INDUSTRIAL DESIGN AND FINE ART
Industrial Design
As owner and principal of Cooksey Design Associates, my work in transportation, architectural, and theme design has taken me across the breadth and depth of the field and sent me throughout the US and into Europe and Asia. It has been an exciting and rewarding journey.
I have very much enjoyed working on both sides of the fence in this field. Sometimes I found myself reviewing design submissions to requests for proposals by corporate and government agency decision-makers, and other times, submitting designs to those same leaders of their respective industries.
In my varied roles as lead industrial designer, concept designer, project manager, and presentation illustrator, my constant goal was to capture theme and ambiance within all elements of design from the major structure to the internal structural components to fit and finish, thus providing unique and effective concepts and designs.
My work includes all design phases of rail, corporate and commercial aircraft, marine vessels, ground service vehicles, transportation facilities, commercial and residential architecture, logos, identity packages, and marketing collateral.
It has been exciting to pull disparate areas of knowledge together to create a multitude of designs I am proud to claim as mine. I have enjoyed applying varied elements to design including theme development, space design, engineering, ergonomics, anthropometric, flow process, color response and coatings, as well as ADA requirements. Knowledge of anthropometric has enabled me to apply to designs the interfacing between the human body and various components of interior space. Applying the concepts of Feng Shui has allowed me to create a balanced environment in any travel space, building, home, or office. With knowledge of color response, I have been able to incorporate into designs not only color aesthetics but also color schemes to maximize long-term comfort in response to them. Expertise in coatings, materials, and lighting has enabled me to factor in safety considerations as well as low-cost maintenance over time in the selection of materials.
Notable works include architectural and theme design including Caesar’s Palace and Circus Hotels in Las Vegas, Hershey Chocolate Factory in Hershey, Pa., exteriors and interiors of private, celebrity, corporate, and commercial aircraft; exterior and interiors of light rail and rail cars including the Los Angeles BlueLine, RedLine and GreenLine, GoldLine, MetroLink, Amtrak and Cal Trans Dining Cars. Notable works in the area of corporate image/identity packages include Federal Express, Samsung, Chartwell, and Continental/United Airlines.
“My approach to design is that the beauty and comfort derived from visual design and form can, and need to be, achieved without sacrifice of functionality or cost.”
Leyan Cooksey
Fine Art
Art is integral to life. It isn’t just what I do. It is who I am. It is how I see, and how I create my surroundings. Through it, I wordlessly speak, scream, and cry out in joy. Without it, I am lacking.
Shadows. In elementary school, my friends told me I was an artist. It was the shadows of all I saw and included in my young artwork. Later, it was depth and perspective that I captured that did it for my friends.
In high school, I received a full four-year art scholarship to Iowa State Teachers College then continued to take classes over the years at St. Louis University, El Camino College, and ultimately at the Art Center in Pasadena, CA.
Specializing in one medium, for me, would be like eating the same meal over and over. Rather, my style is a buffet of oils, pastels, acrylics, chalk, charcoal, pencil, pearl, marker, and sculpture in wood, metal, plaster of Paris, and stone.
My inspiration. Sometimes it flows from pain that comes in innumerable forms. Its expression, in equally varied manners, rises through it and out the other end. As an artist, I churn through my own pain, the pain of those I love and of others who have suffered the unimaginable, and through the pain of social injustice. I let my hands shape the abstract of that suffering.
Much more so, fortunately, I enter the realm of love, compassion, and joy. Inspiration comes from the beauty of form, the intensity of emotions, the cycle of life, and its evolution.
Art and life continue to inspire me.
Leyan Cooksey