Sometimes I feel that my life was hijacked by design.

Design
through
a Lens
by Douglas Ball
“Sometimes
I feel that
my life was
hijacked
by design.”
Published by:
“All I wanted in those early years was to become a photographer like Robert
Capa. In those days Life Magazine was the publication that attracted the
work of the best photographers and I devoured every single issue that I could
lay my hands on. For a young impressionable lad, becoming a war
correspondent, seemed so glamourous and exciting.”
Early Years
met in Berlin was a young American
by the name of Will Mc Bride who had
By the time I was fifteen I had built
studied art in the US and after serving
my own darkroom. It included an
a stint in the army took up residence in
enlarger that I had built from a Popular
Berlin where he bought an old Leica.
Mechanics plan. The materials were all
Shortly after his arrival the Russians
found in our home and included a large
closed the Berlin Corridor. Fate played
tomato soup can, a socket and light bulb, a huge hand here as the official Life
black construction paper which was
photographer was out of the city so it
folded and became the bellows and by
was McBride’s photos that were accepted
sawing off the front inch of my mother’s by Life Magazine. After becoming an
Kodak Box camera I acquired the lens.
official Life photographer he was betting
It worked, but it didn’t work well. There his career on the expectation that the
was considerable light leakage and the
Russians would eventually move their
prints lacked contrast but I thought it
tanks into West Berlin and he hoped to
was sufficient to launch my career in
photograph the opening shots of the war,
photography. We all start somewhere.
before somehow managing his escape to
the West. He told me that there were,
I convinced my hockey team to pose for supposedly, no Russian soldiers in East
a group shot, at the end of our season,
Berlin, but everyone knew they were
and to show that this was a professional there. Since the Berlin Wall had not yet
effort I asked .25 cents for each print in been built it was still possible to simply
advance. Unfortunately my calculations drive into East Berlin, and so the next
for the flash lighting were a little off
day I went into East Berlin looking for
and when the film was developed I was
them with my camera and Lambretta.
horrified to see that there were barely any
images there. It was humiliating to admit This was the summer of 1959, and
defeat and return the .25 cents to the
with the exception of the main street,
other team members. Luckily, from an
East Berlin was still a shambles from
early age, I had a lot of other interests and the Allied bombing. It was rubble most
drawing was certainly one of them. Life everywhere. On occasion there would
was not the only magazine in the house be odd old woman salvaging what she
as my mother enjoyed ‘Ladies Home
could from the ruins but I was hesitant
Journal’ which used more illustrations
to photograph scenes like this. However
than photographs so it was this, more
on my third trip into East Berlin, feeling
than anything else, that steered me in the more confident, I ventured further from
direction of art and design.
the sanctuary of the Western city and as
I drove around a corner I almost collided
After graduating from The Ontario
with a large Russian tank. The soldiers
College of Art in Industrial Design I
were simply standing around as I drove
spent a year in Europe. While travelling past. I stopped and was reaching for my
the continent on an old Lambretta
camera when I noticed one of the soldiers
scooter I had the good fortune to spend wagging his finger from side to side. I
time in Berlin. Now Berlin, in those
took this as an indication that it was best
days, was one of the most exciting places to move on. So, the great photo, that
in the world because at any moment
might have wound up on the cover of
the Russians were expected to roll into
Life Magazine, never was taken, much
West Berlin and World War 3 would
like the ruined hockey pictures that were
commence. One of the first people I
badly underexposed.
In those days Berlin was one of the most
exciting cities anywhere, and especially
for a photographer. I remember going
into the U-Bahn underground rail
station, that ran between East and West
Berlin. As I stood on the platform a train
came in from the East and three people
got off. It was immediately obvious that
they were parents and son. He was most
likely in his early twenties and wearing
what appeared to be a brand new suit,
shiny shoes and was carrying a cheap
looking cardboard suitcase. His parents
clothes, by comparison, were well worn
and had the appearance of being perhaps
of pre war vintage. The mother was in
tears and it was obvious they were saying
their goodbyes with the possibility they
would not be seeing one another again.
Such an incredibly poignant scene just
begged to be photographed but I left my
camera in it’s bag because I felt that this
was their private moment and I should
not do anything to spoil the little time
that they had together.
The same week I had the opportunity
to attend the German Grand Prix that
was held at the notorious AVUS track.
This track was completed in 1921 and
subsequently used to demonstrate the
prowess of the incredible MercedesBenz and Auto Union race cars from
the thirties. In 1937 these cars reached
speeds of 380km/h on the straights and
180km/h on the banked section. In
1959 they held the first German Grand
Prix at the AVUS since the thirties and I
happened to be in Berlin that week.
