News: nanotechnology scientists at an American university have 3D-printed a bionic ear that can hear radio frequencies beyond a human’s normal range.
The ear is designed to integrate electronics with biology and create a flexible and fleshy alternative to mechanical prosthetics.
“This concept of 3D printing living cells together with electronic components and growing them into functional organs represents a new direction in merging electronics with biological systems,” said the scientists in their report, published in the journal Nano Letters.
The Princeton University team printed the ear from hydrogel – a material used as scaffolding in tissue engineering – using the commercially available Fab@Home 3D printer.
The hydrogel was infused with cells from a calf and intertwined with a polymer containing silver nanoparticles, which conduct radio frequencies.
The calf cells then matured into cartilage and hardened around a coil antenna, seen in the middle of the ear.
A: CAD drawing of the ear; B: (top) optical images of the functional materials (bottom) 3D printer; C: illustration of bionic ear
When tested, the bionic ear was found to receive signals across an extended frequency spectrum of 1 MHz to 5 GHz, far beyond the normal human range of 20 Hz to 20 KHz.
The team also created a complementary left ear and used a piece of music by Beethoven to successfully test the pair’s ability to hear in stereo.
At present the ear can only receive radio waves, but the scientists believe it would be possible to expand its hearing with other materials, such as pressure-sensitive sensors that register acoustic sounds.
Medical applications for 3D printing are becoming increasingly commonplace, as bioprinting expert Michael Renard recently told Dezeen in an interview for Print Shift, our one-off, print-on-demand magazine about this emerging technology.
“We’re working with small pieces of tissue at the moment – a small piece of blood vessel or liver,” he said. “Once you have the cells ready, we can print something in a few hours.” Read the full interview with Renard.
Michael Renard, executive vice president of bioprinting company Organovo, explains how 3D printing could one day be used to produce replacement tissue, vessels and organs in this interview conducted for our print-on-demand magazine Print Shift (+ transcript).
In the interview Renard describes how Organovo is applying 3D printing to cell biology and tissue engineering.
“We’re working with small pieces of tissue at the moment – a small piece of blood vessel or liver,” he says. “Once you have the cells ready, we can print something in a few hours.”
He also discusses how the technology can be used for experimental drug testing: “Being able to provide functional living human tissues will provide drug-discovery scientists with entirely new means to test drug candidates.”
Although supplemental tissues such as patches to assist heart conditions may reach the clinic soon, he thinks that use of “more advanced replacement tissues will most likely be in 20 years or more.”
The interview forms part of a feature on the way 3D printing is transforming the healthcare industry in Print Shift, our one-off, print-on-demand magazine about this emerging technology.
The magazine was created by the Dezeen editorial team and produced with print-on-demand publisher Blurb. For more information about Print Shift and to see additional content, visit www.dezeen.com/printshift.
Top image: cross-section of bioprinted human liver tissue.
Here’s an edited transcript of the interview, conducted by Claire Barrett:
Claire Barrett: Tell me how Organovo’s 3D printing research began?
Michael Renard: The concept for printing tissues came out of Professor Gabor Forgac’s research at the University of Missouri, enabled through a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation. That work was about using living cells and depositing cells in an architecture that could create tissue.
It led to the creation of Organovo as a company, which acquired that intellectual property exclusively. Gabor worked mostly with non-human cell sources to build structures, layer by layer. Through that science we arrived where we are today.
Claire Barrett: Is it possible to print an organ?
Michael Renard: Bioprinting should be thought of as the first step in building fully functional tissue. The printing starts a process to create a continuous piece of tissue. That early tissue construct is moved to a bioreactor where it grows and differentiates into its final form. We’re the only company doing it. Our approach is consistent with other forms 3D printing because it’s an additive process, but what is unique to Organovo is our application of the process in the field of cell biology and tissue engineering.
Claire Barrett: How does it work?
