Selected Projects

Antnio Q Fernandes
+44 (0) 758 532 6223
antonio@afernandes.eu
9 Lockyer Estate
Kipling Street
SE1 4PJ
London

comercial

Kranium

2012-2013

Lighter and safer bicycle helmets made of cardboard.

Kranium Design have a goal of developing lighter, safer and relible

Above:

cardboard liners to replace polystyrene in existing bicycle helmets. The

Abus Ecolution cycling helmet.

start of 2013 was marked by the launch of the first Kranium helmet by

Having followed Kraniums journey from its inception at the Royal

German security tech giant Abus as they reinforce their presence in the

Collge of Art, I have had a key role in developing the technology and

cycling industry.

designing various crash testing prototypes as well as display helmets and

production CAD for the Abus helmet and other

brands. 2013 will also see the release of a Kranium
helmet especially developed for Force Indias
Formula 1 pit crew.
Solidworks has been my tool of choice to define the
lattice of laser-cut dual layer wood-cellulose fibre
honeycomb board between industry-standard

Left:
Concept render of Kranium Hypervent.
Above (clockwise from left):
Kranium Road, Race and Urban helmets.
headforms and plastic outer shells. I have also
developed moulds for original shells and external
plastic components for 3D printing.

academic

Spring Lounger

2008

Lounge chair. Spring steel.

An experimental project seeking to explore the balance between

thought and action in the design process.
A looped sheet of spring steel is tensioned from the inside to create a
natural form inherited from the properties of the material. The steel is
simply brushed and laquered to give it centre stage.

The overall shape of the chair is held in a balance of forces, which

changes with the weight of its user. This adaptation creates a feeling of
full body support and weightlessness in the user. A surprising feeling
from an otherwise cold and harsh material.

An iterative design process that I believe is in line with the principles

After the initial inspiration from my longing for a care free sunday

of slow design. It is an attempt to minimize the intervention on the

morning, a small scale model was made to communicate the initial idea.

material and still achieve a result within the ergonomic and aesthetic

A series of 1:3 scale models were formed to iteratively approach the

targets of the chair by first understanding and setting up the parameters

correct tensioning points on the sheet.

for the material to find its own form.

These conclusions were scaled up to a 3.5m long sheet which was looped
and slowly and effortlessly tensioned with a ratchet until the desired
point was reached.

academic

Little Bang!

group project
2010

Product longevity through emotional bonding.

Life finds a way of emerging, children find ways of playing. They

use what is at hand, merging contexts and scales with their endless
imagination. Everything makes sense. Play, observation, discussion and
design led us to conceiving a cohesive system of toys that embody this
natural ability we would all like to keep in touch with.

Teethers, shape sorters, a pull along car, a merry-go-round complete

with whatever melody captures the moment, are just some of the
discoveries that are made as the child grows, but the imagination will
not keep any toy on the shelf.

The childs play experience matures with him or her and is

development. Discoveries are made over years of play, culminating

kept enthusiastic by a series of discoveries achieved through

in a single object that may last a lifetime: an alarm clock!

combination. This pretend world of toys truly comes to life as their

Inspired by timeless quality wooden toys, we strove to create a

combination leads to increasingly complex interactions informed

long-lasting emotional product that may help to assemble childhood

by deep research into childrens physical and psychological

dreams into a bright future.

We undertook several rounds of experiments before designing the

complete we validated it with the help of a local nursery school.

final toys. Interviews with child neuropsycologists guided our work

As the product is meant to be with a child for years, we made sure

with the children and parents who tested our toys and allowed us

to include the full range of appropriate ages within the sample of

to make them more complex over time. Once the final design was

children testing the product.

academic

Moby

group project
2009

A tea-strainer that doesnt drip.

Moby is a tea strainer that allows the user to actually strain all the

wash and for mass production. The design is playful and aimed at the

residual liquid from the leaves after brewing so that it can be placed

mid to high-end homeware market in the style of what a company like

on any surface without staining. It was designed to be simple to use,

Alessi might produce.

