Past Meetings

May 15, 2007. The Apple Store in the Shinsaibashi district of Osaka played host to the DESIGN MATTERS meeting.

The process of transit design

Daniel Rodriguez, an amazing designer from Kinkisharyo in Osaka, talked about effective project development and how to guide the design process from concept all the way to finished product. In the development of a new product the design effort is a long process that starts with the concept, he says. The challenges go from setting the concept, selling the idea, preserving the original design (keeping it on track) in spite of all the constraints including engineering, maintenance, specifications, etc. Daniel also talked about how the same idea has to be sold differently to each member of the process including the client, marketing, and engineering. He discussed the importance of concept definition in design and showed a great many of his designs from conception to finished product.

Here are are just a few of the projects he’s played a key role in at kinkisharyo: Kintetsu Urban Liner NEXT; Osaka City 80 kei linear metro (imazato line); Greenmover Max – Light rail vehicle for Hiroshima; Seattle Sound Transit Light Rail Vehicle; Dubai Metro Project.

Daniel is from Mexico City and studied industrial design at Iberoamericana University in Mexico where he specialized in Transportation Design. He has experience in the design of a very wide variety of vehicles that include sports cars, buses, heavy and light trucks, automobiles (including a couple of experimental vehicles for Tokyo Motor Show) and recently rail vehicles. Has worked for several international corporations including 3M (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing) Automotive and Ford. As well as several car design studios like Technoidea in Mexico and Dome in Kyoto Japan. Daniel is a big jazz fan and is very active in the Christian church in Kyoto.