Michael Renard: Tissues are built layer by layer, using a combination of hydrogel and cell aggregates deposited in specific spatial arrangements that are programmed into the bioprinter. A wide variety of shapes and orientations can be created using the combination of these materials.
When you deposit cells they have to be the right cells and in the right biological state; the hydrogel holds them in the right place. Then the cells fuse, form junctions, and the hydrogel can be removed to yield a tangible piece of material made up entirely of human cells.
Claire Barrett: How long does it take?
Michael Renard: It all depends what you’re trying to grow. We’re working with small pieces of tissue at the moment – a small piece of blood vessel or liver, for example, so our time from printing to maturity of the tissue can be quite quick. Once you have the cells ready, we can print something in a few hours. It will then take a few days for it to fuse and become anatomically correct, and begin to exhibit expected metabolic properties.
It is unknown how long it will take to build larger, organ-sized tissues. We are researching ways to grow a vascular system as part of the tissue design; that is needed to feed tissue grown on a large scale, without which cell death will occur as tissues expand in size.
Claire Barrett: Are certain tissues easier to grow?
Michael Renard: Virtually all tissues have a specific design and repeating patterns. Each tissue has a consistent set of characteristics, such as certain cell types that create capillary systems, nerves and collagens. These patterns and symmetry can help as the scientific advances and discoveries with one tissue will better inform how to approach the creation of subsequent tissues.
Claire Barrett: How is it used in drug discovery and what are the benefits?
Michael Renard: Being able to provide functional living human tissues will provide drug-discovery scientists with entirely new means to test drug candidates and study their effects in an environment most like that of the drug administered in the human body. This can both improve the safety of potential drugs and help determine whether a drug should be taken forward in very expensive human clinical trials. The end result can be a significant improvement in the efficiency of safety and efficacy testing.
Further to that, diseased tissue models can be built, giving the scientist a completely new approach for understanding disease and disease progression, with the opportunity to find new targets for building drugs with new mechanisms of action.
Claire Barrett: Is the public worried about the ethics of growing organs in a lab?
Michael Renard: People with chronic or degenerative conditions often live with the constant need for medical and assisted-living care. We can keep people alive, but at a cost to the healthcare system and at a reduced quality of life for the patient. What if we could reverse that process, or replace an organ? That’s what the focus is. There is public interest. People are waiting for transplants, but transplant surgeons lack the tissues to help all those in need. Eighteen people die every day in the US waiting for a transplant.
Claire Barrett: What about tissue rejection? Could you take cells from a person in future and grow tissue for transplant and therefore avoid this issue?
Michael Renard: It has become possible to harvest cells from a person’s own body and use them as a source of therapy. Research over the last decade or so shows that many sources of stem cells can be isolated and these often can be a valuable source of potential therapy from the patient themselves. In concept, a tissue engineered from a person’s own DNA should yield a match, with a much-reduced chance of rejection.
Claire Barrett: How far away are you from creating tissue that can be used in operations?
Michael Renard: In the next 10 years it is possible that supplemental tissues, ones that aid in regeneration, will progress through design, clinical and regulatory testing, making it to the clinic as therapies. Examples may include nerve grafts, patches to assist a heart condition, blood vessel segments, or cartilage for a degenerating joint. But more advanced replacement tissues will most likely be in 20 years or more.
Claire Barrett: What needs to happen to enable the next stage of innovation to take place?
Michael Renard: Supplemental tissues need to be shown to be safe, clinically effective and cost-effective in terms of reducing the total cost of care. Also, the ability to grow larger tissues – solving the challenge of creating a vascular and capillary network as an inherent part of the engineering solution – is the critical next step to advance the science.
News: next month’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York will be the first major design fair to place 3D printing and digital fabrication at the core of its programme, with a four-day series of workshops introducing the hardware and software that could change the face of design, manufacturing and distribution (+ interview).
DesignX, which takes place from 18 to 21 May alongside ICFF, will comprise 15 one and two-hour workshops on topics including 3D printing, online product customisation, parametric design and even 4D printing – the nascent technology of programming materials capable of self-assembly.
