When you slide on a set of headphones or feel the vibrations pounding your eardrums through a set of quality earbuds, the details that came together to produce it may not be so obvious. Skullcandy is the designer and manufacturer of headphones, earbuds, and headsets for the audiophile with a wide range of sound deploying products specific to your lifestyle or passion. Delivering quality sounds needs to be conveyed in quality visuals; visuals that communicate the attention to detail and the technology that goes into the design of each product. You’ll see this throughout their website, packaging, and marketing material and in all of this, they use KeyShot to generate the imagery, animations and interactive visuals. We caught up with Industrial Designer, Dave Vogt, to get an inside look at KeyShot in action.

Modeling software used: SOLIDWORKS/Rhino
skullcandy.com

For as long as he can remember, Dave Vogt was interested in finding out how things worked, both mechanically and electronically. As a child, he would spend hours disassembling anything he could get his hands on. “As I got older, the toys that never made it back to ‘full assembly mode’ helped me realize that I had a passion for making things truly functional.” In high school, Vogt was originally interested in Mechanical Engineering, but quickly realized he had a desire for something a bit more… creative. “When I found Industrial Design, it was that perfect mix between my mechanical mind and a love for consumer products.”

Dave was working as a project manager for a consultancy in Salt Lake City, when a fellow Industrial Designer recommended him for an opening on the Skullycandy team. As a 3D/Render Specialist, Vogt was anxious to get back into more of a product development role. “We mostly use SOLIDWORKS and occasionally Rhino for trickier organic geometry that SOLIDWORKS doesn’t like. We’ll then import to SOLIDWORKS, keeping as much parametric data intact as possible.”

If you’re familiar with Skullcandy products, you know how quickly and how often they launch new product. Speed to market and short project timelines are unique aspects of their design process.

“With Skullcandy, focusing on a lifestyle product world and being able to quickly develop and launch trendsetting, next level product is what keeps you relevant in the industry,” Dave explains.

“Most of that is a huge credit to the team we have been able to build here. In the past few years, we have brought almost every aspect of the product development process in house.”

“Designers, Engineers, Model Makers, Sourcing Specialists, and even our own Quality and Reliability Team have helped us turn some products from a napkin sketch to manufactured product samples in as little as 3 months.”

KeyShot has been a critical part of delivering their products. “As a designer, there is nothing more valuable than being able to quickly and clearly visualize an idea to the team. KeyShot is an integral part of our design process, helping us create killer visuals and motion assets in minimal time. With new features like LiveLinking and Model Sets, our process is continually being streamlined. KeyShot also allowed us to bring a lot of previously outsourced render related expenses in house. This not only saved us a boatload of cash but reduced what use to be a 2-3 week timeline to 2-3 days. It is a truly efficient process integration.”

And they’re using it throughout the product development process to create the company’s public-facing visuals. KeyShot was first used to visualize concepts by the Industrial Design team, but once others saw the potential, it became a much larger part of the Skullcandy brand. Now, KeyShot has been used for Skullcandy imagery all over the place, for everything from packaging visuals to trade show exhibits.

Dave has some important advice to Industrial Designer and people interested in going into the design field. “Be wary of process complacency. With how fast today’s tech and innovation progresses, there is always something on the horizon that will take your skill set and potential to the next level,” says Dave, as he adjusts his headset.

“In my experience, I’ve seen other designers find a process that works so well for them, they settle into that MO and develop a heavy resistance to change. It can be tough, and in some cases time-consuming, but do your best to always keep an eye on what’s coming down the pipeline for your industry. It will help ensure you’ll never be left behind, which can happen easier than you think. Especially with all the innovators out there pushing the boundaries of software and associated tech.”

The Skullcandy Crusher

Skullcandy’s latest product launch, the Skullcandy Crusher, has made heavy use of KeyShot assets on the interactive side of things. “We launched the ‘Crusher Experience’ on April 1st, 2013–the same day we launched the product in our Core shops nationwide. The site is designed to be scrolled through, section-by-section, top-to-bottom, to ‘educate’ the consumer about all the innovation, design, and tech that went into the engineering and construction of the headphones. In the second frame of the site, there is a Black Crusher with hot spots that detail each area of the Crusher elements. Clicking on them initiates unique animations and further pop-out modals, all of which were generated in KeyShot. The KeyShotVR’s turned out pretty badass, so were hoping to integrate those into future assets.”

How do they Sound?

In a word… Bass-tastic. Skullcandy sent over a fresh new pair of Crushers to try out and they’re incredible. The fold-up stow-away design is brilliant, but what really took the breath away from from the earholes was the sound. Deep, rich bass that doesn’t fight with the highs and perfect balance between each super soft ear pad. On top of that, the bass is adjustable–highly useful for enjoying a wide range of music styles. These can go with you too, compatible with mobile headphone jacks and fitted with an inline mic. The only time you need to take them off is to clean the wax out of your ears and the bass does a great job of that already. – Josh Mings

Music suggestions: Deep house, Electro-pop, Psychobilly