“Form follows constrains” philosophy aids design processAlienology’s physical design output is pretty impressive.  As a designer your head space has to be perpetually filled with evolving concepts.  Time permitting, those imagined concepts become sketches or even make it to the CAD phase for rendering.  Resources permitting, a concept will result in a prototype.  However, the chances of the prototype ever becoming a product that makes it to the market are pretty negligible.

Alienology founder Igor Knezevic isn’t interested in showing half-baked concepts or even refined ideas.  Alienology portfolio consists only of products available for purchase – an outcome enabled by a commitment to minimise the time span between idea and the manufactured object. Igor has embraced on demand digital fabrication with every limb to rapidly move through a process that would have required much time and capital investment under the traditional manufacturing model.

The LA based design company embraced the Ponoko model from the onset and has used its laser cutting and 3D printing services to create numerous lighting elements, jewelry and tableware.  Igor already had experience with digifabbing technologies and had access to making facilities, but the option of an online service made it possible for him to focus on designing the products rather that concerning himself with how to make them physically.

Of course, design is never a straight forward process, and prototyping one of its integral features.  Many of Igor’s designs undergo repeated experimentation to achieve the functionality, fabrication efficiency and the desired aesthetic of the final product.  Igor has had pieces 3D printed in plastics and Stainless Steel, and for laser cut objects worked with tinted acrylics, felt and different wood materials, such as Veneer Core and Eurolite Poplar.  He makes a point of considering material quality as one of the starting points in a design, so little finishing is necessary to complete the products.  There are also some products that are designed to be spray-painted and lacquered.A few words from the designer after the jump:

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Posted in 3D Printing, Furniture + Lighting, Jewellery, Laser Cutting, Maker Stories, Yana Skaler by yana | No Comments

Make your own stuff using: 3D Printing, Laser Cutting

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The white knight of model makingStyrene, or as sometimes it likes to be formally addressed – High Impact Polystyrene Sheet (HIPS) is one of the most ubiquitous plastics around, even though it’s too humble for most of us to pay any notice to.  Like PETG, it’s commonly used in food packaging, where it’s thermoformed for specific applications.

When it comes to laser cutting, fabricating components for model making is where this material truly shines.  Prefab laser cut model kits are already available for the likes of railways, trucks, aeroplanes and buildings.  Styrene’s properties make it an excellent material choice for these applications.  While it doesn’t cut as precisely as acrylic, it is easily sanded or scored with a craft knife, which is perfect for leaving sprues (little “bridges” of material) to hold parts in place.  Partially laser cut parts can be easily snapped off the kit sheet and sanded back for a clean edge.  Styrene is not the only flexible plastic that can be laser cut.  There’s also PETG and polypropylene.  When it comes to model making, styrene has significant advantages over both of those.  It can be easily bonded to itself with solvents (no heat welding required), and it takes on various paint finishes so can be painted to resemble other materials such as metals or wood.  Styrene also thermoforms better than the other plastics, and thinner pieces can be formed to a mold with a hairdryer.

Styrene’s flexibility, ease of finishing and bonding have seen it used in prosthetics, jewellery and even a Vanilla Design coffee cup holder.  Some of the material’s limitations are its fragility in delicate pieces and its inability to hinge.  Any score line compromises the structure of the sheet, and applying force to that area will snap the material.  Of course, this can also be an advantage with laser cutting – using heavy vector engraving instead of cutting right through noticeably reduces kerf, while still allowing for the cut piece to be snapped out of the sheet.  This approach works with long straight lines and simple, open shapes, and prototyping is necessary for optimum results.

The white styrene can also be used in lighting design.  Its glossy finish makes it more reflective than propylene.  However, because it has a low melting point, only fluorescent and LED light sources can be used.  Featured designs (clockwise): Middle C by Sherman Warren, Lotus by David Knott, Warp by Alienology, Urchin by Fabripod, Tumbleweed by Del Jackson, Carbon by Cindy Hartnett.  Carbon is also this month’s FREE file for download.  Make your own Carbon light!

Styrene is available from Ponoko US and Ponoko NZ, and there are also US and NZ material samples to give you a better idea of cutting and engraving finish.