Making it:
A master was rapid-prototyped and silicon moulds
produced. After developing a process for removing the air
from the moulds as the resin was introduced, a total of nine
products were manufactured in a variety of colours.

comercial

slowLloyd

2009

A design research project for slowLab.

As a design research intern for slowLab, I was involved in the initial
phase of an art and design residency awarded to slowLab by the Lloyd
Hotel, Amsterdam.
What is a slow hotel? The project aimed to answer this question and my
approach was centred around the human element that makes up the
hotel: guests and staff.

I observed and participated in the guest experience as well as followed

the staff s many routes through the intricate building (formerly a
prison). My conversations with the people involved, yielded a collection
of vocabulary which qualitively maps the hotel and its stakeholders in
relation to the hotels rich heritage.

Lloyd Hotel

stakeholder relationships

Together with Carolyn Strauss, founder and director of slowLab,

spaces available to them and hence become more emmersed in

I proposed new features and events as test pieces to study and

Amsterdams cultural scene and life outside the hotel.

enhance the guests livestyle within the building.

An initial step in the exploration, was to find out what the guests

The Lloyd Hotel has open platforms for guest run events as well

and staff s perception of slow was. We did this by tagging objects

as to showcase artists and designers work. One of our challenges

and places with an im slow. tag, and observing the consequent

was to unintrusively invite guests to explore the many cultural

reactions.

volunteer

Energy Animal

group project
2009

An energy-harvesting autonomous watercraft.

The Energy_Animal project is a component of the larger open-source

A bit like a goat, it is independant of the community which

Open_Sailing project. After a hazard analysis of the planet, and

approaches and drains it when necessary. A concept was developed

determining the oceans to be the safest place to settle in the long-

and engineering drawing produced in view of building a functional

term, Open_Sailing questions how can we live together in this new

prototype.

fluid configuration and remain a hyper-connected intelligent social

beings? The Energy_Animal is one element of this open architecture

The Open_Sailing project is currently expanding into areas of

and also its source of energy.

environmental conservation.

Energy_Animal

Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT)

Lab 4, Open_Sailing

The VAWT design offers flexibility as well as a number of advantages to the Energy Animal:

http://international-ocean-station.org

+ Low-maintenance.
+ No need for yaw control, suitable for any wind direction even if rapidly varying.
+ Generator located at base, where it is protected from the elements and makes the

Solar Collector

system modular by allowing other turbine designs to couple to the same generator.
+ Torque is spread evenly throughout a whole revolution, increasing lifespan.

A solar module consisting of a panel of photovoltaic cells with a simple 2 axis

solar tracking system.

About
In recent years there has been a huge imperative to work towards sustainable
sources of energy. Open_Sailing is developing a range of Energy_Animals
small, single devices that generate electricity through wind, solar and wave
power.
Energy_Animals principles have implications for the energy production
industry. Through developing and utilising small-scale, low-cost energy
production technologies, we can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and move
towards a greener future. The designs from Open_Sailing can be converted
to be used on land and could be of tremendous benefit to communities where
there is currently no standardised source of power.
The proposed design uses solar, wave and wind power to
continuously gather energy from the environment and store it
in a flywheel energy storage system.

Time and date and position information is used to determine the optimum angle
of the panel.
Photovoltaic panel

Another possibility is the integration of a water purification

system though reverse osmosis, utilizing any excess energy
produced to slowly build up a deposit of fresh water, a
valueble resource at sea.

Linear actuator

This free-floating autonomous Energy Animal is

integrated within a worldwide information network, sharing
position and sensor information, such as weather and
ocean conditions, with other Energy Animals and the people
who might benefit from this information.

Stepper motor

A controlled drifting system taking the wind drag suffered by

the animal and converting it to movement with a directional
keel, is being investigated. A long term positional goal can
be achieved by the Energy Animal by using the networks
information to take strategic advantage of ocean currents
and wind drag.

Flywheel Battery
A mechanical energy storage system which makes use of a rotating flywheel to store the
harvested energy in kinetic form.
The system is made of completely inert materials and has a typical lifespan of 20 to 30 years
with minimal maintenance. A truly environmentally friendly technology which has recently
become the focus of worldwide attention.