“At […] these trade shows, you typically have a very large audience who attend over multiple days,” explains Ronnie Parsons, a 3D printing expert from New York studio Mode Collective, who will lead the event’s 3D printing workshops with design partner Gil Akos. “There are talks that address design and technology, but there really isn’t anything that allows people to have direct access to industry leaders through an educational programming model.
“So we thought, why don’t we have a specially built classroom, a lounge space with a little gallery, and put that in the middle of the showroom floor and do educational programming throughout the course of the entire trade show? So that people who attend ICFF could take classes in the very tools and technology that are used to make the things that are surrounding them at the event.”
Partnering with The Architect’s Newspaper, Parsons and Akos have put together a programme of workshops led by experts from across the digital design and manufacturing industry, including MIT architecture and programming lecturer Skylar Tibbits, Duann Scott of 3D printing marketplace Shapeways, programmers Jessica Rosenkrantz and Jesse Louis-Rosenberg from Massachusetts design studio Nervous System, and Francis Bitonti, whose 3D-printed dress for burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese we previously featured on Dezeen.
Other DesignX workshops will include programmer Andy Payne’s introduction to using Arduino microcontrollers to control design environments, a look at the networked future of computer-aided design, and a session about online marketplaces for distributed manufacturing.
Ronnie Parsons of DesignX organisers Mode Collective
“3D printing is the thing that is most visible right now, that’s the thing that is most at the surface,” says Parsons. “But I think that the skill that is really important for designers in the future is not really 3D printing, but actually the processes of thinking through the design to production phase – beginning to think about how things are made and how the new tools and technology out there will change the way you think about design.”
Attendees can sign up for any number of workshops individually, but must already be registered to attend ICFF.
This month Dezeen launched Print Shift, a one-off print-on-demand magazine dedicated exploring the fast-changing world of 3D printing and the way the new technology is changing the worlds of architecture and design – see all our coverage of 3D printing.
Dezeen and MINI World Tour: designer Ron Arad launched a range of 3D printed eyewear in Milan earlier this month. In this movie he discusses his pioneering 3D printing experiments in 1999 and his views on the technology today.
The glasses feature one-piece frames of printed polyamide with flexible joints instead of hinges. “It’s the first pair of glasses that I know about that is one component,” says Arad. “It’s monolithic.”
The frames are the latest concept designed by Arad for new brand pq eyewear, of which he is co-founder. Yet he says the fact that they’re printed is uninteresting: “Who cares?” he says. “What we care about is does it work well? Does [printing] give you freedom to do things you can’t in other techniques? Not the fact that it’s printed.”
Arad was an early pioneer of 3D printing as a way of making finished products rather than prototypes. His 1999 show Not Made by Hand, Not Made in China, which featured lights, jewellery and vases, was several years ahead of other designers’ experiments in with a technology that at the time was called “rapid prototyping”.
“There was a lot of excitement in the technology,” says Arad. “It was obvious that it would be embraced by lots of people, and then that technology would be less exciting. You could do more exciting things but the technology would be, and should be, taken for granted.”
“If you ask my studio to send you a movie of how say [the A-Frame] glasses are made you’ll see there’s so much manual work around it and so much fiddling,” says Arad, explaining that the glasses require a skilled workforce to assemble. “I don’t want to take the jobs from these people, but [printing] is a different way of doing something.”
Arad helped come up with the pq logo and brand name, which refers to the spectacle-like forms of the letters p and q. “It’s a new brand that we started from the ground up,” Arad explains. “We had to invent a name for a brand of eyewear, we had to do the logo. [It’s called] pq because when you write p and q you draw glasses, and they are palindromic, so you can look at it from [the other side].”
The glasses are featured in Print Shift, our one-off, print-on-demand magazine about 3D printing.
Fashion designer and 3D printing pioneer Iris van Herpen tells us how printing and scanning technologies could transform the fashion industry in an exclusive interview for our print-on-demand publication Print Shift (+ transcript).