The track, designed for one purpose,
which was speed, consisted of simply
two long straights with a 43 degree
banked turn at each end. The surface
of the turns were made from brick and
with such high banking, the cars were
almost at flat out speed when negotiating
the corners. Standing on the inside of
the north turn I was actually able to
“On this sample the cast aluminum components were brightly polished which shows off the
form of the legs and arms beautifully, and the seating unit takes on a new elegance.”
Photo courtesy of Douglas Ball
see into the cockpits of the cars as they
sped by. I was watching the sports car
race that preceded the actual Grand Prix
main event. The Porsches that year had
developed a reputation for being very
fast in the rain and it was clear they
were interested in demonstrating their
advantage over the rest of the field. By
the third lap several of the Porsche RSK’s
were well in the lead when suddenly one
spun out of control and disappeared
completely over the top edge of the
banked turn. There was absolutely no
protective rail to stop the car, and since
there was no visible evidence of the
accident nor yellow flag, the other cars
Aside from the terrible tragedy of it all
I realized that I had missed yet another
opportunity to capture an important
picture. I started to question any ideas
of becoming a photojournalist. Maybe I
just did not have what it took to become
one. Even to this day I think about those
two missed photo opportunities but
rationalized that my camera, with it’s
slow fixed lens, would not have worked
well enough. However the simple truth
was that I did not have the hunger to get
them in the first place. In both cases I
stood frozen and watched, much like a
deer in the headlights of a car. On top
The shock of seeing this unfold before
my eyes put me off racing for many years. of all this I had recently learned that my
continued at their high speed. It was in
the same or very next lap that another
RSK spun at exactly the same place on
the turn. This time however, the driver
was not as fortunate, as the car hit the lip
of the track and broke in half. The driver
was flung from the car and his body hit
a flagpole by the side of the track. The
French driver, Jean Behra, was killed
from the impact. To this day I still have
that image of his spread eagled body
hurtling through the air, before colliding
with the pole.
“I still look back fondly on this project and
decided that being behind the camera was more
exciting than watching someone else do the
work. I learned a lot from shooting film. When
shooting stills it is customary to shoot several
different exposures to ensure that at least one
exposure is correct. With film you must get it
right the very first time. Therefore I learned the
importance of setting up the correct lighting and
then carefully calculating the proper exposure for
the large set.”
“I mounted an extremely fast lens that was shot wide open producing a razor thin
depth of field which was focused on the leg detail with the name Arconas.”
Photo courtesy of Douglas Ball.
hero, Robert Capa, had stepped on a land mine in Indochina a
couple of years earlier. I slowly came to the realization that the
design world might be a better option after all.
Was I terribly upset by this? Not really. What I did could not
know at the time, was that Will Mc Bride would never got
his shots either, because the Russians never came. Sometimes
things just don’t work out as expected.
wiring was capable of providing. His job was to shout the
second he smelled burning wire and we immediately turned
off all the lights. This is why the job took so long to finish.
We liked the building so much that we moved our studio
to another floor with great window light. We stayed there
for 3 or 4 years before moving back out to the West Island
where I found and bought a derelict old garage building that
gave us ample square footage for our design studio, multiple
I already had one foot in the design world but had no idea what model shops and photo studio space. In those days we were
type of work I might be looking for. However that winter in
cranking out new systems at a phenomenal rate and as soon
London I had the good fortune to hear Charles Eames speak
as we had production prototypes available we would set them
and in his presentation, as he talked about his work, he showed up and do the photography for brochures and advertisements.
countless images and films. Today he and his wife Ray are
Everything was working as it should. It was simply a little bit
remembered mainly for their marvelous furniture designs. But of heaven in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue.
for me it was the amazing imagery he presented with his stills
and film that I remembered the most. More than anything
else it was this evening that convinced me that I could become Design Through Technology
a designer and still continue to use the camera as a means of
In January 1984 there was a pivotal moment in my career as
supporting my work. It was this moment in time that allowed
that was when the first Macintosh arrived on the shelves and
me to see, for the first time clearly, what my road map for the
represented the beginning of a revolution of sorts as to how we
future might look like.
would conduct our work. While still trying to understand the
implications of all this a second bombshell was launched. It
Career Life
was the ‘Alias’ 3D computer modeling software that promised
to really change how we would work. Our office had always
When I returned to North America I set out immediately to
relied on our model shops to build prototypes in order to test
find work as a product designer with a manufacturing company. ideas and concepts. The new 3D software suggested that this
Finding work was fairly easy in those days and before I knew
process could be dramatically simplified and shortened.
