Week 1:

In your own words, name and describe 3 areas of your personal interest that may include any issue in the world and, if you wish, off world. 

My first area of interest is computers. I remember my dad giving my younger brother and I an old dinosaur that still took floppy disks when I was very very young and that's all that it took. I slowly grew more and more interested, taking them apart to see how they worked and was finally able to build my own in middle school. This sparked a lot for the future for me. I helped friends build their own rigs, became more and more advanced in building techniques, and even picked up some freelance builds. I have come to a point where I have noticed, in the computer building world, most things have become too much of the same. Standardizing is great especially with how many computer part brands there are but with the standardization, there has become much less variety. I want to design computer building products that are very unique but also standardized for the parts on the market.

Another huge area of interest for me is cars and car culture as a whole. Right before getting my license I fell in love with the culture and how in it, people treat their cars as works of art. Working on every detail, the inside mechanics, the outside, and the vision they want it to become. The entire community is amazing and I have learned so much from so many nice people. There is a phrase in the car world “Built not bought” which I have adopted into my life for more than just cars. As a designer I enjoy building and making things to my exact specifications rather than going out and buying something that only satisfies some of my needs. This not only allows me to keep a unified design by creating parts that go together but it also makes a better result that shows passion, dedication, and in most cases, more performance.

Finally, another passion of mine is video games, and with the unfortunate onset of corona, many new people have entered the hobby again or for the first time finding some good in our situation. It’s something that has such a vast pool of interests that anyone can find a game that they enjoy playing. Personally, I am very interested in simulation games such as racing or piloting and the strive to make these games as realistic as possible. People have developed full motion and feedback simulators to actually feel turns and g-force, and with the rapid progression of VR, these two combined products create a complete reality. My problem with these products is there is no middle tier in the market. These products are either extremely expensive for everyone interested unprofessionally, or extremely cheap with horrible quality (when playing something like a racing sim, the actions are sporadic and very aggressive making cheap products break very easily). I want to design products for this market, an affordable middle ground, something with quality and an entry level price.