Motor / generator svtator

Steel rotor and shaft

External casing

Oil filled cylinder

Hydraulic motor
Buffer tank

Magnetic bearing

Wave power generator

A flexible floating ring surrounding the Energy Animal continuously
accompanies the 3D profile of the passing waves, generating power
from its displacement.
A layer or protective material covering the ring also ensures the Energy
Animal and its modules do suffer direct impacts from debris and vessels
in its vicinity.

academic

Gestural Semantics

2010

Developing form to aid and enhance gestural interaction.

Gestural interfaces are emerging as a technology with the potential to

I chose the radio as a platform on which to explore the topic as it is an

invade mainstream consumer products and systems.

object whos physicality is mainly connected with interaction.

The goal for the project was to gain an understanding of how form

The conclusion of the project was an object that glimpses a new

can aid and enhance gestural interaction by coveying to the user, the

aesthetic language for gesturally interfaced products.

gestures needed to successfully control a system.

The final form was approached iteratively through continuous user

Forms that were consistent in the reaction they provoked, were

input throughout the project. Volunteers were presented with test

developed further until there was enough information to design the

objects and asked to interact with them. The first 20 seconds of this

final piece.

interaction was recorded in a long-exposure photograph and the

The radios volume and tuning functions can be operated by an up

paths of the left and right hands of the user can been seen as they

and down movement of the hand between the vertical elements and

were wearing LEDs on their hands.

a side to side movement of the hand over the outer ring.

comercial

Vinci GT

group project
2007

The first Portuguese sports car.

A Portuguese sports-car developed and prototyped for Retroconcept in

as the mapping of the electrical system.

view for production of a limited edition.

I also presented various design solutions as a bridge between the

I coordinated the engineering of the interior and took responsibility for

interior designers initial concepts and their application to the GM

the elements with userinteraction (buttons, knobs, diplays, etc.) as well

platform of the car.

The project was developed from concept to functional

prototype by a small in-house team. We mocked-up the
interior for ergonomic and technical validation and carried
out testing sessions after completion.

comercial

Seat Module

group project
2008

M1 class car seat for the mid to high-end automotive market.

ACECIA, the client, is comprised of various important players in

They commissioned design and engineering of the concept to CEIIA

Portuguese industry. Ranging from plastics, metal and even cork

(Centre for Excellence and Innovation in the Mobility Industry) where I

component production, each produces at least one component of the

was employed as a design engineer (2007-2008).

seat module, making it a symbol of Portuguese industry and know-how

in the automotive sector.

The Seat Module boasts several innovative features

Left:

that make this product a significant one. The seats

CATIA model of seat frame.

frame is designed to be fully injection moulded,

making a significant contribution to lightness.

Above (from left to right):

The seats profile manages to be thinner than

Ergonomics model of seat.

its competitors thanks to the use of a cork/PU

CATIA V5 on screen while engineering headdrest.

composite material under the seat cushions.

Cork/PU composite material.

Charity

Invisible Egg

group project
2012

An interactive instalation for The Big Egg Hunt urban exhibition

When Maximo Riadigos and I first heard of The Big Egg Hunt we

Above:

started jotting down ideas. Our common enthusiasm for interaction

Piece in the foyer of the British Film Institute.

design set a context for us to develop them in and very quickly we had a

An egg shaped object, such as the ones provided to the artists involved,

project to work on.

is only recognized as such in our minds eye. The piece demonstrates

The Invisible Egg is a structure that projects an invisible egg shaped

how it is sufficient to imagine an object to derive meaning from its

volume around itself and lights up when someone touches it.

presence and it does so by defining a form in space with information

instead of matter.

How does it work?

Left:
Close-up of ultrasonic sensors.

The structure sensitive to its immediate surroundings because of the

17 ultrasonic sensors mounted on it. These sensors are connected
to an Arduino Mega microcontroller and to a power supply system
capable of accepting mains or battery power.

Top:
BFI visitors exploring the piece.
Above:
Light on signifying the position of the eggs boundary.