Mechanations- Continued

Watched over by machines with loving care:

Recently, I have been experimenting with my previously rendered technical illustrations.
They are "reincarnations" and some are published under "Illustration" on this website.

It seems everything we do is manged by machines. We cannot underestimate their presence in our lives. As machines get smarter and more predictable they will play a bigger, and possibly more emotional part in our lives. I like to think of them as beautiful things with endless capabilities. Windmills, power plant turbines, electric motors, automation control devices, automobiles, electrical distribution systems all depend on machines. We live in the machine age. Every computer keyboard connects us to a machine. From engineers to artists the machine plays a role in our lives. When their "intelligence" supersedes our own; I hope that caring will be built into their programs.

Currently, there are some of my illustrations displayed at 10 Flavors Studios, 333 2nd Street NE. Please feel free to come by and take a look.

Angelicodium

Understanding Automation

I have had the great opportunity to work for one of America's largest and oldest companies - General Electric. Recently, (Probe Incorporated) upgraded the style of icons used in architectural diagrams. We are implementing a more contemporary infographic - like style. This makes for a lot less clutter in GE's diagrams and is much more colorful and stylized. I am using this style to represent major industry applications, as well, and so far we have all been very happy with the results:

Mechanations

Hundreds of old technical illustrations are sitting in file folders and moldering storage devices. I decided to try my hand at "reconfiguring" these illustrations into almost familiar other machines - An accordion composed from DCS factory control modules, a heavy truck with a magnesium casting machine and DIN-rail mounted terminal blocks, a steampunk-like submarine... CLICK THE IMAGE to see more machines

Ma.K. Fireball and Friends

I have been building and painting an old 1980's era science fiction kit. While I was at it I decided to make some figures and give the whole thing a bit of a setting. I started building the kit 15 years ago. Each time I picked up I thought "Nah, I am really not a SciFi guy". Then I needed a Guinea Pig to experiment on. I wanted to try some of the new scratchingtechniques that are quite popular; and to try using both paint and pastels to render flesh. The base is scratch built using polystyrene sheets and shapes. The numbering was scavenged from a Challenger 1 decal sheet. The dog is beautiful!

A logo by any other name.

CIMA CONSULTING

Recently I had the opportunity to work with a colleague to develop a logo for his consulting firm. The logo process for me is very collaborative and Dan and I spent several meetings batting around ideas and looking at sketches. I made three presentations to Dan (numbered appropriately in the graphic below). Here is a summary of the comments that drove us through the process:

Presentation 1:
Dan: "I like it. What other ideas do you have?
Mike: "uhhhhh...."

Presentation 2:
Dan:  "I like them. Could we simplify things and make the mountains more stylized?"
Mike: "No!" (We were finally getting somewhere.)

Presentation 3:
Dan: "Nice!."
Mike: " I am glad you like it."

If you are interested to hear what Dan has to say about CIMA CONSULTING:

"I founded CIMA Consulting after beginning my career in the nonprofit sector. Through CIMA, I am proud to work with mission driven businesses and nonprofit organizations to develop and implement their strategic goals." - Dan Katz

or visit him at: http://www.cima.consulting/

Information Science

I did an illustration of a scientific laboratory facility. It was meant to demonstrate the capabilities of the lab. The various structures and equipment are not necessarily to perfect scale. We adjusted things to make sure equipment stood out. Walls and doors were lowered to provide better visibility in the rooms. Below is a detail of one of the laboratories.

In order to render the pieces of laboratory equipment, the client gave me a PDF with pictures of all of them. Many were of very poor quality. I went to various manufactures, distributors and resellers websites to find better reference. I downloaded User Manuals and in one case contacted a manufacture to resolve an issue with the accuracy of one of the product photos the client provided. (the rep was nice enough to tell me that the client had provided a photo of an older model. He then directed me to some images on their website and I was able to render the image more accurately.)