NOVEDGE blog

The Edge: What is the Matter(form)?

Novedge: Adam and Drew, tell us a bit about you.

Drew Cox: We are both tinkerers, makers, and inventors. Adam [Brandejs] specializes in electronics and design, while I'm more engineering and software.

Novedge: Partnerships are powerful, but can also be difficult. How did you two come together? What makes your collaboration successful?

Drew Cox: We met through working in Advertising. We both had a love for interesting tech, and Adam knew every cutting edge thing that was out there. So we started working together on projects and one of the ideas was for a laser based 3D Scanner. We work well together because our skills only overlap where it's important. Otherwise we are both pretty eclectic individuals.

 

Novedge: Why do we need the Matterform?

Drew Cox: Maybe not need, but want. 3D Scanning is a technology that is new to a lot of people, and the more people that get to try it out, the more interesting things we find to do with it. Right now there are a lot of people from all walks of life who are interested in the Matterform 3D Scanner. Everything from medical and dental applications, to artists, or dads wanting to save their daughters plasticine sculptures. The uses are really unlimited.

Beta Scan

Novedge: You received great support on Indiegogo. What advice would you give to anyone looking into financing their project using that platform?

Drew Cox: We used Indiegogo because it was open to Canadians. It's important to remember, with any crowd funding platform, that you be honest, and make sure you communicate to your backers as much as possible.

Beta Scan

Novedge: Do you have a 3D printer at home? Or do you use a 3rd-party 3D printing service?

Drew Cox: We use both. We have a few different 3D printers here in the shop, but we also use local services such as 3DPhacktory, and online services to help us print parts when we need them.

Novedge: What software do you use to prepare your files for 3D printing?

Drew Cox: We use a wide array of professional and free software. It depends what we are doing. I am a big fan of Solidworks, but it's not for beginners. Blender and SketchUp are great free modelling packages. After that we use Repetier (with Skeinforge and Slic3r) to print our own parts here.

Novedge: Are we in the midst of a 3D printing revolution?

Drew Cox: For sure! I want to live in a world where we can fabricate whatever we want without big machines and lots of restrictions.

Novedge: What's next for the Matterform and for you?

Drew Cox: We're just focused on finishing the production of the Matterform Scanner, and polishing off all the software. Of course we never stop tinkering and developing new ideas, so hopefully there will be some surprises to come.

 

Check out Matterform's website for more details and images.

Get in touch with Novedge on Twitter

At the 2013 Bay Area Maker Faire

This year, I attended the annual Bay Area Maker Faire, one of the largest and most extravagant festivals where, "invention, creativity and resourcefulness" can be found in one place. To see all my pictures, check out Novedge on Facebook.

On assignment, I met and rode on my bike with a small group of dedicated enthusiasts at Dolores Park.

Upon my arrival, I couldn't help but notice a fellow cyclist's awesome ride. It turns out the very frame of his MTB bike was crafted out of solid mahogany with absolutely no CNC/CAM! Bay Area native and proprietor of Masterworks Wood and Design, William Holloway has been crafting these human powered locomotives for a number of years now. And if it is any testament to his skills as a craftsman, he reached the Maker Faire before yours truly!



My ride locked and secured, Kinetic Steam Works' printing press beckoned me with its distinct whistle. Compliments to KSW for reminding us that human ingenuity has been ours from the very start and for the freshly printed Maker Faire coasters!

Close by, Fun Bike Unicorn Club (FBUC) had multiple things going on. People could climb into the Whiskeydrome and see if they could ride the wall, or visit their massive tent to check out their showcase of wheeled contraptions. No one bike was the same. The only consistent theme? Pedals, chain and wheels.

The brave and curious, or those wanting to evaluate the sturdiness of their builds, were more than welcome to pedal to the metal with FBUC's Death Defying Figure 8 Pedal Car Race and Power Racing Series. Power Wheels on steroids anyone? 

In addition to the various Thunderdome inspired projects and workshops put on by non profit DIY spaces, Nimby and The Crucible, before CAD and 3D Printing, creativity is still a hands-on endeavor.

Having had my fill outside, what was THE hot topic at this year's Maker Faire? - 3D Printing. In fact, if the pictures are any proof of how crowded the place was, I had to wait in line just to say Hi to our friend and VP of Marketing, Afinia's own Aaron Pratt. The Afinia team worked overtime to answer any and all questions, as were representatives from Shapeways and i.materialise. With a host of printed samples for festival attendees to grab, what would happen to the waste generated? Interestingly enough, the OmNom Project aims to make filament replacement as easy as feeding a monster. OmNom might indeed be necessary, as the 3DMonstr team looks to create an industrial grade printer worthy of Tim The Tool Man's praise. Both OmNom Project and 3DMonstr will have Kickstarter campaigns up soon, follow us on Twitter for updates.

In an exploration of architecture's potential future with 3D printing, The California College of the Arts along with UC Berkeley's Department of Architecture demonstrated new methods and forms for 3D printed architecture on a massive scale. With so much buzz, I had to pinch my shoulder as there was still plenty to see. Moving on!

Amongst other projects showcased, Maker Faire had on display a number of kinetic art pieces and participants were encouraged to interact with them. Benjamin Cowden's creation Eating my Cake and Having it Too (2007) gently rotates its handle to lick a lollipop with a prosthetic tongue.

 

Gather around to reanimate a floating creature with Oakland based artist Anja Ulfeldt's Undercurrent. With the exception of some of the more fragile pieces, most of everything I saw was hands on. A number of masks from pop culture icons were on display as well. For a fanboy like myself, no way would I miss out on the chance to dress up!

 

Do you want to see all my photos? Check them out on Facebook!

And don't forget to follow Novedge on Twitter for our latest updates.

