LUKE ANTHONY FIRTH INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER
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Portfolio
PROFILE Born in Leicester and based in London, my drive in design is to see products that I have worked on out there in the world. My skill base has been developed through my academic career as well as my experience working with both small, high end consultancies to giant global corporations. I excel best within a structured and ‘problem solving’ design role, taking a strategic approach to tasks. Systematically establishing a strong user focussed foundation before moving forwards building a research library collecting and ranking relevant factors, their interactions and their impacts on the final output before using these findings as seed points to guide ideation. My goal is to gain as much expertise and understanding of a projects target context as quickly as possible to create designs that are fully considered from the ground up and could never be called superficial.
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lukefirth.co.uk
+44 (0) 7817907583
luke@lukefirth.co.uk
Leicester / London
EXPERIENCE Collaborative Designer
(Aktiva Systems Ltd 2012 - 2013) Responsible for the design and development of a range of bespoke light fittings to high end clients, specialising in Retail Lighting, Shelf Lighting and Office Pendants. Involved with the design and roll out of LED luminaires replacing existing offerings. Responsibilities also included specifying fittings for large scale projects according to architectural drawings, backed up by computer aided lighting simulations and physical prototypes.
Publications Editor
Contributing Designer
(Made in Brunel 2014) Involved with the creation, handling and editing of elements within Made in Brunel publications for the year ‘13 - ‘14, including the Brunel Visions magazine and prestigious Made in Brunel book of which I acted as one of the named editors
EDUCATION Brunel University 2010-14
BA Industrial Design And Technology 2:1 Hons The unparrallelled opportunities to work on live briefs from industry provided by Brunel have allowed me to nuture and develop a versatile skill base and sense of realistic workflow that prepared me for and was cemented in my placement year.
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Product Designer
Brady Corporation (2014) Dissertation project in collaboration with the Brady Corporation. Responsible for; the project’s design and overall management, conducting in depth field research to produce documents identifying previously unmet customer needs (and subsequent array of proposed concepts) before final synthesis, design and development of a product system proposal along with functional prototype.
(The Noun Project 2011 - ) Online open source iconography contributor. My symbol and icon designs are used by companies and people that range from being sold printed on T-shirts to financial reports and government presentations.
ACHIEVEMENTS 2014 - MIB Inclusive design award: 2nd place (Harmony First Aid) 2014 - Exhibited at Made in Brunel show and New Designers exhibition (Harmony First Aid) 2013 Design prominently featured in popular online design magazines and blogs such as Yanko and Trendhunter (Ekho Speakers) 2012 3M / BPMA Design competition: Finalist (Theo)
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HARMONY FIRST AID SYSTEM Brady Corporation
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EKHO SPEAKER REBUILD Self Initiated Project
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PLANTSPOTTER National Geographic
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PRODUCTS ON MARKET Aktiva Systems Ltd
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ECO CAFETIERE Brunel University
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SKILL BASES Method and Interests
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FURNITURE DESIGN Self Initiated Project
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PERSONAL Method and Interests
HARMONY FIRST AID SYSTEM Develop product & service solutions around the management, maintenance & use of first aid kits and consumables in the workplace.
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PROJECT PROCESS
Access pilferproof dispenser
Apply wipes and plaster
DAILY
Approach Harmony station Use injury specific item EMERGENCY Access emergency kit
Return items to kit
Pick up tools
Use bandages
INVESTIGATION
INITIAL IDEATION
DIRECTION VALIDATION
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Literature Review Ethnography Existing offering analysis
Ranked list of current user issues surround existing offerings. (Oppourtunity/Value Analysis)
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Feautures laid out to meet listed issues. Project direction options formed. Interaction mapping.
A number of skeletal directions are created along with possible feautures to meet needs.
Superkit direction selected. Minimal viable concept. Cardboard prototyping for 3D review.
Project plans detailed for each eventuality. Superkit direction selected as most viable and incorporated into a 3D design with early mock ups.
CONCEPT RESOLUTION
ITERATIVE DEVELOPMENT
DETAIL DESIGN AND FUTURE
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Targeted user testing. Personas formed. Wide scale surveying.
Appropriate features selected and taken forward to development using a number of ready made for user testing to quantify design impacts.
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Sketch exploration. CAD design (master file created). Half scale real material prototyping.
Design is explored visually, with multiple checkpoints for physical testing. Contact with manufacturers to guide further design.
Mechanical fits and tolerance stacks resolved. Semantic and tactile elements refined. Commercial roadmap to future design.
Elements such as surface finishes and textures determined and final looks like / works like model created. Future (modular upsell) roadmap to fully self maintained system laid out.
Unfortunatly, for IP reasons the full report of this project is unavailable.
CON First aid manager key required to remove and restock supplies.
Pilfer proof wipes provide a one stop shop for small injuries.
Considered iconography for faster and identification of contents in any language.
Aesthetic contours. Improved of access.
