NetApp Industrial Design

In early 2000 NetApp needed to address problems in their existing product offerings that were impacting sales as they set out to compete against more established companies such as Sun, EMC and Hitachi. I was hired to lead this new effort and develop the systems, vision and processes for their first-ever internal industrial design team.

Industrial design language I created for Netapp that used gills as an inspiration for the venting scheme. The front facias were die-cast aluminum and hand polished to a mirror reflection.
(Adobe Illustrator – Photoshop)

An evolution of the gill design language that i introduced using stamped perforated sheetmetal as a way to carry over legacy styling elements. The new design reduced production cost by half and dramatically improved system cooling

Sample concept sketches chosen by leadership as an inspiration point and new language to pursue for future product development
(marker and paper)

Besides server facia design I also managed all industrial design for storage systems.
(modeled in Rhino – rendered in Keyshot)

Concept renderings for hard drive enclosures used for executive language buyoff
(modeled in Rhino – rendered in Keyshot)

Hard drive enclosure sketches
(marker and paper)

Industrial design language for branded storage cabinet with controller panel
(modeled in Rhino – rendered in Keyshot)

Industrial design language mood boards
(Adobe Illustrator – Photoshop)

Front facia concept sketches
(Marker and paper)