Dan Harden on Cotton, Acrylic Paint, Jet Engines + Further
As a toddler, Dan Harden was on a regular basis drawing, painting, or taking apart residence gear and lawnmower engines. His dad and mother impressed the fledgling maker to conform along with his creative instincts, and he already knew what his occupation might be, although he didn’t have a popularity for it however. “I was born to be an industrial designer, and I sensed it at a youthful age, although I had no thought it was often called that,” Harden says.
It was all through internships at George Nelson Associates and Richardson Smith when he seen the design profession in movement, and each half clicked. He graduated from the Faculty of Cincinnati, and honed his private technique with stints at Henry Dreyfuss Associates and Frog Design. Nonetheless, one enterprise would have a permanent affect on his life and the enterprise at huge – when he and Bob Riccomini based mostly Whipsaw in 1999.
Dan Harden
Celebrating 25 years in enterprise this 12 months, Harden now heads the company, based totally in San Francisco, California, as CEO and principal designer. The visionary and his employees have labored with top-tier consumers like Google, Nike, and Uber, with a portfolio of larger than 1,000 merchandise and duties.
Harden nonetheless stays impressed, nurturing his curiosity in construction, music, and woodworking. Creating his diverse skills not solely offers him momentum in work, nevertheless additional importantly, it boosts his frequently happiness. He’s content material materials to find, and if he ever decided to pivot, he’d write a e e book.
Although the designer invents supplies points, he doesn’t covet them. He does respect his few fundamental autos and guitars, nevertheless he is additional inquisitive about what such objects might assist him faucet into. “Possessions to me are gateways to experiences, and it’s the experiences that I treasure most,” Harden notes. “I imagine good design is that method. It’s not solely about adoring the issue – it’s about the way in which it permits you or motivates you in some explicit method.”
Right now, Dan Harden joins us for Friday 5!
Image: Jonah De Oliveira on Unsplash
1. Martin Acoustic Guitar
A Martin guitar is the epitome of a finely crafted musical instrument. Martins have a rich picket tone that reverberates into your chest everytime you play it, and the feel is elegant. Every component is meticulously fabricated by hand. A Martin guitar is the correct mixture of sort, carry out, and worth. As quickly as I carried out a Martin I under no circumstances went once more to a lesser guitar.
“Primordial” by Dan Harden
2. Acrylic Paint
I have been painting since I was 12 years outdated, and although I like oil too, I uncover that acrylic paint brings out my “fast creativity”. It’s a lot much less committal, so I tend to leap correct in and paint with out overthinking it. Acrylic dries fast so you’ll layer repeatedly to get cool depth outcomes. The colors are rich and its thick physique permits you to assemble deep textures.
Image: Dan Harden
3. Porsche 911 (notably the 993 sequence from the nineties)
The appropriate fundamental sports activities actions automotive. It’s a visceral, handbook, gutsy, stunning machine. I’ve had 4 of these beauties, and I under no circumstances tire of driving them – notably down Route 1 underneath Carmel, California.
Image: Ketut Subiyanto at Pexel
4. Cotton
We take it with no consideration on account of it’s so ubiquitous in our lives, no matter the place you reside. Cotton feels good, seems to be like good, breathes, retains shade, absorbs moisture, is sustainable and low value. We placed on it beneath and over. We sleep on it. We clear with it. It’s the distinctive “largest of all time” pure supplies.
Image: Inspirationfeed
5. Jet Engine
I actually like techy machines, notably those that signify the perfect diploma of human creativeness and ingenuity. The jet engine is such a stunning piece of implausible engineering on account of how small and straightforward it is, however so extraordinarily extremely efficient. The next time you’re sitting on a airplane, look out the window everytime you’re taking off and visualize what’s taking place there. Air is instantly compressed by 40x, often making over 100,000 kilos of thrust, all going down on a single rotating axle. When visualized together with its affiliate the wing, one different engineering marvel, it’s rather more astounding.
Works by Whipsaw:
Scroll Lounge Chair
Ravenchord Piano
DG Takano's Increased Water Faucet
Owala FreeSip Water Bottle
