North Rockies Design

Google SketchUp is awesome!

I’ve been using Google SketchUp version 7 Pro, and it’s just plain awesome! I use it for architectural rendering, fabrication and engineering planning, landscaping, hobbies, and even to build virtual studio sets for use in green screen video production. While I use the Pro version, the Free version is quite powerful.

Let me show you how I started and finished a 3D copy of my Hummer replica build in SketchUp.

Since I already have the plans for the TremorMUV Hummer replica, a real 1984 Suburban in my garage…or what’s left of it. I’ll follow along with SketchUp.

Start with this 1986 Suburban from the Google 3D Warehouse:

Remove the Body… like I already did to my 1984 Suburban:

Now in this case, I removed the engine already, and traded up from the model’s existing chassis to one I built from the dimensions of the one in my garage.

For fun, I added an engine, transmission and transfer case, and swapped the wheels. These wheels are 40 inch INTERCO Super Swampers I found in the 3D Warehouse here. The 454 Chevy engine was also from the 3D warehouse.

Then from a clear file, and using the aforementioned plans, I build the cage or body skeleton of the Tremor MUV, accurate to dimensions given, so I could test it out in pixels before I start cutting steel.

And incase anyone asks, no I’m not sharing this file, because of the license agreement I’m in with Rocky Mountain Coachworks. Anyway, legal stuff out of the way, back to sketching. Next, I put the cage on the chassis model.

Looks great! But of course, it’s not finished there. I need body panels, doors, a hood, and all that stuff. I found the taillights, seats, and doors from a Jeep Wrangler model (since I’ll be using the real parts for my real build.). I modeled the body panels, doors (with movable glass), hood (because all others I found were incorrect), bumpers, bumper step, front pushbar, and winch housing. The winch and hood lights were from another model, but I regret I don’t have the reference for it. But, here’s the steering wheel I found for now. I may change it later. That’s one beautiful thing about SketchUp. It’s easy to change a component at any time. You can literally destroy your model and start over without going over budget in the garage.

But, the beauty of SketchUp is that you can “fabricate” anything you want, to try it on for size, style, etc. Here’s a shot with a removable top, to turn the open top Hummer replica into a Hummer wagon replica.

For anyone who has been following my build, I’ve posted some screenshots of hypothetical look influenced by the new Batmobile, the Tumbler from the newer Batman movies.

The Tumbler model comes courtesy of the Google 3D warehouse, linked here.

What else can one do with SketchUp? Nearly anything 3D! I’ve used it for modeling before metal fabrication, small home projects, and in projects for real estate developers. Maybe I could even do something for you…(hint, hint, nudge, nudge).

Thanks for your time!

I’ve been working on these shop rules for a while now. In fact, I posted them on my wall back in 2006, but haven’t done anything to share them. The headlines are part of a speech by Megan Perkins Parker, currently account supervisor at Edelman, given at Communication Day at BYU Idaho on September 28, 2006:

1. Know what is going on… in the world, in the industry, in your company. If you know, you can compete. This is one of the reasons for social networks. Subscribe to blogs and get a twitter account. You may not have a lot to say to start out with, but you can join the discussion and there are always new articles to read.

   Knowing what’s going on is especially important within your company and with your clients. Remember the small and simple things. Turning a small key can open a large door. Pay attention to the little things that show clients they are important.

2. Be credible. Do what you say you can do. Do not set the bar low, but be honest. At least under-promise and over-deliver (but be careful with this one). If you know what you can achieve, what is possible to deliver to the client, be honest. Whatever you do, don’t over-promise and under-deliver.
3. Be committed, be positive. Decide to commit to the job, that you will get the job done. It is up to you to make the grass greener. Don’t be a LIFO – Last In First Out.

   While working at the University of Idaho in Idaho Falls, I saw a need for developing a new method to deliver courses to asynchronous students. I could have whined at my supervisors, but instead I wrote a grant proposal. And guess what, it was approved! Now we’ve got everything I need to implement this new idea. What can you do?

