Edward
Felix
Some ideas don’t need a whole world around them, they need something you can hold in your hands. I design and prototype products that blend creativity, usability, and manufacturability, taking concepts from sketches all the way to production-ready objects.
Whether it’s a portable art kit, themed props, or bespoke commissions, I enjoy the challenge of turning an idea into something practical without losing its spark. My background in 3D printing, CNC, and digital design tools lets me build, test, and refine quickly, making sure the final product looks great and works beautifully.
For me, product design is about finding the sweet spot between imagination and function! I relish in making objects that are playful, useful, and built to last.
Artist and YouTuber Jazza came to me with an idea; a portable art box that could carry a full set of painting tools and fold out into a mini workbench for creating anywhere. My role was to take his sketches and turn them into a product that was practical, durable, and easy to manufacture.
I started by building a detailed 3D model in Blender to test proportions and make sure every brush, paint, and surface fit together neatly. From there, I produced a 3D-printed prototype to see how the concept worked in real life.
Once the design felt right, I translated it into a laser-cut kit that artists could assemble themselves. Using Fusion 360, I linked every part of the design to equations, so adjusting material thickness or tolerances automatically updated the whole build. That meant faster iterations and cleaner files for production.
The result was a portable, fold-out studio that stayed true to Jazza’s creative vision while also being robust, manufacturable, and fun to use.
The Ouija board project gave me the chance to combine theatrical illusion with creative engineering. The challenge: build a board that could “magically” move its planchette to spell out custom text, while being durable enough to withstand public use.
To sell the illusion, all of the electronics had to be completely hidden and the mechanism almost silent. I solved this with a custom H-style gantry system powered by stepper motors on flat linear rails, discreetly housed in the legs of the board. Using TMC2224 drivers gave me whisper-quiet precision, so the planchette could glide smoothly without breaking the atmosphere.
At the heart of the system was an ATmega328p microcontroller. It read text from a micro SD card, translated it into Cartesian coordinates, and passed those instructions to the drivers, moving a magnetised planchette across the surface with uncanny accuracy.
The planchette itself was carved from jarrah wood, designed in Blender and shaped to feel authentic in the hand. The end result was more than a prop: it was an immersive interactive experience, where every detail – from the silent mechanics to the natural wood finish – helped sustain the sense of something otherworldly.
In 2019, I was commissioned to design and build a series of puppets for a stage production of Little Shop of Horrors. The brief was clear: the puppets needed to look great, perform reliably, and sync seamlessly with the show’s musical numbers.
For the smallest puppet, I created two versions. The first was a fully animatronic puppet, pre-programmed to move in time with the score and interact with actors on stage. Using Blender, I animated its performance, then exported those movements onto an SD card that ran on a custom-built ATmega328P controller. This meant the puppet could “perform” in perfect sync with the cast every night, no hidden puppeteer required.
As a safeguard, I also designed a mechanical backup puppet. Operated with a cable system by an offstage actor, it ensured the production would never miss a beat if the animatronic encountered any issues.
The biggest challenge was squeezing complex mechanics into a compact puppet body, but careful engineering and testing paid off. The final designs were reliable, expressive, and fun to watch, enhancing the show’s theatrical impact while giving the production team confidence that the puppets would deliver every performance.
For the later scenes of the production, I designed and built two larger puppets that raised the visual stakes on stage. Each came with its own set of creative and engineering challenges.
The first was a mechanical puppet built around a wooden mechanism that delivered smooth, controlled movement. By carefully balancing the design, I made it possible for a single performer to operate the entire pod with just one lever.
The second was a much larger puppet, engineered to conceal a performer inside. At the right moment in the play, the pod could split open on cue, revealing the operator in dramatic fashion. To make this possible, the structure had to be lightweight enough to handle on stage, yet strong enough to withstand repeated use across the run.
The design process began with VR sculpting, which allowed me to quickly explore shapes and scale. From there, I refined the models in Blender, then used SolidWorks to design the mechanical systems that integrated seamlessly into the puppets’ bodies.
All of this was achieved under a tight production schedule, proof that even under pressure, creative design and solid engineering can come together to deliver reliable, theatrical results.
