Interviews med Travis Baldwin

While growing up, my family exposed me to many different cultures and perspectives... mostly through travel, but also because of my father's profession as a psychologist. It's always been fascinating to imagine how different people perceive the world and things around them, and to me the ultimate creative challenge is to craft a product to evoke strong emotions in someone else.

Créa Inc Design was formed in Colorado in 2004. At the time I was working at a startup, my colleagues explained the advantages of a company and generally how the run one. As a designer, starting a company would be a way to creatively express myself and take on independent project work outside of a day job. The name itself was meant to not tie me in to a specific niche, but to broadly cover work ranging from client projects to independently manufacturing my own products. Since inception, we have worked across a range of products I'd never had thought possible when I mailed in the incorporation papers...

Design is creatively solving a human centered problem, to never settle for just an adequate solution, and aspiring to bring emotional engagement into the final result.

My favorite design work has been when there is an opportunity to bring together a team to solve problems, each member complimenting each other and ultimately producing a work that would not have been possible alone.

My favorite design is whatever I am designing at the moment. There is something I was passionate about in every product I've worked on and so many stand out in my mind. There was an ultrasound machine, never released, that was a very sculptural blend of functionality and design. One of my first award winning products, the IBM Internet Appliance, was a geometrically balanced product that gave me my first real chance to shape a product. And many many others!

I designed 3D visualizations of abstract software processes for wizard interfaces. It was a great challenge, to understand something that didn't 'exist' and try to make it easier to understand with a new vocabulary of shapes and colors.

My favorite material lately is SLS laser sintered nylon. It's strong, can be dyed, and 3D printable into shapes that otherwise would not be manufacturable.

Usually my most creative and productive time is late afternoon.

It depends on the project and phase. More an more, I enjoy work a the front end of the project when the challenge of "what" to make is still being defined. It's a wonderful challenge to sculpt a product that is beautiful, functional, and manufacture-able as well.

Often the satisfaction of a frustrating challenge comes up. It's not a negative feeling... but a feeling of confidence while searching for a solution that hasn't presented itself yet. The exploration of different possible ideas for the final result.

pride. satisfaction. the desire to keep improving.

Commercially, a successful design creates something of value for the people purchasing and using it. As a designer, a successful product brings something new and better into the world. Mechanically, success is efficiently delivering a solution for all constraints.

Whether it delivers a better solution to the reason it was commissioned. Visually, I'm attracted to simple, elegant shapes with well considered construction.

Ultimately, a designers responsibility is to bring better things into the world than have existed before it. For the environment, we should strive to be part of environmental solutions, however that may be done within the confines of projects.

Products and digital services have become inseparable. What's happening behind the screen has overtaken physical design for the moment, but in the future product emphasis could be more tangible and physical again.

I had a biometric camera displayed in Chengdu Design Week in 2015.

Every day new images are added to my collection, found on the internet and in the world. These are continuous creative inspiration.

Simple, harmonious shapes with as little decoration as possible. Graceful lines and surfaces when appropriate. Elegant packaging of whatever makes the product work. I believe it's important to design from both the inside out as well as the outside in... understanding what is happening within the product as well as how it's used and perceived from the outside.

For me, living in the UK is living in a foreign country. Previously living in several other countries has expanded my sensitivity to different cultures, including my own in the US. Sometimes cultural differences can be confusing however, and by trying to understand a new way of looking at things can destabilize old cultural bedrock ideas.

Mostly my clients find Créa by word of mouth and professional networks. This has kept me quite busy, so there hasn't been a need to market myself publicly... though it interests me to work with new partner companies.

Look for a designer with broad experience and good competence in the core areas of work you need commissioned. I feel there's many designers can do one skill extremely well but lack other vital skills necessary to see the big picture of a design.

An Arco lamp by Castaglioni. A tulip table by Saarinen. Ipad pro 12.9". Mortar and Pedestal by Mint (Scott Henderson). Triumph Street Triple 2010.

Swimming in the morning. A morning in the office, with a client or students, or at a vendor. Walking Roxy the Boston Terrier at lunch. More intense design work in the afternoon. Dinner or drinks with my partner and perhaps with friends.

Strive for financial independence (by saving and planning), so you don't have to make career decisions based on money.

I think life is much more complicated as a designer, as we hold ourselves to higher standards in what we do and can be quite demanding. At the same time, the aspiration for excellence is often realized in a new design brought into the world, which is a great feeling.

never center logos

A broad understanding of the product they are designing. A passion in what they are doing. Persistence and stubbornness. Good communication skills.

My core tool list always starts with pen and paper, then moves to the standard 2 and 3D software.

I work long hours! Also, as Richard Branson has said, "I definitely can achieve twice as much by keeping fit."

