Former Royal Air Force navigator Jan Waszkiewicz and machinist Stanley Zaleski both immigrated to America with a few bucks and a dream: to build the world’s best sunglasses. In 1973, they opened the doors to their factory in a small town called Randolph, just outside of Boston, Massachusetts. With a background in engineering and some serious skills, they set out to build an eyewear company with their bare hands. They began by building custom machines to craft the sunglasses, and then purpose-built a product for the world’s toughest critics: the US Department of Defense.
Today, Randolph still creates sunglasses that are purposefully engineered and handcrafted to perform at the highest level. For nearly 50 years, Randolph delivered the world’s best Aviators to the US military and customers around the world. Though the product is still world class, processes have changed quite a bit since 1973. Randolph’s art director, Jeff Davidson, shares the company’s evolution from relying on product photography to using KeyShot as a “digital photo studio” for all product assets.
What’s your art production experience like?
I have been a visual designer for about 10 years and a photographer for 15 years. When I first joined Randolph Engineering in 2018, we were utilizing a product photography cabinet to capture e-commerce product photos. This process proved to very time consuming due to the reflective nature of the glasses that led to a lot of post-production on the images.
What sparked your interested in product design?
My photography background drew me to product photography. In the photo realm, I have always pushed the boundaries of my abilities with lighting and post processing. Being able to utilize KeyShot as a digital photo studio was just a natural progression. It has allowed me to collaborate with our engineering team during the design process. They provide me with the 3D models and I work with them on dialing in the materials such as frame finishes, lenses, and temple tips.
What’s unique about your company approach on a project?
Our approach is mostly from the marketing side. We utilize KeyShot for all of our product photography on our website and product catalogs. This gives us full control of every aspect of the sunglasses and the environment they are in. From there we have branched out into short, animated clips of product for use in advertising and website assets other than product shots.
Where in the design and go-to-market process is KeyShot used?
Product renderings developed within KeyShot are used between our Product department hand off and Marketing’s asset creation for our customers.
What are some projects you have used KeyShot on?
We’ve used KeyShot for rendering our full product catalog, creating animations for advertising, and one-off assets for various marketing projects such as emails.
How has KeyShot helped save time, money and/or improve quality for Randolph?
Keyshot saves me time when creating product photos while also improving the quality and consistency of the final product photos.
What advice would you give to others interested in doing what you do?
Don’t stop learning! As new software and processes develop, continue to learn and push boundaries of your capabilities.
Learn more about Randolph Engineering or KeyShot.