The Edge: Eric Standley's Unique Laser Cut Artwork

Today we hear from Eric Stadley, the artist behind these unique laser cut stain glass windows. 

Virginia Tech: Eric Standley from virginiatech on Vimeo.

 

Novedge: Tell us about yourself and what you do.

 

Eric Standley: I am an artist with a formal background in painting. Somewhere along the way my allegiance to content overthrew my obsession with paint. I did manage to retain my meticulous nature. I am also an Associate Professor of Studio Art at Virginia Tech.

 

Novedge: Your work is unique. How did you come up with the idea of Laser Cut Windows?

Eric Standley: I was working on a series called AM Wisdom that included laser cutting circle-based patterns into Cheerios boxes. When I was leaving the laser lab one day I stacked a few cut pieces together and was blown away by the layered complexity of the different works. I took out my sketchbook and wrote down a dozen questions that took about 2 years to work through. The dominate question being "Could I be conscious of creating multiple layers that related to one another at the same time?" It's funny, I never considered the work to be windows exactly. I am influenced by Gothic and Islamic geometry found in architectural ornamentation- including windows, but always saw the work as a form of drawing. It's the relationships of the negative spaces between layers that become physical space- an odd transformation from the sum of 2 dimensional drawing to 3 dimensional spaces.

Novedge: Can you talk about your process in creating these incredibly elaborate pieces?

Eric Standley: I sketch a composition first- working out an overall goal. Then I draw each layer in vector-based software. Each layer is cut individually with a CNC Laser. The work is then cleaned of chads, assembled and bound like a flip book. The final stage of my process includes building a mount and frame that holds the work, allowing for a degree of movement that is inherent with paper. The vector drawing process is the most time consuming, taking me months to work through. I draw on a matrix: compositions are constructed across the page and laterally on layers above and below. Generally I work on 3 layers at one time. My max capacity is a lateral consciousness of 7 layers at one time- of which I can do for about an hour. It's taken some practice to do. The closest analogy I can think of is playing chess: to consider 4 or 5 moves ahead and the possible tangents... that's more or less the same facility of my mind- a similar game... 

 

Novedge: What software do you use? 

 Eric Standley: I use CorelDRAW for my vector work. The program has a fairly sophisticated CAD-like orientation while still being visually responsive. It's important for me to see what I'm doing as I make decisions. I have been meeting the limits of the software recently even though the vectors take up a small amount of memory. I am currently working on an Arch that at layer 20 is over 23,000 nodes/8000 objects. I'm having to produce two separate vector drawings that will be cut on top of each other to make one very complex layer. I cut with a ULS PLS6 laser outfitted with a High Power Density Optic package. The optics changed my work- allowing me to cut a thread of paper .008" wide- about half the thickness of the paper itself.

 

Novedge: How does teaching inform your art practice and vice versa?

Eric Standley: I believe creativity is best fostered in an environment that encourages process and discovery. This requires risk taking, allows for individuality and permits epiphanies. Such a learning environment is incredible to be a part of. I provide guidance by way of some wisdom, stories and experiences, and in return I come to know each student, work with them and assist in their goals. I am honored to be a part of and witness their artistic progress.

Novedge: Can you tell us a bit about your upcoming projects?

Eric Standley: I've been working with light recently- illuminating from within the work (as seen in Argos). I've also been working outside traditional geometry and leaning toward bilateral symmetry and asymmetry, as found in water- flow dynamics for instance. These are coming through in Arch 4 which is currently in progress. I've also been working with some hand-made papers, rice paper and transparencies. There are certainly more failures than successes with newer questions and goals, but I feel an urgency to produce the work. It wakes me up in the morning and it is the last thing I'm thinking of before I fall asleep. There is still quite a bit to do within this body of work.

 

Curious to see more of Eric's work? Check it out on his website.

And don't forget to connect with us on Twitter and Facebook!

 

The Edge: Bill Eubanks's Urban Edge

Novedge: Tell us about yourself and your role at urban edge studio

Bill Eubanks: I am a landscape architect with a little over 30 years of experience, which is really hard to believe because I feel like I am still learning. I am the Creative Director at urban edge studio. This is supposed to free me up to mostly design and not manage projects. It works better on some days more than others. I love public meetings, public workshops and the energy of a design charrette. It was a super cool day for me when I became a Fellow of ASLA.

 

Novedge: What drew you to work with the public rather the private space as an landscape architect?

Bill Eubanks: Actually, we do a lot of both. I prefer public work, though, because it benefits and affects so many people. I also love the public process. But some private work can be really rewarding and oftentimes the private sector has a huge impact on the public realm.

Novedge: There are four fun videos on Vimeo around the issues of walkability, community, frontage, land use and traffic. Can you explain your studio's approach to them?

Bill Eubanks: I think we place a lot of emphasis on the public realm -- especially streets. This includes how architecture addresses the street and helps form the public realm. It includes how a pedestrian feels on that street. However, we do very little traditional streetscape kind of work. We prefer to get them right the first time. While we avoid "isms" for the most part  most of our work boils down to what I would consider form based not because it's a trend but because it works and makes sense.

 

Novedge: What software do you use?

Bill Eubanks: Our favorite software is our brain. We try to use that the most. Daily if we can. We use lots of trash and sharpies. Markers are still part of our world. When we do go digital, we use Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, SketchUp, and AutoCAD. We also abuse things like Excel to do things that are very graphic - not just spreadsheets.

Novedge: What is it like to work at urban edge studio? What do you look for in an intern and/or an employee?

Bill Eubanks: We work hard but we try to keep balance in our lives. We have fun. We joke around a lot. We also collaborate constantly. It's like breathing for us. Our studio is open, literally and figuratively. We are highly creative and that sneaks out in all kinds of ways. Right now we are listening to the new Sunvolt album, Honky Tonk. We listen to a lot of music. We don't really like cheap beer. Ever. Pretty much, if an intern can hang in that kind of environment and has the ability to make us laugh and to make us think, they will fit in just fine.