4. Plow to the fences. Effective farmers will plow even to the little corners of the fields. Trust me. I live in rural Idaho. Every day I drive into my office and pass fields with rotary irrigation pipes. The fields, however, are rectangular. The farmers of these fields still plow to the corners of these fields, and get out in the wee hours to move pipes for irrigating them. 90% of design is persistence to detail. I don’t know how many times I’ve taken over a project because someone else misspelled a few words or used the wrong logo.
5. Think ahead and be proactive. The way to get ahead in any company is to keep the company looking good. Look for and do more than you know needs done. If you work for a firm, this helps with job security and promotions. If you work freelance, this helps with networking and self-promotion. Either way, it keeps you in business.
6. You are NOT entitled to anything. There are no welfare departments in successful companies. You are out there to prove yourself. This is what you’ve decided to do as a career. It is your work, your art, your craft, your destiny. Work for it!
7. You will make mistakes. One mistake repeated is not a mistake, but a bad habit. Don’t make the same mistakes again. Now, you may be thinking you don’t make mistakes. Do you really? Or do you not take the time to notice them? Maybe you’re just really that good that you don’t make mistakes. Have you improved in anything lately? No? That’s your mistake. You can always do better at something.
8. Be responsive. Tell the client/superior/vendor/audience what’s going on! Constructive criticism is about making the work better. I’ve worked for clients and employers whose ideal situation was to leave everything up to me without expecting so much as a weekly checkin. Great for getting things done right? Wrong. If I hadn’t been proactive to keep them updated, I’d have missed changes internally that didn’t get communicated to me.

   There’s the parable of the jet that flies around Earth’s equator, but get’s off by one degree. By the time it completes the flight it’s off by 500 miles. Keep in contact so you can correct course often.

9. Set your vision and achieve milestones. Set goals and communicate the milestones. This is the same as having a plan. How will you know what you want to achieve without a plan. Next, do YOUR OWN personal PR/Advertising. This one is probably the easiest but most overlooked. I’m as guilty as anyone else. Sometimes its hard to keep yourself out there in the public eye. Fortunately, we’ve got all the tools to make it easy. You don’t have to walk and knock doors to get in front of people. All you need is to devote a little bit of time.

You know what you can do with $50–cover hosting costs, upgrade some hardware, get a much needed peripheral. Figuring out how to spend $50 is easy. In fact, you probably made more than $50 on your last project. The next client to come to you for the $50 project will barely cover your high speed Internet service.

Make the project one that it easily repeatable, modular, quick, and yet high quality. Make the project a showcase of your abilities. Then make sure you advertise it all over the place. Blog it up, put an ad on your website, maybe even mention it in your phone greeting: “Welcome to North Rockies Design, home of the $50 widget.”

Your monthly, weekly, even daily expenses are more than $50, so why would you consider investing the time to bring in a $50 pittance on a project?

There are a few short simple answers. First, the new client who picks you to do the $50 project will get firsthand experience working with you. They will see your professionalism, experience your billing and contracting policies. They will get to test the quality of your work for an easy $50.

Second, you get some exposure to some companies that might have otherwise overlooked your firm. You get to keep out the ones who still would rather have you work on projects for spec. Don’t ever work for spec. If you do it right, $50 projects can still be profitable, without sacrificing time that could be spent on other higher paying projects.

Third, $50 projects that are repeatable can easily multiply. This is good in any economy, but especially in one that is a little tough on small businesses. Perhaps the small $50 project fits better into the budgets of ten companies easier than a $500 project fits into the budget of one. Either way, you end up with $500.

Finally, you can use the $50 project as an upsell. Perhaps your brother owns a company that does hosting, or you’ve got a project that just about everyone needs. Upsell it with your $50 project.

Now for your homework:

Sit down and figure out what you can do for $50, or $100, or even $10 following these rules:
• Make it easily repeatable
• Make it actually worth the $50, $100, or $10 you want people to pay
• Make sure you advertise it

So you’re starting a design career, and you’d like to know what to specialize in. Stop right there! That’s got to be the quickest way to guarantee your own defeat. I don’t know how many times I’ve been working with someone just starting out, and they say, “I only do book jackets,” or “don’t ask me to design websites.” To me it sounds like they’re saying, “I don’t ever want to learn, grow, be better, or make more money!”

My first “design” job while still in school was working for a company in St. Paul, MN, that published magazines full of home plans. I helped with layout work a little, but mostly, I just used the eraser tool in Photoshop 4–I know that dates me, but I’m OK with it–to clean up dust and smudges on hires black-and-white scans of plans, elevations, and artists renderings. There were times I thought I could fall asleep doing that! But I persevered and I’m now grateful for the attention to detail that first job taught me.

