Hasta La Ideas

News: a nominee for the Design Museum’s Design of the Year award has caused controversy by presenting 3D-printed copies of two of the other finalists’ work.

Antwerp-based designers Unfold presented replicas of projects by fellow nominees Phil Cuttance and PostlerFerguson as part of their Kiosk 2.0 project that went on show at the London museum yesterday.

“Some people have reacted very strongly to it,” said Daniel Charny, a curator who nominated Unfold’s project for the exhibition. “This is part of what’s going to happen with 3D printing. Is it a cheap fake or is it a new piece? When is it okay, when is it not okay?”

Kiosk 2.0 is a mobile 3D printing laboratory modelled on Berlin sausage-vending carts. The replicas were displayed on the cart alongside copies of design classics including Marcel Wanders’ Egg Vase, Alvar Aalto’s vase and Charles and Ray Eames’ wooden blackbird.

Unfold’s Claire Warnier and Dries Verbruggen created versions of Cuttance’s Faceture Vase and PostlerFerguson’s Papafoxtrot toys by watching online movies about how the products were made and downloading drawings from the internet.

“A lot of the classical stuff like the Eames bird, you can just download,” says Verbruggen. “A lot of designers are putting a lot of information about their designs online. A lot of brands, especially in furniture, publish all the digital files because they want architects to use their renderings so they specify their furniture. They don’t understand that a lot of that is production data. You can just replicate it.”

To generate their version of the Faceture Vase, Unfold watched an online video of Cuttance making the product and then wrote a computer script to achieve the same effect with a digital file.

“We didn’t have access to the vases so we couldn’t scan them,” said Verbruggen. “So we reverse-engineered them. Phil has this really nice movie where he details the whole process, so we started counting how many triangles he uses, how many cuts he makes. We translated that into a computer script and we made a programme that generates them.”

Cuttance makes the vases by hand-scoring a sheet of plastic with a triangular pattern, then rolling the sheet into a tube and manipulating it by hand to create a unique shape. This is then used as a mould for a vase, which is cast in resin.

After his initial surprise that his design had been replicated, Cuttance feels that Unfold’s project proves how much harder it is to copy craft objects compared to mass-produced items. “In trying to copy my vases they proved what I’ve been trying to achieve – that a slightly different product comes out each time,” he said. “In craft there’s an inherent value that is hard to copy.”

The process of creating versions of PostlerFergurson’s wooden boats was much simpler: Unfold simply downloaded PDF drawings of the products. After that “an intern modelled it in a couple of days,” Verbruggen says, adding that PostlerFerguson were “kind of flattered” to see their object replicated at the museum.

“This is a project that’s both critical and speculative,” said Charny. “It questions intellectual property, the ego of the designer, authorship and authenticity”.

Verbruggen said: “The kiosk is a platform for us to learn what are the characteristics of digital design and digital manufacturing and how does it differ from physical design. It’s about our role as designers in a post-digital era. We want people to see opportunities, not only threats.”

He added: “We want to visualise things that are brewing up on the fringes and put them in a recognisable scenario.”

The Designs of the Year exhibition is at the Design Museum in London until 7 July. The winner will be announced on 17 April.

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copies of rivals’ objects appeared first on Dezeen.

Product news: London designer Paul Cocksedge has launched a gadget on Kickstarter that plays music wirelessly through vintage speakers (+ movie).

Paul Cocksedge created the small portable device to give old and unused speakers a new lease of life.

The Vamp connects to the back of any speaker via a two-way jack or red and black speaker wires, and can stream music from bluetooth devices within a ten metre range.

Shaped like a cube with a corner sliced off, it can be attached anywhere on the speaker using a foam pad or a magnet that pairs with one inside.

The battery inside the device that powers the speaker can be kept on constant charge while hooked up using a USB port or power adapter and has a rechargeable life of over ten hours when not plugged in.

The Vamp is available in a choice of red, white or black for £35 through the Kickstarter campaign, which runs until the 28 April.

Cocksedge suspended a mysterious neon phone number above a London street for our Seven Designers for Seven Dials installations, and contributed a lamp made from heat-shrunk polystyrene cups to the Stepney Green Design Collection we curated.

Photography is by Mark Cocksedge.

Paul Cocksedge sent us the following information:

Paul Cocksedge launches The Vamp on Kickstarter

Thanks to modern technology, we’re now able to carry our entire music libraries in a range of portable devices, from laptops to mobiles and tablets. For sheer sound quality, however, the devices have not matched the superior audio quality of the conventional speaker. And portable Bluetooth speakers, which give consumers the freedom to link devices wirelessly and play music at any location, are expensive. Now, however, an established British designer, already renowned in international design circles for his innovation and creativity, has come up with a way to bring life back to the millions of speakers which still exist in our homes.

London-based designer Paul Cocksedge has created The Vamp which will launch on Kickstarter, a crowd-funding platform for creative projects. The Vamp is a gadget which allows traditional hi fi speakers to communicate with today’s world of portable digital devices, allowing them to be used in the house, the garden or the park – in fact, anywhere. Old speakers can now be transformed into a portable Bluetooth speaker –for as little as £35. New technology can quickly make our gadgets and appliances obsolete, The Vamp makes a real contribution to allowing us to retain the craftsmanship and quality of well-made speakers and use them to embrace the newest wireless technology.