 
Novedge: As a small studio, what has been most important in developing and growing a successful practice?

Bill Eubanks: I think consistency in who we are and what we do is so important. We have a reputation to maintain, whether we like it or not. And we live and die by that reputation. So, integrity, ethics, creativity, and professionalism are key to our existence, every day.

Novedge: What innovations do you find most exciting in your field?

Bill Eubanks: Urban agriculture, eliminating food deserts, introducing green infrastructure, embracing urbanity, density, walkability, complete streets, repairing sprawl. These are some of the things we talk about and try to embrace in our practice.

 

Check out more of Bill's work at urban edge studio and connect with him on Twitter.

Would you like to be interviewed for our blog? Do you know a passionate artist or innovator that would be a good fit for The Edge? Tell us on Twitter at @Novedge!

The Edge: Ryan Swanson and The Urban Conga

Novedge: Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do.

Ryan Swanson: My life began in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where I went to high school for architecture. I then moved to Tampa about 7 years ago to attend The University of South Florida School of Architecture and Community Design where I will soon receive my Masters in Architecture.  I'm an aspiring architect, designer and creator. I like to make things and make things for a reason.  I hate making something that has no back story or reasoning for its existence. I try to live by this quote from Jim Henson - "When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world. My hope is to leave the world a little better for having been there.” It's kind of cliché but I believe if I'm alive I might as well make it worth it.

What do I do... Well I try to dip my hand in just about anything I find interesting. I coach and play volleyball, dj on my spare time, and pretty much just try to live life as much as possible.  Which is a hard task to do while in Architecture School. I recently have really gotten into emergent technologies and how they can be used in a large scale realm to push urban activation. So I spend a lot of time learning and designing. I never want to stop learning.

Novedge: How did you become interested in architecture and the public space?

Ryan Swanson: I think my interest in architecture kind of came about when I was young and asked my mom what I could do that involved math and art and she was like "architecture." That started me down this crazy wild path to where I am today. I didn't really get into public spaces until I went to Europe about two years ago. Me and some friends backpacked around for 5 weeks going to about 7 different countries. I began to see what a real public space was and actually be a part of their activeness. It's one thing to read about how a space is in a book than to actually experience it. I saw how people began to come together and interact with one another through the space. It was something that I never really saw in Fort Lauderdale or Tampa in the urban environment.

When I came back to the States I had just actually moved close to downtown Tampa and began to ride my bike there quite often into downtown. Before I never had a reason to drive the 20 min to downtown because there was never anything going on.  I began to ask myself why Tampa was unsuccessful when it came to public spaces.  It had some of the same parks, spaces, and open areas that I experienced in Europe. I began to realize people just either didn't know that the spaces existed or that it was ok to hangout in an empty grass lot. Or, it was just that there was nothing going on for them to want to hang out there. If you look at any big city you can walk down a street and feel like you are alive. Something is always happening or about to happen. I wanted to make this happen in downtown Tampa. I felt it had the potential and wanted to begin to create a change in the social interaction downtown.  Public spaces are a way for people to escape and with the way our world is looking these days people need any way they can get to escape the harsh realities of life and come together.

Novedge: What is a recent project that you worked on?

Ryan Swanson: I'm actually working on a couple of different projects right now. One is this interactive projection installation I call Projecting Fun. The idea for the projection installation is that it is something that can be easy to transport and it can be as big as you want it. The installation is done using the xbox kinect and processing, an open source code driven software.  Right now I have a simple script that reads movements of the body and allows one to dance and play and see themselves projected at a large scale doing it. The idea of this installation is to promote interactive activity in inactive spaces. It draws people in but also makes people begin to appreciate and notice the space they are occupying. My goal is to give people a good time and break up their typical route, but also make them appreciate the space they are in. I have done this installation in two locations, one on the side of an old facade and the other under an overpass. So this is something I have done but I am still working on making it different and more playful.  

The next thing is a prototype for this thing I call the Space Manipulator. The idea is that it's this cube that is placed within an inactive space and it can be broken down to a multitude of spatial arrangements for people to interact with. The idea is to get people to begin to play and work together on something and to create this idea of public interaction. The whole concept is to get people to come together in a space that isn't regularly used but is an interesting public space that should be activated. So when bringing this installation in I hope to not only give people something they can hang out on and move, but something they can begin to discuss and figure out. Public spaces are about bringing people together and creating a place for people to be interactive and become a part of the space. It's about creating a conversation between the human body and the space around them.
The Urban Conga is working on a bunch of different projects right now and they can be seen on our website. But something that has recently fell into our arms is helping design, create, and run a Fab Lab in South Tampa. Essentially we are working to create a place for learning and collaboration. The idea is that the house is always developing projects done by people coming to the Lab to learn and create. We hope to set up a studio in the Lab and begin to collaborate on a lot more public installations with creators from the Tampa area.  

Novedge: What software do you use?

