Rob Podell, Industrial Design, User Experience, Surface Modeling, Animation in Milwaukee, WI

About

I currently work for Mercury Marine in Fond du Lac, WI, producing some of the fastest, most durable marine products in the world. Prior to working here, I spent 5 years working at bb7, a design/engineering consultancy located in Madison, WI.

I’ve used the vast range of projects and clients to dramatically improve my creative skills, brand strategies, and technical knowledge. I am also responsible for working with clients to establish a Visual Brand Language (VBL). This involves a lot of research working with marketing, CEO’s, and sales to distill the core values of a company into visual aspects of my designs. This translates to an extremely effective, repeatable process that can be applied a wide variety of products. Prior to bb7, I have worked with Harley Davidson, Volvo, Briggs & Stratton, and Milwaukee Tool.

Please don't hesitate to contact me with your next project, I'd love to hear from you!

Education

Industrial Design Industrial Design

Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design

2005 - 2009

Graduated with honors, VP of IDSA Chapter

Experience

Sr. Industrial Designer

Mercury Marine

Fond du Lac, WI

Oct 2015 - Present (7 years 5 months)

As a lifelong high-performance boating enthusiast, Mercury has been an incredible opportunity to combine my passion for the water and my skillsets as an industrial designer. It is truly rare that one has the opportunity to contribute to a company they have always admired, and rarer still that said company designs, produces, and assembles products on American soil that compete with some of the top companies in the world.
Sr. Industrial Designer

bb7

Madison, WI

Feb 2010 - Sep 2015 (5 years 7 months)

Working for Bbb7 has been an incredible experience that's allowed me to work on a huge variety of products and experience. I've been exposed to projects ranging from dental devices, medical equipment, transportation, powertools, industrial equipment, shaving equipment, consumer goods, feminine wellness, and branding. I've also taken on responsibilities such as project proposals, estimates, and project management, while continuing to improve my abilities in ideation, sketching, rendering, solid modeling, surface modeling, final renderings, and animation.
Industrial Design

+Design

Milwaukee, WI

May 2009 - Nov 2009 (6 months)

- Intensive redesign of Harley Davidson hand controls, heavily based in user research and analysis of competitive bikes, went into production in 2014
- Engine development work with Briggs and Stratton
- Exterior design for Volvo/MCI Transportation
Industrial Designer

Milwaukee Tool

Apr 2008 - Jun 2009 (1 year 2 months)

Industrial design, Concept Ideation, Concept Development, Foam Models, Ergonomic Studies, User Interface Design, Rapid Prototyping,

Accomplishments:

- User Interface and Industrial Design lead on Milwaukee Wall Scanner, a breakthrough product to see through walls
- User Interface for testing equipment- Redesigning the highest selling SKU Milwaukee sells, the Thunderbolt 14 piece drill bit set. (Sell 15 per day per home depot)
- Responsible for Compact Angle Grinder restyling, visual impact led the restyling of entire angle grinder line
- Development of multiple hand tools using extensive ergonomic theory

Awards

Medical Design Excellence Award (2011), 2nd Place Studebaker Design Contest (2010), 3rd Place International Greener Gadgets Competition in NYC (2009), 1st place design award from Fiskars (2009), 3rd Place Core77 Powertool Design Contest(2008), 2nd Place A.O Smith Award (2008),

Affiliations

IDSA, Madison Design Alliance Leader, Contributor to Productdesignhub

Industries

Skills

Elsewhere on the Web

k

On Coroflot

@rpodell, member since 2008

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Followers 47