Leicester, UK
James Mason
Product Design Engineer — Audio, Prototyping & Creative Technology
Product design engineer in audio since 2017. I take loudspeakers, hi-fi products and electronics enclosures from brief through CAD, drawings and prototypes to manufacture, working with electronics and acoustic engineers, fabricators, suppliers and the workshop. Alongside that I design generative music tools, setting the concept, rules and test criteria, with the software built using AI coding tools.
Experience
Design Engineer, TPI Aerospace Limited
Jan 2019 – present
Loudspeakers, hi-fi, PA and mixer hardware from brief to production: SharkCAD models and drawings, BOM systems in Google Sheets, supplier specifications and prototyping with fabricators.
- Hired, with a CNC woodwork programmer and operator, to bring TPI's loudspeaker cabinet manufacture in-house: re-engineered the existing designs, including TOTEM (now TOTEM 2) and MFR, to suit the workshop, solving recurring assembly issues, improving quality consistency and reducing build cost and time
- Design and engineering of the Type. HF hi-fi range and of the cinema and Movement ranges, through to production drawings
- The only product designer on Clarity A and Clarity M for Mastersounds
- Mechanical design of the modular Type. 29 analogue mixer: chassis, panels and module system
- Spotted the need for, and developed, a 3D crate-packing tool now used to plan TPI's shipping crates (software written with AI coding tools I directed)
Design Engineer, Wilson Benesch
Oct 2017 – Dec 2018
Eminence and Precision loudspeakers and GMT One turntable development: SolidWorks models, drawings, BOMs, KeyShot renders and an in-house 3D-printing workflow.
- Helped develop the Eminence flagship loudspeaker; designed its Fibonacci-pattern dust caps and decoupled tweeter faceplate with a PhD student on placement
- Developed the Precision Series entry-level range: CAD, technical drawings and marketing renders
- Drawings, models and manufacturing files for the initial GMT One turntable prototype
- Researched, specified and set up in-house 3D printing
Education
BA (Hons) Product Design, First Class — Sheffield Hallam University, 2014–2017
Skills
- Design and CAD
- SharkCAD, SolidWorks, KeyShot, Blender, Affinity Designer
- Making
- Sheet metal, solid surface, carbon fibre (VRTM), 3D printing, assembly and finishing
- Systems
- Google Sheets BOMs and calculators, production documentation
- Creative technology
- Generative music systems, interaction and parameter design, listening evaluation, AI-assisted development
- Earlier experience
- BiesseWorks, Mazatrol, MRPeasy, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign
Also
Full UK driving licence.