Hasta La Ideas

While desktop 3D printers have made rapid prototyping at home as easy as the push of a button, that accessibility comes at a price—a much lower level of quality than with traditional manufacturing methods. As a result, desktop 3D printing is still not a viable option for making finished products. At least, that’s the general assumption—one that the New York-based Italian designers Barbara Busatta and Dario Buzzini hope to challenge with their Machine Series, a line of containers that are ready for use hot off the printer.

Busatta and Buzzini’s collaboration was born out of a promise to do a project together each year under the studio name ICOSAEDRO, each time focusing on a specific material or craft as part of a joint effort to learn a new methodology. For their inaugural effort, Buzzini, a design director at IDEO, said that he and Busatta, a freelance art director, were drawn to the “artisanal process” of Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), a 3D-printing technology that involves melting plastic filament and extruding it layer-on-layer to build a form.

The Machine Series includes five containers with lids. There is a black version in three different shapes (top) and red and yellow versions (above).

Until now, FDM has not exactly been a fount of high-end product design. “FDM nowadays is a synonym for tchotchkes and miniatures for Yoda busts,” Buzzini says. But he and Busatta felt that there was an opportunity to bring a new level of craft to an imperfect technique, noting that “it felt like the right starting point to express our point of view on what could be a way to bring craftsmanship into the future.”

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As people get more and more used to paying for small transactions with credit cards, one group in particular seems to be losing out—baristas. At least that’s what Ryder Kessler noticed in 2008 while using plastic at a favorite coffee shop with a noticeably empty tip jar. A (miserable) barista explained that the rise of credit card payments had meant the decline of cash tips. “That struck me as a huge problem for everyone involved,” Kessler says. “The employees were working just as hard and making less money, the store was losing out on incentives for good service, and customers like me who liked the convenience of paying with plastic had no way to tip. I thought that the simplicity of a cash tip jar—just drop your dollar bill in—should have a credit card equivalent. That’s how the idea for DipJar was born.”

DipJar is exactly what it sounds like, a small aluminum jar with a built-in credit card reader that deducts one dollar per swipe. But realizing the simple device has taken several years. After graduating from Columbia University with a master’s in English, Kessler let the idea for DipJar germinate in the back of his mind for a few years as he took jobs at start-ups and gleaned knowledge in how to build companies and ship products. Only then did he set about bringing his idea to production. Skimming websites, Kessler found the portfolio of Simon Enever, an industrial designer based in New York whose work matched the mental image Kessler had for the product. [Ed. Note: We’ve covered Enever’s work before, most recently in an in-depth case study about designing a better toothbrush.] Together, they worked through various ideas for the design until they felt confident putting it into production.

The design evolution, from sketch to the first-generation unit now being tested in the field.

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At first glance, the Dream Chair looks like a concept, with impossible curves and a seemingly precarious structure that appears as if it could only exist in a 3D rendering. Yet the Danish manufacturer Carl Hansen & Søn took Tadao Ando’s dream and made it reality with a chair that stands as a feat of both manufacturing and fantasy.

The project originated with Carl Hansen & Søn (CHS). Looking to create a tribute to the great Danish furniture designer Hans Wegner, CHS approached Ando to develop a design for a lounge chair. “I have been an admirer of Wegner’s craftsmanship for many years,” the Pritzker Prize–winning Japanese architect said in a press release. “This was new to me, as in the past I have been used to only selecting furniture for the buildings I have created over the years.”

During their first meeting in Japan, CHS informed Ando of some of the restrictions of working with wood and veneer, which he wrote in his memo book, and then waited for him to bring back his first concepts. “When we saw the first sketches and drawings, we knew that to make this chair would be one of the biggest challenges that we have ever faced in Carl Hansen & Søn,” says Melissa Shelton, CHS’s director of marketing and communication. “Not only was the chair large, but the bending of the veneer was designed beyond what had ever been made.”

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In a world where almost everything can be controlled with the click of a button (or a clap of your hands), even the kerosene lantern is getting an upgrade with Vela, a portable, Bluetooth-enabled lamp that can be controlled using your smartphone.

Following a family camping trip, Joe VanFaasen, a designer at the Holland, Michigan-based firm Twisthink, found himself unsatisfied with the lantern options currently on the market. “What I found were the classic Coleman kerosene lanterns, which I admire, but they present a fire and gas hazard, especially with two little boys and a little girl running around,” VanFaasen says. Although LED versions proved more convenient and safer, VanFaasen felt that they lacked the appropriate aesthetic and often gave off a cold, bluish light. “They all felt like either overly commoditized knock-offs or hyper-tactical backcountry-type lights,” he says.

Recognizing a need and looking to fill a gap in the market, VanFaasen set about designing the perfect portable light for any scenario not only camping but everyday household use as well. And he wondered how he could incorporate “smart” technology to set it apart from other portable LEDs currently available.

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If your holiday shopping list includes any serious home cooks, there is probably nothing you can get them that will be as useful, or as appreciated, as a high-quality knife. But buying chef’s knives is hardly a straightforward matter—indeed, the world of knife-making is its own complicated and fascinating design niche.

Recently, I set out to learn more about the design of Japanese knives, which have become increasingly widely available in the United States through brands like Shun and Global. [Editor’s Note: Our own Hand-Eye Supply offers a few options from the more obscure Midori Hamano.] Not surprisingly, Japanese knife manufacturers take their craft very seriously. Shun, for instance, describes its blade as “a way of life”—and the name Shun (rhymes with “moon”) is derived from a Japanese word that refers to the moment when a piece of fruit is at its sweetest, the peak of perfection.

This perfectionist approach trickles down to every aspect of the Japanese knife manufacturing process, which traces its roots back to the blade-making tradition of ancient samurai swords. Companies like Shun and Global pride themselves in the fact that none of their knives leave the factory untouched by human hands, as the final balancing process requires a myriad of hand-working techniques by skilled craftsmen to achieve the ideal weight.

Weight is one of the key areas where Eastern- and Western-styles knives differ. Eastern knives tend to be balanced with the weight in the blade, allowing for quick and easy chopping with no additional pressure. The Chinese cleaver is an excellent example of this, having a rectangular blade and a slight curve for easily mincing and dicing food using only a slight rocking motion. Western knives, more often, are neutral-balanced, meaning that the center of gravity exists at the “pinch point,” or where the blade meets the bolster. This allows the chef to pinch the knife between the blade and the handle.

“Think of how a sushi chef works,” says Tommie Lucas, the product development manager in the housewares division of Kai USA Ltd., the Stateside division of Kai Group, which manufacturers Shun cutlery. “They swiftly chop tons of fish and vegetables into clean, tiny pieces. That cut needs to be as seamless as possible and, since it’s so repetitive, the motion needs to be easy and effortless.”

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