My next “design” job was in Denver, CO, working for a company that did websites and specialized in multimedia CD-Roms. It was while employed there that I got my first freelance job converting annual reports from print to web version for Barker Design, Inc. The combination of print, website, and multimedia design work really expanded my options later, and taught me some principles of design that could translate from one medium to another–and just as importantly, what could not!

Why try new stuff?

The first reason to try new stuff: you don’t know what you don’t know. Let’s pretend that I had stopped with that first job, doing image clean-up for the home plans company. I had a good skillset in print work, and an eye for detail. I could have worked in print forever for say magazines, newspapers, or doing brochures and flyers. Back in 1996, the Internet had just started picking up steam, blogging was a dream at best, and video on the web would have been mocked to scorn. I could have stayed in Printville forever…until the newspapers and magazines started going digital. I didn’t know I could have lost my job/career/skillset to obsolescence.

Too many people have an unwillingness to learn. In this industry–or any field for that matter–you’ve got to be willing to learn from everything. Have you ever had someone ask you, “How do I do [insert basic computer task],” and you could answer, and therefore teach, because you took the time previously to learn? Have you ever needed another’s opinion to help solidify something you already thought but were a little fuzzy on some detail or another? I think you’re already in the learning mode, else why would you be reading this?

I’ll draw from personal experience to illustrate the point. I was working for I.E. Productions as a multimedia designer back in the days of doing CD-Roms for sales presentations. Gary Stewart, partner and Creative Director, asked me if I’d ever done motion design for commercials before. I said no, but I can learn. I immediately installed the copy of After Effects 3.1 on my personal laptop and began playing with it in my off-hours. I worked on the graphics for my first commercial within a month, and within a year I helped work on a spot that received a Silver Rockie award, doing all the post in After Effects.

When to start thinking about specializing

Now that I’ve convinced you to stay away from specializing when you start out designing, you’re probably asking yourself, “Is there a good time to start specializing?” The short answer is yes. It has to be the right timing, and circumstances. In my experience, I have had times where I had to specialize for a while. But there are a few things to remember when choosing a specialty.

Start broad, like I’ve been telling you so far. This will help you more than you can imagine once you pick something to specialize in. You’ll have alternate perspectives to draw from. You’ll be able to talk the lingo of those with whom you’ll be dealing on other parts of the project. You might just have a better or faster process developed for something completely different that you can bring into your specialty. For example, my hobby of metalwork helped me when planning to design a moving entry gate for ranch property developer Monviso. I was able to draw from experience with tensile strength, combining diverse metals, and structural mass for the steel and aluminum gate.

I’m not suggesting that waiting to specialize should make you a “Jack/Jill-of-all-trades, master-of-none.” Nothing could be further from the truth. It would be a terrible waste of your time and energies if, in your attempt to build a broad base, you become fodder for the handicapper general a la Harrison Bergeron. No, get a good base. Then build on it. Learn from others’ mistakes. Build on successes. Become a “Jack/Jill-of-all-trades, master of at least one!”

Keep your options open

Yes, I just suggested you master at least one trade. If you’ve some sense about yourself, you’ll find something relating to your first specialty, or in line with the process of your craft. Look, if I were designing cars for a living, I’d want to learn a little more about engines, drivetrains, etc. Then I’d be more prepared to not only design cool cars that could actually be built, but I’d know how to minimize costs and maximize performance. Job security.

Never settle into the “I only do” rut. How much more majestic is a mountain range, than a sole peak. When you do specialize, make sure you’ve got solid footing in other areas that you may build a mountain range of abilities. Look at Leonardo Da Vinci. He did it all from painting, to sculpture, to engineering. Be like him! There’s a quote I like from The Last Samurai. Tom Cruise’s character, Nathan Algren, is observing the Samurai people he is living with and makes the comment: “From the moment they awake, they devote themselves to the perfection of whatever they pursue.” He’s talking about the way they discipline themselves in not just their training, but also cooking and gardening.

Finally, once you’ve decided on a specialty, realize that you’ll probably change your specialty before you retire. It has been said that our generation will have at least five different careers–not jobs or employers–before we retire. With the amount of effort it takes to start a new career, you’ll be much better prepared if you start with a broad base, specialize in one or two things, and when necessary, jump from one to the other as a career. You won’t want to reach that point and have to start all over in something completely different.

