Joe Riehl · Design across disciplines

Clients and collaborators

About

Howzit, my name is Joe Riehl. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, hailing from Issaquah, WA, studied industrial design in Bellingham, then went looking for somewhere else: a working holiday and a start to a family in Brisbane, followed by two years in Honolulu with a brand new daughter. Every move made me better at seeing things from someone else's side, which turns out to be most of design. Now I'm back home near Seattle. I take pride in learning tools and mastering them. The tools can make almost anything fast now, so judgment is what matters most: knowing what's worth making, and who it's for.

What I enjoy is being useful: bringing value to those around me, making things people actually use and enjoy, that bring some feeling into their day or just make it a little easier. That's why this site covers a lot of ground: stores, fixtures, products, buildings, vehicles, and lately software, meaning the tools and agents that let one designer do a studio's work. They're different problems, but it's the same job. If you've got one worth solving, I'd love to work with you on it, or at least hear about it!

josephriehl@gmail.com LinkedIn Résumé

Skills

skills.md

# skills.md
> Joe Riehl. Designer, Seattle WA. Twenty-plus years, four disciplines, one way of working.
## Design
- Industrial design, B.S. WWU 2008
- Retail fixtures, displays and POP
- Store-of-the-future experience strategy
- Concept development from a brief
- Spatial planning by zone
- Brand integration in retail space
- Concept through production handoff
## Visualization
- Photoreal renderings, concept to marketing
- Architecture, interiors, retail and product
- 3D modeling at real scale
- Lighting, materials and camera
- Animation and real-time walkthroughs
- VR and drone capture programs
- 3D scanning: photogrammetry and splats
- Post-production and compositing
## Fabrication
- Dielines and contour-cut prep
- Print mechanicals and large-format specs
- BOMs and fixture pricing
- Client CAD intake (SolidWorks, SketchUp)
- 3D printing, from CAD to slicer to G-code
- Woodworking and furniture building
- Mechanical and automotive work
- Most home projects: carpentry, installs, wiring
## Software and agents
- Agent harnesses: skills, rules, checkpoints
- Claude Code and Codex workflows
- MCP bridges into design apps
- Google Apps Script web apps
- Python and Node tooling
- Windows desktop apps (.NET, WPF)
- React Native mobile prototypes
- Static sites on Cloudflare
- Local AI: Whisper, ComfyUI, local LLMs
## Leadership
- Principal Designer, The Bernard Group
- Built and ran a visualization team of five
- Senior Associate, Ankrom Moisan
- Mentoring interns with real ownership
- Rolling out new tools to designers
- Client presentations and reviews
## Tools
- 3ds Max, Corona, V-Ray, Chaos Vantage
- Unreal Engine 5, Cinema 4D, Blender
- SketchUp, SolidWorks
- Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign
- Marvelous Designer, Postshot, Meshy, ComfyUI
- Claude Code, Codex, Apps Script
- Slicers and G-code

Résumé

2022 – now

Principal Designer · The Bernard Group · Seattle, WA

Design and visualization for retail environments and brand experiences, from first sketch through fabrication. Lately also the studio's in-house toolmaker: agent pipelines that take a brief to finished renders.

2018 – 2022

Senior 3D Artist · Eight Inc. · Honolulu, HI

Pretty pictures of experiential design concepts for one of the studios behind the Apple Store.

2013 – 2018

Visualization Manager / Senior Associate · Ankrom Moisan Architects · Seattle, WA

Led a team of five 3D artists across three offices: renderings, animations and VR for design review, competitions and marketing.

2012 – 2013

Industrial Designer · Retail Logic · Brisbane, Australia

Retail and fixture design for the food and beverage world: Coles, Woolworths, Masterfoods, Diageo.

2011 – 2012

Industrial Designer · Built Design · Everett, WA

Products, tradeshow booths and fixtures for the outdoor industry: K2, Outdoor Research, Arc'teryx, MSR, Osprey.