CHARLIE

WILSON
PORTFOLIO
 Charlie Wilson
Product Designer
HI!

FIXPERTS
A STICK FOR LORRAINE

My name is Charlie Wilson and I’m an

H A L O
industrial design student at Brunel
University London.
My approach to design is a very much hands on,
user focused one. I work best by getting to know
the user and their experience and by spending time
in workshops or at my desk, creating models and
prototypes, interacting with tangible design concepts.
That being said I’m also experienced with a number of

Charlie Wilson
CAD software packages and love sketching on paper.

Projects I have recently undertaken include a lighting

design project, a live brief from high end children’s bike
company Frog Bikes, a ‘Fixperts’ project, building guitars
and ukuleles as well creating my own guitar amplifier
from a vintage suitcase, specifically for buskers. One of
my more formative design experiences was an eight
month long project where I designed and built a travel
guitar from scratch. I created a completely unique
folding bridge and neck system that allowed the guitar
to collapse enough to fit into a backpack without
compromising on scale length, body size or sound
quality. I have also been playing gigs and recording
for over six years and have played guitar, saxophone,
ukulele and sung for thirteen years. 07377066639 charlieseanw@gmail.com
L U M I N A I R E
01 LUMINAIRE
Luminaire was a second year university project,
for which we worked with a lighting company
called XICATO.

THE BRIEF
I was supplied with XICATO’s XIM LED module
and asked to create a stand alone lighting
solution for a domestic living space. I was to
undertake research into the user, function and
proposed environment. Emphasis was placed
on the lighting effect the lamp creates and
thermal management as the XIM module alone
was prone to overheating.

This section has been split up into ideation,

modelling and development, prototyping and
final presentation boards.
 100

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After the ideation stage, I decided on one particular concept. It
was then time to think as divergently as possible and think of how
it will function and how it will work as well as considering colours,
materials and finishes.

I decided to allow the rotation by creating a completely unique

mechanism and started modelling, focused mainly on this
mechanism and overall user interaction and aesthetics.

The main developments here are figuring out how it will rotate
and slanting the base, giving it a more dynamic, balanced look,
rather than the perpendicular cross shape I initially designed.
Next I moved on to creating a working model and modelling the wiring and switch as well as making
a way to limit how far the lamp could rotate in it’s base. While this model showed that the original
leather strap switch design was feasible, I decided to remove it, because seeing it as a 3D model, I
realised that bridging the hole in the lamps body with the switch ruined the circle, which is what makes
the design distinct and unique.
Once I had my working model, I started using what it had taught me to create a working prototype.
This involved using a CNC mill to create the body’s internal mechanism, turning the head on a
lathe, adding the LED module and heat sink, creating metal fixings from scratch and oiling the
wood, among other processes.
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 H A L O
With the functionality of a desk
light and looks of a decorative
lamp, the HALO light is a highly
adjustable task light that feels
just as at home while you’re
working at your desk as it does
while you’re relaxing by your
coffee table.
 H A L O
Charlie Wilson
02 FIXPERTS
Fixperts is a programme connecting designers
with real people to solve their everyday
problems. In a team with five other designers,
I was essentially told ‘find someone with an
everyday problem. Fix it and make a short
video documenting the process.’ That’s where
Lorraine came in.
Lorraine was a ballet dancer. She was in her
twenties when her spinal surgery went wrong,
leaving her using a walking
stick, unable to stand
unassisted for extended
periods of time. I went to
talk to her about her daily
life and identified several
possible solutions to a
range of her daily struggles.
When I spoke to my group,
we decided to focus on the
stick itself.
MY ROLE
It was the job of the whole team to pitch in
ideas and help create the product; I also filmed
and made the video. My designs were the ones
that Lorraine found most helpful and made it
into the final product.
You can see our video
by scanning the QR code
above or searching for
‘A stick for Lorraine’ on
YouTube.
When I spoke to Lorraine,
she mentioned that her
walking stick was moulded
to her right hand, but
when her right arm gets
tired and she switches
to her left it’s very
uncomfortable.
She also told me that
when she puts her stick
down in public, it often falls
over; this combined with
her back injury causing
her to be unable to bend
down means that she will
sometimes have to ask
passing strangers for help,
which is very demoralising,
especially for a woman in
her early forties.
We came up with a number of concepts and models,
which we took to Lorraine to see what she thought.
After trying all of the models, mounted onto her stick,
the most comfortable for her was my design for a
rotating handle, moulded to the shapes of both her
hands. When she gets tired she can simply flip it over,
without the bulk of some of the other two handled
designs. I also put together a simple stand to prevent
it from falling over when she puts it down, which she
took a liking to.
We then modified her stick with the new handle, stand
and a strip of rubber, providing grip when leaned up
against surfaces it might otherwise fall off of.
We decided to eliminate the rotating aspect of the
handle, due to time constraints and restrictions to
our workshop access and instead made it so that it
can be pulled off the stick and flipped over.
We then took it to Lorraine for testing. The moulded handle fit both
of her hands well and she was able to flip the handle and stand
without assistance. This was by no means a perfect solution and I’d
love to revisit this project soon. It was great to be able to work so
closely with a real person and see the problems and solutions right
in front of you. I also found documenting the process on film to be
very enjoyable and rewarding.
03 FROG BIKES
The ‘Frog Bikes Project’ was a week long brief
set by high end children’s bike company, Frog.

