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!
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…)
Mio who I’ve written about here before, have some great puzzle products. I like the Haute Surface Houndstooth Set because it’s fun and functional. It’s a collection of interlocking pieces of cork in two contrasting colours; tan and chocolate. The pieces when assembled can perform a variety of functions. “The trivets can be arranged into stunning table runners, table protective arrangements, place mats or even mouse pads”. The designer Jaime Salm was inspired by hounds tooth patterns in textile design but then I guess you knew that from the name. The concept was to use a pattern as a means to decorate and protect tables, while encouraging creative table presentation. This would be a perfect desk item for anyone looking for something to entertain them while procrastinating from work.
It’s got a few ticks in the environmental column too. Being modular it extends the life of the product as individual pieces can be replaced. I guess the idea is that it would also extend the life of the table it is protecting and it’s also made from reconstituted cork. Their other designs are the Haute Surface ZigZag Set and the ModuTiles.
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…)
As the only girl currently posting, I think it’s important to bring a feminine perspective to Ponoko readers. Women stereotypically aren’t as interested in gadgets, gizmos and toys as men are. But the Sasi vibrator is a tech toy that any self-loving lady can appreciate.
Created by Jejoue, this sensual massager is customizable in both function and aesthetic.
“A smooth, rounded head undulates under a thin, silky cover, creating a soft kneading sensation that can be customized by adjusting movement type, speed and vibration. SaSi has two modes. In Natural Mode SaSi does what it is told. It comes pre-programmed with 5 movements, which are easily selected by navigating left or right. In Learn Mode SaSi gradually morphs from one movement to another, trying new sensations. If you dislike a particular movement simply skip to the next one. SaSi will remember this and is less likely to use it again. If SaSi creates a sensation you really like, press the “don’t stop” button. SaSi will remember and use it again next time. Just like a good partner, SaSi gives a different experience every time whilst still incorporating the movements you like best.”
Wow right? A vibrator that works kind of like Pandoraand an ipod. I would love to be able to give a review, but unfortunately the $185 toy is out of stock at Babeland, the only distributor in North America.
Sasi comes in three color options for the outer ‘facias’ and silicone membrane covers that are phthalate and latex free. Different texture covers will be made available soon, and each massager comes with a charger and charging base. The packaging is classic and discreet too.
In the spirit of Ponoko’s latest 10 Day Challenge, myself and the other writers are diving deep into the theme. Here are a couple of images of traditional games by puzzle creator and academic Jacques Haubrich.
This sleek board would also be great with a set of die cut and ornately engraved checkers.
I love how the classic tic-tac-toe frame is a separate puzzle in itself.
Animob is a beautifully simple jigsaw puzzle designed by Mobilet.
Produced in laser-cut acrylic featuring a series of interlocking animal shapes, the Animob is a great example of what can be achieved with stylized illustration of 2D forms.
The french-australian team that make up Mobilet are Tanguy Le Moing and Antonia Pesenti. Industrial designer and architect, Tanguy and Antonia were based in Paris until 2003, working for the likes of Jean Nouvel and Philippe Starck. mobilet was established after their arrival in Sydney in 2003.
So why not take up the Ponoko 10 Day Design Challenge, and design your own puzzle,
$5,000 is up for grabs for the hottest games and puzzles.
Enter your designs between May 1st and 10th. Get details here
If you haven’t already, check out ladyada’s website. She’s something of a veteran of open sourcing hardware, having developed several (mainly electronic) projects while at MIT and, indeed, since.
My favourite is the Spoke POV, a persistence of vision toy for your bicycle wheel. I have made up a couple and found her various source documents incredibly well written and helpful (she provides detailed assembly instructions, links to places to source components, schematics of the circuitry, circuit board layouts, source code for software elements. And of course you can download the latest version of the firmware and software and she’ll sell you a hardware kit at her commercial arm, Adafruit Industries (having limited interest in building electronic hardware, but an inexplicable urge to solder, this is what I did). The great thing is, there is a burgeoning community of developers and users on her forums – you can even just chip in with product suggestions if you don’t want to get into detail. And it’s not just for the SpokePOV- there are many more products to help develop.
One development I would love to see, and which I fully intend to get on to with time, is a housing for the SpokePOV – the current trend is for cable tying the circuit board straight onto your spokes. I have in my minds eye a vacuum formed casing, and posting the source for the mould as some kind of 3D CAD file. But maybe I should be thinking of something laser cut, and using Ponoko as the platform.
It’s really exciting to think of what’s possible, developing a product for an already successful opens source software/hardware project. And it would be fun to take on the challenge of doing it with laser cutting, given that a standard platform now exists in Ponoko – that is, until Ponoko starts offering moulding!
The truth is, I haven’t got onto it in about a year, so may never. But have a look at ladyada’s projects and maybe see if there’s anything there that piques your interest!
Incidentally, ladyada also has a very interesting section on Open Hardware, covering her definition, licenses, and a list of projects from across the web.
In keeping with the theme for the design challenge let’s have a look at some puzzles designs. Diabolical is a small design firm from New Orleans, USA. Diabolical designs and makes puzzles using laser cutting along with a few other fabrication methods to produce their beautiful an unique pieces that double as both a piece of art and a puzzle. Its art you can play with. The puzzles are apparently very challenging to complete.
The ‘Synaptic Overload’ puzzle is made from solid steel with a highly polished finish. Each piece is polished in a different direction to create that textured visual effect and make the puzzle more difficult.
Teotihuacan is one of Diabolical’s acrylic puzzles. It uses some really interesting tetris like pieces.
Design/artist/owner Scott Fredrickson said it took him years to develop the puzzles from the original prototypes because he had a lot of trouble finding manufacturers who were willing to make them for him and didn’t charge an arm and a leg. I’m sure he would’ve appreciated the convenience of making with Ponoko.
This week’s Product of the Week comes from Reed Wade. Reed lives in Wellington, New Zealand (officially known as Wellywood by those in the know) and this is his first attempt on Ponoko. I love this because it reminds me of a toy I had as a kid. I also think it’s an interesting way to combine 2D materials to make a 3D object. Here’s Reed’s description:
A segmented snake-like creature. This is my first Ponoko item and the press to fit worked much better than I had expected. The connecting segments are just tight enough that you have to twist them in and after a few turns they’re just loose enough to give snake friend a pleasing movement.
I used Inkscape to lay it out. You can find the SVG file here.
Reed is sharing this .eps for free with All Rights Reserved. What that means is that you are are free: To make a product based on the product plan, but you cannot modify the plan or re-sell it. And under the following condition: That the creator or licensor retains full copyright for the work.
UPDATE: Reed has changed the license to “Attribution”.
Congratulations Reed on being this week’s Ponoko Product of the Week!
