About

Let me formally introduce myself, I am Rodny Mella, an industrial designer and currently the Design Director at Fantem Technologies, maker of smart home devices. I had my higher education at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Philippines. I studied Fine Arts and majored in Advertising.

My very first job out of university at 18 years old was a Game Designer for Micronet, a Japanese software and game developer. I work extensively on their proprietary 3D program called 3D Atelier, which was in the mid-90s and probably the very first 3D gaming company in the Philippines. We published several games for the first Playstation. I work for a while in Sapporo with the entire game development team. There I learned graphic design, 3D modeling, 3D animation, rendering and video editing. In 1997 we were building an interactive VR (Virtual Reality) rooms for a real estate company, it did not push through because honestly, we were 18 years ahead of our time, Oculus Rift was first sold in 2015.

In 1998, I left the gaming company and started a new job in Hong Kong as a Graphic Designer. The company made prototypes and licensed toys. Then they relocated to then a small city next to Hong Kong called Shenzhen. I stayed in the company for 10 months. My 3rd job was as a toy designer for a Taiwanese company. After less than a year designing moving toys and seasonal products, I felt really bored so I started looking for a new job, something that will interest me. This time I shifted to a brand new challenge, I went on designing home decorative products. This industry thought me a lot about manufacturing, cost efficiency, and team management. Although the work is very interesting my desire is really in technology.

In 2000, I found a new interesting job in Hong Kong. This time the world wide web. I started working at RealityBuy.com, an internet company providing tech service  to the booming e-commerce  business, an early B2B business model. What I created are virtual products that enhances buyer’s experience. I made detailed 3D modeling of high-end model like CTS Cadillac and published an interactive car that changes the wheel, accessories, car colors on the car dealers website. They love the idea so I created several more 3D cars they were offering. Our team even made kiosks for their trendy showroom in Wanchai. The technology was there but the gamification of an actual product was ahead of its time in year 2001. It was a fantastic idea that did not catch on. For the Millenials now. I am pretty sure they will appreciate that. Meanwhile in that 2 years… it spark my interest in web development and UI design before it was even a thing. So on my free time I studied html and php programming and SQL.

Early 2002 I found a new job in Hong Kong at Tunbow as an industrial designer. I was designing consumer electronic products such as flat irons and other kitchen appliances. I really love the job but I wanted to be with my soon-to-be-born daughter, so I quit the job and went back to Shenzhen. By this time I already accumulated vast experience as a designer in 4 different fields, game, graphics, product and the web. Time to take my career seriously.

In late 2002 I started my 8 long year career as a product designer at ArtaPower International Group. It was enough to supplement for my new family. I work on developing many products for brands like Disney, Petsmart, PetCo, Fox Network, Avon, and many countless European brands. I learned a lot about branding and marketing.

On the sideline, I still do projects outside, mostly industrial design works and web development. I worked with Meritus Racing on and off from 2003-2014 designing marketing visuals and being involved in the design of their own Formula car called MTT which uses Lotus Engine. On many occasions I will be invited to watch the formula racing from the pitstop in Macau, Zhuhai and once in Malaysia.

2010 was really the crossroad year of my life and career. I took a sabbatical leave from work and went to the Himalayas to figure out personal existential crisis. By the time I went back to Shenzhen, I had the answer… I have to stay. Luckily I found a new job at Synergic, a Singaporean mobile company. A new path for my future career was laid. I started designing Android smartphones and tablets and was introduced to mobile app UI/UX development. I worked there for a year and a half until an offer to work at D-Red Industries. There I work on many Apple product accessories and developed several game app for iOS.

In 2013, a very good friend of mine from Silicon Valley offered me a full-time position at his growing company, Fantem Technologies, a smart device manufacturer. I met Winston when he started a startup company called AeonLabs. I designed his products starting from 2007 for the Aeotec . Aeotec is now a leading European home automation brand. In 2015 at Fantem we launched our crowdfunding campaign at Indiegogo.com called Oomi Intelligent Home. And we were successfully funded after 2 months for a whopping  $1.79 million, the biggest and successful campaign in the IoT category in 2015. Beside creating the entire product line, I also created the App and campaign video, at one point I was leading a large team of designers. The success of the campaign put Fantem on the Home Automation map. Click the link to see our IndieGoGo crowdfunding: Oomi Smart Home.

On the side, I also do design consulting for Max Azria’s tech company, the same boss from the fashion company MAXAZRIABCBG. They have clean concept ideas that I help develop. This is a quick summary of my 25 years career as a designer. Thank you for reading!

If any of you guys are interested in how I design products or anything related to designing please check the link below and learn some design hack or design and manufacturing trade standard. I will be updating the tutorial sections with industry-standard design tutorials. I