“Education is advertising a specific viewpoint to a specific target audience to influence a desired outcome. Advertising is educating a specific target audience about a specific product or service to influence a desired outcome.” I’ve said this many times when asked why, after years of work in advertising design, I would choose a Masters of Education degree in Instructional Technology. To me, it seems like the next logical step in my career. I’ve always wanted to teach, to include my technology and design background in the discussion, and to improve existing educational outlets.

What is advertising?

Advertising can be defined as what we say about some product, service, or idea to get someone to make the choice we want them to make. While most traditional definitions focus solely on the nonpersonal communication media of advertising, I’m going to lump in everything including “word-of-mouth” advertising and personal sales pitches. Why? Well, it fits my purpose to relate it to education because education usually involves face-to-face contact supported by various media.

What is education?

This, to me, is a little harder to define. I’ll include the definition from Webster’s online: “to train by formal instruction and supervised practice especially in a skill, trade, or profession.” But to tie education to strict formal settings seems to limit it unnecessarily. In today’s world of the Internet, social networks, and web-enabled devices, I’ll add education as a construct to any situation where learning can occur. For example, part of my education in advertising design has included self-paced trial-and-error working through projects on my own, looking at others’ work as case studies, and reading up on trends and ideas through online blogs.

If education includes media and social networking outlets, the formality of the instruction and practice gets thrown out of the definition. In my education I’ve gone to blogs, news sites, critiqued completed ads or campaigns, and the like. It’s not a question of whether the blogger, creative person, or advertiser had the intended purpose to educate me. It becomes a question of whether I can learn from other’s ideas, successes, and mistakes. Education is personal. Why not look at it in a sense of how one becomes educated?

Education = Advertising

How can we use principles and techniques of advertising to enhance education, and vice versa? I’ll start with a look at something as simple as the television commercial, the 30 or 60 second spot, as a model for topic introduction in a lesson.

Anatomy of a TV commercial

A successful television commercial will effectively and concisely convey a message to a segment of the public called a target audience. The intended outcome of the communication is for that audience to understand the message and then comply with the call to action presented in the commercial. The underlying outcome of the communication is for that audience to become further educated in regard to the product, service, or idea presented in the commercial, along with any implied or suggested messages accompanying that message. These may be emotional ties to the brand, rationality to the how, when, or why of the message. The ad is merely a piece of educational material wrapped up in some persuasive message.

There is actually a formula or format by which all ads should be created. It’s called the AIDCA (alternately, AICDA) format. The acronym stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Credibility, and call to Action. As you study advertising design, you’ll come into contact with this format and start to recognize which parts of the formula are present in a given advertisement.

• Attention – The advertisement will attempt to get the audience’s attention. This may take the majority of the ad, or, if strong enough, it will hit and stick with as the ad maneuvers into the other aspects of the formula.
• Interest – This may be tied into Attention, but it further retains the attention. Interest is not equivalent to Attention. For example, a car accident might get one’s attention but not necessarily interest, if one turns away from it to avoid becoming part of the accident.
• Desire – This is what develops if the advertiser has successfully kept the Interest of the viewer. Desire begins to tie the viewer to the subject matter, to the brand or product.
• Credibility – Credibility solidifies resolve in the audience. If one feels one can trust the advertiser, one is more likely to buy in to the intended outcome.
• call to Action – The intended outcome of the commercial. This may be communicated outright – “Buy now!”, or implied “Choosy mom’s choose Jif”. Without a clear, unmuddied call to Action, a commercial will fail.

With the understanding of the AIDCA formula, teachers would be better prepared to introduce a new topic of instruction. Yes, but give me an example. OK.

Welcome to my class today third-graders. Today we’re going to start something that you’ll use for the rest of your lives. It is a practice that has been handed down for generations. It will increase the speed with which you can write to your friends. It’s artistic and fun! Who wants to know what it is?! Yeah! OK, get your pencils and paper ready, because today you are going to start writing in cursive!

Did you see all the pieces? Do you think it would be successful in motivating at least the start on learning cursive? Now, its all up to the teacher to keep the motivation. The only tough part–easy for me to say of course, since it’s a whole field of study–is the research to know what will get the viewer/student’s Attention, how to develop Interest into Desire, establish Credibility, and then what specific call to Action will work to get the student/viewer to do what one wants them to do. I leave that up to you.

