It should come as no surprise that I’m a huge fan of Mythbusters. I like their “failure is always an option” maxim, meaning if you have an idea you should try it out, what’s the worst that can happen?

While watching the program one day, I noticed something weird about their forklift — it moved sideways. It didn’t just turn on a dime, but actually moved perpendicular to the direction of the wheels. Upon closer inspection, they looked more like worm gears than wheels. The answer was just a Google away: The Mythbusters’ forklift is equipped with Mecanum Wheels, also known as Omni Wheels or Ilon Wheels. These wheels work by rotating independently, depending on the desired direction of travel.

I had an idea that this might make for an interesting motion graphic (above), since still images really don’t do this technology justice. So I tried it out (what’s the worst that can happen?)

The first decorated trees were adorned with apples, strings of popcorn, candy canes and pastries in the shapes of stars, hearts and flowers. In 1847, Hans Greiner, an artisan in Lauscha, Germany, began producing more permanent decorations – glass baubles in the shape of fruit and nuts.

To do this, he heated a glass tube over a flame, then inserted the tube into a clay mold, blowing into the heated glass to expand it into the shape of the mold. After the glass cooled, a silver nitrate solution was swirled inside, the outside was hand tinted, and the bauble was finished with a cap and hook.

The ornament became vogue in the late 1840s, when a photo of Queen Victoria’s Christmas tree was shown in a London newspaper, decorated with lights and glass baubles from her husband Prince Albert’s native Germany. Today, holiday decorations are second only to gift-giving in seasonal sales. Ornaments are mass-produced world-wide, and about 20 small glass blowing studios still exist in Lauscha, Germany.

2009 was a great year for me. Thank you to everyone who was a part of it. I look forward to starting something new, solving problems and making things in 2010. Happy holidays!

Some fellow techies and I have started Technical Illustrators.org, a blog and community by and for technical illustrators. We feature portfolios of colleagues and share tutorials, techniques, resources, tips & tricks of the trade.

With more and more of the traditional in-house technical illustration jobs moving overseas, techies are finding themselves out on their own. In a time when communicating information clearly, accurately & concisely is paramount, there is huge demand for their skills however their trade is relatively unknown. It’s our goal with this site to unite these independent professionals and raise awareness of this highly communicative medium.

For more, visit us at Technical Illustrators.org!

Some new features have crept into my site:

• Site Search find what you’re looking for
• Easier Navigation use your arrow keys to navigate the portfolio
• Editorial Illustration a new body of work I’ve been developing

Mind the wet paint, and if I’ve missed a spot or something’s missing please let me know!

My site is currently undergoing maintenance. Everything should be working, but you might encounter a bug here or there. I’ll be wrapping this up as soon as possible.

In the meantime, check out my Technical Illustration Portfolio.

I’ve been receiving questions from a number of people curious about technical illustration. For the benefit of anyone else who’s interested, here’s some of the questions and answers:

What does a technical illustrator do? What is technical illustration?
“Technical illustrators create highly accurate renderings of machinery, instruments, scientific subjects…technology, cartography, or virtually any subject that requires precision interpretation.”
- Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines, 11th Edition. pp. 196-197.

My goal is information & aesthetics: conveying information in a clear, concise, accurate and visually appealing way.

Tell me about yourself. How did you get into technical illustration?
Technical illustration feeds my innate curiosity about how things are made and how they work, my enthusiasm for computers and technology, and my urge to make images. In high school I took art, computer sciences and AutoCAD classes as well as dabbling with Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash in my free time, but didn’t really connect the dots until Drawing Systems in my first year of college.

Four years later, I earned a BA in Illustration, Technical and Scientific from Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning.

As a freelancer this isn’t necessary (but it helps), it all comes down to the quality of the work in your portfolio. However, some certifications and knowledge of specialized software may be required as an in-house technical illustrator.

Who do you work with? How do you find each other?
I work with art directors, creative directors, architects, engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs-anyone who needs information communicated visually.

My website is my primary means of advertising what I do. It includes my illustration portfolio, motion graphics portfolio, information about the service I provide and of course contact information. It is the hub of my online presence, and built so people can find me via search engines. I keep it constantly updated with fresh work and relevant news, in a blog format so people can subscribe if they want to stay updated. I also send out a quarterly email newsletter for those who prefer it.

I use a number of social networking sites, such as Twitter, Flickr and LinkedIn. I also have portfolios and listings at various illustration-related sites such as IllustrationMundo and Behance. These let me connect with friends, colleagues, clients and prospects.

What is your process? How do you do what you do?
A brief explanation can be found here. I haven’t done any tutorials at this time.

What software do you use?
Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop & Flash, currently learning Cinema 4D – never stop learning!

What was the most challenging project that you completed?
Every project is a unique problem to solve, but the most challenging projects are the ones where references and resources are limited. I really need to understand what I’m illustrating before I can start, and then have enough information to accurately depict it.

Do clients occasionally request illustrations that are technically impossible or too difficult?
If something is technically impossible, like showing both the top and bottom of something in one drawing for example, I explain the problem to the client and we work out a compromise – like splitting it into two illustrations. If something is too difficult to draw, it’s usually because I don’t have enough reference material to really understand what I’m drawing, so I request more information from the client. It’s never been a problem.

Are you able to support yourself solely with illustration? Has the economy affected you?
Yes, I am a full-time freelance technical illustrator.

One of my instructors at Sheridan, the ever-fervent Larry Read, called technical illustration a “bullet proof career” for the diversity of subjects it covers. In periods of high growth one could illustrate consumer products, cars and houses. In periods of low growth, educational & training materials, health & medical products and entertainment & video games.

Being a solo freelancer helps too: low overhead, tax savings, constantly reinvesting in yourself and the business.

Hope that helps answer some of your questions! Thanks to Andy, Chris & Chad for the questions!

Los Vesparados: Art of the Scooter opens tomorrow in Minneapolis, MN. My contribution fuses technical illustration with the style of vintage travel posters. Prints will be available for purchase at the show, and from ImageKind. The show features an impromptu scooter show, vintage scooter memorabilia, mod tunes and lots of great artwork. If you’re in Minneapolis, definitely check this one out.

Maker Faire was a blast! Lots of amazing things to see and do. I saw some great presentations, inventions, projects and kits and even did some tinkering of my own. When I got back, I was inspired to do a DIY spot illustration series to capture the energy and creativity of everything I saw.

This weekend I’m headed to San Francisco for Maker Faire, the world’s largest DIY arts & technology festival. Looking forward to seeing Bre Pettis & MakerBot and Jared Boone & the Make:TV crew and their Episode Dispensor, both projects I helped out with some design & illustration work.

Hope to meet a lot of people, learn a thing or two, and get my hands dirty!

I just wrapped up a personal project that’s been on my backburner for some time, an illustrated collection of my favourite iconic mid-century modern furniture. Included are designs by Eames, Jacobsen, van der Rohe, le Corbusier, and more, forty pieces in all.

It started as a project to develop my editorial illustration – to find a way of working with a certain character, tone & simplicity – for when things need to be communicated more abstractly than with the objectivity of technical illustration.

Prints are available via ImageKind.