Advances in material and printing technology mean that flexible, washable clothes are now possible, says Dutch designer Van Herpen, whose latest ready-to-wear collection includes printed garments.
“I’m really happy that 3D prints finally act with the movement of the body,” she said. “[My] last show was really a big step forward because it was totally flexible and the jacket we created, for example, you could put in the washing machine.”
Dress from the Voltage collection, designed with Neri Oxman and printed by Stratasys
Van Herpen is one of the first fashion designers to investigate the potential of 3D printing to create clothes and accessories. Her 2010 Crystallisation collection featured dramatic printed items resembling body armour while her more recent Voltage collection features more delicate and wearable items.
“I always collaborate with architects or someone that specialises in 3D modelling because I don’t specialise in it myself,” she says. “I know a little bit, but not as much as the people I work with.”
She also ponders how 3D scanners could revolutionise the way we order our clothes in the future. “Everybody could have their own body scanned and just order clothes that fit perfectly.” See all our stories about Iris van Herpen.
Dress from the Voltage collection, designed with Julia Koerner and printed by Materialise
Print Shift, a one-off, print-on-demand magazine, was created by the Dezeen editorial team and produced with print-on-demand publisher Blurb. For more information about Print Shift and to see additional content, visit www.dezeen.com/printshift.
Here’s an edited version of the interview with van Herpen, conducted by Claire Barrett:
Claire Barrett: What was it about 3D printing that first interested you?
Iris van Herpen: With 3D printing, it was the first time I could translate the 3D image I had in my mind immediately to the 3D model in the computer and then the 3D printer.
With hand work or with the usual fashion designing I have something in my head that’s three dimensional, which first has to be translated into something two dimensional, like a drawing, then it goes to three dimensionality again, so it feels really, really old-school. It’s a strange way of working – you have a step in between.
The things I have 3D printed I could never do by hand. It would just be impossible. The beauty of handwork is that it’s always a bit different and you can never have something totally symmetrical. At the same time, I think that’s the beauty of 3D printing – it is one hundred percent symmetrical in the smallest details, even the printing layers. That’s the fingerprints of the technique.
Claire Barrett: Was the use of digital technology something that you were exposed to in college?
Iris van Herpen: No, it’s actually really funny. When I was young I was raised without television and we didn’t have a computer. I think we were the last people to have the internet and when I was at the academy I didn’t have a computer myself. I actually had computer lessons but I didn’t like the computer at all. I had discussions with my computer teacher and he said “you can’t work without a computer,” and then I was really stubborn and I thought “I can, watch me”. I did everything by hand all the time.
With 3D printing I suddenly saw how many possibilities it would give me in terms of three dimensionality, which convinced me to start working with technology.
Claire Barrett: Did your collaborations start from wanting to work in a more digital way?
Iris van Herpen: With 3D printing I always collaborate with architects or someone that specialises in 3D modelling because I don’t specialise in it myself. I know a little bit, but not as much as the people I work with. If you start from the beginning with something that someone else is already experienced in, I think that’s a waste of time.
Even if it wasn’t necessary, I would still do it because I don’t want to start to walk in circles, like being in my own mind all the time. For this collection, for example, we worked with Neri Oxman, Julia Koerner and Philip Beesley. It’s really bringing two worlds together because I think fashion is super interesting, but the architects who are bringing other things are just as important to me.
Claire Barrett: Why do you largely seem to be alone in pushing the use of 3D printing technology within fashion?
Iris van Herpen: I’m really open to sharing ideas and working with somebody, but I feel in fashion it’s quite a locked industry. Fashion designers are used to collaborating but usually with musicians they dress or an artist that makes a print for them. Working with scientists, architects or people that have different knowledge is just not a part of fashion and that’s something that surprises me.
Claire Barrett: Do you foresee a time when you might work with a material scientist to try and create something different?
