Tejas Patel
Tejas Patel
write to
tjs13.9@gmail.com
theme

Tejas Patel

I’m an industrial designer in Sydney. I trained at Nirma University and UNSW, and I’ve built things with electronics in them along the way: a robot arm’s actuators, a wearable ECG, a STEM toy I listed for sale in my own shop. In October 2025 I joined a framing workshop on the bench, and since February 2026 I’ve been working on its systems.

Tejas at a lab bench in a face mask and headphones, holding a clear acrylic arm in one hand and fitting a black printed gear and shaft with the other.

a black printed part, going onto its shaft

the arm’s acrylic link

a black printed part, going onto its shaft

the arm’s acrylic link

Me assembling the robot arm from my degree project on 22 March 2022. Photograph: Tejas Patel.
role
Product Designer, The Framing Project
based
Sydney, Australia
trained
Bachelor of Design, Nirma University
Master of Design, UNSW Sydney
work rights
Full work rights in Australia
languages
English, Hindi and Gujarati
write to
tjs13.9@gmail.com

From the bench to the systems

October 2025 to October 2026

What I wanted from the job.

18 February 2026, two days before the workshop’s ownership changed.

I told my AI assistant that I wanted less physical work and more mental work, and that I wanted the workshop fixed up. By then I’d spent months cutting and joining at the bench, so I knew where jobs stalled from the inside.

the bench

Black-and-white photograph of the workshop floor at The Framing Project: a felt-topped bench in front with a drill, tape rolls, spray cans and a mug, and lengths of moulding stacked against the back wall.
The workshop floor at The Framing Project, moulding stacked against the back wall. Photograph: The Framing Project.

the system

Out the door, the dispatch bench card: six numbered steps from opening the day’s deliveries to returns, ending on one rule, nothing leaves unpaid without a manager’s tick.
layout Out the door, for dispatch, one of the five A5 bench cards as they stood on 24 September 2026.

  1. I joined The Framing Project as its CNC programmer and a framer.

  2. I had my AI assistant check nine overdue invoices against the workshop’s data. None had glass ordered, and one was still a quote.

  3. The ownership changed and one of the three partners left. Nic asked me for ideas to improve the workshop.

  4. I started leading the new platform as architect and builder. InTechual Solutions built the first custom modules, and the pricing engine was written with them.

  5. Launched. The website and system went live on the 27th.

Where I’ve worked

June 2019 to now

  1. October 2025 to now

    The Framing Project, Sydney

    Product Designer

    Joined on the CNC and the bench. From May 2026 I led the workshop’s new platform as architect and builder, with InTechual Solutions on the pricing engine. It prices each piece from its materials and labour, turns a confirmed order into a job card and, for a mirror, its drawings, cutting files and a line on the glass order, and holds the mirror until the client approves its drawings. It launched on 27 October.

    Read the study: Reframed
    Six sample lengths of picture-frame moulding stacked on a white workshop counter, each seen end-on to show its profile: white, raw beech, light oak, dark walnut, black with a gold edge, and plain black.

  2. January to October 2025

    Freelance, and my own work

    Designer

    Warp Drive was my own: a STEM toy for children from six, taken from a breadboard to a unit listed for sale in my own shop.

    Read the study: Warp Drive
    The first Warp Drive prototype: a bare board, a screen and a potentiometer on the bench.
    The blue Warp Drive standing on a dark desk with its menu on screen (Discovery, Quiz, Story), one blue and one red LED lit, and an astronaut figurine and a green plush blurred behind it.
    a breadboardlisted for sale

  3. 2024 and 2025

    On the side

    Small projects of my own

    In 2024 I turned galaxy simulation data from Hilay Shah, an astrophysics PhD at ANU, into 3D prints. In 2025 I built an e-ink habit tracker on an ESP32-S3 that shows an AI-written poem for the habit that needs the most attention.

  4. April 2023 to December 2024

    Evolution Displays, Sydney

    Industrial designer, part-time

    Retail displays: renders for client approval, and the bills of materials, specifications and technical drawings behind them.

  5. January to May 2022

    sysIDEA Lab, IIT Gandhinagar

    Industrial designer (intern)

    My B.Des degree project, industry sponsored: a belt-driven arm with series elastic actuators, and a clutch that engages or releases the parallel spring.

    Read the study: Robotics actuator
    The actuator test rig clamped to a bench edge with a yellow G-clamp: a black printed belt arm over a clear acrylic arm, stacked black gear stages with small springs, and loose printed gears on the bench.

  6. June to July 2020 and 2021

    SunRobotics Technologies, Ahmedabad

    Industrial designer (intern)

    CloroBot came from my summer internship in 2021: a stackable robot chassis built from parts the company already sold, with laser-cut plates, a Raspberry Pi 4B and a YDLIDAR, designed to be programmed in ROS.

