Lime Design, Hollywood, FL
I have had a great experience spending my summer as an intern at Lime Design. Lime Design is a prototyping and industrial design firm that is located in Hollywood, Florida. The company is composed of the CEO and creative director, a business consultant, and two full time designers. For the summer, there were an additional four interns who helped the company including myself.
On my first day at Lime Design, I began helping one of my fellow interns, Maya, who is a student at the University of Cincinnati studying industrial design, by working on a prosthetic arm that the company was constructing “pro bono” for a young five-year-old girl named Fern who was born without most of her forearm and the entirety of her hand. Lime Design did not actually design the prosthetic arm but because we had access to capable 3D printers we were able to get the open source files from a company online and then able to construct the arm from the pieces we printed. So my first week or so I spent learning about the arm, and how it operated as a mechanism using elastic to make the fingers close and be able to grasp something. I assembled a version of the arm because we were testing different versions and pieces before making a final presentation to Fern and her mother.
We also had free time to work on personal projects, help around the office, or just print different things for fun. I took this time to print different gadgets and mechanisms from free files online to learn about how to set up the printer, the different printer settings, and the overall printing process. Some of the things I printed were a functional set of pliers, a toy-sized bike that once put together could operate, some small pieces of art that could be fitting for a desktop to name a few. This period of trial and error was very helpful and I gained so much knowledge about 3-D printing and I now feel confident that I can make prints of things on my own.
In the middle of the summer our supervisor wanted to conduct a competition amongst all of the interns. Our task was just to come up with an invention, it could be anything realistic, to pitch to one of the company’s business partners who might invest in it if he liked the idea. This competition was a fun challenge for me and I started by brainstorming by thinking of things that I would want in my life. I came up with a portable charger concept that was unlike most other chargers on the market right now. So after my brainstorming process, I began sketching out ideas and concepts for the charger. We met with the investor and we all presented our ideas, got some feedback for him, and then began working to refine our ideas before he came back in a few weeks. To give you an idea of what the other interns came up with, Maya designed one of those labels you put on a dishwasher to tell you whether or not it is clean, Ian who is a mechanical engineering student at Boston University, came up with an idea for a backpack that would be useful at festivals due to its size and function. And Ricky who is a mechanical engineering student at the University of Florida came up with an idea for a cooler that can float on water by itself.
I took the suggestions from the investor and came up with my final concept for my charger. The charger would have a battery and a retractable charger cord all encased in one shell. This would eliminate the need for two pieces like most chargers require (battery and a cord) but still function in the same efficient way. So once I had my idea and had sketched my concepts out, I knew I wanted to make a prototype using a 3D printer. But I had no experience using Solidworks or Fusion 360 which are two 3D modeling softwares that can be used to create objects that can then be 3D printed. So I leaned on the experience of my fellow interns to learn these programs and I created my battery and brought it to life which felt really great. This was very valuable as I now feel like I can bring many different ideas to life because I know how to render them in these programs and I know how to use a 3D printer.
I got to put my sketching skills to use for a client who actually had an idea for reading glasses that could become sunglasses by attaching a different set of lenses on top of the reading glasses. I am pretty sure something like this already exists but either way it was very rewarding to sketch out a concept for a client, and I learned more about the process and technical ways to sketch which was very valuable.
I also worked on a few other projects during a slow period. The first was a world cup trophy replica for the office. The most difficult part was making it look real. After I printed it, I had to do a lot of sanding and touching up of the piece to make it look the same as the world cup. But that was only the first part, because when you print something you print it in a solid colored plastic. So after it was printed and ready to be painted, I had to spray the trophy with a white primer then touch it up again. Then I had to spray paint it gold, and add the green rings upon the base. The final piece came out very well but the process of the masking and spray painting was very tedious.
My final project was to create a base for an iron man figure that had been previously printed. This was a cool project because I got to do some quick research and then come up with designs for a base for the iron man that were totally original. I began making some sketches and then presented them to the rest of the company so that everyone could vote on one. Once we had settled on one concept, I used Fusion 360 to create the base and then I printed it. After I had touched up the print and it was ready to be painted, I tested some different painting designs on some other things then came up with the final idea for the paint and I painted it in red and gold much like the iron man suit.
I have learned a tremendous amount from the experience and I am grateful to have this internship on my résumé. I would like to thank the ’68 Center for Career Exploration and the Class of 1966 for sponsoring me through the ASIP grant. I learned so much about the world of design that I will take with me as I pursue a career in this industry. Thank you so much for making this possible.