Iris van Herpen: I always get inspired by materials, but I feel that I’m choosing them, not designing them. Of course it takes a long time so you can’t design materials for every season, but if you’re at least able to create something new every one or two years then I think you have more control over your design process.
Claire Barrett: Do you agree that your pieces are becoming less like sculpture or armour and more like garments?
Iris van Herpen: Yeah, I’m really happy that 3D prints finally act with the movement of the body. Now a girl can even dance in it. This last show was really a big step forward because it was totally flexible and the jacket we created, for example, you could put in the washing machine. You could sit on it. It’s really a garment now.
With [the Voltage collection] I really tried to make that step away from sculpture and find a field in between traditional weaving fabrics and 3D printing. With 3D printing you can decide how much flexibility you want in millimetres or centimetres on a specific part, for example the knees or the shoulders, and you can just include that on the file.
Also, something that’s really interesting is that they can include colours in the 3D prints. The colouring is in the file, it’s not something that they add later on. That’s a big step. If we continue with that you can create 2D prints within the 3D prints and then it feels like you’re creating something 4D.
Claire Barrett: How long do you think it will be before 3D-printed clothing becomes mainstream?
Iris van Herpen: I would love to be the first to include 3D printing in ready-to-wear. The flexibility is there, I think now the focus is on developing the materials, the long-term quality and size, because there are no printers that can print a whole dress yet.
But fashion is a super big industry. You have all the factories with the traditional sewing machines, so I can imagine maybe the industry will not be ready for such a big change because you need technical people with knowledge of 3D printing, 3D printers and software, instead of people that know how to sew a seam. I can imagine the technology is there but the industry is not ready for it or the change is too big.
Claire Barrett: Can you foresee a time when people will be able to download and print out an Iris van Herpen dress at home?
Iris van Herpen: Yeah, I can really imagine everybody has their own 3D skin and you can just order something online, but I don’t know if people will print it out at home. I can imagine you could have printing factories, order your dress and maybe the customer gets a little bit of a say in it as well. They could say “well, I want this one but with longer sleeves”.
Everybody could have their own body scanned and just order clothes that fit perfectly. I think it’s super old-fashioned that it’s only the 100 richest women in the world who have clothes that actually fit them and I think 3D printing can really fill up a gap there.
Rather than publish our photos on the contributors’ page of the Print Shift 3D-printing magazine we launched this week, we thought it would be fun to get ourselves scanned and printed out. Here’s how we did it.
First we headed to Sample and Hold, a scanning bureau in Dalston, east London, down the road from the Dezeen office. Sample and Hold has developed its own scanning system featuring 18 professional DSLR cameras mounted in a semicircular grid.
We took turns to sit motionless in the centre of the array as the cameras captured us from multiple angles. Sample and Hold then merged the images to build up a 3D likeness of each of our faces.
This system has an advantage over other scanning techniques because it is near-instantaneous and so can capture natural facial expressions.
However, it is not so good at dealing with the complexity, volume and low tonal range of the average hairstyle, so a Mephisto scanner was used to scan the back and sides of our heads.
This device projected a pixellated pattern onto the hair and recorded the position of each pixel to create a digital model of the hairdo. Sample and Hold merged this with the facial scans to create the final 3D model of each person.
We then took the 3D files to creative 3D-technology company Inition in Shoreditch, east London, to be printed. Further processing was required to make the files print-ready: the 3D models were hollowed out and scaled to the appropriate size and then broken down into a sequence of two dimensional layers to be printed.
Inition printed our heads with a ZPrinter, which fuses layers of plaster powder with a binding agent. All seven of our heads were printed together, which took eight hours. Any unbound powder was then vacuumed and brushed away, revealing the fully-formed 3D models inside.
Unboxing the heads at the Dezeen office was an uncanny experience, as it was the first time any of us had seen a three-dimensional likeness of ourselves. “I wish I’d brushed my fringe,” said Rose while Paul’s reaction was: “Who’s the bald guy?”
