What My 3D Selfie says About Design

 

Design Blogger Karen LeBlanc's 3D Selfie printed in ceramic resin by iMakr

Recently, while attending the London trade show, 100 % Design, I became one of the first to experience a 3D cloning machine that scans and 3D prints a selfie. It belongs to the 3D Store iMakr — the product of a team effort by iMakr engineers and designers. My whole experience at the iMakr trade show exhibit is emblematic of a seismic shift in the manufacturing process from  mass production to customization.

 

Design Blogger Karen LeBlanc checks out 3D selfies at the iMakr exhibit at 100% Design in London

iMakr, in Central London, is one of the world's largest 3D Printing stores and is pioneering 3D printing technology for consumer use.

 

Karen LeBlanc in the photo booth that scans and digitizes my image into a 3D ready to print file

Mechatronics Engineering student Pankaj Raut was there to operate the scanning booth and spoke to me about the potential of 3D printing to change the way we create, relate to and purchase products.  The 3D scanning booth uses 44 cameras to create high-resolution digital files then it 3D prints the files to produce a lifelike replica.

 

Karen LeBlanc's 3D Selfie printed in ceramic resin by iMakr

My 3D selfie is made of a ceramic resin material but there are many types of materials to choose from: metal, laywood filament, plastic, and much more. For those early adopters who have a 3D printer at home,  iMakr has an online platform called My Mini Factory (www.myminifactory.com) where every owner of a 3D printer can download free printable files. Here are two examples:

 

The Love Me Flower contributed by Frederic Thibaud

 

Hot Me?...Never Mug

Raut and the team at iMakr are at the forefront of a revolution in the culture of design. 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing,  portends the democratization of design by eliminating the costly barriers to traditional prototype manufacturing.  All one needs is an imagination, a software program to sketch out and digitize the idea and a 3D printer to make it real.   Imagine this:  you've lost one of your favorite shoes. It's no problem—just download the files for it and print a spare to complete your pair.

 

3D printed red shoes, photo courtesy of iMakr

Or perhaps you can't find the perfect light fixture with the exact look and size you need for the foyer?  Now, you can design it and upload the files to an online 3D printing store or print it at home with your own 3D printer.

 

3D printed light, photo courtesy of iMakr

"3D printing is getting to a stage where we can print more complex objects, making it easier to create customized objects that were only mass-produced," says Raut.

 

3D printed dress sleeves, photo courtesy of iMakr

From fashion to home interiors and mundane necessities such as replacement parts, 3D printing can be convenient and cost-effective.  3D printing has been around for years but the recent marketplace emergence of affordable consumer grade printers has created competitive pricing. Now anyone with a spark of creative genius can sketch it, scan it and print it into reality.

 

3D printed vase, photo courtesy of iMakr

"This changes everything for an engineer such as myself.  Now we can focus more on solutions since the constraints of mass-produced objects are lifted," notes Raut.  In the very near future, Raut sees desktop 3D printers just as common in the household as 2D paper printers.  He envisions a day when people can use 3D printing to replace broken parts, make personalized gifts, even do  "Santa" shopping online minus shipping and handling charges. "Parents could even look up, download and print toys more specific to their child’s age and liking without leaving their home," says Raut.

If you want to test drive the technology for free, go to www.myminifactory.com  to request free 3D Printable objects. If you have a 3D design in a ready-to-print file, you can upload and share it at My Mini Factory or if you have the idea but lack the technical expertise, designers at iMakr can create it for you. To check out more design possibilities with 3D printing, read my post on the winners of 100% Design's 3D Printing Design Competition.

How to DIY A Designer Barn Door for 100 Bucks

 

Barn Door in the master closet of The New Southern Home by NWC Construction

The Barn Door has made its way from the farmyard and into home interiors where its sliding entry and raw, reclaimed wood is both practical and poetic. About a year ago, I started seeing the barn door in master bedrooms, closets and bathrooms of show homes such as The New Southern Home, recently on tour during the Southeast Building Conference. The barn door is hailed for its utility in universal design because it provides greater accessibility  allowing users to move in and out of a space without having to maneuver around hinged doors.

 

Barn door with Hafele hardware

Despite its humble beginnings as a way to keep the hay and horses contained, a barn door can be pricey home decor. (Just the hardware alone can cost upwards of $1,400.) However, with a little ingenuity, elbow grease and strategic scouting for materials, you too can build a barn door on a budget that rivals designer versions.

 

DIY Barn Door for under $100

My dear friend Julia Reilly is a DIY'er who recently tackled the task and produced a beautiful barn door for her bathroom at a fraction of the cost. Here's her step by step DIY Recipe for building a barn door on a budget.

