Monday, May 18, 2015
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Macbook for Industrial / Product designers - yes or no?
After having used Dell XPS 14" for 5 years, (and having constant issues about heating, charger conking off, and battery dying thrice), I decided to switch to Macbook Pro 13". Of course, I was in a dilemma, whether to buy it or no, since the air around me was that "Most Product Design softwares do not work on Macintosh". Against all that, I bought the Macbook (which is a sheer piece of beauty in design and engineering - placements of lights, the fillets, fine-brushed aluminium - Wow!) So here is my experience.
Before we start? My Macbook is
13"
2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 4000 1024 MB
Here goes.
Hardware:
Everyone keeps talking about it. I needn't say much. But a genius of manufacturing, engineering and design. Every fillet, every detail is so meticulous yet so simple. Looks so sturdy, yet beautiful. Trims are so nice! I spent a good hour looking at it before I even booted it!
Design Softwares:
Yes. The important bit.
Windows 8.1 / BootCamp on Mac
I am used to SolidWorks as my primary CAD software, and can't move away from it for anything - which is not available for Macintosh. So, I had to go for bootcamp / dual boot, only for that one singular software.
Does it heat up?
Yes it does. On prolonged usage. The only reason I went for an 8GB RAM is my requirement for SolidWorks / Keyshot. And 20 minutes into use of SolidWorks, it starts heating up. So, I am sure you don't need a cooling pad. I just keep my Mac inclined on a book, and that does the job.
How good is the performance?
Good!
It isn't exceptionally superb, as much as a Dell high-end PC might give you, but it doesn't suck, at all. SolidWorks work great and flawlessly on my machine!
Battery Life?
2:15 Hours max while on windows + SolidWorks
Mac OSX
On Macintosh, I have all my other softwares: Adobe suite, Keyshot, Rhinoceros, Sketchbook Pro, AutoCAD (many of Autodesk softwares have their Macintosh versions).
Does it heat up?
Not at all. Well, almost. Only while using Keyshot it does, but not as much as, or as quickly as it does on Windows.
How good is the performance?
Awesome!
This sexy beast renders faster than my Dell XPS (i7, 4 GB RAM, 2 GB NVidia) did at it's peak time! While using premier pro, the video rendering is quick and smooth! Wait time is so less for everything here. Photoshop, Keyshot work as swiftly as sliding on melting butter. AutoCAD and Rhino work well too. And Rhino is still in it's beta version, so it's free (and doesn't crash despite it's beta)
Battery Life?
~4.00 Hours while working on Illustrator / Photoshop.
~6:30 Hours while watching a movie, or just surfing the internet or playing songs.
Extras!
Beautiful and intuitive OS! You'll know the stark difference between Mac and Windows only on using Mac for a prolonged time. This is so easy! And so intuitive! And so pretty-looking at that. And nothing heats up! Optimum usage of resources at all times.
And so many things are inbuilt!
You can extract audio from video, cut it, apply album art, change artist-album-track name - all with apps that come with the Mac! Just one example of the infinite things you can do with it!
And amazing notification centre, complete with reminders, calendar, which synchronises with your Facebook / Google calendar and notifies you with birthdays, and also gets you Twitter / Facebook / LinkedIn notifications on your desktop.
There is Hangouts, there is Skype.
Recommended Apps:
Evernote - Tell me one creative who doesn't recommend this App. Paired with my phone, and Tablet, this makes for a great resource for a designer.
Digital Color Meter - (Inbuilt) - Colour picker which gives you RGB values of anything you see on your screen.
Are you an Industrial / Product designer who thinks he should go for a Mac?
You totally should! Just go for 8GB RAM at least for good performance in SolidWorks.
Before we start? My Macbook is
13"
2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 4000 1024 MB
Here goes.
Hardware:
Everyone keeps talking about it. I needn't say much. But a genius of manufacturing, engineering and design. Every fillet, every detail is so meticulous yet so simple. Looks so sturdy, yet beautiful. Trims are so nice! I spent a good hour looking at it before I even booted it!
Design Softwares:
Yes. The important bit.
Windows 8.1 / BootCamp on Mac
I am used to SolidWorks as my primary CAD software, and can't move away from it for anything - which is not available for Macintosh. So, I had to go for bootcamp / dual boot, only for that one singular software.
Does it heat up?
Yes it does. On prolonged usage. The only reason I went for an 8GB RAM is my requirement for SolidWorks / Keyshot. And 20 minutes into use of SolidWorks, it starts heating up. So, I am sure you don't need a cooling pad. I just keep my Mac inclined on a book, and that does the job.
How good is the performance?
Good!
It isn't exceptionally superb, as much as a Dell high-end PC might give you, but it doesn't suck, at all. SolidWorks work great and flawlessly on my machine!
Battery Life?
2:15 Hours max while on windows + SolidWorks
Mac OSX
On Macintosh, I have all my other softwares: Adobe suite, Keyshot, Rhinoceros, Sketchbook Pro, AutoCAD (many of Autodesk softwares have their Macintosh versions).
