Bamboo is both beautiful – inspiring art and poetry for thousands of years – and the most utilitarian of plants. From birdcages to buildings we’ve founds countless ways to fashion this plant into the things we need. Now a studio in San Francisco and Brooklyn is turning bamboo into bicycles.
Illustrator and typographer Alex Trochut synthesizes illustration and lettering like no other. The expressive, richly ornamented typography he creates ooze fluidity in which movement is practically palpable. One of the most sought after talents, he has created knockout work for the likes of Wired and The New York Times as well as clients including Adidas and Coca-Cola.
Public transportation has become part of the urban culture. Having increased in efficiency throughout the years, the service now calls for an added dimension, the extraordinary within the ordinary.Cycle™ subscribes to this new approach where travelling is increased in accessibility, efficiency, enjoyability and therefore becomes an experience for the senses.
The designer’s main purpose for this project was to develop a method to combine two different families of self form-finding structures. The designer began researching pneumatic structures as such structures are among the self form-finding structures found in the natural world which have been the basis of the designer’s other projects.
Man part of society, wood part of the tree. Parts that co-exist and form the Whole.
Chinese men painting characters on the ground of parks with long brushes and water. Nicholas’ version is mounted on a flat-bead tricycle which is a ubiquitous form of transportation in Beijing. Passages of Chinese characters are input to a computer which transmits them to an electrical system that actuates an array of solenoid valves. The valves release droplets of water on the ground as the tricycle moves forward, thus forming Chinese characters that slowly pool together and eventually evaporate entirely.
The Thread Wrapping Machine is a tool to joint different types of material with only the glue-coated thread as its cement. Through using this construction method, many different materials can be joined to form objects and spaces such as wood, steel, plastic, bricks.
PulpLamp is a collection of lamps made solely of paper paste from recycled newspapers, which thus acquire a second life. They are not standard models, each new creation will have a new shape, color and texture. All the shapes are made with inflatable molds, which makes it possible to deform them and make each one unique.
Júlia Esqué is a young designer from Barcelona who has worked for the re-interpretation of the 1988 Delta Prize , the “Coqueta” Chair by Pete Sans. The main attractive feature of the chair is the use of a belt that supports the tension generated by the weight of the user and prevents the arch opening of the legs. Thus, Júlia’s work has been inspired by the belt. Most importantly, because this part is the meeting point between the chair and the new proposal. It is mandatory for the proper use of the object by conceptualising about the tension that occurs in the chair use. Therefore, the aim of Envolta (which in catalan means “to wrap”) is to create something that serves to transport these items linking the subject with a belt. Turning one extreme inside the belt buckle get tense and holding the object.
The N12 bikini is the world’s first ready-to-wear, completely 3D-printed article of clothing. All of the pieces, closures included, are made directly by 3D printing and snap together without any sewing. N12 represents the beginning of what is possible for the near future.
Inspired by the history and aesthetics of Peckhams industrial past, namely the Edison Bells gramophone factory and record label, the challenge is: To Design and produce a machine capable of playing a record within the set 24 hour period.
Milk stool is inspired by traditional craftsmanship but is made by a high tech CNC router. The industrialization of furniture manufacture has given us cheaper more uniform furniture. In the process many interesting aspects of craftsmanship were neglected in order to keep profit as high as possible.
In the Philippines’ urban slums, families are unable to afford electricity and often have no access to the grid anyway.
How do you make knowledge powerful? This Motion Graphic describes the value of visualization.
”Lateira” is an homage to this nearly extinct Portuguese rooted industry. Using the can as a blank canvas, the object grows in shape and dimension. The use of traditional Portuguese pottery is a way of promoting and preserving our internationally renowned handicrafts.
The ‘Tube Toys’ are a series of vehicles to assemble were the packaging is also part of the product, reducing considerably the amount of material discarded after purchase, and the added cost that traditional packaging involves. All the parts needed to built each vehicle are contained on a standard cardboard tube which doubles as the packaging and becomes the body of the car, fire engine, train or tractor.
