Industrial Design vs. Mechanical Engineering

[stellographer]

I don't really understand this article.

The only example of industrial design and mechanical engineering being fused given in the article is the heat vent one where you took the vents off the top of the sweat-lodge shaped computer and put them on the bottom because it looked "like a large salt shaker"...

But doesn't heat rise? And now the vents are in the thermodynamically opposite place they should be, and simultaneously sheltered from crosswind by the gumdrop shape? That doesn't sound like much of a field-mesh rather than an intentional crippling of the engineering portion...

[Cloudy]

They come off a bit biased towards the design fetish, and how the engineer had to deal with the knowingly uncompromising dream designer.

  Scott’s mission was to reinvent the look, feel, and even
   personality of a computer, without limits. He worked to 
  capture an idea and a feeling without worrying initially 
  about the execution of that idea.



  The Engineering Challenge: Realize the Design

  For George, he sees his role as one to challenge 
  assumptions and do his utmost to realize Scott’s design.


  “My role as the Engineer is to take what the Industrial 
  Designer says is the Bible and try and put that into 
  production, more than coming back with “we have to change 
  this and that,” George says. “Because wherever possible, 
  we don’t want to compromise on our vision. We’ve made 
  every step necessary to manifest the industrial design 
  and try to reflect the creativity and personality of the 
  product.”

Design is great, but this just reminds me of design by Homer [1]

[1] http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/the-homer-in...

[pnathan]

Why aren't these manufacturing shops in the US? I consistently hear of difficulty working with offshore manufacturing plants like this - skimping here and there, poor quality build, etc.

[apalmer]

Cost,at least perceived cost. But most likely the baseline quality to cost trade off doesn't justify it.