Ryan Swanson: Software is something I told myself I want to have a vast knowledge in. It's like being a painter; you don't want to paint with just one color. Through architecture school and 3d modeling I have become really familiar with 3ds Max, SketchUp, V-Ray, AutoCAD, and Photoshop. I use these programs for prototyping ideas and mostly for rendering and setting up files to be laser cut or CNC routed. 3ds Max is also good for animations for showing how interactive installations work or for getting accurate prototypes to pitch ideas.  When showing people what you plan to do it's all about making it as pretty as possible and 3ds Max can do that for you. Rhino, with the Grasshopper plug-in, is probably the program I use the most for modeling and designing ideas.  Rhino is great for parametric modeling and also it has an endless supply of plug-ins and can do a multitude of functions. Grasshopper is a generative modeling tool for Rhino that uses algorithms to create form. It also can be interconnected to Arduino which is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. The two can be used together to create real world interactions and create a digital model from that interaction.  Another program I use for interactive projection installations is Processing. It is another interactive open-source software that runs off of Java. The great thing about Arduino and Processing is that everything is open source, so everyone is willing to share ideas, code, and help. The idea is to keep pushing the limits and for an idea to keep growing. So if you make something maybe someone else can make something cooler with the thing you created and then so on. I believe technology is important to keep up with the ever growing society we are in. So I keep trying to find new software that I can learn to make things better and bigger with.

 

Novedge: What is the Urban Conga?

Ryan Swanson: The Urban Conga is a collective group of creators activating urban spaces through interactive installations.  We stimulate urban spaces through exploration, activation, and above all interaction. The objective is to spark a conversation between the public realm and the human body through interactive installations. Our mission is to start The Conga Line!  We want to collaborate with other creators and begin to start a movement in inactive areas.

 

We are not a group of artists that create static public art to make a dollar. Our philosophy is to inject care into local communities by accentuating and enhancing the beauty of the current urban conditions! With like-minded passions to better communities, we are turning unused and overlooked urban spaces into interactive places to live, learn, and love your city. The Conga started in September 2012 when I and a couple of other students at the University of South Florida School of Architecture realized we were interested in solving the problem that our downtown is having with activation. So in doing my thesis I tried to incorporate my research into The Urban Conga in how to interact with people and what they best respond to in order to begin to activate these unused spaces. Our goal is to start a movement! We hope there will begin to be an Urban Conga group everywhere just giving people something to do and interact with and have fun. Our whole motto is "Come out and play!"

Novedge: What are the rewards and challenges of being part of a collective, such as the Urban Conga?

Ryan Swanson: Everyone works in groups in school and hate it. I feel this gives a false reputation on collaborations or working in a collective effort.  In the working world this is something a majority of people have to learn to accept and deal with. I think working with other people is how to make something better. If you lock yourself in a room you are only getting one perspective on the thing you are doing and that is your own. When you put together a bunch of people that have different skill sets something amazing happens. IDEO is a design consulting firm that solely believes on creations through a collaborative effort. They are one of the top design consulting firms in the nation due to this mind set.  If you look at any online open sourced software, people collaborate everywhere. Someone puts up some code that does a basic function and someone else takes that basic function and makes it fly a rocket ship.  Maybe that's a bit extreme but my point is that things grow from a collective effort, every time being pushed to be better and different. At the same time you do run into problems with communication and people not being on the same page,  but I feel in the end the rewards out way the some time bickering and arguments over how things should happen.  The way the Urban Conga is set up is anyone can come to us with an idea and the motivation to make the idea happen.  What we want to do is make that idea for an interactive installation happen. Either through helping that person with funding or just helping them build and design it. Ever since we started this collaborative group so many artists, performers and creators have reached out to us to make stuff happen. People need something that is actually out, doing stuff that they can sort of latch onto. Collaborating with these people just helps me learn more of their specific skill set.

 

Novedge: What advice would you give to people looking into going to college to study architecture?

Ryan Swanson: If you want to study architecture in college make sure it is something you are truly passionate about because it takes over your life!!! Keep your mindset open when it comes to what design and architecture are when starting. You will realize that the knowledge you learn in architecture school can be used in so many different ways of design not just in building buildings.  Also architecture school is all about teaching the art side of things and not the real side of architecture so make sure you study how things functionally work and about coding and all that jazz as well as the fun stuff. Architecture school becomes a part of your life you kind of begin to realize no one outside of architecture school really understands what you are going through. It makes you feel sort of like an elitist in the college world but also excluded. Learn to love the studio and make it your home. Working in the studio is the most important part of architecture school. It goes back to the whole idea of putting different skill sets into one room and learning from one another. The main thing is just to hold on for the wild ride architecture school will bring you!

Want to see more of Ryan's work? Check out his website and Vimeo channel.

And here's a link to The Urban Conga's website.

The Edge: Bridgette Meinhold's Urgent Architecture

Our April Book of the Month is Bridgette Meinhold's Urgent Architecture. Today we talk with the author about her passion for sustainability and art.

Novedge: Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do
Bridgette Meinhold: I am a freelance writer and artist based in Park City, UT. I'm the architecture editor for Inhabitat with a focus on green building, sustainable architecture and innovative design. When I'm not writing about sustainability, I paint atmospheric landscapes in my reclaimed shipping container art studio.


photo by Claire Wiley

Novedge: You have written over 2,000 articles on green architecture for Inhabitat. How did you first become interested in ecological issues?
Bridgette Meinhold: I have always been interested in the environment. I have two degrees in engineering - a BS in Mechanical and a Masters in Civil & Environmental and have worked in the fields of renewable energy and sustainability consulting before becoming a writer.


photo by Weiland Gleich

Novedge: What have you learned and what surprised you since you joined Inhabitat?
Bridgette Meinhold: There are so many people out there working on amazing designs and innovative products. I'm excited to see what architects and designers come up with next and I enjoy featuring their work and sharing it with our readers.

photo by Laurel Cummings

Novedge: Why write Urgent Architecture? What would you like readers to come away with from the book?
Bridgette Meinhold: I have long been concerned about the effect of natural disasters. Growing up in Oklahoma, we experienced tornadoes regularly and I felt when I was younger there was nothing that could be done to protect us if one came by. But now that I'm older and have learned more, I know that we do have the technology and know-how to build safe homes. I wrote Urgent Architecture to share with the world some of the amazing projects I had found to show that we need to be building smarter in order to save lives.



