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…)

Share This

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.

Share This

I love cardboard furniture. There’s something alchemic about turning such an omnipresent, mundane material into something other than a box. Cardboard furniture is really great for temporary purposes such as outfitting a dorm, traveling, and in Green Lullaby’s case, providing for rapidly sprouting children. Green Lullaby has designed a small series of cardboard furnishings for children of various ages that are eco-friendly and damned useful, often incorporating storage space in their design. With a cradle, bench, table, and stools, each piece appears to be sturdy, beautiful, and functional, although I would hope the cradle is at least water-resistant. (more…)

Share This

In the spirit of our Puzzles & Games 10-Day Challenge, I thought I’d highlight one of my favorite game genres, the Constructible Strategy Game. First marketed by Wizkids with the game Pirates of the Spanish Main, this new game has you building miniature three-dimensional sailing vessels from styrene cutouts that fit together with simple slots. Wizkids trademarked the name PocketModel and continued the concept with a Star Wars miniatures game and the decidedly less successful Rocketmen. Wizards of the Coast, another massive games company, added their hat to the constructible game ring with the Transformers 3D Battle-Card Game, which was wildly unsuccessful, but had the interesting twist of having each figure being able to be constructed as a robot or a vehicle, with each form having different powers, woo! (more…)

Share This

Because We Can is a design-build studio that has created some really amazing work. Their flat pack designs are especially interesting, such as the flat pack couch, designed as a place to rest your feet and store your vinyl. equally cool is the flat pack furniture system designed for Sunpower, Inc. The system consists of tables, stools, & signage, and is fit together with no adhesives, requiring only a few hard smacks with a mallet. (more…)

Share This

In an announcement that has shocked the various folding communities, researchers at USC Information Sciences Institute have invented a method of folding teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy containers made from polysilicon and gold film. Why is this interesting to Ponoko citizens? The folded shapes are produced from the labyrinthine-monikered process PolyMUMPs (Poly Multi User MEMS Processes) which, at it barest essentials, is an etching process to create very small custom shapes on sheets of material, usually silicon or gold foil. (more…)

Share This

Dimension 3D Printing Group announced nine finalists in three categories for the Extreme Design Contest, a competition to highlight the talents of young designers and highlight the power of 3D printing’s ability to solve a great variety of problems. The finalists were chosen from 800 entries worldwide entries, with three finalists in each of the three categories; University, High-School, and Arts & Architecture. Entrants in the University and High School categories were encouraged to produce designs that redefined an existing product to improve that product’s function. Submissions to the Arts & Architecture category were expected to produce original designs with an emphasis on aesthetics. (more…)

Share This

Not breaking news necessarily, but Vert Design’s flat pack mallet is a wonderful example of creating functional three dimensional objects from a single sheet of wood. The design is minimal, using only one board of plywood with little waste, with some very cunning fittings. If you’ve been puzzling over how to fit some troublesome pieces together, you might want to give this design a look. If you’re just interested in tenderizing, for $40 USD and requiring no adhesives, you can construct a fully-functional mallet and hit things to your heart’s content. Incidentally, if you’re looking for more inspiration, they also make a functional windvane toy with–in my opinion–a very clever rotating joint and a spectacular example of flat pack ingenuity. (more…)

Share This

You don’t know who Rob Honeycutt is, and if you do, you’re a bigger follower of Mass
Customization news than I. You could also be a big fan of Timbuk2 three-panel bags, which were created by Mr. Honeycutt, and are a classic example of a successful mass customization product. Now Honeycutt, along with former Timbuk2 CEO Mark Dwight, has founded the company Rickshaw Bagworks; a new company that specializes in completely customizable bags, from materials to stitching. Additionally, all the fabric used in Rickshaw bags is made from 100% recycled plastic bottles, and comes in a huge variety of prints. At this year’s Technology Entertainment Design (TED) Conference, Rickshaw Bagworks supplied two sets of 800 unique bags for conference attendees, and encouraged people to ‘find their twin’. (more…)

Share This

The design blog NOTCOT has a quick interview with Studio Lo about their creative process and material choices. Studio Lo is a French company made up of two designers who create fantastic minimalist flat pack products. You’ve seen their PANO chair previously here, its design is emblematic of their work; embracing the idea of sustainability, using natural materials and minimizing waste. Some of their current designs include the slippers seen above, a rustic-textured birdhouse, and a purse among other things. Their material is cut using a water-jet cutter, which produces results similar to the laser cutters used by Ponoko. If you’re looking for inspiration, or just want to see what is possible in flat-pack design, I would recommend reading the interview over at NOTCOT, then stopping by their website for a look.

You can read the full interview from NOTCOT here.

Share This