DIY Prototyping

Librarians address whether 3-D printers belong in library. Ubiquitous Librarian.

Mudshark Studios, which does both small and large runs of custom ceramics for different businesses. They also do prototypes.

And look at this: 3-D printing makes it the Chronicle of Higher Ed.

MakerBot also in the news.

More on prototyping, this time in gold. NYT.

Experiential prototyping (consultmanship) “It was clear that practitioners, not just clients, were hungry for more satisfying service interactions.”

On-Demand 3-D printed Eyewear (Fast Co)

Maker Bot in the New York Times.

Prototyping with computer AND cardboard (at Fast Company)

ORI: new book on prototyping by Todd Zaki Warfel

Last night I guest-lectured for a group of MBA students in a Design Management class at my university. I’ve been
lecturing a lot lately on DIY, but I wasn’t sure what to emphasize in a context where the bottom line takes precedence over the ironic edge.

I decided to go with prototyping. I shared projects from Lulu, Etsy, and Cafe Press, as well as DIY: Design It Yourself and DIY Kids. Then I hauled out a load of cereal boxes, colored tape, and exacto knives, and asked the students to build some kind of prototype for their final projects (a new product pitch).

Men and women alike seemed to enjoy transforming cereal boxes into new airline seating, electronic store directories, and cosmetic kits. My favorite was this meticulous model of a multi-purpose fob, by two young men who really got into the crafting aspect. The fob iitself is a study in scale, but the simple cardboard display panel with the single display notch took the assignment right out of the box.

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