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Indicator system: • 3 x AAA batteries • 1 x year of use • ~ $1.20 costing • Modular uprgrades 8
Project Seton/ Brady Corporation Major Drawing Name 3.2 Emergency Kit Details Project Drawing Nam Family A Family Drawing No. 1-00003 Drawing No. 3.2 Emergency Kit Details File Name File Name Date 08/03/14 Date Luke Anthony Firth Drawn by Drawn by All in millimetres (mm) Dimensions Dimensions DRAWING NOT TO SCALE
ALCHOHOL FREE WIPES
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FABRIC ALCHOHOL PLASTERS FREE WIPES
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WASHPROOF PLASTERS
FABRIC PLASTERS
WASHPROOF PLASTERS
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angle
Notes
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Plaster packs utilising ‘flat’ design utilising iconography in line with the dispenser to alert the user to the presence of different size options.
A first in this style, wipes have been redesigned within Brunel University -to Setonfit - Brady Corporation the pilfer proof system.
Notes
Brunel
Method Of Operation 1
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OCT NOV
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PLANTSPOTTER Analyse the National Geographic brand and current/future trends to produce a highly developed repositioning proposal before delivering a range of product concepts for the newly repositioned brand in the year 2030.
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BRAND ANALYSIS & 2030 REPOSITIONING What trends are likely to impact National Geographic over the next 15 years?
2013 5 Billion
350,000,000 81%
14 Million
2030
2013
Existing beliefs that information found in print can be sourced for free online increase as users seek more responsive, dynamic content.
A predicted boom in the number of middle class in Asia lead to National Geographics traditional content sources and readership to overlap.
2030
The trend of increasing personal technology is set to continue sweeping across Africa and Asia.
Depression is estimated to be the most prevalent disease. However, education has been marked as best method to combat rising levels.
So what could they do about it?
2013 National Geographic currently employs a highly linear information flow, from explorers in remote regions who create content which then flows through to their editor and eventually down to followers through a range of (mostly) static touchpoints.
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EXPLORER
EXPLORER NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
EDITOR
EDITOR
TOUCHPOINT
TOUCHPOINT
USER
USER
COMMUNITY PLATFORM
2030
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
COMMUNITY PLATFORM
TOUCHPOINT
USER
USER
TOUCHPOINT
To adapt to changing conditions, we recommend that National Geographic move to provide their followers with a range of tools to become explorers in their own worlds. Feeding data directly back to a community base which in turn is used to create relevant real time content. For the full 120 page brand repositioning report, just ask!
PLANTSPOTTER PROPOSAL Mankind has traditionally had an extremely intimate relationship with plantlife for food, culture, religion and medicine. Estimates state there are up to 100million species of plants, but we have discovered only a tiny percentage and of those we only interact with a handful. Furthermore, outside of agriculture they are used for little more than living decoration. The Plantspotter utilises a miniturised raman spectroscope that acts as your key back into this world, using National Geographics explorer communities to encourage users to go out and find new plants as well as provided the ultimate gardening tool to look after plants with real time health information.
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Detail Development
EXPLORE
Keep your PlantSpotter close by!
See a plant you like? Scan it! Raman spectroscopy is used to identify what the species is.
After data is passed through the analysis engine you have access to a plethora of data about that plant.
The Plantspotter analyses the plants chemical composition, letting you know its health and needs.
Armed with this information, you can look after any plant. The only limitation is what you can find!
CARE FOR
Want to look after your plants and know how well they are doing? Scan them! 13
Real time content. When you scan with the Plantspotter, NG collects the metadata like location and species to build dynamic content for you! 14
ECO CAFETIERE The analysis of an existing product found in the home from an environmentally sustainable viewpoint and the subsequent proposal of a commercially viable redesign with a reduced environmental impact.
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ECO CAFETIERE REDESIGN This project included the deconstruction and reverse engineering of an existing product to analyse using the Cambridge Eco selector tool as well as SIMAPRO to find the environmental impacts of each of the parts and processes before using this information to apply low environmental impact esign techniques to reduce these and create a cleaner, friendlier product proposal.
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Energy (MJ)
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0
Material
Manufacture
Transport
Use
Disposal
Transport
Use
Disposal
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CO2 Footprint (kg)
10 8 6 4 2 0
Phase Material Manufacture Transport Use Disposal Total (for first life) End of life potential
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Material
Manufacture
Energy (MJ) 26.8 6.92 1.05 177 0.13 212 0
Energy (%) 12.6 3.3 0.5 83.6 0.1 100
CO2 (kg) 1.56 0.53 0.0743 11 0.00909 13.2 0
CO2 (%) 11.8 4.0 0.6 83.6 0.1 100
REDESIGN PROPOSAL Reductions in Scale A B A
Reductions in the size of components have trimmed mass by 10% reducing material and manufacture impacts. Cup Assembly Improvements B 1. Bolt replaced with silicon bush for smooth press action from a single part. 2. Removed nut and insert enables cleaning of all areas (eliminates void that exists between insert and cup). 3. Switching the plating method from Hexavalent to Trivalent for its reduction in adverse human health effects and air emissions. Redesigned Carafe Body C
C
Merging both the two largest components by mass and impact to reduce the combined mass from 446.5g of steel and glass to 134g of PLA that requires low energy manufacture and can be composted. Reducing respiratory inorganics. Serving Markings D As so much of the wastage associated with the product can be traced to human error from overfilling, serving markings in the form of moulded elements or pad printing offer a low cost and high impact solution.
