At the Nagano Olympics in 1998 executives from the Walt Disney Company noticed attendees trading small enameled pins. Each pin commemorated an aspect of a participating country’s culture, an Olympic event, or an aspect of the games e.g. the opening ceremony. Being canny marketers the Disney execs brought the concept to their theme parks. 12 years later the pins are a resounding success, available around every turn in their theme parks.

The pins interesting from a customization perspective for three reasons:

1. The manufacturing processes similar to those of laser cutting, CNC milling and “2.5D” custom manufacturing techniques. It wouldn’t be hard for a well equiped garage to knock out similar products.

2. They produce limited runs to maintain exclusivity. The pin business is robust, but every individual pin is limited in its production run. This feeds into the customers desire to be unique.

3. There is a subculture creating “Fantasy” pins. Often these take the Disney characters in salacious directions, but some create artistic homages to under represented themes.

While not truly a mass customized product this product line shows the infiltration of the limited run/customer driven thought process into the core of one of the world’s largest consumer brands.

You know the “Game Mechanics” discussion is getting out of hand when a company like Subaru takes a page from the world of the internet allowing customers to put badges and status messages on the back of their cars. If you have a Subaru VIN number you can order these badges for free and share with the world how many Legacy’s or Outback’s you’ve owned in the past. Secondary modular badges also let you share statuses or interests which range from being a bicycle enthusiast to a supporter of the LGBT community.

It is an interesting development and will be exciting to see if a dollar in plastic parts can meaningfully impact future purchasing decisions by placing a customer firmly in a “tribe” of fellow owners. The reflexive answer would be no, but given the astounding financial success of a company like Zynga selling pixels for dollars, it is not that far fetched.

The MakerBot is a $1,000 3D printer kit based on an open source design. It has a funky vibe and has won followers among technology enthusiasts. Its rough plywood case leads some to compare it to the first Apple. However while it is cheap and hip, for a couple thousand dollars extra you can get a fully assembled printer called the Bits for Bytes 3000. Its sterile aesthetic might turn some off, but will be a welcome change for schools and other institutions that want access to 3D printing technology without the hassle (or splinters!) Additionally, the printer seems capable of dispensing multiple colors which would be a major step up from other “homebrew” 3D Printers. The website currently lists a 7 week lead time and the features seem so advanced that it may be vaporware, but it is an interesting concept.

Joris Peels, formerly of Shapeways, has started his own 3D printing blog VoxelFab and continues to share interesting ideas, including this guest post:

In order for 3D printing to be adopted more widely in business and at home the machines have to be improved. Most of this crucial improvement will be incremental make 3D printers more usable & reliable in the long run. But, there have to be radical improvements out there that we haven’t discovered yet. Take one idea I had one day of having two printing heads.

Photo Credit: http://bit.ly/9LReEi

Lets look for a moment at one 3D printing technology FDM or Fused Deposition Modeling this is the technology pioneered by Stratasys and is one of the easiest to explain. Basically, a printing head that looks a lot like your inkjet printer’s head has two nozzles on it. One of these nozzles is fed a thin filament of ABS plastic. This is deposited on the build platform. The printing head moves around and deposits all the material it needs to for this one layer. Then the head goes back to its initial position and the build platform is lowered. A new layer is then deposited by the head. Your object is built up in this way layer by layer.

Now lets say we are 3D printing a shape of a wine glass standing up. If we get to the bowl of the wineglass we’re going to have a problem since the plastic we deposit is going to go all over the place. The is why the second nozzle on the printing head will actually have deposited support material all around the base and stem as we build up the wine glass. The support material will be built to beyond the widest possible diameter of the part and below any overhangs or spaces. The support material supports the build material that is deposited on it and is later removed by putting the part in a soda bath.

This is a nutshell is 3D printing. It is interesting to note that a horizontal wine glass would cost a lot less to 3D print than a vertical one. Because the head has to go back to its starting position and the build platform has to be lowered each time to get “height” or Z as it is called, height is expensive because it takes more time in the machine. Tall things are therefore much more expensive than short things.

Also a single wine glass sized object might take as much as 6 hours to print but in seven hours you could print a four wine glasses that are side by side. The “travel” of the head from the beginning position to where it needs to deposit material also takes up time.