Does it heat up?
Not at all. Well, almost. Only while using Keyshot it does, but not as much as, or as quickly as it does on Windows.
How good is the performance?
Awesome!
This sexy beast renders faster than my Dell XPS (i7, 4 GB RAM, 2 GB NVidia) did at it's peak time! While using premier pro, the video rendering is quick and smooth! Wait time is so less for everything here. Photoshop, Keyshot work as swiftly as sliding on melting butter. AutoCAD and Rhino work well too. And Rhino is still in it's beta version, so it's free (and doesn't crash despite it's beta)
Battery Life?
~4.00 Hours while working on Illustrator / Photoshop.
~6:30 Hours while watching a movie, or just surfing the internet or playing songs.
Extras!
Beautiful and intuitive OS! You'll know the stark difference between Mac and Windows only on using Mac for a prolonged time. This is so easy! And so intuitive! And so pretty-looking at that. And nothing heats up! Optimum usage of resources at all times.
And so many things are inbuilt!
You can extract audio from video, cut it, apply album art, change artist-album-track name - all with apps that come with the Mac! Just one example of the infinite things you can do with it!
And amazing notification centre, complete with reminders, calendar, which synchronises with your Facebook / Google calendar and notifies you with birthdays, and also gets you Twitter / Facebook / LinkedIn notifications on your desktop.
There is Hangouts, there is Skype.
Recommended Apps:
Evernote - Tell me one creative who doesn't recommend this App. Paired with my phone, and Tablet, this makes for a great resource for a designer.
Digital Color Meter - (Inbuilt) - Colour picker which gives you RGB values of anything you see on your screen.
Are you an Industrial / Product designer who thinks he should go for a Mac?
You totally should! Just go for 8GB RAM at least for good performance in SolidWorks.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
The Freelance Experience
"...freelancing is the most amicable, and suiting path a Product / Industrial designer can choose"
The director of MIT-ID, Dhimant Panchal told me on my convocation that in his experience, freelancing is the most amicable, and suiting path a Product / Industrial designer can choose. It is only if one gets a superb opportunity from a very good agency or a company, that has an excellent design culture, that will bring out the best from a designer, that it is right to take up a job.
What is important to a junior designer / fresh graduate is finding his forte, and learning as much as he can on the job. That certainly won't happen in companies who aren't design led, and where design is seen as just another 9 - 5 job.
It was surprising to see so many freelance opportunities come to me, without even looking for them, when I was still a student. India does have a need for Industrial Designers. There is a lot for us to do, to firstly fulfil the basic needs of people here: their healthcare, their sanitation, cleanliness, and overall well being. Design and creative problem solving is a necessity in India, and well designed products shouldn't be a privilege, but consumables for common Indians to improve their quality of life.
Before my graduation exhibition, I'd printed out my business cards, and they look like this:
I wish to get the best of experiences and be the best of myself, before I start my own large initiative, which, I think will be in servitude of making smart things, that'd be mass consumables, durable, and of utmost necessity to people.
Freelance is very self propelled. I'd ended up making a bunch of timetables and set deadlines for myself. Also, there is no safety net. You make something, and show it to the client. He may approve of it, or slash it down entirely. That's where the design process comes into play! If you follow it, you won't make something vague - that isn't feasible.
Looking forward to more projects, and more myriad experiences! :)
Monday, April 20, 2015
Quip - An Industrial / Product / Packaging Design Initiative
It gives me great pleasure to introduce Quip!
Quip is a fresh and poppy Industrial + Packaging Design initiative. Our work has been featured in Tokyo Designers Week, iF Design Museum -Hamburg and various online design magazines.
This group consists of:
Pranali Linge (behance.net/pranali3)
Uttara Ghodke (behance.net/uttaraghodke1101 )
Viraj Joshi (virajvjoshi.com)
We're now active as a studio! :)
And we accept freelance projects
Have a look at our work here:
https://www.behance.net/QuipStudio
And follow Quip on Twitter
https://twitter.com/TheQuipStudio
Quip is a fresh and poppy Industrial + Packaging Design initiative. Our work has been featured in Tokyo Designers Week, iF Design Museum -Hamburg and various online design magazines.
This group consists of:
Pranali Linge (behance.net/pranali3)
Uttara Ghodke (behance.net/uttaraghodke1101 )
Viraj Joshi (virajvjoshi.com)
We're now active as a studio! :)
And we accept freelance projects
Have a look at our work here:
https://www.behance.net/QuipStudio
And follow Quip on Twitter
https://twitter.com/TheQuipStudio
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
MIT-ID's 7th Convocation, 2015
I am really proud to have been a part of MIT-ID's 5th Under Graduate batch, and saw the institute transform so greatly in mere 5 years! I am thankful, and humbled. The convocation ceremony itself was a superb evening! And the red uparnas for Industrial designers, green ones for communication designers and orange ones for the profs looked really elegant!
I am extremely humbled to have received the best student award in my batch. :)
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