Novedge: Can you talk about a few of the structures you show in the book?
Bridgette Meinhold: One of my favorite projects was the LIFT house in Bangladesh that was designed so that part of the home would float when floods occurred. The home was designed by Prithula Prosun as part of her architecture master's thesis as a prototype for low-cost and flood-resilient housing. Centered around a stationary brick core are two lightweight bamboo and reed structures that can rise up with flood waters and then lower when they recede. This ensures the family has somewhere safe and dry to live during the floods that come regularly to the area.


photo by Prithula Prosun

I also really like the SLUMtube house, which is an affordable housing concept in South Africa built from reclaimed materials and shipping pallets. It was designed by Andreas Claus Schnetzer & Gregor Pils, who have built many other shipping pallet houses. They wanted to help people in South Africa learn how to build safe, comfortable houses using found materials and the ubiquitous shipping pallet. The tubular design came about because the two designers wanted to eliminate the need for expensive structural wood beams.


photo by Palletenhaus

Novedge: Your book touches on big problems, such as poverty and natural disasters. How can architects become more involved if they want to help?
Bridgette Meinhold: Poverty and natural disasters occur in every nation of the world. Obviously it's great if architects or designers find projects they want to help out with in other places around the world, but I strongly suggest looking first for projects in the local community. Hooking up with local non-profits to provide design expertise is an amazing way to donate your time. Otherwise check out Architecture for Humanity, which is a fantastic organization dedicated to improving the built environment around the world and offers up many volunteer opportunities.


photo courtsy of Shelter Box
 

Novedge: What innovations do you see in architecture? What do you think will change in the future?
Bridgette Meinhold: Architecture is innovation and every day there are new ways to think about things and new products and technologies the help increase efficiency, health and safety. Sustainable design is the way of the future and green building strategies will only improve with more practice and implementation.

 

See more of Bridgette Meinhold's work on her website and follow her on Twitter.

Ready to own a copy of Urgent Architecture? Find it on Novedge. And don't forget to join us on Twitter and Facebook!

The Edge: Kelly Nedderman, Forging Community

Novedge: Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do.
Kelly Nedderman: Well, I do quite a lot of things. I am a surface/textile designer (mostly commercial work in fashion and home), artist, jewelry designer, and I teach metalsmithing at The Crucible and Academy of Art University. My work has been included in a handful of publications and I have exhibited nationally. I came to the San Francisco Bay Area over a decade ago for school and never left. For the last several years I have been self-employed and really thrive on the multitude of possibilities that it offers with regards to projects and people.

Novedge: What are some of the rewards and challenges of owning your own business?
Kelly Nedderman: Some of the best parts of owning your own business are also the most challenging parts. Schedule flexibility is a huge plus for me. It is also a huge challenge to hold yourself accountable and stay on track. The ability to choose projects is wonderful, but when you are in between things and the paychecks are not rolling in, it can also be nerve racking.

Novedge: What is a recent project that you worked on?
Kelly Nedderman: One of my current projects is a collaboration with a local wallpaper company. The pieces will be for commercial interiors such as restaurants and hotels. While I create repeating imagery every day, this project is a bit different. The patterns will end up being 52” across with no vertical limits, so I can design something to float in the center of the wall or something that is 15 ft tall. It’s exciting.

Novedge: What software do you use?
Kelly Nedderman: In my line of work, I primarily use Photoshop, Illustrator, and Nedgraphics. Nedgraphics is a CAD program specific to textile design that facilitates the development of repeats, wovens and knits. These programs allow me to draw and develop repeating patterns ready to be printed by clients onto thousands of yards of fabric or wallpaper. I also do hand illustrated artwork for graphic t-shirts.
Recently, I took two great courses in Rhino, and am learning to model jewelry designs that would be very difficult to execute in metal, mainly because of their crazy shape and size. I have also been playing around in Hex Fiend, GIMP and Audacity and using them to “break” tiff and jpg files in interesting ways to produce new imagery for my designs.

Novedge: Where do you find inspiration for your work?
Kelly Nedderman: Just about everywhere. Magazines, blogs, photos… even just walking around, but the more offbeat the better. I have a soft spot for silhouettes, textures and magazines from the UK.

Novedge: You are the Co Director of Programs at the San Francisco Bay Area Metal Arts Guild. What is the Guild and what does it do?
Kelly Nedderman: The Metal Arts Guild of The Bay Area is a non-profit organization that focuses on promoting the recognition of metalwork as an art form and offering Bay Area jewelers and metal artists a network of information, education and support. That’s the official answer, but it is so much more than that. It’s a community, support group, and network of friends. We organize artist lectures, museum tours, exhibits and workshops all aimed at inspiring the group. We have around 250 members of all ages and backgrounds. From the student to the retiree and the hobbyist to the large business owner… The guild provides a common ground for all of those who love making and exchanging ideas.

Novedge: How important is it for professionals to be involved with their community?
Kelly Nedderman: I think it’s incredibly important. We were all beginners once. I was very lucky to be able to work with and learn from people making their living doing what their passion was. It had a huge impact on me. I try very hard to encourage students and professionals to get involved. Another great benefit of community is feedback and interaction. Our lives and creativity do not happen in a vacuum... I think people forget that even just being in an office environment is still a community. The office community is the one most people are familiar with, but we need to branch out past that. I have had some amazing brainstorming sessions with new people whom I have met at events and many of my clients have found me through word of mouth and my network. Take the time to get outside of your bubble!

