A friend put me on to this site - Artecnica, an LA-based design store that features everyday objects that blend art and technology. One thing that we like are the Interior Elements and Garland Lighting from designer Tord Boontje.
His interior elements and lighting are intricate floral and natural designs laser cut from sheets of metal - copper, stainless steel and plated steel. The designs are very delicate and organic, but made from various types of durable and strong metals that can be twisted (as in the Flora Garland and Garland Lights) or linked together to form panels to decorate walls and windows or divide space (Ivy Panels).
While laser cut has been a big trend with designers in the past few years leaving some people to find it “overdone” (see comments on a post last year on Design*Sponge), I find the beauty of it still amazing. I like the mixture of having organic shapes and curves cut out clean and exact - whether it’s trendy or not. Even if I end up seeing it in Ikea!
The latest issue of Make Magazine has a great Welcome page (p.11) from editor Shawn Connally. Yeah, I know - you’re thinking, of all the great projects and articles that pack that magazine, you’re excited about the Welcome Page??
Well, it’s just that he says something very thoughtful that many of us probably don’t think about too much. It’s the idea that it’s OK to be “ordinary, alright folk”. Connally points out that our “mainstream culture tends not only to highlight our shortcomings, but also to celebrate only celebrities - the biggest, brightest, richest, wildest, prettiest, most handsome.” It’s so true. We get caught up with images of perfect extreme makeover houses, fast cars and the slickest gadgets. This sort of view emphasizes perfection and ridicules faults and imperfections. But what makes us all different individuals are OUR imperfections. This can extend to our personal items and objects. No doubt the popularity of the DIY and MIY movement is due to people backlashing against mass prefabricated products, sterile and devoid of character or history. Things that are crafted by our hands, or by someone we know or admire, show the imperfections and imprints of human error. Most handcrafted or DIY-made things also have a story behind it of how it came to be, often with problems or hitches that happen along the way, changing or altering the object in some slight way.
I would even go so far to say that the feeling and history behind handmade objects extends to personally designed objects. While these things may not be literally handmade, they are still unique with “imperfections” and imprints of the designer, along with the story of how the design came to be.
While “mass customization” is trying to incorporate that individualism factor, it still doesn’t get close to the sense of fulfillment and achievement in making or designing something from scratch. Designing, crafting and making things really does celebrate “ordinary, alright folk.”
I’ve written about 3D printers before - more of the peripheral DIY varieties such as fab@home, Evil Mad Scientist, RepRap, and the designs from VUW grad students. I’ve also posted about the other commercial end like Z-Corp’s 450 printer which retails around 40 grand. But we’re starting to see a shift in the commercial variety towards a more accessible and relatively affordable one that you don’t have to build yourself.
3D Systems, a leading provider of rapid prototyping and 3D solutions, partnering with manufacturer and well-known printer brand Canon Virginia, will be releasing their V-Flash compact desktop 3D modeler which can build “ready-to-use, three dimensional models within hours from home, school or office workstations.” It is really compact at 30″ H x 27″D x 24″W, which is smaller than the current printers out there and builds models of 7 x 9 x 8 inches tall. This modeler uses 3D Systems’ latest “fourth technology platform” of disruptive Film Transfer Imaging (FTI), which I’m trying to find out what it is exactly, but it hasn’t yet made it to Wikipedia! (Correct me if I’m wrong and point the way.) This one will retail for US$9,900.
I think this is exciting to see commercial 3D printers being produced and retailed more affordable for a larger and broader segment of consumers (albeit still somewhat pricey). It’s a step towards the mainstream, which is exciting in itself. With more schools, offices and basically ordinary folks having access to this sort of technology, it’ll be amazing to see what new products and designs will come from those who previously wouldn’t have had the tools to make any!
You can see an overview of how it works at their website:
If you haven’t done so yet, check out the most recent issue of bright Magazine from New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. Under Aspiring Exporters, bright featured Ponoko and interviewed our co-founder Derek Elley who introduces our concept and goal of empowering people with their own personal factory to create their unique designs and to connect designers and consumers. With an eye on the future of manufacturing and global consumerism Derek says: “Essentially it’s all about intellectual property rather than physical product.”
To read the article, along with other featured NZ exporters, go to their website and click under Aspiring Exporters for a PDF file (471 KB).
Ogle: The OpenGLExtractor is an open source software that captures and extracts 3D data and writes out a 3D geometry file in a standard format, making it ready to be printed out and made real.
Who’s using this and how? Check out their blog and you’ll see a sample of people, from avid gamers to architects using OGLE, along with other data cleaning software such as Autocad’s Maya and 3D printers to physically render anything from their avatars in Second Life or fave characters from World of Warcraft, to building models and geographic terrain extracted from Google Earth.
This open-source project is part of Eyebeam Open Lab, a non-profit arts and technology center dedicated to research and development in experimental technologies and media for the public domain.
