Dan’s 2013 blog posts
Premier Guitar’s February 2013 issue contains an article by Chris Kies on the first guitar effects pedal, the early 1940s DeArmond Tremolo unit. I was happy to assist. Although the article is titled “Late 1940s DeArmond 601 Tremolo,” the photo shows a unit from the early 1940s. My DeArmond page is here: DeArmond tremolo units...Continue reading
What do Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Big Bill Broonzy, The Staple Singers, Nancy Sinatra, the 1939 World’s Fair and a 16th century organ in Italy have in common? They are all discussed in my second article for Premier Guitar magazine, A Brief History of Tremolo, appearing in the November 2013 issue. Tremolo, an oscillation in...Continue reading
Happy to have written, illustrated and photographed the cover story of this month’s (August 2013) issue of Premier Guitar magazine. The article gives a part-by-part description of tube amp technology using my favorite amp, a 1960’s Vox AC4. It traces the guitar signal through every component, from pickup to speaker. And it gets into...Continue reading
Over the last few months I’ve been writing a series of blogs for Medical Packaging Innovation. My posts are here: MPI: Dan Formosa. The site is new, just started up earlier this year. Some lively discussions are going on. For my topics, the definition of “technology” elicited quite a bit of discussion (is it “technology”...Continue reading
I was in Hong Kong earlier this month giving a talk and workshop at the Include Asia 2013 conference. Usually held in London, the conference focuses on design for all – it was a first for Hong Kong. My keynote talk covered a range of topics, but with the underlying idea that “questioning everything” is a...Continue reading
John Barratt (photo) and I spoke at the Business Breakfast at the agideas event in Melbourne. John spoke about his work at Teague, and the development of the interior of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner. The agideas team put together a really nice (and very complimentary) brochure, drawing a very receptive early-morning crowd. The World’s Most Innovative...Continue reading
The Center for Disease Control in the US periodically publishes updates on health statistics. Here is a chart showing age distribution of three common problems – arthritis, hearing trouble and vision trouble (even after corrective eyewear). The CDC reports this data in age brackets. For this chart, I interpolated that data – because a line chart...Continue reading
My relationship with Karen, exposed – online and in print, in the Winter 2012 issue of Innovation. Thanks IDSA and Steve Wilcox for making it available online. Innovation, Winter 2012 issue