In this movie made as part of our print-on-demand project, Blurb founder and CEO Eileen Gittins explains how new technology is transforming book and magazine publishing and we visit the Dutch factory where our Print Shift magazine is produced.
Unlike traditional books or magazines, which are printed in bulk, a single copy of Print Shift is only produced when somebody orders it. Gittins believes this approach makes high-quality publishing much more accessible. “Blurb is a creative publishing platform that enables anyone in the world to make a proper book,” she says.
As a keen photographer, Gittins says her “number one criteria” when she set up Blurb was image quality. “Could we, as a business, faithfully reproduce the intention of the artist, whether you’re a photographer, a designer, an architect? I mean, that work needs to look beautiful, right?”
In Europe, Blurb’s books and magazines are printed by RPI Paro in a factory in Eindhoven. Jan van Baar, vice president of sales and marketing for RPI Paro, explains that print-on-demand publishing is made possible by advances in digital printing technology. “We are in the middle of a digital revolution,” he says. “Print-on-demand is a part of this. It is taking over the market from the older ways of printing because people won’t need large numbers in one time. They want to have it tailor-made, one by one.”
Gittins agrees. “A book is no longer as precious a thing as we used to think of it,” she says. “If you’re an architect and you’ve done a new project and you’ve got a book on file, just add the new project to it, maybe edit something old out, and you’ve got your latest and greatest work. It’s always available, you can always get it printed on demand.”
She continues: “I think it has completely changed how we think about books. They used to be permanent. You might make it once and maybe you’d make a second edition. Now you can make an edition a week if you wanted to.”
In this movie made as part of our collaboration with print-on-demand publisher Blurb, we visit three of the world’s leading 3D-printing pioneers, including Janne Kyttanen of Freedom of Creation (above), and explain how we produced Print Shift, the magazine about 3D printing that we launched earlier today.
Our road trip takes us across the Netherlands and Belgium, where many of the major players in 3D printing are clustered, including Amsterdam-based design studio Freedom of Creation.
Since launching its first range of 3D-printed lamps in Milan in 2003, FOC has pioneered the use of 3D-printing technology to create finished consumer products. “When I first saw the technology, I was mesmerised,” says Janne Kyttanen (above), co-founder of FOC. “I was like, ‘Woah! This is really going to change the world.’ I immediately saw the whole future. People would download files, print things at home, share files with others. It would be this crazy, crazy world where you could just create whatever you wanted.”
Our next stop is Leuven, Belgium, home to Europe’s biggest 3D-printing facility. Bart Van der Schueren (above), vice president at 3D-printing company Materialise, explains that more people now have access to 3D-printing technology than ever before.
“Rapid prototyping used to be an expensive technology,” he says. “But the further we go in time the technology becomes more and more affordable. That is why the consumer [now] gets access to these technologies.”
We finish our trip in Eindhoven at the offices of Shapeways, the world’s leading online 3D printing firm. Bart Veldhuizen (above), community manager at Shapeways, believes that 3D printing will soon become an indispensable technology in our lives.
“I really believe that in 10 to 15 years from now, if you looked back on the year 2013, you’d think: ‘Wow, I couldn’t get that customised? I couldn’t get that coffee machine ten percent smaller? That’s crazy, why not?'”
Print Shift was created by the Dezeen editorial team and produced with print-on-demand publisher Blurb. Eileen Gittins, Blurb CEO, explains how the ordering process works: “They’ll be printed one at a time based on the orders. So you come to Blurb, you place an order for a copy, it will be printed to your spec in real time and it will arrive on your doorstep in about a week’s time.”
Today Dezeen launches Print Shift, a print-on-demand magazine about 3D printing produced in collaboration with cutting-edge publisher Blurb (+ slideshow).
The 60-page, advert-free magazine explores the fast changing world of additive manufacturing and examines how it is transforming architecture, design, fashion and other disciplines. It is one of the first ever magazines to be printed on demand and can only be bought online via the Blurb bookstore.
