What do you hope current Haverford students take away from your visit?

The general idea that I want to get across is that art isn't limited to fine arts. It's applicable to science, engineering, and many other interesting fields.

I translated my fine arts background to aerospace. I started out working with plywood in the Haverford art studios, creating birdhouses and a jewelry box for my mom. My artistic career accelerated during my semester at The Oxbow School, a small boarding school in Napa Valley. After three months of traditional school, we each focused on independent projects. Having a strong background in woodworking from Haverford and an interest in cars and motorcycles, I created a car-themed pinball machine. I returned to Haverford for Form VI with a newfound appreciation for interactive art. That led to my senior thesis project, my first real stab at industrial design. Using wood, fiberglass, and steel I designed and fabricated a dual use chair. The chair was designed to accommodate a lounge position and an upright seating position. In addition to the arts, I was also a member of the robotics team for 3 years, where I was able to complement the sculptural, classic fine arts skills I'd been developing with an engineering skill set. 

I'd fallen in love with California during my time at Oxbow, so I was ready to go back for college. I went to California College of the Arts (CCA) where I studied industrial design. Most of us carry examples of industrial design everywhere we go—our cellphones. Industrial design includes consumer electronics, automotive design, fashion—all user-centric product design. I worked on a number of different projects during my time at CCA, including furniture, consumer electronics, and fitness equipment.

The Haverford School art department and my time at Oxbow gave me a solid background in building prototypes, the robotics team taught me how to solve mechanical problems, and CCA gave me experience researching users for various projects. I went from building birdhouses to aircraft design. Art can take you in many different directions. 

What advice would you give a hopeful industrial designer on the job hunt?

Industrial designers can bring their portfolios to a number of different companies and pursuits. One example is consumer electronics—we all know Apple, for example. They create beautiful, useable objects. Many industrial designers go into footwear, working at Nike and designing the sneakers that we all know and love. There's also the medical field, creating things like the vaccine refrigerators used during the pandemic. 

I got the opportunity to apply my skill set to aerospace. For the last six years, I have been working at a company called Elroy Air. We're building this mammoth of a drone—a 30 foot-wide aircraft that can take off vertically like a drone and then fly through the air like a normal plane. It's capable of carrying about 300 pounds of cargo and can travel up to 300 miles. What's special about our product is it's cargo pod, which can separate from the aircraft. The vision and goal of our company is to use the drone in natural disasters, delivering food and supplies to hard-to-reach places without endangering pilots.

What is most exciting to you about your work at Elroy Air?

The most satisfying part of this, for the design team, is that we own the pod. Every single cargo pod that the company needs to create goes through the design team. We get to manage it from the sketch phase, take it through early prototyping, fabrication, and all the way down to getting it mounted on the vehicle. It's a beautiful process. 

Elroy Air needs industrial designers because regular people will touch the cargo pod. The airframe can be run by engineers, but the cargo pod's design needs to be accessible to the general population. We've made the cargo pod simple to use. Another concern is that, when we deploy this in disaster areas, it will be exposed to the elements. We designed the cargo pod so that it can be left out in the rain without damaging the goods inside the pod.

Of all the possible applications for your skills and experience, what drew you to aerospace?

I'm a gearhead at heart. I love cars; I love motorcycles. Anything that goes fast with engines—I love. I didn't want to work in that field, though. I didn't want my passion, the part of my work that I love most deeply, to become my job. I knew I didn't want to burn myself out.

Aerospace offered the perfect mix of my passion, skills, and experience. I work with many of the same materials and processes that exist in the automotive and motorcycle worlds, with the same intensity I enjoy, but I can still enjoy my motorcycle. I recently spent two years creating a taillight for my motorcycle. I started with simple sketches, built out the model on CAD, installed it on the bike, and am now displaying it at shows. The world of making things is endless, and I'm still learning new things today.