Life Technologies (now Thermo Fisher Scientific) wanted a low cost, easy to use cell imaging station. All the products on the market had a very severe and clinical look to them.

I worked closely with the marketing manager of the Cell Imaging Division and advanced the thought of a more appliance-like look for this category.

I did these round of sketch explorations and renderings to help ferret out the correct look for this new product.

The c-clamp series had a good balance of friendly curves and more professional lines that struck a nice balance between professionalism and ease of use.

This form factor was very deceiving. It looked much bigger in real life than in images, so I made some quick foam board sketch models to see how I could reduce the apparent size.

I also used the models to test the feel of the focus mechanism which led to more spacing for the hand as seen below.

Many fine refinements were made to make the form look lighter without weakening the apparent strength or quality of the unit.

At this time at Life Technologies, I was beginning to work on a new company wide design language program so I brought in Nelson Au who put some nice final touches on the design that really lightened it and brought balance to the elements as seen in the final version on the right.