Written by the Dezeen editorial team, Print Shift is the result of extensive research into a technology that is developing at exhilarating speed. We have spoken to architects, designers, scientists and researchers around the world, travelled across Europe and visited some of the leading studios and factories at the cutting edge of a technological revolution.
The printing of the magazine is equally revolutionary and uses Blurb’s print-on-demand technology, meaning that the magazine is only printed when a customer buys a copy.
Features in the magazine include a report on the race to build the world’s first printed house; an investigation into the impact additive manufacturing is having on the fashion industry; and a look into the future of printed food.
Other subjects being transformed by 3D printing that are covered in Print Shift include archaeology, the medical industry and weaponry. The magazine also features a guide to buying a desktop 3D printer, a roundup of online printing services for designers and an explanation of how the Dezeen team got their heads scanned and printed.
“We’re incredibly honoured to be partnering with Dezeen on their first foray into print-on-demand,” said Charles Davies, Blurb’s MD for Europe. “Creating a distinctive publication used to mean printing thousands of copies and take weeks to turnaround. Print Shift was printed-on-demand at our state-of-the-art print facility in Eindhoven in the Netherlands in a matter of days.”
He added: “By linking together new developments in both 3D and book and magazine publishing, we hope to showcase the potential of on-demand-printing and inspire people to create their own high-quality books and magazines using Blurb.”
Dezeen editor in chief Marcus Fairs said: “It struck us that there was a strong synergy between 3D printing, which has become one of the most popular topics on Dezeen, and what Blurb is doing. Both are democratising their respective industries by putting advanced technology in the hands of ordinary people at an affordable price; both are facilitating the production of high-quality, customised products, in low production runs with short lead times.”
Below is a press release from Blurb about the project:
Blurb and leading design blog Dezeen partner to create print-on-demand magazine: Print Shift
Limited edition magazine uncovers the fascinating future of 3D printing
London, UK — 16 April, 2013 —Blurb, the global creative publishing platform, has teamed up with one of the world’s most influential architecture, interiors and design blogs, Dezeen, to create Print Shift, a print-on-demand magazine,that showcases how technology is transforming both the publishing industry and the design world. The magazine, launched today, is available to buy now from the Blurb online bookstore priced at £8.95.
Combining Blurb’s print-on-demand technology with Dezeen’s industry insight and expertise, Print Shift is the first magazine to explore the exciting world of 3D printing, examining the revolutionary developments in architecture, fashion, weaponry, food and health, and featuring interviews with the key pioneers driving this strategic shift, including fashion designer Iris van Herpen and Belgium-based Materialise, through to Janne Kyttanen, co-founder of Freedom of Creation.
Until now, those looking to create high-quality magazines and brochures have been limited by minimum order requirements, long lead times and unattainable upfront costs. Blurb’s on-demand creative publishing platform enables creative professionals to make high-quality business publications from as little as one copy, and fast.
Print Shift has been created using Blurb’s plug-in for Adobe® InDesign® and uploaded to Blurb’s online bookshop. It will be printed only when ordered, using the latest digital presses, then collated, packaged and mailed directly to the customer within a week.
Charles Davies, Blurb’s MD for Europe said:
“We’re incredibly honoured to be partnering with Dezeen on their first foray into print-on-demand. Creating a distinctive publication used to mean printing thousands of copies and take weeks to turnaround. Print Shift was printed-on-demand at our state-of-the-art print facility in Eindhoven in the Netherlands in a matter of days. By linking together new developments in both 3D and book and magazine publishing, we hope to showcase the potential of on-demand-printing and inspire people to create their own high-quality books and magazines using Blurb.
“Whether you’re a creative individual who is looking for a way to monetize their content or a business who wants to create a portfolio, an elegant product catalogue or your very own monthly publication – with Blurb cost and time are no longer a barrier to producing something that is worthy of being displayed on a newsstand or bookshelf.”