1. Search out Reclaimed Wood:

 

Reclaimed wood from an old fence is used as the Barn Door cross bucks

Julia used reclaimed wood from an old fence (pictured above) as the cross bucks of her barn door. She purchased the reclaimed wood from a local antique shop/salvage yard.

2. Age or Paint the New Wood:

 

The base of the barn door is made of new wood planks purchased from Lowes at a cost of $7 each.

New wood planks form the base of the barn door. Julia purchased the wood planks at Lowe's at a cost of $7 each. To extend the length of the door, plywood was added to the top and bottom. To get an aged look for the barn door, create an oxidizing mixture out of  vinegar soaked with a piece of steel wool.  Let the mixture sit for 24 hours, then brushed the vinegar on the wood planks to instantly age the wood. This gives the barn door its raw, timeworn character.

Reclaimed fence wood is used as the cross bucks on this barn door. The bottom half of the door is aged with vinegar oxidizing mixture. If you want a more whimsical or contemporary look, then give it a coat of paint. Julia opted to paint the door a bright yellow for a pop of color in her bathroom. She used two coats of Behr satin finish in yellow gold.

3. Build the Hardware:

The barn door hardware consists of a steel rod  with pulleys and steel door holders. Pipe pieces function as extenders to create space for the sliding track. Pulleys and steel door holders install at an angle to allow gravity to keep the door shut and prevent it from opening. The hardware costs $28 for the steel rod and $12 for the pulleys.

The bathroom darn door in the closed position, stays closed because the hardware track is angled.
Julia's DIY  barn door cost under $100 and is just one designer element in her recently redone masterbath. In my next posting, I'll show you how she worked with SB Tile & Stone to transform her 1980s space into a stylish spa-worthy retreat.

The Emotional Alchemy of Designer Ben Barnard

 

Porter chair by Designer Ben Barnard

In the grand old days when all hotels had ‘Porters’ the gentlemen were given chairs that provided cover over their heads to protect them from the wind and rain as they sat by the open doors. That’s the narrative of British Designer Ben Barnard's latest creation, the Porter Chair. "Our inspiration comes from, a cocooned experience, wrapped in opulent fabric. This also makes the chair great for conversation because it blocks out noise from around you," explains Barnard, who debuted the Porter Chair during the London Design Festival at Design Junction, an exhibition for established and emerging contemporary designers. Everything that Barnard creates evolves from a narrative—designed to elicit an emotional experience through carefully calculated use of materials and form that follow function. Ben Barnard's Porter Chair caught my eye at the London Design Festival because I detected a trend in modern furniture design that I call "cocooning."  It's when furniture functions to shut the world out and create your own private haven from the chaos and white noise of daily life.

 

Blogger Karen LeBlanc in the Porter Chair at Design Junction

Barnard's Porter Chair is a prototype—one of his debut products as he breaks out as an independent designer.  At 38-years-old, Barnard has been preparing for this moment since his childhood. At the age of nine, he worked on a table in his dad's furniture shop that was a wedding gift for Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Furniture making is Barnard's destiny. His father, John Barnard , is a luxury furniture maker known for his flamboyant style. Ben Barnard has turned that childhood apprenticeship, formal cabinet making education at UK's esteemed High Wycombe and work abroad for major furniture manufacturers into a process he calls "Emotional Alchemy." He is producing works that elicit emotional responses rooted in strong narratives.

 

The Bhodi table by Designer Ben Barnard

"My two styles are currently Zen minimalism and opulent boutique hotel— my two aesthetic and sensory loves, bringing elegant simplicity into form," says Barnard. The Bhodi table evolved from Barnard's "boutique side."

 "I love the rich patterns and colours of the Middle East and Asia, Morocco, Istanbul, Arabia, India, China etc through my travels. I think that’s what tipped the scales aesthetically to create the Porter chair and the Bhodi table although I have always been into Eastern philosophy and spiritual practices- hence the story behind Bhodi table. The colours purple and gold are Indian-esq, there are 7 levels representing enlightenment, the scorched Oak is to resemble old Indian wooden bowls and the shape for them actually came from a Tibetan singing bowl my wife bought me for my first birthday with her last year," explains Barnard.

 

The Journal Desk by Designer Ben Barnard blends a mixture of soft leather and high gloss lacquer in a single white vision topped with a silver plated handle.

The Journal Desk personifies Barnard's Zen side.  "I fall in love with and get very passionate about forms, materials, mechanisms, ambiences and how they make me feel, or experiences that I can imbue into a product.  I utterly love the products I create and that energy translates through them to the client’s experience. You're buying energy, passion and emotion, not just a desk or a chair," explains Barnard.

