Will McElwain's Product Design Portfolio 2014

a portfolio by will mcelwain product designer 2014

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

My Mountain 35 tent aglow on a winter evening above Loch Vale in Rocky Mountain National Park.

// mountain 25/35

2- and 3-person expedition tents spring '10

Project: Redesign the venerable Mountain 25 expedition tent and add a 3-person version (the 35), while incorporating modern features and making it even more impervious to severe weather.

Solution: The original Mountain 25, introduced in 1996 (designed by Bob Howe), was

a classic. The architecture was changed for Spring ‘07 to create a lighter-weight tent, but the design fell short, most notably in storm-worthiness due to the non-connecting side poles and ridge pole vent. This new design reverted back to a more traditional expedition tent architecture (similar to the popular

Mountain Hardwear Trango series), but with a rectangular footprint to make digging a platform out of snow easier. It also included abundant interior pockets, gear loops, simple venting, and adjustable vestibule stake-outs.

Key Insights: TNF’s athletes like Conrad Anker, Renan Ozturk, and Willie Benegas tested the

prototypes in real-world conditions, and their feedback was invaluable. On one expedition on Aconcagua (highest peak in South America), Willie Benegas reported that his Mountain 35 was the only tent left standing (out of multiple expeditions) after high winds blew through a camp high on the mountain.

sketches + ideation

design drawings

244 cm

173 cm

61 cm

91 cm

46 cm

112 cm

91 cm

92 cm

60 cm

High Camp (17,000 ft) on Redommaine Peak during the TNF-sponsored Shangri La Expedition in October, 2009.

Photo by Jimmy Chin

Summit push on the Shangri La Expedition in October, 2009.

Photo by Jimmy Chin

Prior versions of the Mountain 25: the original S’96 architecture to the left and S’07 version below.

A prototype Mountain 35 with poles that meet in the center like the original 1996 Mountain 25. The final design with the poles crossing turned out to be the more ideal solution. Tested during a trip to Thousand Island Lake in the Eastern Sierras in September, 2008.

// drywall series new line of single-wall tents + bivies spring '11

Phoenix 2

Sputnik 2

Asylum Bivy Simple Bivy

Project: Design a new line of ‘ultralight’ single-wall tents using a new waterproof/breathable fabric that passes the CPAI-84 flammability standard. The line included a freestanding 2-person model, a non-freestanding 2-person tent, a poled bivy, a simple,

all-fabric bivy, and a 2-person, 4-season mountaineering tent.

Solution: Four out of the five shelters were based on previously-existing products or structures.

The most interesting and fun to design was definitely the Sputnik 2, which maximized the amount

of interior space while minimizing the amount of pole used. It was a fairly radical architecture, but unfortunately did not gain traction in the marketplace. I wanted to give the designs a more aggressive, ‘faster’ look with some subtle (and not-so-subtle) accents.

Assault 2

Key Insights: The Phoenix 2 and Asylum Bivy received some positive press and a good reception, but reviews from customers were mixed. The DryWall fabric did not perform as well in humid conditions, so the quest for the perfect single-wall fabric continues.

sketches + inspiration

TNF designer Jacob Arnold bouldering near Colorado’s Unaweep Canyon during a field-testing trip in May, 2010

A Mountain 25 proto made with DryWall fabric specifically for TNF athlete Simone Morro’s first winter ascent of Gasherbrum II (8035m) in 2011, as documented in the film Cold by Cory Richards (photo credit).

prototypes + flat views

Testing the Sputnik 2 below the Palisades in King’s Canyon National Park’s Dusy Basin in August, 2010

design drawings

Photo by Daniel Yaris

Bivying among the boulders off of the Kepler Track, South Island, New Zealand in December, 2011.

TNF designer Casey Schumacher testing out the Bastion 4 during a product testing trip in Montana in 2011.

Packing up at the end of a successful trip.

// bastion 4 4-person expedition tent spring '12

Project: Create an expedition-worthy all-season mountaineering tent for four people plus gear. Key requirements were a rectangular footprint (for ease of digging a platform into snow),

lots of stake- and guy-out points, and excellent interior organization.

Solution: I wanted to come up with a unique architecture that was incredibly strong but not

so complex that it took multiple people to pitch. The solution was this geodesic-inspired structure that could hold a person’s body weight.

Key Insights: Using feedback

from TNF’s athletes, I discovered which features were the most important such as adjustable vestibule stake-outs, lots of interior pockets and hang loops, and glow-in-the-dark zipper pulls.

design drawings

Photo by unknown

// bedrock 4/6 4- and 6-person family camping tents spring '12

Project: Design a less expensive architecture for the family camping space (tents that you can more or less stand up in) that still feels very spacious inside.

Solution: A structure based upon the classic Bill Moss designs with

an added ridge pole that provided a little extra headroom as well as a ‘dry entrance’. This design used far less pole than the Mountain Manor architecture it was replacing, while still offering great livable space. The more efficient

use of pole allowed it to hit the aggressive initial price target.

Key Insights: Dual-sourcing the initial development gave me a unique view of how different factories design tents and what each of their strengths were.

design drawings

The first proto of the Bedrock 4 gets tested in Kings Canyon National Park in August, 2010.

Enjoying the last rays of sunshine during a backpacking trip in the Trinity Alps of Northern California in July, 2012.

// lightweight 3-season

1-, 2-, and 3-person backpacking tents spring '13

Mica FL 2

Kings Canyon 2 (& 3)

Mica FL 1

Project: Develop an all-new line of 3-season backpacking tents including an ‘ultralight’ segment that uses significantly lighter fabrics, as well as a ‘comfort’ segment that has lots of livable space.