D
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Quantative Improvement •
Total reduction in materials and manufacture energy of 31.45% and CO2 of 32.35%.
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The carafe body has a reduction in overall impact across all categories of 64.62%.
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The reworked cup assembly has reduced the impact of the lid by 32.08% .
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For the full 36 page eco redesign report, just ask!
FURNITURE DESIGN The design and subsequent manufacture of a one off piece of custom home furniture. An exercise in furniture design and large scale woodwork.
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MARCO POOL & DINING So I wanted a pool table and had this brief to build something but I knew I couldn’t convince anyone that I had anywhere to put the such a large piece of furniture. To partially solve this the product description was expanded so that the table could be readily converted into a usable dining or work table.
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MARCO POOL & DINING The finished table is solid English oak (which arrived in pieces so large they still had bark on both sides), vulcanised rubber bumpers with a high grade felt surface and a chrome plated steel kick bar to brace to two large legs. The planning of this project was of upmost importance as the entire piece had to be designed and constructed by myself over a period of roughly six weeks, often staying behind after hours to perfect and finish the multitude of parts and joints to ensure each stage provided a solid foundation for the next.
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EKHO SPEAKER REBUILD An ongoing personal project to rennovate and apply renewed aesthetics to add value back into an old 5.1 surround sound speaker system.
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EKHO SPEAKER REBUILD Coming from a typical aesthetic of black and plastic silver, this project has allowed me to put my personal style philosophy into practice with no other thoughts aside from accoustic and aesthetic qualities. The project was pick up on by many popular design blogs and recieved a number of interested parties in purchasing the completed set. The ECKO SS5.1SL1 (Surround Sound 5.1 Special Leather v1) reconciles the use of ‘traditional’ luxury materials with modern styling for a premium system that’s at the top of the line in both aesthetic and audio quality. The British design student was diligent from a materials standpoint, combining premium leathers, brass hardware, and a sleek polypropylene weave that reminds us (at least aesthetically) of carbon fiber to fit seamlessly into the user’s intended space. Contact the designer via his website to see if he’ll produce you a set, and at what cost. - The Cosby Press
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PRODUCTS ON MARKET Products that I have been responsible for the design work on that are now currently on the market.
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SQUARE ONE PENDANT A redesign of an existing twin 80W pendant to reduce fitting temperatures to allow emergency electronics to be made integral to the fitting without sacrificing luminous output. Through physical prototyping to make iterative changes and an overhauled reflector design I was able to reduce the fittings power consumption from 160W to 54W, reduced the internal temperature to allow the emergency electronics on board and with only a ~10% drop in total output.
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WILLS MEMORIAL b-LINE Fitting for Bristol University Wills Memorial library rennovation project. Designed to provide the greatest flexibility with minimal damage to the historic desks. The Wills Memorial b-Line allows users full and adjustable lighting coverage for desks and bookcases along with multiple power points and an innovative power mangement system to save time and money for the university during the nightly switch off and morning wake up.
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B SQUARE LED The B Square LED is a modular high performance fitting made to the most strict commercial and thermal requirements to meet a predetermined pricepoint within Aktivas product portfolio. My main project during my placement, I worked on this fitting through from inception to specifying for jobs. Using only 9 seperate parts (aside from required electronics) this fitting can be used for all manner of bookshelves and desk scenarios, mounted on walls or even inset within shelving units for retail applications.
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SKILL BASES The demonstratable skills that allow me to do what I do as a designer.
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HAND VISUALISATION Coming from an Industrial design background, hand rendering and visualisation is an extremely important part of my process. Due to the types of project I have undertaken over the past few years, sketching has only rarely been called upon and is a skill I am looking to find oppourtunity develop further.
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DIGITAL VISUALISATION Before any time or capital is put into representative physical models, I have found that most testing and styling decisions can be made informed by rough card and readymade ‘works like’ prototypes and clear 3D renderings and VR animations. Used here: Keyshot 4
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PHYSICAL MODELLING Sometimes, once the prototypes and test rigs alongside the virtual renders have done their part a looks like and/or works like model is required for presentation or demonstration. With an intimate knowledge of working with a wide range of traditional materials I have produced one off products ranging from 6ft English oak pool tables to highly detailed techno pens.
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PERSONAL Who am I and what Is my personal approach to design?
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METHODOLOGY User Testing
Brief Detail Resolution
Future Development Plan
Current Proposal
Iterative Development
Investigation
Problem Checklist Project Directions Feature Ideation
INTERESTS
Mountain Walking
I have been walking the peaks of Britain for 12 years. This year I aim to complete the “24hr challenge�. 34
Cycling
Living the city life can take its toll on creativity, I have found getting out into the country on a days ride to be the perfect reset button.
Gaming
Escapism at its finest and a techno geeks best friend. After a long day there is little more effective methods of catharthis.
LF
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