#016 — Shaun Wellens

Hello Shaun! So good to have you here on our Artist Spotlight! Could you please introduce yourself to the Blauw Films readers?

It’s my pleasure - thank you so much for having me! My name’s Shaun Wellens. I’m a designer and an artist from England currently working as the Head of Design at Apptronik - a humanoid robotics company based out of Austin, TX.

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What are the basics of design to you? Are there any principles you hold yourself and your work to? 

I was fortunate enough to go to one of the best design schools in the country, and so I think the skills that I have today were enabled by having a really solid foundation instilled in me very early on. But that’s not to say going to a top design school is a prerequisite to becoming a great designer. I think the single most important thing for me has been carving my own path and discovering what design really means to me. To me, design boils down to the contribution I would like to make to society and to my peers. This is the thing that I hold close to me. And it gives this incredible sense of clarity when making the smallest decisions, because all of a sudden the people you’re designing for and the problem you’re trying to solve is the single most important thing you’re required to focus on. I like to use logic to do this, as opposed to minimalism. Minimalism for minimalism sake has led some designers and companies to make poor decisions in recent years, for the sake of having less visual noise. I understand the want to reduce visual noise, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of the user experience. Good logic allows you to whittle the object down to its most essential features, with minimal being a potential outcome of that process.

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These are great insights Shaun. With that in mind, how important is it to you to keep creating personal work even parallel to full-time work? 

Personal work has been a huge part of my life for almost 10 years. Up until becoming Head of Design at Apptronik (which has been the most demanding 2 years of my life) I would work my 9-5 job and spend the majority of my evenings working on something of my own - whether that be CGI or concept design. Even now however, I find that if I’m not creating something for myself, or learning something new, I quickly begin to feel stagnant. And so even working in one of the most incredible spaces I could have ever hoped to be a part of, and learning new things every day, personal work is just as important to me as it ever has been. Nothing will ever replace creating art for the sake of creating.

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Your work has a beautiful blend of industrial design with futuristic aesthetics. What are some of your earliest memories that led you to pursue this form of design?

It’s funny because I think about this a lot and have never really found a good answer. I often wonder whether the work I create is just me just trying to replicate all of the things that excited me growing up. As a kid I would sketch and paint and read. I loved movies and video games like Wallace and Gromit, Bioshock and Fallout. But it was always the storytelling and the idea of being inside of this fictional world that really excited me. And so I struggled to play video games or watch movies without then trying to make something of my own. I would sketch characters and props, and make my own board games. By the time I was 12 or 13 I adored cars and ultimately wanted to be a car designer.

But around the same time I distinctly remember seeing my friend's iPod Nano for the first time. It came with that polished metal casing and a glass face that had this beautiful depth to it. I’d never seen or held anything like it before. From there I was obsessed with everything Apple and Steve Jobs and Jony Ive. I tuned into every keynote, watched every interview I could find and read every page of the website from top to bottom. These days, I feel it might be considered a little cliche to say that Apple inspired me to become a designer, but that is the truth - Apple changed my life and changed the way that I viewed the world, my place in it and what I’d like to contribute to it. Now that I’m older, I still try to maintain that childlike wonder if I can. I feel so incredibly fortunate to be able to combine all of the things that have influenced me and channel that into the pursuit of creating something new and original through art and design.

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You’re currently Head of Design at Apptronik. Amazing! 

Apptronik creates incredible robots focused on a synergy between man and machine.

What role do you see designers playing in shaping the ethics and usability of robotics as they become part of everyday life?

This is such a large and deep topic and deserves more attention than I’ll be able to give it in this interview, but my opinion is that, enabled by excellent organisation and strong leadership, design is the single most important discipline when it comes to creating a product that is both ethical and user-centric (although I appreciate I’m likely biased). Robotics is such a new and exciting thing that it’s easy to forget that the ultimate goal is to make a product - and it should be treated as such. It should contribute something meaningful to society and solve real world problems, and it should ultimately put the user at the centre of everything. Safety is extremely important but also very complex. For example, making sure the robot doesn’t fall on your child or your pet is one thing, but equally as important is ensuring it understands more nuanced dangers and the consequences of its actions, such as knocking over a candle or dropping laundry on the stairs. When it comes to user experience, I can’t think of another product in our lifetime that has required designers to completely reimagine what user experience means.

