Copper is an appliance company focused on accelerating the transition off dirty gas fired appliances and onto clean renewable electricity.

Our first product is a stove named Charlie.

Induction stoves need a lot of power, for short periods of time. Charlie uses a built-in battery to give you that power when you need it. It charges intelligently during times when renewable energy is available, so you're always ready to cook. Charlie's also got your back when the power goes out, with enough on board power to cook 3-5 meals.

Checkerspot is a biotech company making a new class of more sustainable materials based on microalgal oil in lieu of fossil fuels. I had the opportunity to consult for them on product pathfinding and growth edges for their algal polyurethane materials. For this project I pulled together a small design team and develop a new way to package and use castable resins. We attended to every detail of the product experience from the mailing box to the cleanup and made it more approachable and more sustainable. We were honored with the 2023 Core77 Sustainability award and the 2023 SXSW Innovation award in Design for this product.

The Bolt Projects Studio is a team and physical space I established in 2017 to explore the product potential of a range of new sustainable materials being developed by Bolt Threads. The team’s mission was two-fold; first to prototype tangible artifacts using Bolt’s new materials to evaluate commercial readiness. Our second mission was to partner closely with Bolt’s biologists and material scientists to improve processing techniques and apply a product and consumer lens to the material requirements. The Bolt Projects studio also developed a creative residency program and hosted Jen Keane as the company’s first creative-in-residence who later went on to found Modern Synthesis taking with her learning and custom equipment developed in the studio.

We produced countless prototypes and invented and iterated on many processing techniques all aimed at getting Bolt’s biomaterials ready for the world.

Bolt Projects designed and fabricated these Le Corbusier inspired glasses out of a novel new biomaterial. They are first of a kind, made from Bolt Threads lab grown spider silk. We developed this all in house. From industrial design of the frames to tuning the underlying process for creating the raw material to CNC machining each individual component.

Bolt Threads, Best Made and Chris Reeve Knives teamed up for a special edition version of the Nyala knife. We at Bolt Threads developed a new Microsilk (tm) composite material for this project to begin exploring our engineered biomaterials in new applications. It was released in two colorways utilizing colored fiber and resin: midnight blue and a deep translucent amber.

We teamed up with Best Made Company to develop a limited edition iconic knit hat made from a blend of rambouillet wool and Bolt Threads engineered Microsilk (TM) fibers.

Designed a unique little product drop for Best Made Co. This is the world’s most overbuilt clothing repair tool aimed at making fixing your clothes cool instead of throwing them away. It’s a threaded brass capsule that uses a collet system to hold industrial sewing machine needles for heavy duty repairs. I personally machined a unique serial number into each one sold.

At Bolt Threads we are creating brand new materials inspired by nature. Our first product is a limited release knit tie made from engineered spider silk. 

Assembled a world class creative design and fabrication team with the mission to help realize audacious Google [x] projects and bootstrap new ones through creative problem solving and tangible prototyping. Everything from new material development, mechanical design and digital fabrication to sculpture, robotics and optics. 

The X Rapid Evaluation team is the wide end of the project funnel. We are tasked with developing new moonshot technologies and prioritizing efforts on areas of highest risk. Think big and fail fast. Some of the many investigations I have worked on that have been retired include cargo airships and high density vertical farming. 

Google has developed the worlds most capable self driving car. The Design Kitchen @ X has collaborated with the sensing, mechanical and industrial design teams to develop tangible, road worthy prototypes. Everything from weatherproof radar enclosures, full scale panel molds to industrial design model making.

The Compiler family of cups are the love child of art and math. Slipcast in California out of porcelain, with a matte textured exterior and a smooth glazed interior they have a wonderful hand feel and are easy to clean. The wide mouth of the compiler cup highlights the aroma of your drink and makes for great latte art. Nesting sizes are perfect for espresso, cappuccino and latte. 

The design was developed algorithmically, the master mold was CNC machined and the production ceramics were hand made.

Available for purchase at The CRO Cafe in Oakland, CA.

Design and mechanical architecture lead for early versions of the prototype balloon payload, the enclosure that hangs under the balloon and houses all the smarts and radios. Design lead for the Loon ground antenna for the initial public launch in New Zealand. 

Developed a comfortable wearable companion device for the Google smart contact lens to reliably establish a wireless link and query blood glucose data from the contact lens during testing. 

Makani is working to make clean energy accessible for everyone by developing energy kites, a new type of wind turbine that can access stronger and steadier winds at higher altitudes to generate more energy with less materials.

In the very early days when Makani was part of Squid Labs I worked on components for a winch-based soft kite energy system. Later as the project matured and shifted to high aspect ratio rigid kites I did avionics packaging and turbine blade development as well as owning the full CAD assembly of a revision of the wing. Most recently, after Makani was acquired by Google [x], I have supported them across numerous domains through the Design Kitchen.

Early stage mechanical architecture. Lead the consumer packaging development for the explorer release. Developed human factors numerical and physical models to fit Glass on as many people as possible. Co-developed the bone conduction audio system including component design, testing and implementation. Broad range of low and high fidelity prototype development.

ReadySet is a smart battery system engineered to thrive in the harshest conditions in Africa. ReadySet’s smart, rugged and user friendly design makes it easy for anyone to use and maintain. Its microcontroller works in concert with patented firmware to protect itself from high temperatures, overloads, and short circuits. Intelligent electronics prevent deep discharge and preserve battery life to power lights, mobile phones, and even LCD TVs. ReadySet includes a solar panel and is expandable up to 75 watts as your needs grow.

As design lead, drove the industrial and mechanical design of the ReadySet. Developed eco-friendly packaging and did user testing in sub-saharan Africa.