New identity and website: look what is behind The Method Case
Date: 16/09/2011 – 22/10/2011
Place: Sala Vinçon, Paseo de Gracia 96, Barcelona, Spain.
Memento Comburo” aims to provide a similar service and remind the consumer of the produced nature of everything they take in. These ceramic vessels take form cues from casting molds, reminding the consumer of the manufactured nature of everything consumed.
Round and round table by Max Lamp is a small table of four parts, each screwing into the next, from a solid oak disc a table grows upwards. This small table functions from a threaded central leg that allows the table adjust from any height up to 600mm. The table comes as individual parts and is easily twisted together. The design was inspired by a recent discovery of a simply thread-cutting tool that allows Max cut perfect threads in wooden dowels by hand, without the need for a lathe.
Product design students Andrew Duffy, Craig Tyler and Edward Harrison have built a machine for making plastic objects, which is powered by a cordless drill. ‘myfirst roto moulder’ is a flat pack DIY rotational moulding machine created by studio myfirst. With the use of moulds and cold setting resins, hollow plastic objects can be formed on the machine time and time again.
The Sun Cutter Project explores the potential of harnessing sunlight directly to produce objects. The machine is a low-tech, low energy version of a laser cutter. It uses pure sunlight, focused by a ball lens, to repeatedly cut programmed shapes in up to 0.4mm thick plywood as well as paper and card.
Nature Aided Design Lab creates unique street furniture pieces using the power and variability of the Thames in London, one of only two tidal rivers in the UK. A flexible mould containing a concrete mixture is attached to floating buoys and shaped using the tidal forces and currents.
For L’Artisan Electronique, Unfold created -aside from the ceramic printer- a virtual pottery wheel in collaboration with Tim Knapen. This pottery wheel gives visitors a chance to ‘turn’ their own forms. At regular intervals, a selection of these designs is printed in clay and exhibited in the space.
Lets talk today about a Logotype Designer called Doyald Young. From humble beginnings in a small Texas town eight decades ago comes legendary typographer, logotype designer, author, and teacher Doyald Young. As elegant as his script fonts and as wise as his set of Oxford English dictionaries, Young sets the standard for his craft. Friend and designer Stefan Bucher describes Young as “…someone who could easily have done what he does in the Renaissance, and could easily do it 300 years from now.”
Discover his award winning redesign of the UK three pin plug – the first since its post World War Two creation. A solution so simple and so elegant that it is set to displace every plug that came before it.
Assembled from chinese brushes and medical equipment, the low-tech automata creates ‘endless line’ ink paintings. Created by canadian designer François Xavier Saint Georges, ‘contraption’ is an autonomous painting machine, capable of creating a ‘never-ending line’ of paint.
Saeta’s installation for Roca Madrid Gallery.
Horse Cycles is a small one-man custom bike shop tucked away in the streets of Brooklyn, NY. Each frame is made with love and care, innovation and inspiration and is 100% unique. The bicycles are made to fulfill each individuals needs by considering who you are, and where you ride.
Miller Sayl Chair, designed by Yves Béhar, is to maximize comfort while minimizing materials. For inspiration, Béhar looked to the suspension bridges of San Francisco. It took Béhar and Herman Miller two and a half years to perfect the chair, which employs a novel “3D Intelligent Suspension Back” instead of a traditional frame.
The Endless chair by Eindhoven based Dirk van der Kooij is more manufacturing method than furniture design. The chair is the outcome of creating a new robot that prints objects using one long strand of recycled plastic material.
Every pen bought, borrowed or stolen is disassembled to see what’s inside… Could this continuous curiosity be conquered by starting with a pen already apart?The DIY pen is for mass production, a flat packed object, investigating what forms can be created from flat sheet manufacturing and by the combination of two conflicting materials – Heat Shrink Rubber and Plywood.Most pens bought, borrowed or stolen are disassembled to see what’s inside…Could this continuous curiosity be conquered by starting with a pen already apart? Enjoy!