The Illume floor lamp by Designer Ben Barnard features 3 walnut legs that meet at a central top joint supporting the black and silver lined shade, to create a soft light.

The Illume Floor lamp also exemplifies Barnard's creative process to emotionally connect with the consumer: "The product has to do its job, so form follows function otherwise it’s art. The materials and the story/emotion they create are inseparable and cannot be sidelined; they stand in equal importance. First you fall in love with the product, you have that emotional connection, and then you expect it to do what it does flawlessly," explains Barnard. Barnard is based in South London and manufactures using sustainable materials.  He offers custom furniture both to the public and private clients directly and via interior designers as well as range furniture to select retailers.

Monoblock Kitchen by Norbert Wangen

German luxury Kitchen Designer Norbert Wangen is known throughout the world for his monoblock kitchen—a modern, modular, monolithic unit that could easily do double duty as furniture.  Wangen's latest design, The k20, will show off its cooking capabilities in a "food lab" staged  in the London showroom of Italian kitchen and bath manufacturer Boffi  during the London Design Festival.  I'll be there to witness the monoblock kitchen at work and its metamorphosis from workspace to sculptural decor piece that could mimic a sideboard or table.

 

The k20 kitchen in Corian by Norbert Wangen, photo courtesy of Boffi

I singled out Wangen's monoblock kitchen for its functional and aesthetic flexibility. The k20 folds up, in and out for cooking then tucks back into place as a portable block that can move from space to space.
According to Boffi, Wangen invented the first monoblock kitchen in response to a client's request to build a kitchen in a very small apartment that lacked the space for it. Wangen conceived a seamless block with a sliding board surface and retractable extractor hood. Over the years, the design has evolved.

Wangen's reductionist approach builds on a previous incarnations, The k12 and k14 kitchen units with extractor hoods (folding ventilation systems) that emerge by themselves, countertops that slide back and forth and seamless surfaces devoid of joints.

 

The k20 kitchen by Norbert Wangen, photo courtesy of Boffi

The k20 offers new finishes and materials in a melamine-coated grey-graphite oak or a white, silk finish. Doors and worktops come in stainless steel or white Corian® with an integrated LED bar light.

I singled out this kitchen to preview in my blog because right now monolithic design is hot in the kitchen. I think Wangen superbly executes this seamless look with his Monoblock kitchen unit devoid of any joints, completely smooth and portable. Check back soon for my one-on-one interview with Norbert Wangen and other global rock stars of design straight from the London Design Festival.

 

The k20 kitchen in Corian by Norbert Wangen, photo courtesy of Boffi

Soft-Modern Design Finds at London Design Festival

 

The London Design Festival takes place in September debuting some of the world's most cutting-edge, cleverly designed art pieces, furniture, fabrics, surfaces and housewares.   I'll be in London covering the event and in the days leading up to it, I'll give you a sneak peek at some my favorite design finds. For this particular blog posting,  I curated pieces that spoke to me as fitting complements to the soft-modern aesthetic. These pieces will be on display in The Brompton Design District. (The massive London Design Festival features five design districts in the weeklong event)

 

The store Mint is showcasing a curated collection called Cabinets of Curiosity, inspired by curiosity and wonder featuring collaborations with renowned Czech gallery Křehký, Svensk Form, and Established & Sons showing new work by Ingo Maurer and Jo Nagasaki.

[caption id="attachment_1912" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Cabinets of Curiosity at Mint[/caption]

This contemporary interpretation of a table with its warm wood slab and cool metal base exemplifies a soft-modern style where raw materials trump glitz, bling and over-the-top decor for simple, subtle, soothing design.

[caption id="attachment_1914" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Cabinets of Curiosity at Mint[/caption]

Also at Mint, I was drawn to the white textured slats that artistically encase this piece, again very raw and sensory driven design.  A walk about the Brompton Design District leads to several Pop Up shops that showcase the works of emerging designers, artists and craftspeople to a larger international audience.

[caption id="attachment_1893" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Works from Issue No. 1 by Designers Laetitia de Allegri and Eva Feldkamp[/caption]

Designers Laetitia de Allegri and Eva Feldkamp  are collaborating on the exhibit Issue No. 1 featuring a new series of works as well as past projects. I admire how the designers were able to mold polished marble into a billowy magazine holder coaxing the cold material of stone into a warm, welcoming form.

 

[caption id="attachment_1892" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Works from Issue No. 1 by Designers Laetitia de Allegri and Eva Feldkamp[/caption]

The designers playfully present another interpretation of the same design, slick, modern and bright.

This work by Designer Eva Feldkamp relies on raw string tied to glossy tear drop medallions to create subtle gradations of texture as a soft-modern interpretation of design. 

