48 TO FLY article by: Dan Patton

“Take a group of people who have never met and lock’em in a room,” says Chris Wilhite, Field Marketing Manager for Red Bull. “We thought it was a great idea.” He’s in the stairwell of a loft six floors above the trendiest block of restaurants in Chicago. There’s a mound of garbage bags stacked in the corner, an ashtray full of butts by the door, and a documentary filmmaker cussing at people from the steps. It’s one o’clock in the morning and they all need some sleep. But none will consider it. Not when digital polygons are being sculpted into smooth forms with a million colors in 3D.

This is Design-engine.com’s 48-To-Fly.

"The event is sort of an experiment in bonding and how competition can fuel learning," says Design-engine.com's publisher Bart Brejcha, who with Rebecca McQuillen turned it into a contest. The winning team would be awarded 12 cases of Red Bull each.

Down the hall, his international software training and consultancy firm offices serve as the arena. There, six techno-graphic visionaries are in for the October weekend designing futuristic toys and accessories on the same software that provided the technological backbone for Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter Plane. Actually, they’re working on the updated version called Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire, which offers so many gig-loads of innovation that it has been released only in small previews throughout the year before the complete package hits the shelves at the time this article was written, (the Wildfire release was released in the Spring of 2003 - read the wildfire review.)

But for the six people assembled tonight, the geeks brought the whole enchilada. And why not? The contestants are paired into three teams, each consisting of one engineer and one designer. Each team is working to create products that will be displayed at an upscale ceremony in the trendy Fulton Lounge on Saturday night. Mix it up with a fridge full of Red Bull for forty-eight straight hours and you’ve got a hell of a think tank. Especially if none of the contestants have met before.

The idea came to life through the efforts of Rebecca McQuillen, Chicago-based Public Relations consultant. In addition to representing Hollywood filmmakers, urban juice bars and European fine artists, McQuillen works with Design-engine.com, where Brejcha never seems to complete a job without creating a minor pop culture sensation. “Bart’s not like other CEO’s,” she says, “he floats around the room and concentrates on the big picture.”

Brejcha and the team of designers that make Design-engine.com teach professionals from around the world on the kind of software that makes movies look good and motorcycles look bad. His passion for perfecting 3-D software (he’s consulted Harley Davidson, Skill/Bosch and NASA) is matched by a relentless pursuit to understand the process by which an individual grasps and retains new information. “No one can take what you learn away from you,” says Brejcha, adding, “we’re looking closely at building bonds and friendships between the participants… not about the competition per se… more about the experience.”

When he mentioned the idea for a design contest to McQuillen several weeks ago, she took it to Wilhite — who’s proud of saying “Red Bull doesn’t do things that other people can do” — and he put Red Bull on board. Next, Brejcha contacted Parametric Technology Corporation, of Needham, MA, and they jumped at the chance to put their software, Pro/CONCEPT and Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire, into the mix. According to Bill Taylor, PTC Product Line Specialist of the surfacing products, the software promises to “remove the barriers that prevent creative ideas form flowing freely into engineering design.” Applying geometry to paint, creating hyper-realistic products, and brainstorming via a process best described as digital doodling contribute to the breakthroughs offered by their soon-to-be-released programs. For Taylor, who firmly believes that “the most stylish product usually wins,” the contest offered a perfect trial run.

Bill Taylor of PTC said that this was the first time the software has been used for this long. This was a true trial run and with such colors!

Brejcha likes the software for its interactive surfacing design extension, or ISDX. According to him, it’s one of the best packages out there for proving form, a process he describes as “when a designer does not know exactly what he wants until he sees it.” With ISDX a designer can “literally sculpt… and assign smoothing efforts… quite a different approach to proving form.” In Red Bull he’s got the perfect sponsor. “They are aligned with trendsetters,” he says, “and who better to align Red Bull with than product designers. After all, it is product designers who put products in front of trendsetters.” "And that's what Red Bull is about trend setters."

His firm’s west side loft boasts hardwood floors, customized furniture, a handful of workstations, huge windows facing an impressive Chicago skyline, and, of course, an endless supply of Red Bull. Add six designers, two PTC reps and a few media / marketing folks, and little space remains for any kind of audience. Unless, of course, you deliver the event to them.

To that end, Brejcha and McQuillen contracted Chicago’s Atomic imaging to create a real time web cast of the event. They fixed two cameras to shoot different angles of the workstations and loft area with random pans and zooms. Throughout the weekend everything uploads to Design-engine.com’s website automatically, and the company receives hundreds of hits and several phone calls from friends, subscribers and industry buffs. They also invited Velolee Productions to shoot a documentary of the event, taking on-the-fly interviews and behind-the-scenes candor for future editing.

The entire group is chauffeured to the Design-engine.com’s loft at 7 o’clock on Thursday evening in a customized Humvee detailed with huge versions of the Red Bull logo. The participants include Rod Weakly, a mechanical designer who helps Harley Davidson bridge the gap between an industrial designer’s dream and a production line’s capability; Dino Sanchez, industrial designer from Tres Design Group, who checks in and out of a zen-like trance as easily as he sits down at a computer; Brian Urban, freelance industrial designer who hopes to find a way “to model morale”; Chris Daisy, art director for marketing giant 141 Worldwide, hell-bent on creating something totally cool; Scott Bots, a Gen-X overachiever and Motorola Mechanical Engineer; and Eric Hufana, recent graduate of Brejcha’s training program and UIC Mechanical Engineer.

So we’re halfway through the lockdown, and things are beginning to look like an intellectual hazing ritual. While some concentrate at their workstations, others hold a chin-up contest. Five minutes ago the Harley guy walked in and the filmmaker called him a prick. Now they’re laughing. A boom box plays Hendrix from the kitchen. A pizza box plays snack bar in the studio. Then there’s a dispute over the chin-up contest, followed by some name-calling and, ultimately, another chin-up contest.

At the moment, one of the teams stops by the stairwell, which has become a place to relax and forget about 3-D software…kind of. After a few smokes they decide to model a combination bedpan / office chair, for the man on the go who doesn't have time to go. They called it the Taurinator, after the ingredient that gives Red Bull its boost. Everyone likes it.

Twenty-four hours later the contestants assemble in a private room of the Fulton Lounge for the awards ceremony (48 hours total in an aggressive design mode). They’re still energetic. A digital projector displays the weekend’s creations on a customized screen. The guests who enter stand transfixed before the images of space-age tents and drink holders, uttering sincere “wows” and “holy cows” before moving on to the bar and then, more often than not, back to the display.

Wilhite, Red Bull marketing manager, smiles at the crowd. Five years ago his drink checked into America like tomorrow morning in a silver can. Now it fuels a vanguard of technological innovation. Taylor, PTC’s Product Development Specialist, already discusses ideas for next year’s competition. And Brejcha, Design-engine President and contest creator, utters a sigh of relief at having selected a winning team from a collection so mind-blowing that it makes the lounge’s hip ambience look tired. The prize, a year’s supply of Red Bull each, goes to the team of Art Director Chris Daisy and Motorola Mechanical Engineer Scott Bots. Their marquee creation: a syringe-turned shot glass with a slick application of the Red Bull logo jutting out from the shaft.

Brejcha grows anxious as the party winds down. While the guests continue to mingle, he heads for the door. No one minds, though. It’s been a long weekend, and he’s missed more sleep than most of the contestants. Besides, everyone suspects that he’ll bring more excitement soon. Then his words confirm the notion.

“Hey,” he says, “who wants to come back to Design-engine and check out the 19" Waccom tablets we used?”

And several take him up on it.

article by: Dan Patton