Merrick, or Lampan Elaphantitis

I always relish instances when a designer uses Digital Manufacturing and Mass Customization in a nasty way. Designer Daan van den Berg made a 3D scan of the IKEA lamp LAMPAN and then infected the document with a digital version of the Elephantiasis virus. The infected file was then converted into a physical product again using a 3D printer. As the virus causes a different deformation every time, each lamp made in this way is unique.

“From an unknown location, I break into IKEA’s
computer server. In this nerve centre, the CAD files for
every IKEA product are stored and are downloaded
worldwide. By infecting the CAD files with the
‘Elephantiasis virus’ I have just designed, I can hack the
entire range of products. The virus causes random
deformities, like lumps, cracks and humps, which only
show up when the customer prints his product at home
with his 3D printer.”

Photography Leo Veger

Via Next Nature and Platform 21

3D Glasses are So Passe

These reading glasses by Caroline Abram of Filao Paris. Inspired by her childhood in Senegal, Abram’s designs incorporate wood, ceramic, cotton, glass, leather, resin, mother of pearl, onyx, turquoise, tiger eye and crystal in her work. The chains she has handmade in Senegal.

You have to respect a company such as Filao Paris who’s company Description reads:
Once upon a time there was a pair of glasses, it made children cry while adults wore it for need reason. The pair of glasses begun to improve itself and to cultivate its look. And a day was love, charme and seduction. Filao put its chains until the passion.

Perhaps it is mistranslation but I like it….

I can see how easily this sort of design could be realized via Ponoko by popping the lenses out of your existing glasses and sandwiching them between the laser cut materials of your choice…

Available in Japan at Lunette du Jura or French Melody in the U.S.

Via Julie Wolfson at Cool Hunting

Also while in Manchester last week I had the pleasure of attending a forum discussion on Fablabs, the MIT instigated open workshop platform. The morning was hosted by the well kept secret that is the Manufacturing Institute, the UK’s national charity for promoting and educating about manufacturing – also a player in bringing about the UK’s first fablab, to be sited in East Manchester.

The MI brought together Dr. Neil Gershenfeld of MIT’s Centre for Bits and Atoms, representatives of the MI and of industrial sponsors, the regeneration director for New East Manchester, as well as, via video conference, 3 different Fablabs across Europe and Dr. Adrian Bowyer of the Reprap project (and the University of Bath). It was a very interesting morning, mostly to hear Gershenfeld and Bowyer speak, and to see just how many and how varied the existing Fablabs are.

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ID Meets Social Media

A recent article on SolidSmack looked at some of the recent Industrial Design related Twitter feeds available via Raph Goldsworthy from Design Droplets.

Along with your RSS feeds (such as the Ponoko Blog) this is a great way to stay on top of the field of industrial design and all it’s happenings. I do personally find the depth of information in micro-blogging such as this a little shallow with twitter feeds at the moment but that could just be because I have not really followed a line of tweets.

I would be keen to know Ponoko users thoughts..

Twitter Hashtags (Searches)
#IDT001 – is for tagging the suggestions in using Twitter for ID
#IndustrialDesign – is for tagging all things ID
#IDComp – is for tagging design relevant competitions
#IDJob – is for tagging ID jobs you find which aren’t on dedicated, high-traffic job boards
#IDQuo – is for tagging ID quotes. Ideally it would accompany a link to an RFP

or for Ponoko tweets here

Via SolidSmack

Technion, Israel Institute of Technology’s Biorobotics and Biomechanics Lab is working with 3D printers from Objet to create robots that move like living creatures. A recent video features the lab’s founder Dr. Alon Wolf speaking about his work in the field, the benefits of rapid manufacturing to the lab’s research, and a robotic snake made from 3D printed parts.

The robots developed by the BRML are intended for defense department search and rescue missions and medical applications such as minimally invasive surgery. 3D printer developer and manufacturer Objet was previously mentioned in connection with the animated film Coraline. They offer seven different printers and will be present at this year’s rapid manufacturing trade show RAPID2009 May 12–14 in Schaumburg, IL. (I’ll be doing some posts on site at RAPID as long as they let me in on a press pass.)

continued from Part 1..

An atmosphere of relaxed experimentation, and play, is apparent in Lazerian’s workshop – although Liam’s collaborators Richard and Jason are silently engrossed in their making, the place is festooned with prototypes and work in progress, and there is a sense of productivity not being a chore, more of a happy coincidence.

The guys at Lazerian: Richard, Jason and Liam

Making up some of Lazerian's handmade jewellery range

Some Lazerian jewellery in progress

Jason is busy cutting polypropylene rings for bangles by hand. A seemingly laborious process, but apparently yielding much better results than the same process tried with the CNC – down to the rough edges from milling, as compared to the smoothness of a clean scalpel cut.