If we know this then it is an obvious thing to wonder why two heads are not better than one? One could be depositing material at the back of the model while the other was busy at the front. By minimizing travel time and perhaps even in some cases working on different parts of different layers simultaneously you could 3D print much faster. The obvious does not always work but I do know that in order to really improve 3D printers both radical improvements and rethinks of existing paradigms are needed.

Joris Peels blogs about 3D printing and the future of manufacturing on his 3D printing blog Voxelfab.

Modernist design brought the term “Truth to Materials” into the lexicon of designers. It means that the true nature of a material should be celebrated not hidden or doctored. If you are building a structure out of concrete, don’t mold it to look like bricks, but rather accentuate its innate attributes. This thinking can lead to design icons, like the Eames DCM chair (right) which uses industrial materials and process in a way that doesn’t attempt to mask either. Compare that to the more traditional chair on the left and “Truth to Materials” becomes clear.

Photo Credits: http://bit.ly/bXmyT8 & http://bit.ly/bMaYVe

The evolution of 3D printing has not been in the modernist tradition. 3D printers are evaluated and purchased largely on their ability to simulate the output of other machines, namely injection molding. The engineers who buy and use them want to replicate traditional plastic molding processes as closely as possible and aren’t so interested in the disruptive potential of “Direct Digital Manufacturing“. They see 3D printing as “Rapid Prototyping”, a way to shorten the product development cycle, not a way to rethink the manufacturing process.

A new project highlighted on the Freedom of Creation blog aims to change this. In conjunction with the London School of Fashion, FOC is creating garments that are produced in final form straight from the 3D Printer. Designers have been making fashion items and jewelry with 3D printers for some time, but they are usually constructed from multiple parts in multiple materials. These garments are different.

Just as industrial materials ushered in the modernist/minimal age, 3D printers promise a new future. The black dress below hints at the future of where design will go:

Intrinsic features - Look at how the two lapels join at the navel. There are no seams or means of joining the parts. The plunging neckline and materials are joined without the intervention of human hands. This is going to allow design features that would  too time consuming or not within the potential of the material now.

No waste - In fashion based industries there is a lot of waste. Major clothing stores scrap 40% of their inventory. Even more is lost in manufacturing where the pieces used to construct the clothing are cut from larger pieces of fabric.

New Materials - Comments about these clothes on other sites have derided plastic as a clothing material probably not considering the lycra and polyester clothing they already own. The gauge of chain mail on exhibit is probably too extreme, but what if it was 4X smaller? It is light, breathes well, could hang in interesting ways. Perhaps not in clothing, but upholstery? In any case it shows that old materials will be reimagined in exciting ways.

I don’t think fuchsia plastic chain mail is going to replace the inventory of Banana Republic any time soon, but this project is exciting. These are high quality visualizations of whats to come in fashion and other product categories.

VoxelFab – A New 3D Printing Blog

Join me in welcoming Joris Peels, Shapeways former community manager, to the high stakes, cut throat world of 3D printer blogging. In all seriousness Joris can be one of the most insightful thinkers about the future of custom manufacturing as evidenced by his post “The Singer Problem“. VoxelFab will surely be a must read in the months to come.

@Golnik Disney

What took Walt Disney and his Imagineers a lot of time and money can now be replicated with common consumer electronics and household materials. My friend, Tim Golnik, was able to replicate the effect in this video with his iPhone, a seat of Maya, and a few shards of laser cut acrylic. We are continuing down a path where there will be few technical or financial limits to our creativity and is an exciting time for creators and consumers alike.

Foursquare Makes Badges, Gets Physical

Currently, Foursquare is a fun diversion at best and a pointless fad at worst. Its real potential seems to be tying the physical and digital worlds together in more meaningful ways. They are doing that in a fun form called “Nerd Merit Badges“

Foursquare is also hinting that they may develop specialized hardware or integrate with existing point-of-sale systems to reward customer loyalty or make the check in process more automated. Once they start making physical hardware or merely integrating with it, Foursquare will go from game to new marketing channel. TechCrunch cites a Foursquare blog post:

“Foursquare hints that in the future, the service will try to tie-in Foursquare with pieces of hardware to make it more seamless to use. For example, they mention barcode scanners as one possibility. A barcode scanner with Foursquare capabilities could be useful for both users and partners, as it would definitely reduce the friction for using the service, as Foursquare puts it.”

While not as futuristic as 3D printing Foursquare represents on of the best chances for bits and atoms to merge in the immediate future.