In the search of new materials and fabrication methodologies, glusions’ approach establishes a constant dialogue between the physical properties of a material and the design intents. This is an investigation and interest in material behavior and form finding. this project engages the robotics in a rheological quest. glusion addresses geometry, motion control, variable material and forming logics.
RoCoCo focuses on machines for drawing and painting using the state of the art SCI-Arc Robotics and Simulation Lab and purpose built Maya interface ‘esperant.0’
The DIWire Bender is a rapid prototype machine that bends metal wire to produce 2D or 3D shapes.Wire unwinds from a spool, passes through a series of wheels that straighten it, and then feeds through the bending head, which moves around in 3 dimensions to create the desired bends and curves. Vector files (e.g., Adobe Illustrator files), text files of commands (e.g., feed 50 mm, bend 90° to right…) provide DIWire’s instructions.It’s essentially a 3D printer that describes lines, instead of volumes, in space, and it could be used for anything from prototypes to customized products.
Date: 07/03/2012 – 30/05/2012
Place: Matadero Madrid, Spain.
“The old Orpheus played his Lyre so beautifully, that he did not only delight the ancient gods, but also made stones melt away. He would have found great joy in a collaboration of a designer and a musician together with craftsmen, sound engineers and interface designers, bringing their talents together to create a synesthetic as well as synergetic happening.”
‘Ett la benn’ discovered and presented the characteristics of natural cellulose within the ‘kami’ project. This years project ‘kami spin’ indeed uses the same biodegradable material but transmits the process into an industrialised rotation moulding and new applications of the objects.
Inspired by the four classical elements, earth, air, fire and water, Nacho Carbonell has incorporated subtle references to these through the design of his hand made lightbulb
An Architectural Inquiry is a project focused on material exploration and generative detailing. The project parameter was to use the provided jacket pattern and make a jacket out of two materials at most. She chose to use hot glue, and landed on the forming of hot glue dots after numerous experiments with other forms of the hot glue.
Kitchen machines with an alternative drive concept. R2B2 is the result of a project to reduce private electric waste production. There are three different kitchen appliances, which are powered by rotating a flywheel with muscular strength. Electricity is not necessary anymore. Wide user studies showed, that a kitchen machine, a coffee grinder and a hand blender are the most needed driven appliances. They all can be placed in the container. A lot of other features are possible to power. All products and pieces are designed by including user studies under the topics long life, high functionality, easy cleaning, easy demounting and high quality look.
Brian Frandsen made Face to Face from carpets with the coorporation from egecarpets.
Sous les pavés, la plage is a Project where experimentation with process and material is a central theme in the work of Marlies van Putten. From Royal Art Academy in The Hague (The Netherlands) she presents her research into the production of organic forms by means of a special technique to cast aluminium.
Foam party is one of those projects that perfectly define our vision and brand identity. At The Method Case we usually affirm that we cannot only judge a project because of its final result. Rather, we do believe in designing the process, which will contribute to the outcome. Foam party is a project where Martijn Rigthers designed a process that is partially controlled by him, partly by the visitor.
The Lava Project was carried out on the flow fields of a big Volcano in February 02009*. The vast amount of energy that sits right beneath our feet originates from processes that started billions of years ago, literally linking the present with the creation of our planet, as part of the universe.
Spurt is made of one piece out of carbon-textile reinforced concrete. Inspired by the silhouette of a sprinter just about to start the race, the lounge chair combines strength and vitality. With its ergonomically shaped form, Spurt offers comfort, that goes far beyond common concrete or stone furniture. Due to the complexity of its shape the chair is handmade. Spurt is available as an indoor as well as an outdoor model.
Melt Project is an ongoing series of objects that intend to extend the lifetime of disposed plastic objects as a sustainable response to the dependence of our society of petroleum and its products. This serie of objects is a reflection about plastic consumption. A redefinition of the life of the plastic garbage and how it can be transformed into alternative everyday objects.
The intention of Andreas in the Clamp Chair was to design a comfortable yet simple wooden chair, which reveals the beauty of the wood material and the skills of the craftsman.
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