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Zazzle makes customizable everything: messenger bags, t-shirts, coffee mugs, calendars, iPad cases, you name it.
But are they missing something? Come up with a great idea for a customizable product, make a 1 minute video pitching your idea, and you could win a million dollar investment to develop and launch your product.
2011 was the year that really started to show the potential of Ponoko as a digital making system available to the designers and makers of the world.
People were using our digital fabrication services — lasercutting, 3D printing, and CNC routing — and turning those results into absolutely fantastic things.
From machines that let regular folks sequence DNA and devices that scramble your brainwaves to works of wearable art and products that embody beauty and function, these are the top 10 Maker Stories of people making amazing things with Ponoko in 2011.
#1 The incredible folding ukulele
Origami master and MIT celeb Brian Chan created this amazing fold-up ukulele. It was a smash-hit holiday gift this season, and Chan is looking into selling the design files as well as the lasercut kits and assembled instruments.
If you’re a small business owner, exhibiting at a trade show is something that can really boost your business. Not only will you meet lots of prospective clients and buyers, but those places are always packed with members of the press. I’ve been to a handful of ICFFs, Stationery Shows, NeoCons, and lots of art fairs — and let me tell you, your booth design makes all the difference.
When it comes to trade shows, your booth matters more than your product. So what does it take to create a booth everyone wants to visit? Well it isn’t easy, but it’s certainly attainable.
Just ask Made on Jupiter, the digital fabrication specialist branch of New Zealand based design collective Jupiter Jazz.
Their latest project was the Puffer, a cumulus-cloud looking trade show booth developed for Siggraph Asia. The time lapse video above shows the assembly of over 1000 uniquely shaped cones to create the booth.
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.)
MakerBot has announced the latest model to their line of personal 3D printers, and this one’s not a kit. The new MakerBot Replicator™ is a fully assembled desktop 3D printer that lets you print 2 different materials or colors in a single design.
It features a wider shape and a larger print area. It also comes with a new MakerBot Strepstruder for extruding ABS or PLA plastics, and you can choose either a single or dual extruder version.
Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot, will show off the Replicator at CES tomorrow. But you can already pre-order the Replicator starting at $1,749. (Well, you can whenever their site recovers from the traffic crash.)
Jewelry achieves that wonderful marriage of artistic expression and everyday function. Here are five examples from 2011 that demonstrate pushing the boundaries of both.
Colleen Jordan lets you wear springs of botanical beauty with her unique 3D printed planters. Her planter pendants comes in soft round shapes or geometric angles, and each one is hand finished for a look that’s truly one-of-a-kind.
Earlier this month Miami was invaded by celebrities, gallerists, museum directors, designers, and lots of rich people for the 10th annual Art Basel Miami Beach.
This international contemporary art fair has spawned countless satellite fairs, events, launches, exhibitions, and parties. I stopped in Midtown Miami’s Design District to check out one them: Graffiti Gone Global.
Now in it’s fifth year, GGG was developed by restaurant entrepreneur Shimon Bokovza to celebrate urban culture.
The statement piece of the show was a cumulous cloud looking aluminum structure entitled ‘Labyrs Frisae’ by architect and designer Marc Fornes. Although I assume the 256 sheets of metal were CNC cut, the aesthetic is in line with what The Economist calls the “organic look” of 3D printed designs.
After a career in the medical IT field, Otto Gunther had decided to dedicate some time to more creative pursuits.
When he first came across Ponoko, Otto started out designing and making a range of lasercut items like jewelry, garden markers, and coasters. “I think making a coaster design is a contractual obligation when signing up for Ponoko,” he joked. (Ponoko does indeed have a step-by-step tutorial that teaches you how to design and make a lasercut coaster.)
“But none of these ended up satisfying my creative itch,” he says. “Without realizing it, I was so focused on trying to come up with something that would be commercially viable, I hadn’t bothered to ask myself what I wanted to be creating. It was when I decided to design for myself instead, that I was inspired to start creating the art that you see today.”
And what we see today is a series of original artworks that takes inspiration from the idea of movement through geometry.
Otto has so far created 3 works entitled “Radial”, “Radiant”, and “Radiate” which are available at his Etsy store ARTbyGUNTHER.
3: woody allen pin $42(aud) by Sniffle Co – this has a wider audience than you might think; you can give it to allen fans, academics, film buffs, men who date women half their age, or self-indulgently frantic new yorkers
6: ninja star coasters $48 by Doug Best - set of 9 lasercut coasters to “protect your coffee table, delight your friends, and assassinate your enemies”
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