set out immediately to relied on our model shops to build prototypes in order to test find work as a product designer with a manufacturing company. ideas and concepts. The new 3D software suggested that this Finding work was fairly easy in those days and before I knew process could be dramatically simplified and shortened. it I was doing exactly what I had hoped to do. This was with Sunshine Office Equipment in Waterloo Ontario. It was the In 1986 I took delivery of what had to be the most expensive beginning of an excellent thirty year relationship, which was acquisition short of buying a good sized building. It was a SGI made even better during the early years when they agreed to computer that required a second Pixar computer that would change the name of the company to Sunar. generate much quicker rendering times. The actual ‘Alias’ software was the third component. The hardware generated When I completed my first office furniture system for Sunar so much heat and noise that it was all placed in a separate the prototype samples were shipped to a photographers studio little room that was built for this purpose. There was a very for photography and I, of course, hung around the set ups and long learning curve associated with all of this, both from shooting in order to direct the work. A couple of years later we the software itself and trying to understand what the actual were ready to photograph the new ‘Uniwall System’ and the benefits would be. What was quickly discovered however ‘S System’ and this time I decided to be more adventurous. I was the fact that the finished computer models themselves hired a Montreal photographer by the name of Len Koraen to were barely adequate. This was because the software and shoot the stills and I would work on a film version with some hardware were not up to the task of generating highlights other amateur film makers. The problem was that no one had or shadows. I was told not to worry as they were promised a studio capable of doing all this. Luckily we found a former in the next software update. I had learned through my fur storage facility that had been used by Holt Renfrew and experience in photographic set the need of highlights and we made a deal with them that we would get the space free for shadows to actually inform you as to what you are seeing, and a month if we removed all the three levels of racking that was without them it becomes much more difficult to completely used for fur coat storage. This was ideal for us since the ceiling understand the subtly of form and detail of the model. was quite high and after removing the lower two levels we still had the upper one to use for our overhead shooting and filming. Since the update was promised shortly I saw this as merely a temporary problem and true to the companies word the We painted all the walls black and then set to work. Len used new software arrived a few months later. I eagerly loaded his 4” x 5” equipment for the major stills and I backed up it into the computer, (not that easy with the Unix OS that everything with my 35mm Nikon. I also acquired a second the SGI used), and proceeded to build my first simple test hand Arriflex 16S film camera that I used for the movie work. model that would allow me to create my first highlights with We rented all the movie lighting to cover this large set and had shadows. Even the most simple model took a few minutes one person stationed at the electrical fuse panel in the hallway to render but finally it came up on the screen - but without because we were drawing a lot more electricity than the old highlights or shadows. Assuming that I had made a mistake

I tried again, and again, and yet again - but all with the same result. I picked up the phone and called technical support at Alias. What they told me was very difficult for me to comprehend.

They said that the ‘spotlight’ feature that would create the highlights and shadows did not work with the Pixar rendering engine. In other words I had coughed up an extra $90,000.00 in 1986 dollars for something that had become obsolete in less than six months. My options were to simply not use the Pixar engine, which meant incredibly long rendering times, or to forget about highlights and shadows altogether, which meant that the model was nowhere near photorealistic. I opted for the later approach and when possible I retouched the rendered image with a paint program to create the effects I felt were necessary. Then I simply fussed and fumed for the next three or four years until they brought out a much cheaper and smaller computer that would finally deliver what was originally promised. Had I done the right thing back in 1986. I most certainly did because in 1990 SunarHauserman, the company that was paying all the bills, went bankrupt, and I had to give up my people, the model shop and photo studio but by this time I was totally up to speed with Alias and was able to function quite well on my own. The early adapter option was indeed costly but eventually paid off, and it allowed me go out and find new clients and deliver a service to them with, at the time, few other resources.

Photo courtesy of Adrienne Ball

“My best memories, when I think back over all these years, has been that of prowling through exotic sites or ancient ruins…”

What does this have to do with design or photography? Well, the common denominator is ‘light’. A computer model requires that you create one or more lights to light your model.

A subject before the camera also requires light to be seen. A product is seen generally under a light source, sometimes good and sometimes poor.

When you learn about light and how to use it to photograph something you can use the same techniques to light a computer model which is what I generally did. I would apply lights in the computer model much like I would do if I was taking a portrait of someone. Today there is no lack of young designers who are very capable of producing excellent computer models

but, in my opinion, their work falls short because they lack the skills and understanding of how to properly light a model as a photographer would do.

