I kind of fluctuate in the middle I wouldnвЂ™t say IвЂ™m the best at math or the most creative person in the entire world, but I have enough of each that the combination pushed me towards mechanical engineering. ThereвЂ™s a lot of really solid engineers who donвЂ™t have much creativity, and then there are a lot of people who have great creative ability, but canвЂ™t do math. The way my brain works lends itself well to engineering, for better or for worse. What inspired you to get into mechanical engineering, and how did you end up at System76? They want something that makes them feel something, maybe openness or comfort, when theyвЂ™re in it. No one really wants to go sit in a car that looks like a square with wheels on it.

If you can create something that doesnвЂ™t have that robotic aesthetic, it will provide people with something that feels more familiar and usable. System76 itself is a group of hardcore programmers and people that are really into Linux, but I think the idea of trying to democratize Linux is extremely important. Adding that softness we do with Thelio, like slightly rounded edges and darker wood, it makes it a little more approachable to have a semi-natural looking system and not something thatвЂ™s blinking at you with red lights all the time. If you can make the system connect better with people, theyвЂ™ll like it more. ItвЂ™s kind of like hardware UX in that itвЂ™s really important to have the right feel. In industrial design, you have to balance looks and function, and that drives your form.

To me, industrial design is basically the art of making something into a usable product. How would you describe industrial design for people unfamiliar with the term? We sat down with John this week to discuss industrial design and the team behind our beautiful open source hardware.

Helming the design process is Mechanical Engineer John Grano, who wears a number of different hats here. Three years later, weвЂ™ve introduced five Thelio desktops, fine-tuned the hardware, developed our fully configurable Launch keyboard, and optimized our production processes. Since moving into a factory space in 2018, System76 has delved deeper and deeper into manufacturing hardware in-house.

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