Working at IBM both opened my eyes to a rich design heritage, industry leading development experience, and strong brand values... though the strong design style is not loved by all designers. It set my career path. Later, working as a designer at NASA JSC added an experience that will permanently be a highlight of my career and fulfilled a childhood dream.

Boston Consulting Group, Scientific Games, Total Petroleum, many smaller startups and entrepreneurs, European consultancies, etc.

Physical product design is the most enjoyable when there is the opportunity to sculpturally experiment with new forms. Exploring the personalities and behaviors of key stakeholders to deliver a product best suited to them is an amazing cultural challenge.

my dream is to develop a personal product idea into a business... stay tuned.

Both. Some contracts allow more than one person to join my team, which has been very rewarding. Often projects are smaller and can be done alone.

yes, but I can't talk about them ;-)

Email is best... travis.baldwin@creaincdesign.com

Bringing new, successful products into the world is truly my passion. If there is a chance to work with new, interesting partners who share this sentiment, Créa would love to be in touch.

Having designed many tablet PC over the years, there's always a pressure to create a slim & thin tablet with minimal material around the screen.. but there's some drawbacks for ergonomics. When a tablet has a thin border and slim profile, the fingers often have to cover the screen when holding the tablet and using it - the fingers need to be on that side for the hand to grip it. Another challenge is to lay out components to fit a slim, thin tablet profile, especially with lower volume prodution requiring more standardized parts inside. The Carlsbad improves the grip of the hand by creating a form that better fits the hand. The larger components were laid out to create a thick bump that the hand can grasp. Finger recesses improve the grip on the table. The strap adds extra protection from dropping.

The overall industrial design packaging of the components is a larger more graspable form rather than striving for the thinnest possible shape. This allows more space for ruggedization and drop protection within the form, rather than bumper features standing proud from the surface. The inspiration was to develop the tablet for a more comfortable hand-feel and for longer use in the hand, rather than specifications like thickness. The goal was to great a more comfortable tablet for extended use.

The rubber bumpers are part of the ruggedization and drop protection that's built into the larger form. This replaces the traditional strategy of adding large protruding bumps for protection and grip. The finger recess, straps, and convex shape of the table replace the bumps that are often added for grip in military or police products. Additional, from speaking to end-users, there is an appreciation for sleek designs as long as they are functionally the same as the more exaggerated traditional forms.

The tetra antenna components were repurposed from a production police radio handset.. therefore they were not designed to be slim and to fit into a tablet form-factor. This was to the reduce cost of production by leveraging already developed and tested components. The larger internal component size was accomodated with a larger form created for user comfort. The bump was oriented in the center of the back of the tablet where it would fit just under the palm of the user's hand. The exterior form and materials were guided by the user experience aspects mentioned previously.

The clay model was mostly used for early validation of the hand feel and groove positions on the back of the tablet. By roughly prototyping the back of the tablet in soft clay, the form was quickly verified to be comfortable for use and a good direction to explore. The easy to iterate clay model was also useful to decide the size of the bump and the placement of the finger grip grooves on each side, esuring it would work for a variety of hand sizes. The rough clay model was measured and build in CAD, then adjusted to fit around the internal compoents.

The timeline was quick as the device was being developed by a small startup and there was pressure to bring the product to market quickly. One strategy was to use pre-existing internal components that were already certified and proven, though this made industrial design and mechanical engineering layouts more challenging. Additional, low volume production processes such as CNC & Fusion MultiJet for hard plastic parts and vac-cast urethane rubber parts allowed us to create working products without the delay for traditional tooling.

One important insight from user interviews was that the UK police are often on foot and carrying all their kit with them. The tablet would either need to be holstered, put in a rucksack, or stay in the hand during their work day. A more comfortable form factor with a hand strap would facilitate the tablet remaining in the hand for longer periods. Additionally, the UK police officer on foot could pursue a suspect with the tablet in hand.

The tetra antenna had to be positioned at the end of the internal tetra radio PCB.. but the overall position of the antenna was designed to be lower profile, and to be set back from the edge of the tablet to give better protection from bumps. During an emergency situation, the officer may be struggling with or running behind a suspect and an antenna could be easily bumped and damaged.

I believe there is a general trend for military and police products to have a sleeker look and feel, rather than the exaggerated fuction-over-form aesthetic sometimes found in these products. This could be because of personal electronics such as mobiles and tablet-pc show that modern portable high tech products are durable yet also sleek and attractive. The security organizations are more apt to select a product for work use that looks like the modern products they have in their home lives, as long as they are confident they are truely rugged. The Carlsbad tablet is one of the products brought to market that reinforces this trend.

I'm proud that the Carlsbad product has been selected as a Bronze A Design Award winner. It has reinforced that the design directions I have taken with security products is recognized by the design world. It gives me confidence to pursue non-traditional industrial design in products from this category. The award is also validation to clients that trying new product directions can product better products.