Design Through Lighting Concerning the design of a product, it’s form and sense of quality often is determined by the way light hits and acts upon it’s surface. I believe that my experience in a photo studio has had a positive effect on some of my designs.

For example the Uniwall System and the Race System stood out very well under the weak and shadowless overhead fluorescent lighting. We had designed in small radiuses along horizontal edges that picked up the overhead lights and created highlights that gave off more information about the materials used on the products. The generous radius on the Race beam was located above the work surface so that the eye was drawn to that instead of the usual clutter on the top surfaces. There were times when I was being given a tour of an office installation when, on occasion, something would immediately leap out at you that suggested there was a greater sense of quality coming from this new space. This feeling was generated in a nanosecond of time and was created by the little highlights and shadow details of the design. It took another second or two before I realized that I was actually looking at Uniwall or the Race system. This was because they were designed to be stand out and be seen better under the usual weak and shadowless lighting of the office as the highlights and shadows from the product increased the sparkle and contrast to the room. In addition Race actually had its own ambient lighting that was directed upward to the ceiling but also had small slots in the bottom of the fixtures that allowed light to wash downwards over the upper portions of the system to bring out the textures and sheen of the materials. It was a theatrical trick but it worked very well.

The large open spaces of our airport terminals are often lit by lighting similar to that found in the office which, while efficient, does little to enhance ones appearance nor that of the things

around them. I have seen some new terminals where I thought the lighting was extraordinary but generally this is found only in the newer terminals.

Polished aluminum used in various seating designs can certainly add some sparkle and micro contrast to enliven these spaces. I recently was given a two seat version of Aerea that we had designed for Arconas. On this sample the cast aluminum components were brightly polished which shows off the form of the legs and arms beautifully, and the seating unit takes on a new elegance. I believe this was the first sample that they had done this way as these parts are usually painted in a silver or black coated finish. At the first opportunity I brought out my camera and positioned it very low to capture the end elevation of the seating. I used the weak window light and added reflectors to bring out the highlights and shadow detail on these reflective parts. In the background, on one of these shots, we placed the original wood model of the leg/ arm component that we thought to be the most critical part of the overall design.

On the camera I mounted an extremely fast lens that was shot wide open producing a razor thin depth of field which was focused on the leg detail with the name Arconas. In this case the area of focus was perhaps only three eights of an inch deep. Everything else was thrown out of focus but resolved in a way that created a lovely soft blur or bokeh. I think these lenses can produce really magical effects and that is why I love using them in this way every chance I get.

By Design My good wife Sydney has insinuated, on occasion, that I am married to my work as an industrial designer. Now that I think of it, this might even be in the form of a little complaint. Well, it has kept the bread on the table all these years and if she is right there is no disputing the fact that it has been one happy marriage. To expand on her idea I would add that there has also been a mistress all these years, an affair that has gone on even longer than the aforesaid marriage. The mistress of this lengthy

affair has been, of course, my love of the camera. It must be a very open marriage since there is a mutual understanding that both can exist side by side and even work together to ensure the greatest level of satisfaction. The marriage does require a lot more work, effort, and dedication because design projects can usually take years to resolve while the

camera can deliver gratification in an instant. I admit that I do tend to spoil the mistress with extravagant gifts from time to time in the form of an exotic lens or two.

My best memories, when I think back over all these years, has been that of prowling through exotic sites or

ancient ruins with both Sydney and my mistress, which I assume then becomes a Marriage a Trois.

Whatever you want to call all this, one thing is clear. It has all worked for me.

By choosing a career in design I have had a sense of fulfilment that I probably would not have had as a photojournalist,

Douglas Ball shooting Leon’s models for a film in the mid 70’s.

Douglas Ball worked on Arconas projects from 1995 to 2011. His award-winning work can be seen and used across the globe, in airports, corporate settings and government offices. Douglas’ designs for Arconas include Flyaway terminal seating, Logistics Lounge chair and the Tangerine multipurpose seating series. Aerea - Douglas’ last commission for Arconas - was born out of the need for highly durable and configurable beam furniture with a softer, more comfortable sit. A new concept in soft seating that can be utilized in high traffic waiting areas in airports, transportation terminals, courthouses, universities, corportate offices and healthcare facilities.

Douglas is an Industrial Design graduate of the Ontario College of Art, and is also a member of the FADIQ and IDSA associations.

The integration of technology and design has always fascinated Douglas. This serves as his inspiration and continues to challenge him to new designs as technology evolves.

To learn more about Mr. Ball and Arconas, please visit douglasball.com and arconas.com

+1-905-272-0727 +1-800-387-9496 info@arconas.com arconas.com