Solution: While the existing architectures in the 3-season

category -- the Mica, Meso, and Minibus -- served TNF well for a few years, it was clear that new, more efficient designs would be needed. I came up with several different options to choose from and created pole sets for the factory to use as a starting point. I also did a lot of research

into competitor’s fabrics so that TNF had a good idea of where the fabric properties needed to be. I left the company midway through the design process of these tents, so I cannot lay claim to the final designs, but I did help test a prototype during an extended trip around the world.

Key Insights: Unfortunately, as is often the case in product design, there are many other people working on the same problem who come up with similar solutions at around the same time. Thus was the case with all but two of the designs I created for this project.

A selection of initial architecture sketches for the various 3-season tents (ultralight and comfort) that were to replace the existing line. These were for the 2-person version.

Prototyping the above architectures with actual tent poles, which resulted in the pole plan options on the next page.

pole plans

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450 400 425 450 425 (~172° pre-bend)

400 270 400 (~165° pre-bend)

425 (~172° pre-bend)

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310

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125 400 425 425 400

425

360

425 (~172° pre-bend)

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425 (~172° pre-bend)

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310 310 330

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310 (~170° pre-bend) 310

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This prototype Mica FL 1 came in handy during my exploration of the Andes in South America. Here was one of my camps (at 14,000 ft) below Taulliraju along the Santa Cruz trek in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca in March, 2012.

The proto stands strong versus 30+ mph winds along the shore of Lago Nordenskjรถld, below the iconic Cuernos del Paine massif in Torres del Paine National Park, Chile, in January, 2012

Using the Mica FL 1 on a trip to the stunning Ice Lake Basin outside of Silverton, Colorado in July, 2012.

// other tents backpacking, family camping, + expedition spring '09-12

S’11 VE 25 (update)

S’10 Mountain Manor 4/6/8

S’09 Double Headed Toad 44

S’11 Big Fat Frog 24 & Tadpole 23 (updates)

S’11 Mica 1

S’09 Flying Frog 33

S’11 Rock 23/33 (update)

S’11 Meso 2

S’09 Roadrunner 23/33

S’12 Flint 1

S’11 Minibus 2/3

S’09 Quartz 22

S’11 Flint 2 & S’12 Flint 3

S’09 Manta Ray 23/33

design drawings

Frost covers my tent on a chilly fall morning ouside of Telluride, Colorado in September 2012.

// gear lofts tent accessories spring '10

Seamstresses make tents for The North Face at a factory in Qingdao, China in September, 2008.

// trailhead series entry-level synthetic + down sleeping bags spring '12

S’12 Aleutian 2S/3S/4S

S’12 Dolomite 2S/3S

Project: Redesign the ‘aspirational’ line of low-pricepoint sleeping bags of various fills and temperature ratings so that they utilize better materials and have a current aesthetic that follows the design language of other TNF products.

Solution: One of the biggest

complaints of the prior Trailhead bags is that the fabrics were stiff and uncomfortable. By working closely with our sleeping bag factory, we were able to source a new fabric with a far superior hand (feel). I also focused on finding a solution for zipper snagging, which was accomplished with piping cord run-

ning along the zipper tape.

Key Insights: Cost negotiations, which I had the pleasure to be a part of initially, can be brutal, and can have a large effect on the tiny details that make a sleeping bag feel complete and well thought-out.

Relaxing after a fun day of climbing at the remote 16Z crag in Southwestern Colorado, May, 2005.

// base camp packs

tpe fabric backpacks + shoulder bags fall '09 + '11

// rolling thunder base camp rolling luggage refresh spring '10 + '11

// history wall a visual history of the north face december 2011 Project: Document and enable visual exploration of the 40-plus year history of equipment/gear at The North Face.

By photocopying and pinning up all of the old catalogs on a wall, it was possi-

ble to trace the history of revolutionary products like the ‘75 Oval Intention (first geodesic dome-style backpacking tent) and ‘73 Bigfoot (first shingled synthetic sleeping bag, pre-Cat’s Meow).

You can’t escape from it!

A screenshot of my elastic bending script in action within Rhino/Grasshopper.

// elastica script

calculating the shape of a bent pole february 2014

Project: As a tent designer and an engineer, I’ve always been curious about the question, “What shape does a long, narrow pole/beam/wire make when it undergoes large elastic (non-permanent) bending deformation?” It would appear to be a trivial problem: given a tent pole bent into arc as in the above photo, and knowing two out of the following three factors -- the total length of the pole, the width between the constrained end points, and the height of the arch -- how do you calculate the unknown variable?

Solution: Well, it turns out that the solution is not so simple. It involves things called ‘complete elliptic integrals of the first (and second) kind’ and requires the use of a numerical solver to find the value of a certain

parameter, ‘m’, which is unique for each specific shape of a bent rod. What I found fascinating while doing my research is that any long, thin object with a consistent cross-section, no matter what material it is made of, creates the same shape when bent, the so-called elastica curve.

In early 2014, I became determined to find an automated solution to this problem. Using a few key research papers I had discovered along the way, I wrote a VB.NET script for the CAD program Rhinoceros and its very powerful algorithmic modeling plugin Grasshopper to find the unknowns based on input parameters as well as the shape of the curve. The script can be found here: http://goo.gl/MnVG4v More info here: http://goo.gl/9xROF3

thank you!

Will McElwain Fort Collins, CO 970.708.0250 will@willmcelwain.com

Camping atop Isla del Sol, the fabled birthplace of the Incan civilization, on Lake Titicaca in March, 2012.