Contributors

Sam Viviano ( Cover, special section opener, and various other spy illustrations) was born sometime in the last century to an anonymous couple in Detroit. After graduating summa cum laude from the University of Michigan, he moved to New York, where he quickly became impoverished. He was saved from a life of crime by the editors of MAD, who assigned him his first cover in 1980. In no time at all, he was one of the Usual Gang of Idiots, producing movie and television satires, phony ads, and, of course, more covers. Finding no other way to stem his seemingly endless output of bad illustration, the editors asked him to become the art director of MAD in 1999, a position he still sleeps through today. Viviano lives in New York with his wife and daughter, who (like his parents) would prefer to remain anonymous.

Brian Dereu (Dead Drop Device) has been self-employed now for more than 12 years and has never looked back. “It took me a while to develop the discipline to work for myself,” he says, “instead of just going fishing.” He runs a small manufacturing business in rural Missouri where his day consists mainly of lathe and milling machine work (when he’s not fishing). Even after hours, he can be found tinkering in the shop or on the computer working on his newest venture ( spy-coins.com). Brian is a family man, with a wife and 9-year-old twin boys at home. His wife, Sonya, home-schools the twins, and the entire family is active at their Christian church.

Known to his wife, Linda, as Mr. Experimentation, David Simpson (G-Meter and Altimeter, Covert Wireless Listening) was inspired as a child by his Uncle Marv, “a hot rodder from the 50s. He would heat up plastic car models in the oven and squash them into fascinating, realistic wrecks.” Since then, David has built “a lot of off-beat things from found objects,” but his real passion is aviation and aerospace education, which “has been under my skin for a while.” He finally got his private pilot’s license a few years ago, and is “always working on developing new, immersive, hands-on educational experiences for cadets of the Civil Air Patrol” in Ne w Jersey.

Star Simpson (Star Bust) started her career at age 3, when her mother told her not to mix electricity and water. “So I stuck my fist under running water,” she recounts, “and grabbed the contacts of a night light plugged into the wall next to the sink with my other hand. I got a 120V jolt and found out my mom wasn’t making things up. I’ve thought electricity was awesome ever since.” Currently a world traveler with a penchant for photography, surfing, and tinkering, Simpson grew up in Hawaii and attended MIT; she’s now working on an outrigger canoe to sail between islands in Hawaii. Her favorite tool is a homemade welder made from salvaged microwave oven transformers, but she also thinks “a nice TIG is a good thing.”

When Andrew Lewis (Secret Chessboard Drawer, Self-Destructing Object, USBattery) isn’t “hacking away on a problem connected to computational complexity,” he’s most likely “working in my lab on a 3D scanner or some other hardware-related project.” The computer engineer, author, and Ph.D. student lives in a small village surrounded by farmland, not far from the urban center of Staffordshire, England. Andrew is a steampunk fan with a decidedly madcap attitude to making: “I think part of the fun is when something goes wrong and provides you with a new challenge ... unless you’re on a tight schedule!”

Dan Bassak (Roller Skate Toe Stop) hails from northeastern Pennsylvania. Growing up on a dairy farm, Dan learned early on that he could freak out his entire neighborhood with his inventions. His parents grew accustomed to the sound of explosions from his bedroom and the sight of the local police on the front porch. Lucky for the planet, Dan channeled his talents and energy toward the greater good as he got older. Dan is also known for his excellent culinary skills, most notably his bread- and sausage-making abilities. Presently employed as a biomedical engineer, Dan resides with his tolerant wife, Trina, and their dog, Abby.

Photograph of Star Simpson by Jeff Lieberman

10 Make: Volume 16