Posted in Furniture + Lighting, Laser Cutting, Materials Catalog, Toys + Games, Yana Skaler by yana | 7 Comments

Make your own stuff using: Laser Cutting

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Plus Make Your Own Mom Presents with FREE design files!

Mother’s Day is only a couple of weeks away, so we have some creative inspiration and gift ideas to get you on the path to becoming your mother’s favourite child. Few admonitions are as cutting as “I am disappointed in you” coming from your mom. Make sure you make her something wonderful this year, or at least buy her something unique that doesn’t come from a mall.

Personal ornamentation is often a popular option. Gilded Butterflies are a range of one off fluttering pendants that are as individually unique as each butterfly’s wing pattern. The pendants are laser cut out of bamboo plywood and laminated with real butterfly wings. Feisty Elle offers an impressive variety of intricately cut bamboo and 100% wool felt jewellery, with the dahlias being so well recognised that they are now being plagiarised around the world. Plagiarism is not cool. Colleen Jordan’s 3D printed miniature wearable planters are infinitely customisable by whatever is planted inside, and they are also available in different shapes and colours.

Jewelry needs somewhere to be stored. Harbinger Co don’t just make jewellery, but also create beautiful boxes for all that loot. You may be already the apple of your mother’s eye, but chances are that there are some other family members that your mom is fond of. Such as the dog or the goldfish. Familial pride and joy is best displayed photographically, in a picture frame, such as the flower one by BEDA Design Inc. You know you’re not doing your mom proud if the goldfish gets the middle flower. On the topic of furry and scaly friends, Pepper Sprout Designs make animal themed trivets amongst many other home gifts. These are laser cut from 100% wool felt.

Your mom will hopefully be happy to see your smiling face, and should that grimace require additional illumination, a lamp could be very useful. Alienology create different types of lighting, including the Bloom Table Lamp that is laser cut from Eurolite plywood. Jenny Keate’s fluffy Luminant lamp is made from a combination of wool and laser cut plywood. It has the softness of a sheep without any of the annoying bleeting. Another home frienly idea of mum is a Decoy Lab clock made from Earth friendly bamboo and adorned with a forest-full of cute animals.

The best gift is the one made by you, and we’re here to help facilitate the opportunity by providing FREE design files that you can download, customise and make with Ponoko. The Tulip Vase is designed to be flat packed and easily assembled with minimal components. All you need is a glass test tube to put water and flowers in and to give the vase structure, so no glue is required. If made from plywood or MDF, the parts can be painted, waxed or varnished, and there are a few finishing options for both US and NZ materials. The Ball of Stars by Dizingoff is designed as a 3D printed art object that can be made into a light with an addition of an LED. Mother’s Day is usually accompanied by a greeting card, so this is no exception. The Lace Card is designed specifically for cardstock, which is the Ponoko promotional material until the end of April – design something to be laser cut from cardstock and you could win a neat piece of technology. We even have a tutorial on how to use laser cutting to make greeting cards.

Posted in 3D Printing, Downloadable, Functional Art + Objects, Furniture + Lighting, Jewellery, Laser Cutting, Yana Skaler by yana | No Comments

Make your own stuff using: 3D Printing, Laser Cutting

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An experiment in interactive generative design

Inspired by the likes of Nervous System, Alan Rorie of Hero Design has created a generative software bookshelf application with Processing based on the voronoi pattern algorithm. The software allows users to determine variables such as overall size, shape and depth and then automatically generates the appropriate 3D geometry which can also be flattened and saved as a PDF in 2D for cutting out via the selected production process i.e. laser/waterjet cutting or CNC routing. (more…)

Posted in CNC Routing, David McGahan, Design, Downloadable, Furniture + Lighting, Laser Cutting, Software by David McGahan | Comments are off for this post

Make your own stuff using: Laser Cutting, CNC Routing

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Seriously, it’s not just flooring material. Bamboo, either in laminate form or as plywood has been a popular material choice in interior finishes since the 90’s.  The sustainable growing and harvesting reputation has aided bamboo’s popularity, and it’s now featured more and more in product design.

The wood products’ prominent grain and warm hues make it stand out from a myriad of other plywoods and timber laminates.  Bamboo also laser cuts beautifully and is one of the most popular material choices in Ponoko US and NZ.  Both hubs offer different thicknesses of bamboo in plywood and natural laminate form.

