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The designer's fine touch
F&T in perspective
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Those curious, c eative industrial designers
HE HP INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER is an elusive fellow
T to describe. He is an artist ... and yet he is more than
that. He is "mechanically minded" and has a good gen-
eral understanding of a multitude of engineering problems.
He knows manufacturing procedures, materials, and he is
cognizant of the needs of the HP people who sell to cus-
tomers. He must, in short, be a man of many talents because
he serves many masters.
o As Industrial Design Manager Al Inhelder puts it, HP
industrial designers are "curious and creative." A natural
curiosity is necessary because the designer must study hard
to find the why and how of any material, component, or in-
strument he is asked to work with. He then applies this
knowledge creatively to develop practical design solutions to
problems.
The central industrial design department at Palo Alto is
staffed with nine men. In addition, there are six designers
attached to divisions-two with Microwave and one each
with Dymec, Colorado Springs, Sanborn, and Moseley. The
central group works on corporate projects, coordinates the
design efforts of the divisional designers, and provides a
complete service for the divisions which have no designers.
o At least fifty major projects are handled by central indus-
trial design each year and approximately that many by the
designers associated with divisions. These can range from
new cabinet concepts for instruments ... to new jewelry for
Before drawings for a new product service awards. They can last for weeks, months, or some-
are finalized, the designers
sometimes have HP model-shop
times a year or two, depending on their complexity. Often
people construct a prototype one man carries a project from start to finish, but when the
such as this. occasion demands, several HP designers may pitch in.
THE COVER
Human engineering is a vital part of
product design work. Jack King is shown
performing a tactile test to determine
optimum size and "feel" for an instrument
front panel knob.
A design project normally starts with library
research and conferences with engineers.
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Typically, the designer is working on three or four totally
unrelated projects at one time--a situation requiring or-
ganized work habits.
A project may originate with a field engineer who gets a
suggestion from a customer, or it may be generated from
within the department or other segments of the corporation.
Once the need for a design effort is established, the project
gets underway with an intensive study. If the project involves
a product, the men assigned to it read related technical
literature, investigate competitive products, and confer with
company engineers to make certain they understand the
function of the system, instrument, or component.
They want to know where and how the product is to be
used ... who will use it and what are its operator require-
ments. In short, they seek any information which will help
define the problem.
Next they turn to the drawing board, where they will make
three or four rough layouts or perspective drawings to illus-
trate solutions to the problem at hand. In the case of major
assignments, the designers will often render full-color chalk
drawings to serve as an economical method of depicting what
the proposed product would look like.
These drawings are reviewed carefully by the people most
concerned with the product in research and development,
manufacturing, and marketing. Their combined suggestions
are worked into a new set of engineering drawings, and from
these a mock-up or prototype is created. The designers make A program to organize graphics on packages is being developed. Here
Roger Lee points to package after shipment. AI Inhelder displays
mock-ups from a variety of materials, but most often they
printed materials attached to packages in various parts of the world.
use clay or cardboard. They are remarkably skilled at The envelope he holds would gather shipping papers and certain stickers
making their models look like finished products. in one spot.
Designers study materials. Laurance Plaskan gets After designer formulates idea to solve a prob- Finished engineering drawings by Kail Peterson
printing information from paper salesman. lem, he often makes color illustration. (right) are checked by Dick Payne.
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(continued from page 3)
Prototypes-or working models-are made from the
materials specified for the finished product. This requires
that they be fabricated by people in one of HP's model shops.
In general, a prototype is made when a project is particularly
complicated. After it has been evaluated and modified, final
drawings are produced and the new product is ready to be
adapted for manufacturing.
o The company's industrial designers have made many im-
portant contributions to electronic instrument design-both
from the standpoint of beauty and performance. They have
taken instruments out of the black box class, giving them a
pleasing appearance while engineering them better for op