Need review of my portfolio!

Here is a link to my website, which showcases my works as an Industrial Designer. I would love to work for Apple, but for now, I am trying for summer internship there. And so I have been trying to structure my portfolio on those lines. I have just started my career as an ID student, so need some tips as to how to work my way out to get hired by Apple.
http://www.pranavranawat.com
The 3D models are made on Solidworks, however, on talking to an Apple executive in the career fair recently, she suggested that almost everyone at Apple uses Alias, so I have been learning Alias for a couple of weeks now.

You have got your work cut out for you, that’s for sure. Getting an Industrial Design job at Apple is unbelievably competitive.

Right now, your work is not what they’re looking for yet. But don’t take this as an insult. Most peoples’ work isn’t at that level, myself included. Not only do you have to be extremely talented, you have to tailor your portfolio to their needs. I don’t know what that is, but here’s how you could find out for yourself:

Go on LinkedIn and find industrial designers currently working at Apple. once you have their names, search for their protfolios. The closer to junior level they are, the better (because you can make a fair comparison between their work and yours…they’re closer to your level.) From there, you should be able to tailor your portfolio better. As a general critique, I would strongly advise showing more sketches and process work.

Working at Apple is very unique. Not only is the portfolio they are looking for very unique, the cultural fit is also very specific. From what I understand, a lot of the ID team there, which is very small, knew each other before they worked at Apple. There are other 3d modeling and prototyping jobs that are related, but the core ID team is as tight as their design language.

I’m curious when they will flip both on their ears. Remember they were at the forefront of shepherding in neb-minimalism, but before that their language was very very different. When every one caught up, they changed directions. I’m feeling like could flip again in the next few years. Or maybe that is just the designer in me wishing for maximum change. That would be a fun time to be on that team.

I’ll have to dig up where I read it and the following will probably be a mismatch from sources such as Dezeen, Steve Jobs biography and the New York Times extended article on the man himself - Jony Ive.

Essentially he loves physical prototypes and goes so far as saying he is looking for that in portfolios and berates design education for not teaching students how to model make.

It is a famous story too that his university house was filled floor to ceiling with boxes of models. My point being is I don’t see this evident in your portfolio, there is a small section but there is no wow factor to them. If Apple is your dream then pumping out model after model during your usual design process would be a great place to start.

I checked each portfolio you have shared and found that you have done awesome jobs.

You people can also check my portfolio over here Hire Shopify Expert, Shopify Web Designing & Development|GoWebBaby.Com and let me know your feedback.

Best Regards,

Stan Dubin

TO be honest i see a definite lack of refinement within your cad models. Your surface creation and transitional areas lack finesse and your radi (apple thrives on these) don’t even utilize curvature continuous surfaces (which can be done in SW although more cumbersome).

Your final designs also show somewhat lack of form thus the reason it translates into the CAD.

My suggestion - depending on what you want to do… be a designer at apple or be a Surface designer- I would highly suggest that you explore and build your skill set in form exploration and creation while understanding how to create curvature continuous class A surfaces (or beautiful sculptures)

There are many ways to do this. I refined mine by dragging bondo for 3 hours almost every morning with old school stylists. i then transferred how they created their forms into sculpting with in Alias - which i then eventually transferred those abilities into SW.

Long and short find someone amazing to learn from and it will help catapult your skill sets.

Cheers!

Thank you for posting.

Not too long ago they were looking for CAD modelers at Apple, they use Alias. It’s a NURBS modeler with a history tree so in modeling approach quite different from Solidworks.

If you are just starting ID, your work looks promising. Your work in machine learning is astonishing as well, are you sure you don’t want to see if you can broaden your horizon and integrate design with your tech background more?
If you are determined to work at Apple, you can start by making a goal pyramid - what are your most important goals? It may be to develop that one comprehensive project that integrates many facets of design, with a good story behind it, and you as the person to tell Apple about it, making them convinced that you are the person who understands what design means. By setting specific goals on different levels you make sure you are always working towards your long-term goals.
In your design abilities I see some potential, you will just need to go in-depth much more with help of good guidance from people who work in the field.

Hi Pranav.

How’s your chair made? Solid timber? Bent Ply? What joints would you use?

What are your tool costs for your grill? What are your minimum order quantities?

With the camera, in 5) CAD modelling why is the camera so big? It looks at least twice the size it should be.