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Nielsen Design Associates
One of the great parts about the design process is looking for the quirk, or looking at it in a different way than most people have looked at it.
- Sandy McNeil, Director, Nielsen Design Associates
Bicycle, designed by Nielsen Design
Associates for EP Manufacturing
Group, Malaysia, 1998. The bicycle
frame is made from a foam core with
a carbon fibre and plastic exterior
shell. Courtesy Nielsen Design
Associates.
Nielsen Design Associates, established by Carl Nielsen in 1961, was one of the first industrial design consulting studios in Sydney. In 1985 David Wood, who has been with the company since its early days, became a director of the group along with senior designers Sandy McNeil and Adam Laws. David and Sandy are the group's current directors.
From a studio in Hunters Hill, Nielsen's ten designers develop products for a broad range of industries, from telecommunications to medical devices. About half of their work is for clients outside Australia, mainly in Europe and Asia.
Video interview - Sandy McNeil, Director, Nielsen Design Associates talks about the bicycle project. Requires Quicktime 7 plugin |
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A lot of the challenge at the start of a design project is in looking for the right questions to ask. - Sandy McNeil, Director, Nielsen Design Associates
The urban sports bike: a manufacturing challenge
The most innovative thing about the frame was it uses traditional sailboard manufacturing technology to make a bicycle frame – and that's what's quirky about it.
- Sandy McNeil, Director, Nielsen Design Associates
Concept sketch for the frame design.
Courtesy Nielsen Design Associates.
Product designers like Nielsen Design Associates can contribute to all aspects of product development. This can involve coming up with the initial concept and look, testing the product and even overseeing the production process.
Part of the design process often involves simplifying products so they are easier or less expensive to make. Sometimes Nielsen Design even develops entirely new manufacturing processes for new products.
Nielsen Design Associates designed a foldable bike for a Malaysian manufacturer based on sailboard manufacturing technology. The new frame shape and new moulding process were more efficient to produce than carbon-fibre bicycles of the time.
Rendering of concept for the bicycle.
Courtesy Nielsen Design Associates.
The designers also developed a new transmission system and sourced other parts, including the seat and pedals, to complete the bicycle. They built a pilot manufacturing plant to test the process, and trained the Malaysian workers in how to make the new frame. This intensive project took eight designers and technicians 16 months and 5½ person-years to develop.
The agenda was to start from a clean sheet of paper – no assumptions. They wanted a carbon fibre bicycle – that was part of the deal – and they wanted to make it in Malaysia. They wanted it to be creative, they didn't necessarily want to take on the traditional manufacturers of bicycles – and so we had a pretty open brief in terms of how we were going to do that.
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Sandy McNeil, Director, Nielsen Design Associates
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This mould was used to test the
new manufacturing process in
the pilot plant. Courtesy Nielsen
Design Associates.
Links
Nielsen Design Associates
Bicycle Australian Design Awards entry
Laminated object manufacturing (LOM)