The Vamp is a cute cube shaped object with an inner magnet that allows it to stick to the side of the speaker. The internal battery can power any size speaker and means all the wires and clutter we are used to seeing are gone. It can receive sound via Bluetooth from any Bluetooth device within 10m.

Paul Cocksedge says: “For me, reusing perfectly good technology makes sense. Hearing the rich sound coming out of these older speakers in a new way is a delight. They are a part of our music history.”

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Paul Cocksedge appeared first on Dezeen.

News: American 3D printing company MakerBot has unveiled a prototype of a desktop scanner that will allow users to digitally scan objects they want to replicate with a 3D printer at home.

Launching the MakerBot Digitizer at the SXSW technology conference in Austin, Texas, last week, the company’s CEO Bre Pettis said: “Now everyone will be able to scan a physical item, digitise it, and print it in 3D – with little or no design experience.”

The Digitizer works by using a webcam to locate the points at which two laser beams bounce off an object’s surface. The points are mapped out and turned into a plan for a 3D model, which can then be produced by a 3D printer like the desktop version sold by MakerBot.

“The MakerBot Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner is a great tool for archiving, prototyping, replicating, and digitising prototypes, models, parts, artifacts, artwork, sculptures, clay figures, jewellery,” added Prettis. “If something gets broken, you can just scan it and print it again.”

MakerBot hopes to make the Digitizer available to consumers this autumn, but in the meantime users can register their interest on the company’s website.

Last year Prettis told Dezeen that cheap 3D printers could bring manufacturing back into the home. “Before the industrial revolution everybody did work at home; there was a cottage industry,” he said. “Now we’re bringing the factory back to the individual.”

Earlier this year we reported on a desktop machine that grinds up waste plastic to make new filament for 3D printers and news that firearms enthusiasts in the US are sharing 3D print files for illicit items like weapons, medical devices and drugs – see all news on 3D printing.

Dezeen was also at SXSW as part of Hackney House Austin, a showcase of the most exciting creative and digital companies from the London borough.

See all technology news »

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desktop 3D scanner appeared first on Dezeen.

A relative newcomer to the Nordic design community, Iceland has been making strides in recent years thanks to DesignMarch, an annual event hosted citywide in Reykjavik. We were lucky enough to attend once again this year, which is where we came across furniture and interior designer Ólöf Jakobína and…

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Product news: London print designers Eley Kishimoto teamed up with Icelandic design collective Vík Prjónsdóttir for DesignMarch in Reykjavík last week, where they presented a seal-shaped blanket inspired by an Icelandic folk tale.

Above: photograph c/o Eley Kishimoto

First designed by Vík Prjónsdóttir in 2005, the Seal Pelt was designed in reference to the mythical story about a woman who has to choose between being a seal or a human and is transformed after clothing herself with a seal’s skin and fur.

The “remixed” Seal Pelt features a pattern of squirrel graphics by Eley Kishimoto. Guðfinna Mjöll Magnúsdóttir of Vík Prjónsdóttir told Dezeen: “The Seal Pelt has now been united with the great squirrel. These two animals, that until now have not been in a close relationship, will from this moment be knitted together.”

Above: Papageno

The designers presented the Seal Pelt at the Culture House during DesignMarch. They also showed Papageno, a stripy blanket inspired by the colourful feathers of a parrot, which is the latest addition in the bird collection. Other blankets in this range include The Raven, The Flamingo and The Swan.

Above: The Swan

Each piece is woven from Icelandic sheep’s wool.

Above: The Flamingo

Past projects by Vík Prjónsdóttir include blankets inspired by the local landscape and one based on an erupting volcano.

Above: The Raven

Design March took place from 14 to 17 March.

Photography is by Ari Magg, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s some more information about the Seal Pelt and Papageno:

The Seal Pelt – Folktale

In the Icelandic myths, seals are believed to be condemned by humans. One ancient story from the south of Iceland is about a farmer who early one morning finds a seal pelt laying on the beach. In a cave nearby, he hears voices and music. He takes the seal pelt home and hides it in a wooden chest. Few days later he returns to the beach and finds a crying, naked, young woman sitting on a rock. He brings her to his house where she stays, but he never tells her about the pelt. As time goes by they get married and have children. But the young woman is restless and often stares quietly out of the window at the ocean. One day when the farmer goes fishing, his wife accidentally finds the key of the chest, opens it and discovers the missing pelt. She takes leave of her children, puts the pelt on and before she dives into the ocean she says: “ I am vary anxious, with seven children on land an seven in the sea.” She never comes back but the farmer misses her terribly. Later when he goes fishing there often is a seal near his boat and its eyes are filled with tears. It is said that the farmer becomes a very lucky fisherman. And when his children play at the beach there often is a seal swimming close to land. Sometimes it brings them beautiful stones and colorful fishes. But their mother never returned.

Papageno

The Papageno is a new blanket from Vík Prjónsdóttir and a part of the evolving bird blanket collection. The birds that have until now been part of the Vík Prjónsdóttir collection are the Sea Eagle and the Raven, both of these birds play a big role in the wildlife of Iceland. The Papageno represents the parrot, a bird that is very exciting and exotic in the eyes of Vík Prjónsdóttir.

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and Vík Prjónsdóttir appeared first on Dezeen.