    Read the study: CloroBot
    CloroBot: a three-tier laser-cut chassis in black plates on standoffs, a lidar puck on top and a wheel at the side, on a grey backdrop.

  7. October 2020

    Inovora India Design Studio, Ahmedabad

    Design intern

    Pinchy, a strip of packaging card folded into three finger caps, won the COVID-19 category of the studio’s Inovora India Challenge, Second Life of Packaging, run with Nirma University, Strate and IICD Jaipur from 17 July to 4 August 2020. There were 24 entries in seven categories.

    Read the study: Pinchy
    Pinchy in use, holding a wallet against the palm.

  8. June 2019

    Ashima Group, Ahmedabad

    Intern, four weeks

Where I trained

2018 to 2024

  1. Four navy 3D-printed enclosures in a row on a black bench: a small box with yellow tape marks, a round puck, a flat body with an e-ink face showing a dizzy expression, and a larger open box. A soldering iron stand and a glue gun stand behind them, and an open prototype with a battery at the back left.

    February 2023 to August 2024

    UNSW Sydney

    Master of Design

    Dean’s List. Third place in the ADA Innovation Hub Design Sprint 2023 (Circular Economy), in a team of four, with Share-a-bite. One of my projects was featured in the UNSW SDG Showcase. Sehat Sathi was my studio project in 2024.

    Read the study: Sehat Sathi
  2. The white 3D-printed Solis prototype on a rooftop solar array, a fringe of cotton mop under its edge, string cables running out from its sides and a black lead in front.

    2018 to 2022

    Nirma University

    Bachelor of Design, industrial and product design

    Solis, a solar-panel cleaner I designed with Devarsh Patel in 2021, and my degree project at sysIDEA Lab in 2022. One of my projects was featured in a newspaper.

    Read the study: Solis

Tools, and where they mattered

SolidWorks, Rhino and Creo
The CAD named in my degree report. In Creo: a hand-held squeeze-fan mechanism and the sheet metal of a PC power supply.
Shapr3D
Warp Drive’s first enclosure, exported at 17:10 on 23 March 2025, two hours after I photographed the board drawing its star field on the mat.
Fusion 360
CAD.
KeyShot
Renders.
Figma
Screens.
ESP32, C and C++
Warp Drive’s firmware in C++, 60 commits to November 2025 and open source (MIT) on GitHub. AI coding assistants wrote most of it; I set what it should do, tested it on the device and fixed what they got wrong. And the Mini Cyberdeck’s in C, 141 commits between 31 August and 24 September on six days, 140 of them written with Claude Code.

GitHub, tejaspatelll/Warp-Drive: 60 firmware commits, 17 April to 24 November 2025, and an MIT licence added 29 October 2026. The Mini Cyberdeck’s git log: 141 commits on six days between 31 August and 24 September 2026, 140 co-authored with Claude. Both recounted 22 October 2026.

TypeScript and React
This site, and a design-report app in React and Firebase that runs a product idea through Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver.
Python
The pen. The mark in the corner of the screen was traced and inked by a script, and supplier mouldings were turned into profiles with OpenCV.
Odoo
The Framing Project’s new system, set up with InTechual Solutions. It launched on 27 October.
The workshop
3D printing for the enclosures, a laser cutter for CloroBot’s plates and nine kerf tests, a lathe for a top in babool, fibreglass and epoxy for a lamp, and the CNC at the framing workshop.

Notes I work to

A sketch model of a handheld case cut from a clear plastic box: eight drilled holes in a 4 by 2 grid for the keys and a rectangular window cut for the screen, lying on a black phone case.

a window cut for the screen

eight holes drilled for the keys

a window cut for the screen

The Mini Cyberdeck’s first enclosure, 2 September 2026.
  1. 1

    Hold it before you draw it.

    The Mini Cyberdeck’s first enclosure was a clear plastic box with eight holes drilled for the keys and a window cut for the screen, photographed on 2 September 2026, the day the eight keys went in.

  2. 2

    Check it against what really happened.

    Before launch I replayed 2,235 past jobs from the old system through the new pricing engine. On 26 August it came out below the old system’s list prices.

    Replay report, 26 August 2026: 2,235 comparable jobs from the old system’s invoices dated 22 December 2025 to 18 June 2026, confirmed or not (2,181 invoices, 4,287 job lines).

  3. 3

    Watch where it’s used.

    I built a shop-floor board for iPads on the floor, and the floor kept its TV.

  4. 4

    Say who did what.

    Solis was a two-person project with Devarsh Patel, and the pricing engine was written with InTechual Solutions.

  5. 5

    Draw it by hand first.

    The face in the corner of the screen is the one my Warp Drive shows when it powers down, in its firmware since September 2025. On 20 October 2026 I sketched it in pen on a card, and a script traced and inked that sketch. Rearrange the letters of my name a little and it looks like a face.