[caption id="attachment_2244" align="aligncenter" width="135"] Drop by Eva Feldkamp[/caption]

I singled out independent designers Catherine Aitken, Ariane Prin, and Pia Wustenberg for their juxtaposition of time-honed craft making techniques married with new design thinking.

[caption id="attachment_1875" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Fade Stool by Catherine Aitken to début at the London Design Festival[/caption]

 

Catherine Aitken is a textile designer who explores the contrast between hardness and softness, heaviness and lightness in her furniture designs. One of her latest works to début at the London Design Festival is the Fade Stool as part of the Material Subconscious exhibition at the Gore Hotel.

[caption id="attachment_1877" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Fade Stool, Catherine Aitken, 2013[/caption]

Material Subconscious showcases design lead pieces with an affiliation to traditional craftsmanship and sensitivity to materials and processes. Featured designers include Attua Apricio, Iain Howlett, Hina Thibaud, Marina Dragomirova, Meret Probst, Pia Wustenberg, Sarah Colson, SmithMatthias, and Yoav Reches.

[caption id="attachment_2241" align="aligncenter" width="437"] Buzz by Hina Thibaud[/caption]

Ariane Prin is an award-winning product designer using a creative water fountain method to paint water cups from drizzle pan above.

[caption id="attachment_1881" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Fountain Water Cups created by Designer Ariane Prin to début at the London Design Festival[/caption]

The end result is a nuanced and original water cup— each with its own distinct markings much like an artistic fingerprint.

[caption id="attachment_1879" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Fountain Water Cups by Designer Ariane Prin[/caption]

Pia Wustenberg uses a juxtaposition of materials, surfaces, textures and colors to create mixed media narrative objects—those with a story to tell. Using paper, glass, ceramic and wood, Pia creates original works such as these in her company Utopia and Utility.

[caption id="attachment_2242" align="aligncenter" width="437"] Memory Objects by Pia Wüstenberg[/caption]

For more sneak peeks at my curated design finds at the London Design Festival, check back daily.

Seamless Living Turns the Kitchen Inside-Out

[caption id="attachment_991" align="aligncenter" width="958"] NanaWall Kitchen-Transition turns your indoor kitchen into an outdoor entertainment area.[/caption]

An affordable way to increase your living space is to open up the place. Now, this sounds as simple as it really is. Just by adding a folding glass wall, you can connect the indoors to the outside and create a living space that can go from under-air to al fresco in seconds.

I recently attended the National Kitchen and Bath show in New Orleans and discovered several "gamechangers" that rework wasted space into functional square footage. The NanaWall is one such product. The manufacturer created what they call a "Kitchen-Transition," a folding glass wall and window that can turn your indoor kitchen into an outdoor entertainment space without having to buy a gourmet grill and outdoor refrigerator.

[caption id="attachment_980" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] NanaWall Kitchen Transition[/caption]

For all of you wishing that you had an outdoor kitchen but don't have the budget, here's an option: open up your kitchen to the outside with a folding glass wall and window unit and let the kitchen multitask. Turn your kitchen countertop into a bartop to serve drinks and food once the window wall is open and voila... an instant outdoor oasis.

[caption id="attachment_987" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] NanaWall Kitchen Transition folding glass window opens up to turn the countertop into a bartop service area.[/caption]

NanaWall says the Kitchen-Transition is an ideal replacement for six-foot glass slider doors or twin slider doors that open to covered patio areas. "Typically, these patio areas don't get much use but if you replace those sliders with a folding glass wall system, you open it up for indoor-outdoor use. It's not a remodeled space but rather it's a readapted space that increases the amount of useable space," explains Matt Thomas of NanaWall.

When it's closed, the Kitchen-Transition functions like a weather-proof wall, resisting all the elements. NanaWall custom builds each Kitchen-Transition and says it retails for approximately $600 to $1000 a linear foot.

[caption id="attachment_990" align="aligncenter" width="958"] When closed, the NanaWall folding glass wall system is weather resistant[/caption]

Another perk, a folding glass wall system infuses more natural daylight and fresh ventilation into your living space creating less demand on your utilities when opened up on a fresh, pleasant day. "People are starting to connect with the idea of a healthier home and by having a wider opening, you can enhance the overall health of your living space," adds Thomas.

Folding glass walls are opening up bedroom and bathrooms as well. "We're seeing a double skin application where people open up the wall between the indoor and outdoor area and seal in the outdoor area so you have a weather-resistant open transitional space."

[caption id="attachment_976" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] NanaWall folding glass system opens up the bathroom to a stunning view.[/caption]