Lazerian sell a great deal online, through their custom designed website.  About 70% of business comes from direct sales online and through selected outlets, and the rest from commissions. The day that I am there the team are busy preparing for 100% Design in London, featuring some of Richard’s paper constructions on a grand scale. Curiously enough, I first encountered Richard years ago by happening across his Flickr site, showcasing his quite unbelievable aptitude with paper. Hopkins tells me that there is a good community of artists and designers in Manchester (he used to work in much closer proximity with such others but felt it more productive to be a bit more isolated!). He has no desire for the pull to London, and is very keen to keep production local in Britain, hence the studio’s commitment to making as much in house as possible. It is admirable, and not an easy thing to achieve in isolation but something they clearly thrive on.

I was surprised by Lazerian – I think I expected them to be a bunch of tech-headed furniture makers, but what I found was an amicable bunch of makers concerned above all with physical experimentation. For Lazerian, the tools are a means to an end, their creative use of CNC coming out of completely separate, quite traditional design aims. Refreshing.

I just returned from a sold-out screening of director Gary Hustwit’s sophomore film Objectified at Chicago’s Music Box theater. After the movie, Hustwit was joined by Dan Formosa from Smart Design for a Q&A session.

Like Hustwit’s excellent Helvetica documentary, Objectified takes a modern and ubiquitous theme as its subject matter. Hustwit combines interviews with high-profile designers, extended shots of the public engaging naturally with the objects in their lives, and scenes depicting mechanical processes of manufacturing and the handling of post-consumer waste all with a thoughtful and appealing aesthetic. The starkest differences between Objectified and Helvetica are the scope of the subject matter and the collective personalities of the designers interviewed.

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The International Corrugated Packaging Foundation has announced the first jury selections for the 2009 Corrugated Board Chair Design Competition. Six designs will be considered in the final judging; in the running is Corcoran faculty member Oscar Fitzgerald, Gensler principal William Hooper, Quinn Evans architect Don Pruitt, and University of Maryland professor Isaac Williams. First prize will receive $1,500.

via architectural blog Bustler

Well, kinda more like $1200 to get it running…

The Fireball V90 CNC Router from Probotix is really a DIY CNC kit with:
Approx. 12″ x 18″ x 3″ Cutting Area
Thomson Precision Linear Shafts
Oilite bearings
Precision Acme 2-start Leadscrews
Delrin Nuts
Solid Brass Machined Couplings
Cast & Machined Commercial Grade Z-Axis
Tool Holder for Dremel Model 300 Included
Uses NEMA 23 Frame Motors
220 Inches Per Minute Rapids*
Easy To Assemble

The base kit is supplied as a mechanical machine kit only. No motors, electronics, spindle or software is included.
Or for an additional $600 you can get the bottom of the line motor, software etc. etc..

There does seem to be a community of users for support as well a great post on Hacked Gadgets critiquing the unit and it’s assembly.

Or check out their YouTube video here which reminds me of My Own Private Idaho in a kinky kinda way.

Firstly, apologies for my unannounced hiatus from blogging here, it is nice to be back!

On Wednesday I had the pleasure of paying a visit to Lazerian, Liam Hopkin’s studio workshop in Manchester specialising in beguiling forms for furniture, mobiles and jewellery. We covered them briefly back in November, and ever since I have been dying to go and take a closer look at their products. I was not disappointed.

The Lazerian logo resplendant on their T Shirts

It seems to me that everyone in Manchester either lives or works in an old mill, and Lazerian are no exception. I was greeted by a very upbeat Hopkins, easily recognisable sporting a two tone T shirt with Lazerian’s trademark English Pointer emblazoned across it. He explains that the Pointer replaced their previous, (I would say, slightly less edgy) mascot of a squirrel. The dog is the latest inspiration for the studio’s foray into angular ornament, a net being run off the plotter as I enter the office for turning the dog into a planar 3d paper model.

As we sit down for a cup of tea, Hopkins tells me about Lazerian’s overarching ethos: experimenting with materials, seeing what they are capable of, making the most of them both in the sense of their properties and in the sense of resourcefulness.

Lazerian's Mensa Coffee Table

My first destination as we enter their spacious workshop is to check out the CNC machine used to create pieces such as their Mensa tables. Why CNC?

“We wanted CNC from the start … We can get a lot more out of the material that way – the components we cut would be much more wasteful to make by hand.” Hopkins shows me a sheet with the negative forms left after CNC cutting, dozens of X shaped apertures crammed together on the ply. It occurs to me that this is not a big machine, and perhaps Lazerian’s fascination with repeated forms and pattern are as much a response to what production resources they have on hand as aesthetics. “The smaller forms force you to be more creative,” says Hopkins, “The CNC machine also allows us to keep production in house.”

continued in Part 2..