Marcus Fairs, Dezeen and Print Shift’s Editor-in-Chief said:
“It struck us that there was a strong synergy between 3D printing, which has become one of the most popular topics on dezeen.com, and what Blurb is doing. Both are democratising their respective industries by putting advanced technology in the hands of ordinary people at an affordable price; both are facilitating the production of high-quality, customised products, in low production runs with short lead times.
“We’re proud to be working with a cutting-edge company like Blurb to produce our first printed-on-demand publication.”
Blurb Magazines are affordable, lighter-weight, perfect-bound, 20- to 240- page publications ideal for creative and editorial content, priced from just £6.99.
For more information on how you can get started with creating your own Blurb book or magazine, please visit www.Blurb.co.uk.
About Blurb®
Blurb® is a creative publishing platform that unleashes the creative genius inside everyone. Blurb’s platform makes it easy to design, publish, market, and sell professional-quality books, catalogs, and magazines in both print and digital forms. Through its bookstore and online marketing tools, Blurb enables its book-makers to sell their work and keep 100% of their profit, while its social and community features allow customers to create and share Blurb books aamong friends and colleagues cross social channels with ease.
Founded by Eileen Gittins in 2005, Blurb includes a team of design, Internet, and software veterans who share a passion for helping people bring their stories to life. To date, Blurb has shipped over 6.5 million books to 70 countries. In 2010, Blurb was ranked the fastest growing media company on the Inc. 500. Blurb is based in San Francisco with offices in London. For more info, visit www.blurb.com.
Milan 2013: London designer Ron Arad has created a range of 3D-printed spectacles and sunglasses for eyewear brand pq.
Speaking to Dezeen yesterday at the launch in Milan, Ron Arad explained: “The brand wanted to advertise the fact that it’s printed but I said let’s not go on about it. But it’s printed. It’s the first pair of glasses that I know about that is one piece of material; it’s monolithic. It’s polyamide.”
The frames are built entirely from nylon powder using selective laser sintering (SLS) technology, with hinges made by scores in the material rather than from additional metal parts. “It has a stem that’s flexible one way and stops the other,” said Arad.
Above: Archway style from the Springs collection Top: Angel style from the Springs collection
Each style is name after a station on the London Underground’s Northern line, including Old Street, Kentish Town and Golders Green. The Angel shades have droplet-shaped lenses, the Colindale models come with round lenses and the Highgate and Archway designs both feature an exaggerated bridge.
All frames are available in a selection of colours and the sunglasses some with tinted lenses in various shades. Arad has also designed a range of glasses that can be adjusted to fit any face for the same company.
Above: Balham style from the Springs collection
Arad was one of the first designers to work with 3D printing in 1999. “In 1999 we had our first outing with what in those days was called rapid prototyping,” he said. “We did vases, lights and jewellery. There was a lot of excitement in the technology then, it was obvious it was on the cards and would be embraced by lots of people.”
Pq eyewear designed by Ron Arad introduces Springs
Pq, the original eyewear brand designed by Ron Arad adds Springs, a new collection to the pq family this spring.
Springs are a one-piece, one-material, monolithic creature. The gill-like sides allow the arms to hinge inwards freely but restrict them from opening outwards beyond the perfect width and perfect pressure for the head. A progenitor to Angel, and Corbs, now they are just part of one growing Springs family.
Standing out from the crowd, they are as playful as they are individual. Seven new styles within the SPRINGS collection share the cleverly integrated vertebrae giving a fluid continuous line unbroken by hinges and extraneous details. These unique frames enjoy curvaceous shapes and volumes, and are lightweight yet highly durable.
Made in the UK, embracing technology to overcome the constraints of traditional production techniques, Springs are made using SLS (selective laser sintering), a technique pioneered by Ron since the early 1990’s.
Pq launched in 2012 as Arad asserted; ‘There are very few ideas in the world of glasses.’ Pq’s name emanates from two letters side by side in the alphabet which together resemble a pair of glasses.
Springs also includes the distinctive Corbs, the first in the family produced from solid and laminated acetate.
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