Get out there and start advertising and educating!

Last time I talked about the recession and household goods, I realize it may have sounded like I was complaining without offering any sort of solution. This issue finds me in a different situation. I’ve found something else to complain about, while at the same time, I’ll offer up a solution.

The topic of today’s discussion is laundry soap. We’ve seen bottles of soap turn from regular to condensed soap claiming “more powerful blend” so they can still sell it at a higher price without really improving the operation. We used to purchase the cheapest bottle of laundry soap at Walmart, usually Sun or Purex, but found the price increasing by sometimes 150% to 200%, with no reason. What used to cost $0.06 per load has increased to $0.11 per load. Our household income hadn’t increased by as much and our washing needs certainly hadn’t decreased, so we had to find a solution.

My wife happened upon a recipe to for DIY laundry soap at Broulim’s. It touted a price as low as $0.02 per load. But, it caused me to ask a few questions: 1) Can we make it? 2) Is it effective–does it get the clothes clean?, and 3) How does it smell?

First, here’s the recipe:

• 5 Gallons boiling hot water
• 1 cup Washing Soda
• 1/2 cup Borax
• 1 Soap bar

1. Grate the bar soap and add to a large saucepan with hot water. Stir over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.
2. Fill a 5 gallon pail half full of hot water. Add the melted soap, Borax and Washing soda, stir well until all powder is dissolved. Top the pail up with more hot water.
3. Use 1/2 cup per load, stirring soap before each use (will gel).

Our batch looks like this in the process:

Next, grate the Fels-Naptha

Next, we add the grated soap to a saucepan to water and bring it to a boil:

You may want to pull the saucepan off the stove if the soap gets close to boiling over. Once boiling you can turn it down to medium-high until the soap is dissolved.

The next step is combining all the ingredients. First, pour the soap mixture into a 5 gallon bucket.

Then, add the boiling water, I used the saucepan as a ladle, because who wants to try to lift and pour five gallons of boiling water? Not I!

Finally, put a lid on it and wait.

Once you add any scents if desired, let the mixture sit, covered, for at least twelve hours. It will gel, Use your long spoon again to stir it into a kind of lumpy jello consistency.

So that answers whether we can make it. Is it effective? We’ve been using this detergent for six months now, and the clothes come out both looking and smelling clean. I’d love to share the smell over the net here, but we’re not to that point yet technologically. Sorry.

If you’d like a different smell, or looking for a dry powdered version, here’s a link with a few different options (http://tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/)

I recently saw an episode of “18 kids and counting” on TV with the Duggar family, where they used the same recipe. So it’s obvious I’m not the only one doing it.

But, even if I were the only one, my clothes get clean, there’s no weird chemicals to mess with my skin, and the best part is the money we’re saving!

Make something fun!

Check it out. In my spare time, I’m building a Hummer. Well, not an AM General H1 Hummer, but a replica.

I got the idea last year when I was looking around the internet and found two other people who had done it. Here: Built on a F150 Chassis, and here: http://www.tremormuv.com.

I thought, “hey, if they can do it, why can’t I?” So, I bought a 1984 Suburban for $50,, ripped off the body panels, and began the transformation.

As for the details, I haven’t decided what the details will be yet. I still have some time. From the side it will look like a Hummer. The front and rear views will give away the solid axle 4wd Suburban chassis. Otherwise, my goal is for it to look authentic, just as any other replica should.

The frame and body panels will be steel—none of that fiberglass kit stuff—mounted on a Suburban chassis. I may end up doing the plans build from TremorMUV, or I might just strike out on my own and build it all from scratch. Not quite sure yet. I have my two hands, some hard working helpers, a welder, and a shop that my wife doesn’t mind if I keep cluttered up with a project truck.

Some things I definitely need to do are the following. The engine needs to be relocated back a few inches and the front and rear of the frame rails will be cut to match the H1′s length. Actually I bought it without an engine simply because it would make tear-down easier and I haven’t decided on gasoline or diesel. I still have the THM400 that was sitting in the trunk. I need to fab up the entire body to sit on the frame. The body mounts need moving and then I’ll be looking for some surplus parts—hood, doors, etc., whatever I don’t build. The wheels will need replacing.

I’ll try to post updates regularly, but as this is a project based on extra funds, it may be slow going and far between.

Want to help me along?