A day at Giro Sport Design
On our way to the 2013 Sea Otter Classic festival we stopped by the Giro Sport Design group to meet some of the staff and see how stuff gets developed. With the Air Attack helmet now finally reaching the hands of consumers, it was a timely visit.
Rob Wesson the Director of Helmet Creation with the Air Attack. A creation he felt very confident about.
There are several brands under the roof but they are managed by different teams.
In the lobby among many other interesting items a Design Process display.
These aren't walnuts, these are hand carved half scale models of a variety of helmets.
Senior Industrial Designer Greg Marting is Mr Helmet at Giro, and he showed here how a half scale model gets sketched and further developed.
With an Aeon model in one hand and a block from which it came in the other.
Full sized models are first created in 3D printers and then touched up as needed. Here an early version of the Air Attack.
This full size clay model of the Air Attack dropped from its model in front of our eyes – thus the crack.
Inside The Dome at Giro Sport Design the history of helmets dating back to 1984.
Giro marketing director Eric Richter explained the history of the brand.
This Giro Bullet helmet was worn by Chris Boardman back in 1992.
Mechanical Engineer Paul Kele showed us some of the bandwidth hungry CFD data.
It was very interesting to hear about all the hard work that went into the development of the Air Attack visor alone.
Creative Services Director Eli Atkins explained color registration and the difficulty of a design that requires exact placement.
We got to see a CPSC test handled by Rafael Ramirez.
The Giro Rev 4 helmet from around 1996 was also displayed inside the Dome.
Bikes are everywhere and lots of folks are commuting to this workplace.
All images © Herbert Krabel / slowtwitch.com