Shapeways Gets Packages

3D Printing and custom manufacturing generally suffer from a lack of consumer polish. Manufacturers and service providers aren’t used to servicing individual consumers so there is a lot of confusion around the processes and capabilities. Shapeways has done a great job working to eliminate this problem with transparent pricing, self service options, and now professional packaging for 3D printed products.

3D Printers Recreate Egypt

Egyptologists are canny marketers and know how a model can help tell a story. In an effort to add some panache to an exhibit about King Tut exhibit designers decided to model a replica of the boy king’s mummy. They were able to model him with CAD tools and of course build the replica with a 3D printer. While every 3D printer company has a story like this they are always interesting and demonstrate the capability of these machines to help preserve our past and help up build a better future.

Tim O’Reilly Talks About The “Internet of Things”

Tim O’Reilly gives a glimpse into our interconnected future in an inspiring 30+ min talk where he effortlessly switches from the micro scale of SQL databases to a macro view of government as a platform. It is an oracle like view into the true potential of “Bit and Atoms”.

In the world of “DIY Design” there is a broad spectrum of quality. Polished projects like SketchBot, an “urban vinyl” art toy created in off hours by a skilled animator exist at the high end. Low end examples include the macaroni and glitter monstrosities found deep in the bowels of Etsy. With ever expanding mass customization options it seems inevitable DIY design will proliferate, but the question is how.

The Industrial Designers Society of America is attempting to answer that question, building its annual conference around the theme of DIY design. An impressive roster of speakers will be covering topics ranging from empowering technologies to the social aspects of handicraft.

The fundamental problem I see in a DIY world is between ever expanding access to the tools of creation with a no scalable way to teach people how to make “nice” things with them.

3D Printers, CAD, laser cutters and other tools are becoming more available, but artistic training is still esoteric. Aesthetics are teachable as Kimberly Elam’s excellent “Geometry of Design” shows, but it is one book. I feel like we need a shelf of similar titles covering color, form, composition, and the myriad of other conceptual and practical skills successful designers bring to their creations. The design world needs an equivalent to tech publisher O’Reilly Media. Where billion dollar companies have been founded based on knowledge picked up in O’Reilly publications, The next design masterpieces exist in the pages of these unpublished resources. Make: is a great start, but is more of a lifestyle publication than an instructional resource. If we are all going to design the future, a few refresher courses are required.

Based on the talks that have been announced there is a bit of disagreement on the role of the designer in a DIY world. Some see it as the end of a profession ala telegraph operators in a telephone age. Others see DIY tools as a way for designers to directly interface with their audience the way musicians now bypass record labels. There is no doubtthat more people participating in manufacturing is a good thing long term. We just need tools to help prevent the “Blink Tag” of the physical world.

Robot Chess – Building on the Shoulders of Giant (Robots)

There are a lot of interesting robot projects that you can find in Make: or other blogs and magazines. I remember a couple years ago, a Lego powered robot made the rounds on blogs because it could autonomously solve a Rubik’s Cube. This project takes the the same problem solving concept to a whole new level. More robots, interaction with the environment, and multi-robot communication. This seems like the product of ambition combined with the bedrock that has been formed by all the amateur robotocists that preceded it.

KopyKake Projector

People are going NUTS about the MakerBot and 3D printers generally. I’m a huge fan of both, but their ability to reshape the way we make things is dwarfed (in dollars and lives touched) by the development and impact of crafting technology. The CriCut personal paper cutter is a $250MM a year product. Now specialized technology is starting to move into the kitchen. In this case a projector that shines designs onto cookies which can then be traced by confectioners. Even if the designs aren’t your cup of tea it is hard to argue with the quality of craftsmanship in these cookies.

Core-Toons

Core77 is the best blog on industrial design and a recent addition to their content have been very funny cartoons (Core-Toons) lampooning design culture, products in particular.

Johnson & Johnson Donates Garbage to Make Custom Made Footballs

Johnson & Johnson is one of the largest companies in the world, they make health care/wellness products that could make a difference in the lives of millions of the world’s poor, and are bragging about giving them garbage instead. In their JNJBTW blog they use the World Cup as a way to bring up how many people in developing nations make their own footballs out of trash so they can emulate their heroes and play the beautiful game. I thought JNJ would be talking about providing real balls, maybe Band Aids to help cover up the inevitable scrapes, but not their waste materials! It is better than nothing, but I would not be bragging about it if I was a corporate citizen of their size. While JNJ’s actions aren’t classy the story of the world’s poorest using waste material to build products is inspiring. We shouldn’t forget that “personal fabrication” was a common event for people across the globe prior to the industrial revolution.

