Vincenzo Ricci was our 1st place winner on the Kinoca-Minolta iPhone dock Challenge, so we decided to sit down with him and have a chat about himself and his work.
Vincenzo has never studied engineering, but studied instead Physics at La Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. On the side, he worked in telecommunications on technical projects and product design. A lot of his work brought him close to laser cutting and milling machines, pushing him to work with 3D design more and more. “I started teaching myself the basics of 3D design, and all my studying continues to evolve today via my passion for electronics, physics and science in general.”
Like much of Europe, the economy is putting a great deal of pressure on young CAD modellers and designers. Vincenzo says, “When I can I stay away from the usual frustrations by playing bass guitar and composing some weird song.” When asked, Vincenzo confirmed my suspicion that he’s a fan of Primus (I’ve rarely met an bassist who isn’t).
I asked Vincenzo how he came to design his curiously-named “Toyota iBat”. He replied that introspection and observation was key to his conclusion that the dock ought to be intimately integrated with the dashboard. “I followed the lines of flight of the dashboard, and the shape, as if to make a mold to reshape.” Originally, he was going to call it the ‘iFalcon’, but decided that iBat would be better. If you look at the comments, much of the design was improved by input from the community.
GrabCAD is a rapidly growing community, with a massive library of work and new features constantly being added to help users communicate and collaborate more. Vincenzo explores GrabCAD to discover and be inspired by the resulting work. “Its an overview of the world that I can observe great people and great ideas in the design.” He compares GrabCAD to Linux and the principals of Open Source. “Using GrabCAD one sees how people apply their knowledge in CAD modelling. Curiosity leads to people downloading of those models and studying how they were constructed.” Added up, one can interact with how models are created in greater depth than an ordinary textbook. For those unprofessionally trained in CAD, GrabCAD allows them to learn and even have a chance at winning something, as Vincenzo did, something that was impossible only a few years ago. Bravo, Vincenzo!
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