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How do you actually feel about the state of robotics today?

I’ve often said that robotic design sits at this unique intersection between industrial design and character design. Anyone that works as a character designer in the entertainment space will tell you that their job is more than skin-deep. They’re required to think about the personality of the character when exploring facial structure, body composition, clothing, hair and accessories. All of those decisions ultimately speak to who the character is on the inside. I have the utmost respect for any designer and any company that works in the robotics space, as it’s an extremely difficult thing that we’re all trying to accomplish, but I would love to see more consideration for the holistic experience and personality in conjunction with the problem they’re trying to solve. I’m almost certain we’ll get there.

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Yes, absolutely. I also believe that will be an important evolution of robotics. 

What’s your personal opinion on the relationship between mankind and technology? 

I’m fortunate enough to get to speak with some exceptionally deep thinkers in my role, and one of the things we talk about is that humans have always been toolmakers. In the last century alone we’ve had the automobile, space flight, the personal computer and the smartphone, and I feel that personal robotics is the next great technological leap. To create art is in our nature, and it’s hard to really understand why, but I feel the same way about technology. It’s in our DNA to contribute to society and to continue to push the human race forward.

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How important is it for designers like yourself to be involved in the process of engineering, IT and User Experience?

Incredibly important. Oftentimes design is being brave enough to ask questions and challenge assumptions - whether that’s to business leaders, product leaders or engineers. The majority of the time you get the answer you might expect, but sometimes you bring a new perspective by forcing people to think more holistically about the product we’re developing and the problem we’re trying to solve. The other side of the coin is that you also learn a lot by asking lots of questions. I love learning new things and, whenever I do, it feels like I’m building a mental toolbox of knowledge and skills that I can rely on further down the line. And so I’m a big proponent of being a forever-student and learning as much as I can from the people around me, and I find myself drawn to very similar people. Some of my best friends are artists and designers who are constantly pushing to learn and improve.

More pragmatically, great products can only ever be produced through strong communication and collaboration, and the only way to communicate and collaborate effectively with other disciplines is to ensure that you know your stuff.

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In industrial design and robotics, there can be the temptation to design for spectacle — something that looks incredible in a demo but has little long-term purpose. 

How do you avoid falling into that trap?

I think we do that by knowing our principles and sticking to them. At Apptronik for example, we feel strongly about honesty and integrity, and using robotics as a vessel for solving real problems and eventually improving people's lives.

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I’d like to take a look at the Iron Duke, and its spiritual counterpart Blue Squire. Such striking designs, equal parts elegant and terrifying. 

Is there a specific logic to the design language and decisions you took for these mechs? 

In terms of design language, both were inspired by medieval armor, with Blue Squire also being inspired by chimp proportionality and posture. I would consider both to be more art than design in truth. Aside from them both being used as a way for me to learn more about my tools and how to improve my proportions, they were created purely as a storytelling piece to try and make the viewer feel something. If, for you, it creates a conflict between elegance and fear, then I’m perfectly happy with that, as art is open to interpretation. For me, Squire is slightly more interesting. I tried to add some extra dimension to his character solely through proportions and posture. As with Duke, he has this really aggressive design language. But unlike Duke, he’s slightly wider, shorter and more hunched. This makes him feel slightly more timid, and my hope was that this would be enough to make the viewer question whether he was really as frightening as the design language would suggest, and to question what his story might be. 

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What challenges did you face in merging historical elements with futuristic design?

I think it was important for me not to take historical references too literally. I try to treat influences as ingredients, and rely on my intuition to know how much is the right amount.

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Would you want to have either an Iron Duke or a Blue Squire at home? 

