Good Morning, Maker Bot

Jeff bought us a dual extruder Maker Bot Replicator while he was at SXSW. Thanks Jeff!  So now that it's here in our Chicago office, what the heck do we do with it? 

Should we print a water tight shot glass or a scale model of a trade show exhibit?  Should we make custom hardware for exhibits? I kind of need cool new aircaps for my cars tires. Or should we print a QR code?

Munis choose door C, and 3D printed a QR code that links to our Czarnowski commecial website.  Munis suggested printing these and linking the QR code to a page that has your design proposal, client literature, or YouTube video.

The first photo is scanable with your smartphone, smarty pants. 

scan this photo!

the build envelop is 225 x145 x150 millimeters or 8.9 x 5.7 x 5.9 inches.

"The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent
Czarnowski’s positions, strategies or opinions."

Atlanta's Big Ass Fans!!!

 The first offical day of summer is coming up soon.  It's going to get HOT. 

Check out our 24' PowerFoil Big Ass Fans!!

These are photos of 24' Big Ass Fans at our location in Atlanta.  Smart Planet has a great interview with senior design engineer, Richard Oleson, about Big Ass Fans. I recommend reading it so you dont suffer another summer of medicore artifical breeze.

"The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent
Czarnowski’s positions, strategies or opinions."

Lois is a Four Letter Word for Talent

How many designers does it take to screw in a light bulb?  2. One to screw in the lightbulb, and one to blog about it.

How many designers does it take to screw in a lightbulb at GravityFree?  1, and you only have 20 minutes to do it.

Gravity Free is an annual design conference, and this year it was in Chicago at the Spertus Institute.  The theme was "Outlaws and Icons", however none of the speakers claimed icon status.  Maybe a few people referrred to keynote speaker George Lois as an icon, but everyone else was an outlaw.    So maybe this was a conference of Outlaws and One Icon. 

The lecturers covered alot of different design topics: comic books, food hardware, data visualization, graphics, music videos, interactives, lighting, environmental, architecture, interiors, alternate reality, fashion, and film.  I was impressed with all the speakers, and recommend attending Gravity Free if you have the opportunity to do so.

My favorite speaker was Jer Thorp because he shared openpaths.cc with the group.  This is an app for your smart phone to track where you go.  This would be great way to document a road trip...or how you walk through a 500,000 sq ft trade show.   The app is free and available for iOS and Android devices.

my data from openpaths.cc

"The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent
Czarnowski’s positions, strategies or opinions."

KBIS 2012

I saw a lot of bath tub's that looked like discos and were decorated very nicely, but my two favorite items at the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show were a butchers block made by John Boos & Company in 1939, and a U-Socket-Outlet of The Future!

The butchers block is special for several reasons, but mainly because it was made with a Linderman Dovetail machine.  Dovetail machines aren't that common anymore, if at all.  The booth staff lamented about more offers to buy this than any other item in the booth. Talk about an ice breaker.

And the U-Socket....why didn't I make these?  Personally, I'm sick and tired of collecting USB adapters and this U-Socket fixes that problem.

Click here to take a look at another 119 photos from KBIS. -Cheers

U-Socket

Buthcers block made by John Boos & Co in 1939

"The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent
Czarnowski’s positions, strategies or opinions."

Philips Lumiblade Experience Kit

A great online resource to read about current manufacturing and technology is OLED-Info.com.  Great info about current manufacturing volumes and pricing. Sign up for the free newsletter.

Will OLED or AMOLED doinate the market for direct lighitng and backlit products?  I can't tell you. By the looks of this sample kit, they're the flattest,brightest most energy effeicient game in town.

"This is an OLED, an organic LED, a large area diffuse light source. Unlike incandescent bulbs, which generate light by passing electricity through a wire, or fluorescent lamps, which pass current through a gas, OLED lighitng works by passing electricity through one or more extremely thin layers of organic semiconductor material. These layers are sandwiched between two electrodes, one positively charged and one negatively charged. The sandwich is placed on a sheet of glass or other transparent material. On the rear side, the OLED is protected by a cover glass.  When current is applied to the electrodes, they emit positively and negatively charged holes and electrons. These combine in the organic layer of the sandwich and create a brief, high energy state called excitiation.  As this layer returns to its original stable, no excited state, the energy flows evenly through the organic film, causing it to emit light.  Using different materials in the organic films makes it possible for the OLEDS to emit different color light.

"The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent
Czarnowski’s positions, strategies or opinions."