I personally love this week’s Ponoko Product of the Week. For me there is nothing that combines design, beauty, and often one person’s dedication to their love than seeing a well-crafted hot rod. So to see a piece of jewelery that celebrates that is very exciting.
The piece comes from Hioctane Jewelery run by Alicia & Brad, out of Oceanside, CA and they describe it below:
This is a Revvv’d up Hot Rod Roadster Necklace. This piece is laser cut and etched 3mm black acrylic. The piece is then assembled with Sterling silver chain and clasp. Roadster is 2 3/4″ wide. This is a piece that every Hot Rod enthusiast will want.
Great work Hioctane! And Congratulations on being the Ponoko Product of the Week.
The Brooklyn-based design/build studio 4-Pli designs and manufactures furniture cut from sustainably-harvested plywood on their in-house CNC mill which are then finished with low-VOC paints and varnishes. Much of their collection has elements that repeat, slide together, or nest within each other. They’re not exactly flat-pack design, but they’re also not hand-carved one-of-a-kind pieces (luckily for us). Their work finds a wonderful balance between the two extremes, resulting in work that is simple and sophisticated. (more…)
!Update to Part 2: It seems like the “Shelter Screen” was carried on into the final rounds for ICFF. See below.
As SCAD students of the Designed Conversation course created different bedding solutions for the clients of Growing Hope of Union Mission, one of the most challenging problems was a structure that actually provided shelter for the homeless living on the street.
This was the prototype presented at the end of April during critique. The canvas slip cover fits over a standard bi-folding lawn chair. Inside the flap was a layer of tulle to represent mosquito netting. There were conversations about how to secure the flap while preventing liquid from dripping inside, how to make the netting functional and convenient, and how to transport the entire structure on one’s back.
Above, a student demonstrates the room within the structure and possible issues with not being able to sit up.
It seems that a more dome-like silhouette was the group’s solution. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to see this prototype, but it looks like the project really came together for ICFF.
At the end of the critique, I sat down with each groups “documentarians.” Rubi McGrory, a Graduate Fibers student, Alice Meiss and Kathleen Imig, both undergraduates in Fibers, were responsible for documenting the process of their groups, collaborating on the mission statement, and putting together the site for Designed Conversation.
Good old Etsy is a massive market place for all things ‘hand made’. Now the concept of the hand can be stretched to the hand that operates the mouse, that designs the product, that clicks send, that, well, uses Ponoko..
Anyway, Soop is a London based design studio headed by top chef Wai-Lian Scannell. She’s forever rustling up new recipes in the Soop kitchen (literally). You can sample a few flavours in Soop’s Etsy shop. In this instance the result is super cute jewellery that can be combined (see customized) to make your very own farmyard scene on your finger.
And while at Etsy check out this, Object
What_
A geometric entity to occupy a desk, a shelf or any space in your life. Balances on several faces.
So the outer casing is made out of recycled cardboard coated in beeswax. The beeswax adds strength as well as a pleasant smell. The underside has two wells, both filled with a swatch of moss.
Why_
A stress reliever, something nice to look at and touch, or a little bit of the outside when you are stuck inside.
The NottinghamTrent graduate show has produced some great lighting designs. The Curly Sue Spiral Desk Lamp by Wendy Tytherleigh is a distinctive desk lamp designed for the retail decorative market. The lamp features a collapsible spiral shade which allows the user to control the light level without the need for a dimmer switch (Via designzen).
Another really interesting light design is the Opal by Natalie Wilkins. It’s a portable wireless light (I assume it has a battery) made from bone china that can be placed on a table, held in the hand or suspended on the string provided. The translucent ceramic shell emits a warm glow similar to a candle.
The Hula ceiling light shade by Sarah Turner incorporates MIY/self assembly/mass customization. Sarah says that the shade embraces a new MIY (making it yourself) trend. The consumer arranges and assembles the rings in whatever form they wish so that each person can have a light of their own design.
