Hey there.
This is the personal/portfolio site of Daniel Letson, a recent graduate of the Industrial Design program at Carnegie Mellon University. Browse my portfolio using the category links above. Print portfolios available on request, just send me an email! Thanks for looking.
Or, if you're in a hurry, here's a
Work Sample PDF
NEWS:
9/4/08: Kids & Canaries
The "Canary" environmental sensor devices that I helped to design last summer have been making appearances all over Pittsburgh in the past few months, in robotic art workshops for kids. The teachers running the seminars took some great photos of the little glowing boxes in use, so I thought I'd share them here. Click here for more info on the Canary project
lil rocker measures air quality & humidity
polaroids from an environmental-sensing "scavanger hunt" at a local middle school
robo-fieldtrip
some sort of 2-canary-ed frankenstein monster (according to the builders, its a "zombie arm" that crawls across the ground!)
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4/2/08:
A working prototype for a new "collapsible side table" concept:
1 cut and scored piece of "omega-bond" material (polyethelyne sandwiched between aluminum) + 4 bent aluminum "feet" :
Turns into a stylish, sturdy 16" side table (and back again!) It weighs practically nothing, folds totally flat, and comes from a single 4x4 piece of material. The layer of plastic in the middle serves as a living hinge for each leg segment.
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3/5/08:
STOREFRONT, an experimental retail space (run by Edmund Isaac and myself), is now up and running on the weekends at the "Goods and Services" building in Southside (2628 E.Carson, to be exact). We are open 12-5 Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, until May. Objects are curated, collected, created, altered, augmented, and arranged in the space, and everything is for sale. Our displays and concepts change from week to week, so try to come by more than once. Thanks!
click here for STOREFRONT's flickr, with pictures of past weekends' installations
-Dan
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2/11/08:
More breaking news:
I got hit by a car Friday night, while on my bike (from behind, no less. Totally not my fault!). I got picked up by an ambulance, had my clothes cut off, and had to stay in the hospital a night, but I am out now, and feeling decent. No broken bones, just some major scrapes and bruising in my right leg (that neck brace was just a precaution, luckily!). Now to deal with all the insurance mumbo jumbo. Ugh.
A bunch more content is up now, with most of my projects now up in the Design section. (click)
Also, a couple new blog updates: (click)
Thanks for looking!
-Dan
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1/29/08:
BREAKING NEWS!!!
Charlie Patterson and I got to the next round of competition for the CHI Student Design Competition, which focused on ethnographic research concerning the homeless, and devising some sort of helpful solution. We worked hard on our research and submission all last semester, and now it's paid off! What this REALLY means, though, is that both of us will be headed to FLORENCE, ITALY in early April!
Coming April 2008: Dan and Charlie's Bogus Journey
Read our submission here: (click) (excuse the poor formatting, it wasn't up to me!)
In other news, some new things are up now, including some music (click), some of my book cover collection (click), and some new links. Thanks for looking!
-Dan