Geoff Johnson » Geoff

Clippies

Geoff — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 22:04:57 +0000

Manage your headphones in style with the worlds first magnetic headphone clips.

Clippies was a small side project that I started working on at the end of graduate school and picked back up last summer. We launched a Kickstarter in October and successfully funded the project with over 1,500 pairs of Clippies sold!

Below you will find some of the media from the kickstarter.

Visit the website here to get a pair if you missed it.

Bent Ply Chair

Geoff — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 23:38:51 +0000

I designed and built this bent plywood and black walnut chair during my final year of graduate school.

Working with wood is such an elegant challenge wherein one must constantly balance aesthetics with function and form with strength.

I decided on a bent plywood design because of my love for Eames; I am proud to say that the first mold was a success and yielded a result that I was pleased with.

I hope someday in the future to work on another chair and carry forward the skills I gained in building the first.

I used foam to create the mold for the bent plywood back.

Thin sheets of plywood, with glue in between, in a vacuum sealed bag.

Prepping the legs for attachment of the bent plywood back.

Alpha

Geoff — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 20:37:41 +0000

Alpha is a custom designed bicycle meant to challenge the standard for commuter cycling and lead the way to new innovations within the industry of bike components. It was created for my senior design project with a team of 4 other engineers. We worked for over 2000 hours to design and fabricate Alpha.

The main attributes of the bike are a fully enclosed belt drive system for powering the rear wheel, an electro-mechanical clutch to switch between freewheel and fixed gear riding, and an integrated electronics package which feeds out data to both a handle bar mounted LCD and an SD card.

I was responsible for designing the drive system which includes the SWIFT (Switchable Integrate Free/Fixed Transmission). It took me over 700 hours to design and manufacture the components with the help of one of my team mates. We are now in the process of patenting the SWIFT system and other novel piece of Alpha.

Our team won both the mechanical engineering and all engineering school competitions and was featured on Wired, Core 77, Gizmodo, Engadget and many more! Visit the website for Alpha for more detailed information about its conception, development and future.

SWIFT installed in the custom bottom bracket

Here is the final presentation video given to a team of judges, faculty and students at the all Engineering School Senior Design Competition.

Wireless Variable Wave Speaker

Geoff — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 04:47:44 +0000

I created this wireless speaker for my second mechatronics lab. I designed the enclosure, designed and built the circuitry to drive the cone and wrote the code that accepted the wireless transmission and drove the speaker. There is a microprocessor on the top with a wireless board that receives a signal from a master computer and plays a single frequency for a specified duration. On top of the speaker is a switch to change the waveform of the note between square, triangle and sine; there was a very noticeable difference between the three. Every student in the class built a speaker in either the high, medium or low range of frequencies. We then used the master computer to orchestrate a concert with the 65 speakers, we played Mario.

Isometric View

Wave Form Switch

Urns

Geoff — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 04:17:25 +0000

I created this set of urns for my final project in design fundamentals. The concept behind the set is that two loved ones will be connected even after death. I took inspiration from ballet dancers and acrobatics. Just as in love, the two urns cannot stand without the other.

Pivoting Planes

Geoff — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 03:45:37 +0000

This project was an exploration in shapes and the transition between sharp geometric objects to smooth curvilinear ones. I designed two shapes in Adobe Illustrator and used the blend tool to join them over 25 sections. I then laser cut those sections out of paper and assembled them into a cedar block.

I then took 5 profiles from the 25 and used SolidWorks to create a solid model which I 3D printed and sanded. I drew some inspiration for the model from the form of a beautiful dress as seen above.

Luminaire

Geoff — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 03:29:00 +0000

I built this luminaire during my design fundamentals course. It is an assembly of 3 stellated dodecahedrons connected via tabs and a little glue. The concept was to create paper forms without removing any paper, hence the cuts and folds but no holes. We displayed them to the public during Philly Works; they hung outside the exhibit as people walked in and made for quite a sight.

Golden Ratio Exploration

Geoff — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 03:01:37 +0000

I took a course on fundamentals of design during my senior year in college and one of our first projects was to explore the use of the golden ratio and other geometric identities in modern design. I chose the famous Wire Chair by Charles and Ray Eames for my investigation. It yielded some fantastic results and clearly shows the brilliance and beauty of natural ratios.

Chess

Geoff — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:27:59 +0000

The third project in my advanced manufacturing class was to make use of our CNC lathe to create an original chess set. We were split up into teams of four and told to choose a general design aesthetic and then individually design pieces. My team was very pleased with the outcome of our designs. Using the CNC lathe we created the outer forms from aluminum stock and then with a CNC mill we post processed almost every piece. After machining was complete we bead blasted every piece and had them anodized for color and surface quality. Three months after the class ended I worked with one other team mate to create a board for our set. It is also made from aluminum with inlaid acrylic tiles. The work was shown off at Philly Works 2010.

“The Veldt” : Illustrated

Geoff — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 19:48:29 +0000

I illustrated the short story “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury in an intermediate graphic design course. There are a total of 13 spreads that I created using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign. I then printed each spread and bound them together to create the book shown. The short story is set in a future where a futuristic device is able to create realistic environments inside a home. As the story progresses it becomes clear the the line between real and imaginary are starting to blur. A fantastic reminder that we can easily become enslaved by the technology we create, “The Veldt” is a timeless classic. I selected a dark color pallet and chose to leave the illustrations sterile so as to evoke a creepy sensation as you are reading. You can download the PDF here!

Eyes in the Grass

Entrance to the Play Room