Joe Riehl · Design across disciplines

Clients and collaborators

About

Hey, I'm Joe Riehl. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, studied industrial design in Bellingham, then went looking for somewhere else: a working holiday in Brisbane, two years in Honolulu. 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. The tools can make almost anything fast these days, so I think judgment is what matters most: knowing what's worth making, and who it's for.

What I enjoy is being useful: making things people actually use, things that make their day easier. That's why this site covers so much ground: stores and fixtures, products, buildings, cars, 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 like to 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.