CLUG Mechanical Design

Hey guys!

I’m back on the job hunt, and updating my portfolio. Luckily one of the projects I worked on was a Kickstarter project, and we were fairly open about our process, which means I can show almost everything!

The project is up at: Michael Coyle - CLUG

I could use some help with:

  • Length - Am I showing too much or too little? I’m planning on adding a slide about quality control, but that should be the last one. Things I haven’t shown include stuff like art directing the instagram, leading the latest POP design, designing and building the tradeshow booth, adjusting the website code, etc.
  • Clarity - Does it all make sense? I expect both engineering and design managers will be seeing this. I used to show a lot of math in my portfolio pieces, but I tried to avoid that this time.
  • Flow - Is the order logical? Does it tell the story well?

Any other comments are of course welcome, and please take a look at the rest of the site too if you have time, some comments on other projects would be great as well!

Thanks!

Just my .02

Works for me. I can go through it at my pace and pick and choose what I want. I would like to know more about the POP and tradeshow stuff.

I also am interested in your role on the business end, if any.

And I really dig your fatigue fixture. Maybe a bit overkill, but still cool. Any reason you made it floor-standing instead of something desktop?

Thanks iab!

I’ll add in the POP and tradeshow stuff.

I definitely did some work on the business end as well. Things like negotiating and coordinating sponsorships, managing inventory, meeting with investors, coordinating marketing, finding new retailers, and representing CLUG at cycling industry events and tradeshows. I considered a slide for it, but I’m not sure how to represent it visually.

Glad you like the fatigue fixture! The reason it’s floor standing is that I wanted the back frame to be as close to a real wall as possible. The two outer studs are 16" apart, so when the drywall was there instead of the stud, it would be close to a real wall. Drywall fatigue was a big concern for us, since there aren’t a lot of products that stress cycle on drywall.

Mike,

Portfolio is looking good. Bellow are the comments I emailed you, but I copied them here for the group.

I have a couple of small recommendations:

  1. think about adding an about section. Keep it short and sweet, but a paragraph on who you are, a second paragraph on what you are best at, and a third that says what kind of job you are looking for
  2. resume. At the top think about adding an objective section: IE get a job as an ME/EE hybrid at an innovation/design firm or in-house ID team, or to take on a design/engineering hybrid role at a tech start up, or whatever is most true for you
  3. coffee table: I’d make that a complete project page, that thing is great. Love the flat pack with no fasteners. I think you could blow that out with 4 hours of work. A couple of “early design sketches” a quick set up animation or photo montage… a few color variations in photoshop, done.

Awesome project Michael! I’m really considering getting one for my bike this summer.

I think length is good. From a story telling perspective, I guess I’m a bit skewed as I already knew about this product before hand. I think putting the accolades further towards the end might help the story a bit as it may not be clear what the device does until seeing the video. Maybe putting some kind of .gif next to the beauty shot would help understanding from the get-go.

I’d trade one of the last in-situ shots for the trade show booth - putting some kind of caption to indicate that you designed and built it. I’d also think of switching the title of 3D printing to something that indicated that the design is available to the public (not sure if open-source would be the correct term for your case). The text underneath does explain it but the title makes me think you made some 3D printed prototypes which is a bit of a non-event and explained further up. Having the files available to the public is quite different and might indicate that you put some work to ensure compatibility with different machines or took feedback from the public.

I think you did the right choice by removing most of the math. Usually if math is not the end goal, showing it makes it a bit clumsy. There usually is a visual way of showing what the math you did represents and that allows you to drive your point across to a variety of people. It also keeps interest up.

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