THE COMPANY
Frog Bikes ethos is centred around making
high quality, lightweight bikes to last as long as
possible. Frog bikes is committed to producing
products sustainably and responsibly and
since children outgrow their bikes every 1-2
years, many of their bikes are leased out on 12
month contracts. They also operate a trade in
scheme. Many children also don’t know how to perform basic maintenance and repair work on their
bikes, with parents often taking the bike away and doing it themselves. Creating a bike centred
tool and customisation kit is a great way of challenging this throw away culture and helping
THE BRIEF kids adopt lifelong habits of maintaining and repairing as well as getting them accustomed
to using tools early on. The tools in The Frog Kit are designed with the users reduced hand
The brief was to create a bycicle accessory to
size and strength in mind. This also saves space and weight on the bike, which is an important
make the purchase of a bike more attractive.
consideration, especially for Frog. They come in a purpose made tool bag, to be secured on the
I was expected to conduct thorough market
bike’s frame so the user can make adjustments and repairs if needed on the go.
and user research and the end product should
This attitude of taking care of high quality products that are made to last and creating good
clearly align with the brand identity of Frog
consumption habits to help send less to landfill fits perfectly within the ethos of Frog Bikes.
Bikes.

Patching a punctured tyre

-First, flip the bike upside down so it rests on the
saddle and handlebars.
-Next, remove the wheel by opening the quick release
at the front of the bike. Unscrew the quick release
and lift the wheel off the frame.

visual guide to maintaining and customising your bike

A big part of how
children interact
with their bikes
and how they
feel ownership
towards them
is customization;
whether that
means covering it
in stickers or using
permanent markers or spray paint, kids love to make their bikes
their own but any permanent customization such as paint and
marker decreases the value of the bike when they’re to big for it
and isn’t allowed at all on a leased bike.
An answer to this problem is temporary customization. This kit
includes temporary, coloured rubberising spray, which can be
peeled off up to six months after application, and a set of vinyl
stencils (right), as well as a child safe craft knife, blank sheets of
sticky backed vinyl and instructions on making your own stencils to
truly make your bike your own.
04 COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN
This is a selection of CAD projects, undertaken
as part of my university Design Communication
module.

Shown are a model of my Luminaire final

design, demonstrating it’s internal rotational
mechanisim, a stitching wheel, used to mark
spacing for stitches for leather working and
a plastic toy modelled on PIXAR’s WALL-E as
well as a rough 2d plan I used to make it.
05
2:25 0:75

ANIMATION AND DRAWING

My initial background in art and design is in
animation. I taught myself on Serif Drawplus
and later on Adobe Flash. I made sketch
cartoons and animated short films, giving me
the skills to produce 2d stopframe animations
in a variety of mediums, complete with editing,
foley sound effects, music and voices.

I have also included some other 2d media I have

created over the years, including characters
of varying complexity and drawing styles for
a dinosaur themed children book, the main
graphic for a band’s tour merchandise, namely
tshirts and posters, illustrator renders of some
iconic products, some examples of marker
rendering and some exploded view drawings.
 1

24

25
3

1 Rotor blades
2 Rotor Mounts
3 Inner rotor drive shaft 23
16
4 Body
5 Outer rotor drive shaft 15
6 Circuit board
7 Chassis 19
17
5
8 Skid mounts
9 Skids 18
10 Back rotor
11 Motor
12 Back rotor mount 6

13 Tail
14 Upper body panels
15 Lower body panels 7
16 Body spacers
17 Gears
18 Gear pins
8
19 Nose cover
20 Tail supports
21 Support fin 9

22 Trimmer fin
23 Primary rotor motors
24 Balance bar
25 Bar supports
06 OTHER PROJECTS
Lastly are a few of the various design and build
projects I’ve undertaken in my time as a designer.
These are perhaps smaller or lack the depth of
other projects in my portfolio, but go a ways to
show what kind of designer I am and the kind of
things I create when I’m the one setting the brief.
This includes:

Repairing a guitar capo

My first few leatherworking projects- a Bellroy

wallet and belt.

A portable amplifier specifically for buskers, with

storage for cables, pedals, sheet music etc, ideal
for use on public transport and on foot.

A ukulele made from an old cigar box.

An oak coffee table, realistic ureol computer

mouse model and brass trammel, turned on a
metalwork lathe as well as a box made specifically
for it.

A collapsible travel guitar, which I designed and

built from scratch. The design aims to reduce
space taken up without compromising on the
size and shape of the body and playability of the
instrument, which many travel guitars do, resulting
in poorer tone and volume as well as a smaller
scale length.
B U S KA M P
07377066639 charlieseanw@gmail.com