Hershey’s Customization

Mass customization holds a lot of promise, but hasn’t been an engine for a lot of high growth companies, yet. Part of this is due to the fact there is still a lot of experimentation with business models going on. Hershey’s is channeling Disney by making a customized chocolate bar creation station part of their factory tour. The economics of mass customization aren’t as good as mass production, but charging for the experience might close the gap.

I’m Dyeing to Get My Hands On a MakerBot

The MakerBot community continues to innovate. Jonathan Barclay experimented with dyeing white ABS plastic using standard RIT fabric dye. The entire process is documented on his blog and while I doubt it will change manufacturing, I think we will soon be seeing cool multi-colored robots in FIRST robotics competitions across the country.

FabTours

Heather Brundage, MIT Grad Student, and physical product entrepreneur is organizing tours of Boston area manufacturers branded under the name “FabTours“. Excellent idea to help Boston’s strong start up community understand what it takes to go from bit to atom.

Lasersaur – Open Source Laser Cutter

While Diaspora might have broken records raising money for their startup the physical world will not be denied. NYC’s NORTD Labs has received funding to develop an open source laser cutter, similar to those sold by Epilog. They are already 50% over target, but this is an ambitious project and will likely need extra capital. They have done it before with an open source touch screen technology so pledge a couple Starbucks worth of support. While you are at it, check out Alex Gourley’s cool PedalSense project, see the widget on the sidebar for more details.

Laser Cutter Proposal

People make all sorts of cool things with laser cutters, but this might be the first time one is used to make  a union between two people. Watch the video to see how a nerdy artist convinced a beautiful woman to marry him with the use of CAD and a laser. I’m sure self-replication will soon follow.

The Future of Teaching People to Making Things

In 1990 Ken Burns released a nine part documentary on the Civil War. It was a massive success, one of the most watched documentary films in history and 20 years later it could probably be remade with a production budget under $<10K.

I wonder how soon before amateur video can deliver world class education and create a similar societal impact? The Khan Academy is attempting to do this for math education and has had good success on YouTube with very little in the way of production values. I don’t think we are far away from seeing massive success in the world of art/making education.

Get It Through Your Skull

These beautiful rings are a great example of matching subject matter and manufacturing process. 3D printing is not ready to replace injection molding. It really isn’t even close at this point, but its inherently distressed looks work perfectly for subject matter like skulls as these beautiful rings show. via @Make

ZCorp’s New Technology

ZCorp is the only 3D printing company that can produce models in full color. It is a great strength, but also a terrible weakness because their build material is plaster based, brittle, and not usable in more mechanically rigorous applications. ZCorp has acquired a technology that remedies that weakness. The ZBuilder Ultra is their new prototyping machine, an SLA based system, provides impressive technical specifications and has an an impressive aesthetic befitting an advanced technology. See a finished piece emerge from a bath of build material at the 1:06 mark and the “Tron” like build process at the 1:50 mark.

Open Source 3D Printers at MakerFaire

While I was at MakerFaire it was impressive to see how much energy there was around Open Source 3D printing. The MakerBot was the belle of the ball, but the Fab@Home, RepRap, and other Open Source projects were well represented as well. It is exciting to see is the improving quality of the models that are being created. With more designers all design problems are shallow. Complex transformers, interesting puzzles, and multi-material builds show how much opportunity there is even in affordable platforms.

3D Printing Iron Man

Objet 3D printers are capable of extraordinarily detailed output. Film and game studios are using their technology in the visualization processes, for example, when they are designing the newest armor for Iron Man or Master Chief.

Casting Pewter in a 3D Printed Mold

3D printing is an exciting technology with a lot of energy being expanded by manufacturers in the category. However, there is also a tremendously innovative community of users. Case in point this metal smith using 3D printed molds as a way to cast pewter.

3D Printing a Fossil

One of the first examples of a 3D printer in pop culture was in the completely terrible 3rd installment of the Jurassic Park series. A character 3D prints a velociraptor’s voice chamber and plays a critical role at the climax of the film. Science fiction in 2001 is reality in 2010. Now, a small Canadian natural history museum is using 3D printers to produce replicas of dinosaur fossils. At the time of this post they have yet to splice any DNA and Wayne Knight is still safely in Los Angeles.