it I was doing exactly what I had hoped to do. This was with
Sunshine Office Equipment in Waterloo Ontario. It was the
In 1986 I took delivery of what had to be the most expensive
beginning of an excellent thirty year relationship, which was
acquisition short of buying a good sized building. It was a SGI
made even better during the early years when they agreed to
computer that required a second Pixar computer that would
change the name of the company to Sunar.
generate much quicker rendering times. The actual ‘Alias’
software was the third component. The hardware generated
When I completed my first office furniture system for Sunar
so much heat and noise that it was all placed in a separate
the prototype samples were shipped to a photographers studio
little room that was built for this purpose. There was a very
for photography and I, of course, hung around the set ups and long learning curve associated with all of this, both from
shooting in order to direct the work. A couple of years later we the software itself and trying to understand what the actual
were ready to photograph the new ‘Uniwall System’ and the
benefits would be. What was quickly discovered however
‘S System’ and this time I decided to be more adventurous. I
was the fact that the finished computer models themselves
hired a Montreal photographer by the name of Len Koraen to
were barely adequate. This was because the software and
shoot the stills and I would work on a film version with some
hardware were not up to the task of generating highlights
other amateur film makers. The problem was that no one had
or shadows. I was told not to worry as they were promised
a studio capable of doing all this. Luckily we found a former
in the next software update. I had learned through my
fur storage facility that had been used by Holt Renfrew and
experience in photographic set the need of highlights and
we made a deal with them that we would get the space free for shadows to actually inform you as to what you are seeing, and
a month if we removed all the three levels of racking that was
without them it becomes much more difficult to completely
used for fur coat storage. This was ideal for us since the ceiling understand the subtly of form and detail of the model.
was quite high and after removing the lower two levels we still
had the upper one to use for our overhead shooting and filming. Since the update was promised shortly I saw this as merely
a temporary problem and true to the companies word the
We painted all the walls black and then set to work. Len used
new software arrived a few months later. I eagerly loaded
his 4” x 5” equipment for the major stills and I backed up
it into the computer, (not that easy with the Unix OS that
everything with my 35mm Nikon. I also acquired a second
the SGI used), and proceeded to build my first simple test
hand Arriflex 16S film camera that I used for the movie work.
model that would allow me to create my first highlights with
We rented all the movie lighting to cover this large set and had shadows. Even the most simple model took a few minutes
one person stationed at the electrical fuse panel in the hallway
to render but finally it came up on the screen - but without
because we were drawing a lot more electricity than the old
highlights or shadows. Assuming that I had made a mistake
I tried again, and again, and yet again
- but all with the same result. I picked
up the phone and called technical
support at Alias. What they told me was
very difficult for me to comprehend.
They said that the ‘spotlight’ feature
that would create the highlights and
shadows did not work with the Pixar
rendering engine. In other words I
had coughed up an extra $90,000.00
in 1986 dollars for something that
had become obsolete in less than six
months. My options were to simply
not use the Pixar engine, which meant
incredibly long rendering times, or to
forget about highlights and shadows
altogether, which meant that the model
was nowhere near photorealistic. I opted
for the later approach and when possible
I retouched the rendered image with a
paint program to create the effects I felt
were necessary. Then I simply fussed
and fumed for the next three or four
years until they brought out a much
cheaper and smaller computer that
would finally deliver what was originally
promised. Had I done the right thing
back in 1986. I most certainly did
because in 1990 SunarHauserman, the
company that was paying all the bills,
went bankrupt, and I had to give up
my people, the model shop and photo
studio but by this time I was totally
up to speed with Alias and was able to
function quite well on my own. The
early adapter option was indeed costly
but eventually paid off, and it allowed
me go out and find new clients and
deliver a service to them with, at the
time, few other resources.
Photo courtesy of Adrienne Ball
“My best memories, when
I think back over all these
years, has been that of
prowling through exotic
sites or ancient ruins…”
What does this have to do with design
or photography? Well, the common
denominator is ‘light’. A computer
model requires that you create one
or more lights to light your model.
A subject before the camera also
requires light to be seen. A product
is seen generally under a light source,
sometimes good and sometimes poor.
When you learn about light and how
to use it to photograph something
you can use the same techniques to
light a computer model which is what
I generally did. I would apply lights
in the computer model much like I
would do if I was taking a portrait of
someone. Today there is no lack of
young designers who are very capable of
producing excellent computer models
but, in my opinion, their work falls
short because they lack the skills and
understanding of how to properly light a
model as a photographer would do.
Design Through
Lighting
Concerning the design of a product,
it’s form and sense of quality often is
determined by the way light hits and
acts upon it’s surface. I believe that my
experience in a photo studio has had a
positive effect on some of my designs.