Novedge: How are new technologies changing jewelry design?
Kelly Nedderman: One of the most obvious ways is that a fine jewelry store can have most of its inventory exist digitally now. They will have some great samples that customers can touch and try on, but without having so much money invested up front.
For someone who is more into the sculptural aspect of jewelry, like myself, 3D printing and laser cutting allow for an amazing level of experimentation. Forms that are extremely challenging or maybe impossible to create in metal, can be worked out with relative ease and then manufactured in a huge variety of materials. This grey area where traditional skills and new technologies meet is very exciting right now.

 

See more of Kelly's work on Flickr and don't forget to join our Rhino Jungle community, if you are a Rhino user.

 

The Edge: Electroblooming

Novedge: Tell us about yourself and what you do.
Mark Bloomfield: I'm a designer and a maker. I've always worked with jewellery as I like the scale and the idea that I can set up and make anywhere.Traditional tools are very important to me and how they are used to connect with different materials. I strive to have the same relationship with digital tools. I established electrobloom to specifically explore digital processes to both design and make on demand.

Novedge: You have created wearable accessories for film, fashion and luxury brands including, Titanic, Vivienne Westwood, and Virgin Galactic.  What was it like? What did you like the most and what was most challenging?
Mark Bloomfield: I feel very fortunate to have worked with some really inspiring and talented people over the years and have enjoyed the challenge of applying what I do to very different industries, from film to fashion, luxury to hi-tech. It has always been jewellery but ranging from jewellery as costume to jewellery as technology. It's been particularly challenging working with traditional craftsmen and introducing them to digital processes. When I bought in a 3D printer at one company the entire model making team thought they were going to be out of work, it took a lot to convince them otherwise, but by drawing out the best in them so that their skills complemented the digital processes it strengthened our competitive edge.

Novedge: Your website, Electrobloom, is all about custom work. Are we heading towards a future in which consumers will want the option of customizing all their purchases?
Mark Bloomfield: I wanted to include a customisable component to the work which would engage the customer in the process, allowing them to participate and create pieces of jewellery unique to them. Many companies include a customisable element with some of their product lines. When showing my jewellery collection to customers they get very excited when I explain that all the components are interchangeable, they then start putting together different combinations making the jewellery their own. I also like the idea that the customers collection can be updated with a new charm rather than discarding and replacing, as your personal collection grows then so do the options. Once you start it does become very addictive! Customisation is also the main reason for using 3D Printing as the production process, I can make items to size and introducing new elements becomes cost and time effective. I believe we will be seeing more and more customisable options applied to the things we buy as the production processes become more able to handle it. It's worth remembering that most PCs and smartphones are already being customised, I'm sure that my devices are customised with software, apps, photos and covers that are very different to what you've chosen to install and use. Customisation already happens!

Novedge: What is a recent project that you worked on?
Mark Bloomfield: The last couple of projects have been exhibitions, the first was the Kinetica Art Fair in London which represents artists whose work moves or uses new media and encourages user interaction. I'm also exploring how to design complexity into the items of jewellery by making them move or change shape. Some of the charms have rotating elements or open up but are 3D printed in one go, no assembly required.

 
It was a great opportunity to talk about my work and show customers first hand how everything works, something that's difficult to get across on-line, I've started to use animation and will be making more films to get across the collections character. One of the interesting aspects of the jewellery collection is that I can reinvent it every time I show it and I can also tailor it according to which customer I'm selling to.
The other exhibition is in Canary Wharf in London and runs till the end of the April. I enjoyed thinking about the space and tailoring the collection accordingly. I've gone for very bright colours as this area of the city is the new financial district and I wanted to brighten up the suits!

Novedge: What software do you use?
Mark Bloomfield: I've used many pieces of software, 3D Studio, Maya, Rhino but settled on Blender in 1999 as I loved the interface. It was a challenge at first but I somehow knew it would be worth the effort. I feel confident that I can design anything with Blender and as it's continually being updated there's lots of new tricks to learn. Being able to link files is very useful as I'm often improving the designs as I go along and having all instances update is a real time saver. I tend to also link objects to paths and duplicate using modifiers, you can start to create complex forms that are very easy to edit.

I have also started to use the physics simulator as it's a real easy way to animate chains and get a feel for how they will work before being made. I want to continue to use animation to show not only how the jewellery works but to also come up with new designs, you can use the animation features in Blender as modelling tools. I'd also like to revisit the game engine with the intention of making the virtual models interactive and responsive, so much to do!

 
Novedge: What are some of the rewards and challenges of owning your own business?
Mark Bloomfield: Running your own business is very rewarding, I've always enjoyed jumping from one task to the next while attempting to use design to make the processes easier to manage. Maintaining momentum continues to be a challenge as there's always distractions which pop up daily, but in the words of Walt Disney, "Keep moving forward..."

Novedge: If you could go back in time, what would you say to your younger self before entering the workforce?
Mark Bloomfield: I feel that everything you do makes you the person you are now, the experience is important as you are then better equipped to deal with new challenges.

 

See more of Mark's work on his website and connect with him on Twitter.

And don't forget to stay in touch with us on Facebook and Twitter as well!

The Edge: 3D Print Your Favorite Game Character With Sandboxr

Have you heard of Sandboxr? I met the team at GDC and saw their creations. This startup company lets you 3D print a figurine of your favorite game character and is currently raising funds on Kickstarter (their drive ends on April 11th, so hurry up and check it out!). Berkley Frei, the founder and CEO, tells us a bit more about how it all works and how you can sign up to license your designs.

Novedge: Why Sandboxr?
Berkley Frei: I grew up in a small town and as a kid the sandbox was my favorite place to play.  You could make anything you wanted in the sandbox.  I wanted to replicate that experience with Sandboxr.  We allow people to play in a digital sandbox where they can unlock their creativity, really make one of a kind creations.  When they make something they are really proud of, they can have it printed in 3D and mailed to their house.  My hope is that people will spend hours perfecting their pieces. The experience is just as important as the final product.