Get a whole lot of bamboo inspiration after the jump:

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Posted in Functional Art + Objects, Furniture + Lighting, Jewellery, Laser Cutting, Materials Catalog, Yana Skaler by yana | Comments are off for this post

Make your own stuff using: Laser Cutting

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3D printing art & design exhibition in London!

The Send to Print / Print to Send exhibition has been running at the Aram Gallery on Drury Lane in London since January 13. It is exhibiting a range of avant garde 3D print designs. The exhibition includes works from the fields of architecture, industrial design, fashion, and product design.

Serie, Façade Model

The Aram Gallery uses this exhibition as a way to examine how designers’ processes are developing to accommodate new technological advances. We offer our visitors an idea of what 3D Printing is, and how it is being contemporaneously used. This exhibition is not intended as an exhaustive overview, but a cross-disciplinary pick and mix of examples.

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Posted in 3D Printing, Art, David McGahan, Functional Art + Objects, Furniture + Lighting, Jewellery by David McGahan | Comments are off for this post

Make your own stuff using: 3D Printing

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Best of the Blog 2011 – Furniture + Lighting

Digital fabrication is particularly well-suited to making small, highly detailed objects. But as much as we love intricately laser cut jewelry and stunningly complex 3D printed toys, it’s always refreshing to see people push the boundaries of scale and make something bigger. These ten articles from our Furniture + Lighting category are about the bigger things.

#10 Jewel-inspired CNC Cut Furniture

NY designers thefuturefuture were one of the early adopters of the CNC routing service available through Personal Factory. This flat-pack end table was their first experiment. The article includes an interview about the experience.
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Posted in Furniture + Lighting, Taylor Gilbert by Taylor Gilbert | Comments are off for this post

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getting creative with cardboard

If you haven’t heard, we’re making our cardboard materials FREE all month when you make something with Ponoko.

Cardboard is a *great* material for prototyping your design and making it in another material later. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use cardboard in a final product. Check out these 20 inspirational designs made from good old fashioned recyclable cardboard.

1. Corrugated coardboard artwork

Artist Mark Langan creates stunning works of art entirely out of cardboard — from original gemoetric designs, to masterpiece interpretations, to corporate logos and signage.

2. Kranium cardboard helmet outperforms traditional helmets

This student project Anirudha Surabhi demonstrates the impact resistance of corrugated cardboard. His Kranium cardboard helmet stood up to four times the amount of impact withstood by typical polystyrene shells. (Video of a DIY arduino powered test in the original post.)

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Posted in Art, Functional Art + Objects, Furniture + Lighting, Kristen Turner, Laser Cutting, Materials by Kristen Turner | Comments are off for this post

Make your own stuff using: Laser Cutting

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Best of the Blog 2011 – CNC routing

Overshadowed somewhat in recent years by laser cutting and 3D printing, CNC routing remains a fabrication technology with enormous potential. It can be used with more materials than 3D printing and creates 3D shapes more easily than laser cutting. These ten examples show this technique at its best.

#10 Giant CNC’d Scrabble

What do you do when there is a giant CNC mill just waiting to be used? Giant Scrabble of course. This enormous board game was made by those clever students at MIT.

(more…)

Posted in Architecture, CNC Routing, Furniture + Lighting, Hardware, Taylor Gilbert by Taylor Gilbert | Comments are off for this post

Make your own stuff using: CNC Routing

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Best of the Blog 2011 – Downloadable

They’re not quite as common as music and video files on the internet, but the mainstreaming of digital fabrication means that design files for physical objects are being passed around more than ever. Here are some of the coolest downloadable items covered on the blog in 2011:

1. A table with the digital design file built in

This is my favourite of the bunch. There’s a project on Thingiverse for making QR code tags to stick on your creations, but this goes way beyond that by enabling downloads from the object itself! The QR code on the table in the picture is not a link to a website but instead the actual files necessary to make the table yourself!
(more…)

Posted in Derek Quenneville, Downloadable, Functional Art + Objects, Furniture + Lighting by Derek Quenneville | Comments are off for this post

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