We’ve had an awesome response to our 10-Day Design Challenge - Games and Puzzles. But that’s made it so hard to choose a final group of 15 that our judges ended up with 17, and refused to cut it back. Below you can see pictures of each puzzle, and BELOW THE PICTURES is the voting panel. If you’re a Designer of one of the winners below, feel free to invite all your friends and family to vote for you. In our first Design Challenge there was a very lively discussion about the choice of winners. So for all of you with strong opinions this is your chance to make them heard.
Please note you can click on the images of each product to go to their individual showroom page for more detail. Some are obvious in how they work, but others are intricate and may need a closer look to understand. Please remember, clicking on the image is NOT A VOTE for the product, you need scroll down to the bottom of the post and make your choice in the poll located there. Good luck everyone!
New Zealand based designer Rachel Young, has produced a simple polypropylene bowl based on her research into origami, released under her banner of Fold.
After many hours of experimentation with paper, Young has patented the Fold dish, a delightful serving, fruit or display plate made from recycled plastic and available in black, white, red and yellow at Eon Design Centre.
The dish’s intended use is for storing fruit, although it can be used as a special serving dish for cakes, salads, bread or display of decorative objects and flower arrangements. It can also be used simply as a stand alone display object. Each dish is hand folded individually and can be stacked upon other Fold Dishes.
Also in the Fold range is a hand folded lamp using similar principles, there is a waiting list so place your orders now…
For more information, see www.fold.co.nz
While researching this post I also found an Origami Blog with loads of interesting origami based projects from hats to tea bag floats through furniture and window treatments by Dutch designer Hannah Allijn.
A bit sloppy on photoshop though.
We have seen flat pack chairs, jewellery, lights, hammers, stools, even kiwis. Now there is small, portable flat pack barbeque. It folds down to a 30cm by 46 cm rectangle and weighs in at a manageable 4 kg. At that weight and size it could even be sent via the post. No longer does the barbeque need to be confined to the backyard you can take this thing with you everywhere. The gadget shop says “now the spirit of summer can join you wherever you are, or even sit permanently in the boot of your car, ready for action whenever the mood takes you”. Barbequing is very popular here in Australia during the summer so I’m sure there’ll be a market for people needing an emergency barbeque.
The good people at Apartment therapy have even dreamed up the advertisement “we can see it now: a TV advertisement spoofing the Apple MacBook Air ad. But instead of pulling out a laptop from a slim envelope, the actor will pull out one of these compact, folding barbecue grills to the tune of some grilling music while the sweet smoke of caramelizing summer fare wafts around…”
Flat pack is now spreading to all products. It’s definitely a good way to open your products up to a larger market if you can post your products around the world cheaply.
Ceramic artist John Balistreri wanted to explore the world of rapid prototyping and the ways it could expand the boundaries of ceramic art so, he teamed up with Gregory Little at Bowling Green State University and BGSU’s ZCorp 3D printer. Balistreri and the team at BGSU experimented with with various clays and binders to create finished, functional ceramic objects that are compatible with ZCorp’s printing process. ZCorp technology closely resembles current inkjet technology, the difference is instead of printing on paper, it prints on increasing layers of powder material.
The teacup was created by scanning a hand-thrown teacup with a 3D scanner and reproducing the teacup with the printer. The teapot, however, was printed directly from a digital file, which opens up a number of possibilities that aren’t possible with traditional ceramic techniques. With traditional ceramics, the rendering of an object is limited by the pull of gravity. Because printed ceramics are surrounded by dry media, they are able to ignore gravity to create structures that are currently either impossible or unfeasible with today’s production technologies, such as engine parts, or superior water filters. All in all, printed ceramics look pretty cool and they might change the world.
WSJ’s Andy Jordan visited Maker Faire to discover what so many of “us” already know - there’s a revolution going on! Ponoko is given a big mention among the other fascinating exhibits (iron particles within oil and manipulated by magnets reminded me so much of Terminator), check out the video below!