For example the Uniwall System
and the Race System stood out very
well under the weak and shadowless
overhead fluorescent lighting. We
had designed in small radiuses along
horizontal edges that picked up the
overhead lights and created highlights
that gave off more information about
the materials used on the products. The
generous radius on the Race beam was
located above the work surface so that
the eye was drawn to that instead of the
usual clutter on the top surfaces. There
were times when I was being given a
tour of an office installation when, on
occasion, something would immediately
leap out at you that suggested there
was a greater sense of quality coming
from this new space. This feeling was
generated in a nanosecond of time and
was created by the little highlights and
shadow details of the design. It took
another second or two before I realized
that I was actually looking at Uniwall
or the Race system. This was because
they were designed to be stand out and
be seen better under the usual weak
and shadowless lighting of the office
as the highlights and shadows from
the product increased the sparkle and
contrast to the room. In addition Race
actually had its own ambient lighting
that was directed upward to the ceiling
but also had small slots in the bottom of
the fixtures that allowed light to wash
downwards over the upper portions of
the system to bring out the textures and
sheen of the materials. It was a theatrical
trick but it worked very well.
The large open spaces of our airport
terminals are often lit by lighting similar
to that found in the office which,
while efficient, does little to enhance
ones appearance nor that of the things
around them. I have seen some new
terminals where I thought the lighting
was extraordinary but generally this
is found only in the newer terminals.
Polished aluminum used in various
seating designs can certainly add some
sparkle and micro contrast to enliven
these spaces. I recently was given a
two seat version of Aerea that we had
designed for Arconas. On this sample
the cast aluminum components were
brightly polished which shows off the
form of the legs and arms beautifully,
and the seating unit takes on a new
elegance. I believe this was the first
sample that they had done this way
as these parts are usually painted in a
silver or black coated finish. At the first
opportunity I brought out my camera
and positioned it very low to capture the
end elevation of the seating. I used the
weak window light and added reflectors
to bring out the highlights and shadow
detail on these reflective parts. In the
background, on one of these shots, we
placed the original wood model of the
leg/ arm component
that we thought to be the most critical
part of the overall design.
On the camera I mounted an extremely
fast lens that was shot wide open
producing a razor thin depth of field
which was focused on the leg detail with
the name Arconas. In this case the area
of focus was perhaps only three eights
of an inch deep. Everything else was
thrown out of focus but resolved in a
way that created a lovely soft blur or
bokeh. I think these lenses can produce
really magical effects and that is why I
love using them in this way every chance
I get.
By Design
My good wife Sydney has insinuated,
on occasion, that I am married to my
work as an industrial designer. Now
that I think of it, this might even be
in the form of a little complaint. Well,
it has kept the bread on the table all
these years and if she is right there is no
disputing the fact that it has been one
happy marriage. To expand on her idea
I would add that there has also been a
mistress all these years, an affair that has
gone on even longer than the aforesaid
marriage. The mistress of this lengthy
affair has been, of course, my love of the
camera. It must be a very open marriage
since there is a mutual understanding
that both can exist side by side and even
work together to ensure the greatest
level of satisfaction. The marriage does
require a lot more work, effort, and
dedication because design projects can
usually take years to resolve while the
camera can deliver gratification in an
instant. I admit that I do tend to spoil
the mistress with extravagant gifts from
time to time in the form of an exotic
lens or two.
My best memories, when I think back
over all these years, has been that
of prowling through exotic sites or
ancient ruins with both Sydney and my
mistress, which I assume then becomes a
Marriage a Trois.
Whatever you want to call all this, one
thing is clear. It has all worked for me.
By choosing a career in design I have
had a sense of fulfilment that I probably
would not have had as a photojournalist,
Douglas Ball shooting Leon’s models for a film in the mid 70’s.
Douglas Ball worked on Arconas projects from 1995 to 2011. His award-winning work can be seen
and used across the globe, in airports, corporate settings and government offices. Douglas’ designs
for Arconas include Flyaway terminal seating, Logistics Lounge chair and the Tangerine multipurpose seating series. Aerea - Douglas’ last commission for Arconas - was born out of the need for
highly durable and configurable beam furniture with a softer, more comfortable sit. A new concept
in soft seating that can be utilized in high traffic waiting areas in airports, transportation terminals,
courthouses, universities, corportate offices and healthcare facilities.
Douglas is an Industrial Design graduate of the Ontario College of Art, and is also a member of the
FADIQ and IDSA associations.
The integration of technology and design has always fascinated Douglas. This serves as his inspiration
and continues to challenge him to new designs as technology evolves.
To learn more about Mr. Ball and Arconas, please visit douglasball.com and arconas.com
+1-905-272-0727
+1-800-387-9496
[email protected]
arconas.com