 
Novedge: What designers and/or companies have already signed up with Sandboxr to allow consumers to 3D print their designs?
Berkley Frei: I wish I could tell you everyone we are in talks with, but we are under non-disclosure agreements until the deals are finalized.  These are very exciting times.  However, we already have support from Super Villain Studios who have licensed awesome characters to us from their games Order Up and Tower Wars.  We also have a diverse group of independent artists that have uploaded their work, street artists, animators for big companies that are doing work on the side in Sandboxr.  We add more everyday.

Novedge: How can designers sign up with you?
Berkley Frei:  Right now we are still in our Beta phase, but if you have work in Maya file format that you would like to see on Sandboxr, contact peter@sandboxr.com with a link to your portfolio or examples of your work.  We would love to get your work up on our site.  We have a range of licensing options to make sure you maintain the ownership of your work.  You can specify how you want it to be used, set your own prices, the customization options, limited series runs, etc.  For more info, check out Sanboxr for Artists.  Once we have officially launched, artists will be able to upload content themselves just by visiting our site and following our guide to best practices.

  

Novedge: What 3D printers do you use? Can someone 3D print designs from Sandboxr at home? 

 Berkley Frei:  We use professional grade industrial sized printers from Z-Corp that print in full color sandstone, which gives our pieces a nice weight and high resolution detail.  However, we hope to provide a variety of material and color choices in the near future.  We have made .STL export available to select backers on Kickstarter to test whether or not we will keep that functionality going forward.  There are licensing concerns with home printing that we still need to work out and we also want to protect the quality of the experience.  Home printers have a long way to go, but we are thrilled with what we are seeing and hope that one day everyone can easily print high quality pieces at home. 

Novedge: What software do you use?
Berkley Frei:  We developed our own software for the app because no one has done what we are doing yet.  Basically we take the animation files, simplify the interface so that anyone can easily manipulate and customize their creation, automate the post-processing and conversion for printing so that you don’t have to be an expert to prep your models.  You just have to click print.

 

Novedge: In his book Makers Chris Anderson compares 3D printing to the internet, for its revolutionary impact. What are the advantages of actually having more people participate in making products? How is 3D printing changing manufacturing?
Berkley Frei:   I haven’t read his book yet, but I agree with that assertion.  It is democratizing manufacturing.  The more people creating, the more creative we will get.  I think we will see the rise of designers that would otherwise have never had the resources to manufacture samples.  Right now we are in the early phases.  There is a lot of excitement, but I think there are many surprises ahead.  People will gravitate to things we never expected them to.  New ideas and innovations are coming out everyday.  It’s exciting.  The response to what we are doing has been amazing and there is so much more to come. 

Novedge: What can we expect to see from Sandboxr in the future?
Berkley Frei: We want to be a community where skilled designers and animators can interact with their fans.  Right now the video game industry is really excited about us.  We are talking to developers that want to integrate Sandboxr into their games so that as people play the game, they can earn access to new characters, unlock accessories and build things in Sandboxr that only players can access.  We also expect to see artists experiment on Sandboxr.  There is so much potential for collaboration between artists or an artist with users.  I think when we open our doors to the public, we will be surprised with all the ways people will use Sandboxr.  It will be a great big experiment for all of us and I think the results will be amazing.

 

What are you waiting for? Donate to Sandboxr's campaign on Kickstarter, it ends in just a couple of days!

You can also request an invitation to join Sandboxr on their website and watch more cool videos on their Vimeo channel.

All the figurines in the photos above are Super Villain Studios Characters Posed and 3D Printed using Sandboxr.

The Edge: Chris Waner's Principle Creative

Novedge: Tell us about yourself and what you do.
Chris Waner: First, I wanted to say thank you for putting the time and energy into creating a forum for showcasing and inspiring students and professionals. I know how much work goes into that.

It wasn't so long ago that I would have said that I was a 3D visual effects artist. But over the last couple of years I've been forced to abandon that description because if I honestly assess what I do, I have to admit that the term 3D visual effects is too narrow. Nowadays I find that I'm called upon to design--design for anything and everything; design for print, web, interactive, packaging, do style frames for commercials, write copy, even compose music or do a costume design. Of course I still do visual effects; I still love visual effects, but quite honestly it has simply become another tool for enhancing a broader creative endeavor. Because I work for agencies, studios, and direct-to-client, I'm forced to view what I'm creating in light of the client's larger and more generalized brand trajectory. I call this kind of work principle creative, and quite honestly it took me a while to figure out that this is the kind of work I wanted.

Ballerina - Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts Grand Opening from claudia chagüi on Vimeo.

I've always been in the arts in some way, but somewhere along the road I decided to follow after other goals; I received a degree in English Literature and Secondary Education, taught for a while, and left because the politics of education were more than I wanted to deal with. And after a five year hiatus I came back to design. I started doing personal projects to get a small portfolio together, did some free work for people I knew, and used that work to become a junior graphic designer at a print house in Tulsa, OK. I then leveraged that work into a freelance children's book illustration job. Then took that portfolio to NYC, received my MFA in digital media, and became a visual effects artist.

Now I help people move their businesses forward in beautiful ways, and I love it.

Demo Reel - 2013 from Chris Waner on Vimeo.

Novedge: How do you find inspiration to stay ahead of the curve?
Chris Waner: As cliche' as it might sound, inspiration is everywhere. I was inspired by a kiwi fruit at lunch today; I had some fun looking at a shadow on the wall that resembled Kermit the Frog. On a more pragmatic level I've always considered staying up-to-date in design, color, technology, and cultural trends a part of my job. I unapologetically spend at least an hour a day looking at others' work, new technology, industry news, design blogs, etc. Ultimately, I'd have to say that what inspires me to stay ahead of the curve is the desire to create great work more efficiently. From a technological point of view, I want tools that are fast, efficient, and flexible; from the art/design side I see the work of others as iron sharpening iron, taking unrefined edges off my own sensibility. There's an efficiency that comes with refinement.

