Aidan Whitby - Industrial Design - Portfolio

RESUME

EDUCATION:

Bachelor of Industrial Design (Honours) at UNSW

UNSW Arts, Design and Architecture Dean’s List Certificate (WAM above 80%)

EXPERIENCE:

Intern Industrial Designer at POP This! (2019 - 2022)

Casual employment while at University, working 2-3 days per week

Full Time Industrial Designer at POP This! (2022 to Current)

Experience working at design consultancy and bringing many products to market (examples of work avaliable on request).

• Quoting, production CAD drawings, communicating with manufacturers

• Working with clients, risk management, project management and team skills

• Travelled extensively around the country managing on-site installations for display activations.

• Qualified as a work health safety officer, forklift license, medium rigid truck license.

Co-founder of a small business - Mountain Bike Sydney (2018 - Current)

Launched several products with a huge amount of positive feedback from the general public.

SKILLS:

- Software

• Advanced Solidworks skills

• Graphic design - Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign

• Video editing and animation - Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects and Audition

• Keyshot rendering and annimation

- Hard Skills

• Sketching, physical prototyping, manufacturing and construction

• Leadership, team work and communication

• Brief creation and design research

- References avaliable on request

CONTACT DETAILS:

Email: aidan.whitby@outlook.com

Phone: 0411845587

LinkedIn and Website with more projects - QR code:

CONTENTS

Supersend is a beehive weight monitor, designed to make Australian commercial beekeeping vastly more efficient.

RESEARCH SKETCHING PROTOTYPING REFINEMENT WORKING MODEL RENDERINGS

ABOUT THE PROJECT:

Commercial beekeepers are responsible for pollinating 65% of Australian crops and creating the delicious honey we all love.

Supersend is designed to make commercial apiaries (beehive sites) more efficient by allowing a beekeeper to see the condition of the hive without having to be on-site. It measures the weight of the honey super boxes (where the bees store the honey on a beehive) and sends it to the app via the 4G network. Research was conducted to examine the current situation in Australia. This was done with an aim to generate key findings and inform my design. I needed to make a product that was designed for the management techniques that Australian beekeepers use, which greatly differ to other areas of the globe. This is due to our unique flora and the increased distances between beekeeping sites.

The product consists of four legs (containing the weight measuring cells) and a landing plate. Any standard commercial beehive can fit on top and be measured using the Supersend. It has also been developed to take on the harsh Australian environmental conditions, be extremely easy to change parts and features a ‘transportation lockout’ which means the hive doesn’t need to be removed from the Supersend during transport.

While this isn’t the first hive load scale, it is the first designed with the user in mind. Other options have experienced close to zero percent uptake by the Australian market. This can be put own to; high initial and ongoing costs, minimal data security, unergonomic designs, and lack of reliability, all of which the Supersend addresses.

RESEARCH

The project began with design research in-order to form an appropriate brief. Key findings were generated from apiary site visits with key stakeholders, literature reviews and co-design activities. I worked closely with Dr. Doug Somerville in this project and you can watch him explain the issue using the QR-code.

SKETCHING

Due to the mechanical nature of the project, I sketched every mechanism to wrap my head around the geometry.

PROTOTYPING

Initial prototyping used wood and cardboard then matured to 3D printing. Arduino was also used to test the functionality of the mechanisms that measured weight.

REFINEMENT

An extensive period of time in this project went into refining the parts to meet manufacturing, durability and ergonomic criteria.

WORKING MODEL

The final model used a 4G Arduino to transmit data to the cloud. This final concept was also presented and tested with Dr. Somerville to access the final design outcome.

RENDERS

Refer to the QR-code to see a video render of how the various parts interact.

THE MOSES TRAIL TOOL

THE STORY OF COMMERCIALISING A TOOL SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED FOR BUILDING MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAILS.

ABOUT THE PROJECT:

Two of my close riding mates and I created a business a few years ago with an aim to become a hub for mountain biking in Sydney. We wanted to launch a tool that could help the trail building community in Sydney. As the industrial designer, I was responsible for the design, production and management of the new product.

First I sketched a few simple concepts and we began to move towards the idea of having an asymmetrical design that allowed for a different tool on every side of the product. I also wanted the product to be narrower then other options available on the market so that it could be used to dig narrow drains. Costing sheets, work breakdown sheets and risk management were some of the tools I used to ensure we had a successful product. To save shipping cost and minimise risk on the project I decided that to would weld the tube and struts to the water-jet cut steel profile in-house. Once I had our final form, we sent the drawings to a manufacturer in China to make a prototype. I worked with them to choose the right type of steel, manufacturing method and finish.

Once we had the prototype, a rigorous product test was conducted to ensure we were positive that it would stand the test of time. We also began our social media campaign with a goal to raise enough capital to fund the manufacturing by pre-selling the items. It proved invaluable to have a videographer and professional mountain biker to generate hype for the pre-sale (watch the video we made using the QR-code below). I designed packaging for safely shipping around the country and storing the items during manufacturing.

We have now manufactured over 120 Moses Trail Tools and sold over $30,000 worth of stock. I plan to continue to release new products onto the market in the future. To see more head to our website mtbsydney.com

Welding jig

Chamfering tubes on home made belt grinder. Assembly line

New t-shirts that we have for sale

Studio photography

Cardboard shippers

FLUID

A BATTERY POWERED KETTLE DESIGNED TO MAXIMISE THE TIME ENTERTAINERS HAVE WITH THEIR GUESTS AT HOME.

RESEARCH SKETCHING/PROTOTYPING MODEL RENDERINGS

ABOUT THE PROJECT:

This an industry partner project with Breville, where they gave us a task to design a new water boiling device for their brand. I started with primary research into the Australian household with an aim to identify a problem that could be solved by creating a new kettle concept.

I conducted a survey on over 100 Australian families and found that 75% of home guest entertainment happens in areas outside of the kitchen. I realised that people need to leave their guests, head to the kitchen and wait for the kettle to boil. This was confirmed in the survey which found that 55% of people miss out on conversations when they leave to make hot drinks. I decided that I would design a mobile, battery powered kettle that is could be used with the guests. The kettle also had to match the Breville brand aesthetic and form that they incorporate in their products.

SKETCHING AND PROTOTYPING

3D PRINTED MODEL

GLASS-REINFORCED NYLON TO WITHSTAND HIGH HEAT

RENDERS

BRUSHED STAINLESS

HANDLE FOLDS IN FOR CONVENIENT TRANSPORT

ON/OFF SWITCH

BATTERY MODULE

BATTERY INDICATOR

To view a video of internal components use QR-Code

1L VESSEL CAPACITY REDUCED DIAMETER ALLOWS FOR EASY POUR WITHOUT SPILLS

ABOUT ME:

I’m constantly designing and making in my free time. This has given me a broad, practical understanding of how materials can be manipulated. I can’t stop thinking about design and I find it super rewarding to build. I also have a large amount of self motivation and get excited about working on any project. I love to ride motorbikes, rock climb outdoors and go camping in my 4 wheel drive. My design inspiration partially comes from these hobbies and my upbringing on our family farm.

Top photos: The process of building a pizza oven and a bench. The bench was constructed from reclaimed timber out of an old hay shed. This timber would be over 150 years old.

Bottom left to right: Blacksmithed mattock with hand carved timber handle. 72 inch bench grinder that I designed and fabricated. Insulated kennels to keep our sheep dogs happy and warm, they can sit on the flat roof too.