I had seen this a few months ago, probably from Core77 and thought it was cool - especially since I have two boys under 5. And thanks to a comment from Dan on a previous post on papercraft, I thought I should put this up. I’ll have to add this to my list of projects.
Foldschool offers free downloadable designs of furniture for kids made from 4mm cardboard. Their collection includes a stool, chair and rocker for the 1 1/2 - 8 year-old crowd. They even have a 3D viewer so you can see the design from any angle.
What I really like is their philosophy on product design and manufacturing. Their philosophy (from their website):
Mass culture is run by superficiality and ecological absurdity. Foldschool supports craftsmanship as a face-to-face approach to design and brings together product and user the closest possible.
The mindset of foldschool is to restore design to one of its original missions: to provide a product at an affordable price through a smart manufacturing process.
How right they are! I’m looking forward to other designs they may offer.
Regular listeners of Virtual World will know how excited we are about fab labs and personal fabrication. Always wanted bespoke, one off, limited edition, made to order designs of your own? Now a clever Kiwi company down in Wellington is signing up members for a new service.
Their plan is to allow designers to upload their visions, choosing from a range of materials. Your design is then laser cut and delivered flat pack for you to assemble. Or placed into the showroom, sold and produced locally. For a country full of creative & innovative people this is a fantastic opportunity to export their intellectual property and sell their designs to a global market. Their idea is simple. you either Make things for yourself, or Sell Things you have designed. From design to reality. Made locally.
To listen to the audio, check here at Radio New Zealand under Virtual World, live until Wednesday the 20th.
Last Thursday was the launch of 3D printers created by senior Victoria University of Wellington Design students , who were set the challenge of creating 3D printers in three weeks. While many may think of a commercial model from ZCorp or a home-made one as on fab@home, the results from these innovative students were three very unique solutions:
MIGME used a mig welder to deposit layers of weld to create a product. MIGME combined the violent explosive nature of mig welding with the more sedate features of potting to create magically fluid shapes.
entangled wove objects from thread. Products created using entangled are woven from a single thread - a nod to the natural processes used by spiders and silk caterpillars.
pure imagination used candy as its raw product. The outputs of the pure imagination machine are edible, colourful 3D products that challenge the assumptions about materials and their roles.
Given the very tight deadlines the final machines are amazing and a real tribute to the innovative, artistic and technical skills of the students. The project is a fantastic example of the amazing work being done at the VUW Design School in the area of materials and manufacturing, where students are empowered to initiate meaningful change in the design and manufacturing industries.
We definitely will be featuring VUW a lot more in the future.
Ever wonder what other people think when they see your t-shirt slogan “How Hot Am I?” Don’t have that t-shirt? OK, how about “Rather be Dead than Red” (I’m referring to the Cal/Stanford rivalry) or “You looked better on MySpace” (saw that on Cafepress.com)? Now you can find out what other people think. . . and react! You can create a t-shirt that can text people back. Reactee.com allows you to design your shirt with a personalized slogan or keyword printed on it. When you wear it around, people will see your slogan and if they want to respond, they can text a message to the number on your shirt, and get your customized “reaction” from “your t-shirt.”
This is really taking personalization and mass customization (or rather, individualization) to the next level. Forget “customizing” your shirts according to sleeve style or color. Your shirt can actually become a two-way tool for communicating an idea, opinion, or attitude, rather than just a billboard. How creative is that? What a wonderful tool for marketing as well.
They have a gallery of “live” t-shirts (i.e, you can text them), so if you want to check them out, check here. As of this week, the popular ones are “Hung Like a Democrat” and “Can $1 Change the World?”
Treehugger has confessed that they love downloadable designs. And why wouldn’t they? They see the future in downloading design as we do. No need for huge centralized manufacturers with according logistics infrastructure. Just great designs shared and sold digitally straight to your home or office. Ready for you to create at home.
Now while we’re not quite there, we can enjoy downloadable designs with papercraft. If you want to build a race car, or your favorite cartoon character (in paper, of course), check out these websites:
Fun stuff! Download instructions on how to make Cartman and the other South Park pals. They’ve got a range of models to try out - McLaren race cars to Star Trek ships and puzzles.
For those who dig Yamaha bikes, would love to get into “building a bike” but aren’t quite into mechanics. Build your own paper yamaha bike - along with things like animals and toys…
Paperforest is a fantastic blog dedicated to the fun and versatility of paper art and craft. I saw this “creepy little dragon” video a few months ago. Haven’t tried it yet, but will do soon! They supply the downloadable design as well.
This blog is not so much a resource for downloadable projects but more so of an exploration and appreciation for paper art - origami, paper tessellations, geometry, design. In this post, he has a great instructional video from paper artist Paul Jackson on creating a corrugated surface of a single piece of paper. Amazing stuff.
Just a short list at the moment but with so many projects to keep you busy for a while. Know of any good papercraft sites with downloadable designs? Would love to hear.
