Randolph Engineering has produced high-quality sunglasses since 1973, when it was founded by former Royal Air Force navigator Jan Waszkiewicz and machinist Stanley Zaleski. The company’s art director, Jeff Davidson, shares with us Randolph Engineering’s evolution from relying on product photography to using KeyShot as a “digital photo studio” for all product assets.
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Modeling software used: SolidWorks
Tell us about your time with Randolph Engineering
I have been a visual designer for about 10 years and a photographer for 15 years. When I first joined Randolph Engineering in 2018, we were utilizing a product photography light box to capture ecommerce product photos. This process proved to be very time-consuming due to the reflective nature of the glasses, which caused a lot of post-production on the images.
What sparked your interest in product design?
As a photographer, I always pushed the boundaries of my abilities with lighting and post processing. So being able to utilize KeyShot as a digital photo studio was just a natural progression. It has allowed me to collaborate with our engineering team more. They provide me with the 3D models and I work with them on dialing in the materials such as frame finishes, lenses and temple tips.
What’s unique about your company’s approach to a project?
Our approach is mostly from a marketing side of things. We utilize KeyShot for all product photography on our website and product catalogs. This gives us full control of every aspect of the sunglasses and the environment they are in. From there we have branched out into short, animated clips of products for use in advertising and website assets other than product shots.
What are some projects you have used KeyShot on?
We’ve used KeyShot for rendering our full product catalog, animations for advertising, and one-off assets for various marketing projects such as emails.
What advice would you give to anyone interested in doing what you do?
Don’t stop learning. As new software and processes come out, continue to learn and push the boundaries of your capabilities.