Absolutely not! The great thing about art and storytelling is that you get to create something for the purpose of making people feel or experience something. You have the freedom to create the T-800 or Wall-E or HAL 9000 because they’re all designed with the intention of making people feel a certain way. That could be happiness or sadness or fear. But when I think about creating a product to put out into the world, I see it as a different way of contributing something to society, and I would want that to have a positive impact on the way that people live their lives. I can’t imagine that putting something like Duke or Squire into people's homes would have a positive impact (unless it was on their TV screens).

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That’s absolutely fair! Your work has an incredible attention to world-building in the most subtle ways. Each design seems to have custom logos and narrative behind it.

Have you thought of creating your own original IP and bringing it to the world? 

Well thank you! Yes I’ve thought about it. If I was to create something larger like that, I would really want to dedicate myself to ensuring it’s as good as it possibly can be at that moment. And so I’m actively thinking about what it is that excites me enough to dedicate the years it would take to create something really special that I can be proud of. But for sure I’m thinking about it!

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We’ll all be patiently waiting for that moment. That sounds incredibly exciting. 

Where would you draw the line in your personal life with inviting technology and robots? 

I think I would draw the line at children. I believe there were genuinely good intentions behind the design of something like the iPhone. But as with every great leap in innovation, there’ve been unintended consequences. One of which, I believe, is that it robs us of time - either knowingly or unknowingly. If, in the not-so-distant future, robots can clean our homes, handle our laundry or mow our lawn, then that’s an opportunity for us to get some of that time back, which should be spent doing things we enjoy - such as spending time with our kids.

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That sounds wonderful. I’m sure that’s the technological future we would all appreciate. Talking about the future, design language and thinking seems to always be on a pendulum. 

What direction do you feel it’s swinging in now? And does that have an impact on your work?

I have my personal thoughts on where we feel design should be heading (in particular when it comes to robotics) which I think I’ll have to keep to myself for now. But I’ve really enjoyed seeing a touch of playfulness re-enter the product space. I think Teenage Engineering in particular are doing lovely work!

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Oh yes, their products are really impressive! Alright, I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for what you’ll be making in the future then. 

What types of projects or collaborations are you most excited to pursue in the future?

Right now I am happy living and breathing robots, and to be honest I would die happy if I felt I was able to make a meaningful contribution to bringing robots into the home and improving people’s lives. But as you’ve probably figured out by now - I love storytelling - and so there’s still something that excites me about the idea of films and video games. I don’t get the opportunity to play many video games these days, but if I was ever able to contribute to making people feel the kind of joy I felt when playing video games and watching movies as a kid, that would make me really happy. I’d also love to work on a book one day! One of my favourite things in life is walking around the book store, and I can’t imagine the immense pride the authors must feel when seeing their work on a bookshelf like that.

To sum it up: there are lots of things I would like to do with my life, and it can often feel like there can’t possibly be enough time to do it all.

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Ahh that sounds amazing! I’m sure the time will be there for all of that and more! 

What advice would you give to someone thinking of a career as an artist? There is always a new generation taking their first steps into this adventure.

My single biggest piece of advice would be to do it for yourself before you do it for anyone else. You have to really love making art for the sake of it. I think that’s the only way to be sure that you’re passionate enough to keep pushing and to keep learning every day, particularly in these uncertain times. And once you’re ready, try to get a job that will allow you to learn as much as you possibly can. This can come in different forms. For example, my first job wasn’t one that taught me an awful lot, but it was one that paid my bills and allowed me to clock off at 5pm before going home and focussing on my personal work. It was in those hours between 5pm and midnight that I was my most productive and improved almost every day. 

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An important message that needs to be heard…

Oh man, that’s already it! Thanks so much for taking the time to do this Shaun. 

So great to talk to you.

As always, we like to end every Artist Spotlight with a personal recommendation from the artist. Any good films, books, habits, or anything else you’d like to recommend to the reader?

As I write this (somewhere over the North Atlantic) I’m reading a new book named Could Should Might Don’t by Nick Foster which has been an interesting read so far! If you’re a concept designer interested in learning more about Industrial Design then I’d recommend watching Rams by Gary Hustwit. It’s about Dieter Rams who is considered to be the grandfather of modern-day Industrial Design, and is one of my favourite documentaries.

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