Mass Customization Time Machine

The world of mass customization is maturing past the initial phase of “Look what I Made!” enthusiasm and starting to show some interesting new original capabilities. One trend is time traveling product design, or at least the ability to match memes and materials in ways that hadn’t happened before.

Old Design – New Techniques – New Materials

This cylinder maze lock created by Shapeways user Hannu Kotipalo was inspired by a wooden lock he carved in his scouting days. I had never seen anything like it and a few minutes of Google searching yielded no matches. This online repository and 3D printing service was able to preserve an old handicraft and make it available for future development. Like I wrote in my “House 2.0” presentation, custom manufacturing tools have the ability to recreate rather than preserve historical artifacts.

New Design – New Techniques – Old Materials

In the case of these wooden mecha (or this awesome wooden WALL-E sculpture), the material is old fashioned, but a CNC mill brings ancient Japanese joinery techniques with modern Japanese robotery. The result is amazing aesthetically, funny, and nearly impossible without advances in custom manufacturing.

Old Design – Old Techniques – New Materials

I predict this ETSY Glow-in-the-Dark Chain Mail Bikini (Link is semi NSFW) is going to kick off a BoingBoing meme of “Dungeon & Dragons-Punk” That will make Pastafarianism, Cthulhu, and even Steampunk seem tame. Only the combination of new materials and the preservation of old techniques make this Frank Frazetta meets Ridley Scott kind of product possible.

There are surely other  examples, but these three data points are clear indicators of a future where old and new hybridize in interesting ways.

Tagged as: 3dPrinting, Boing Boing, Shapeways, Time travel