Novedge: What is a recent project that you worked on? Feel free to talk about more than one project!
Chris Waner: Certainly one of the most interesting and unusual projects that I've done was for Stark Collective, a start-up agency in Kansas City. On the surface the project was pretty straightforward, a launch video that spoke to the agency's intellectual ideals. However, the project was novel for a couple of reasons. In the first place the typical internal brand identity for agencies is white, graphic, and minimal. Stark, whom I would find as time went on to be breakthrough in a number of areas, had chosen a look that was black, raster, and active. In the second place, and perhaps even more astonishing, Stark did not want anything even remotely didactic but, rather, something abstract, even esoteric.

Stark Collective - Launch Video (Director's Cut) from Chris Waner on Vimeo.

Unlike many launch videos where the plain communication of core values is sufficient, Stark wanted a visual piece that spoke symbolically and even emotionally to those values; and especially visually they wanted to avoid a concrete or literal exposition. This, I think, is a powerful way to work, a resonant method of communicating ideas, and a very modern, forward-thinking approach to design. As it would happen one of the reasons I was asked to work on the Stark launch video was because of a piece that I co-directed and executed with Claudia Chagui, a brilliant creative located in Chicago. The piece was for a Kansas City organization called CinemaKC, who is dedicated to providing a forum for local film makers. In that piece we told the story of an idea that grows, blooms, takes flight, and finally finds an audience in the land of CinemaKC.

CinemaKC Show Open from claudia chagüi on Vimeo.

This symbolic storytelling caught Stark's attention, and I was brought on to design and execute a piece that encapsulated their creative philosophy. I did a few style frames, and to my amazement they just said, "Okay, go crazy."






That level of trust is utterly uncharacteristic of, well, really any client I've ever had, and that this client was an agency really kind of blew my mind. The one challenge thrown into the mix was that the piece needed to be a minute and a half long, and after the boards were complete I only had a little over four weeks to create it. Thanks to Bazillion Pictures in Kansas City who provide some much needed support in production, manpower, and infrastructure, we completed on time and on budget. The response to the launch video has been great, and Stark, mostly due to its own talent and perspective, is thriving with a host of new clients, in spite of the fact that as of the writing of this, they are only a little over a month old.

CinemaKC Show Package from claudia chagüi on Vimeo.

Novedge: What software do you use? Why?
Chris Waner: I've found that different software applications approach the same problem from different points of view. I recommend downloading free trials of everything, and see what feels right. Adobe has really cornered the market for suite based workflow and is an industry standard. For me the folks at Alias|Wavefront just spoke my language back in 2002-2003 when I started on Maya 4.5. Maya is still my app of choice because it strikes a nice balance between a procedural and artist-driven workflow (yes, artists drive procedural processes too). In the near future I see Houdini making a real in-road in the middle range commercial market; it's procedural tools are second to none, and I can see real possibilities because it has all the pieces in place to solve one of the major hurdles in commercial work, rapid iterations--turning versions on a theme around quickly for approval. I'm hoping to dive into Houdini in the near future. Finally, I can't leave out RealFlow. Although very few of my projects start out needing fluids, I find that I often end up there; I'll be in Maya thinking, "Hmm...how should I make this effect," and I'll realize that RealFlow has a tool to get me there.

Novedge: What are the rewards and challenges of working freelance?
Chris Waner: I think anyone considering going down the freelance road should remember that freelancing is not one job but ten. As a freelancer it is challenging enough just completing projects, keeping track of hours, billing, keeping and organizing receipts, dealing with clients, etc., but people who are successful at it must also keep pounding the pavement, so to speak, looking for new work, meeting new people, making new connections, keeping up with existing clients, promoting recently released work, and many other things. I think in many ways freelancing is much more similar to running a small business than being a visual effects artist, illustrator, designer, or whatever; you are CEO, CFO, CMO, and the grunt labor in many cases.

Apple Tree - McDonalds from Kompost on Vimeo.

The market makes a big difference too. The market in NY or LA is very different than it is in KC, for example. One market might let you specialize where another market might demand that you generalize. In my market in Kansas City, I will go from being an Art Director or a Creative Director, to a motion graphics artist or visual effects TD, to an interface designer or print designer within a month or two. Freelancers need to know their market in order maximize their offerings.

That might seem like a whole lot of trouble, but freelancing has it's perks too. Quite often it carries with it a lot of creative freedom. If you work from home, your commute is shorter. Many costs are reduced like transportation, food, and there are many tax benefits if you are organized and researched on how to take advantage of that. Quite often freelancing carries with it a higher money-to-time-spent-ratio than a traditional staff position. You rarely have to deal with the same difficult personalities for very long; often I can work when I want to in the day, I sometimes get to work when I want to in the week (i.e. a day off now and again), and on rare occasions I can just turn down a job that seems, well, torturous. You can't tell your boss at work that you're not going to do that job because it looks boring...unless you're wanting to become a freelancer really soon.

MLB 2012 All-Star Game Graphics from Chris Waner on Vimeo.

Novedge: What would you say to young people who want to work in the visual effects field?
Chris Waner: After graduating with an MFA from Pratt in NYC, I went on to teach courses in visual effects to undergraduate and graduate students. I have a real heart for those who are learning and a desire to help them make the jump from academia to the workforce. I say that because it's true and because I'm about to dodge this question. This industry is changing so much and so fast that it is almost impossible to answer this question without feeling that I might have led someone astray. The only comments I can really give young people starting out in this industry is to first, be self-reflective about what you want and why you want it. The design/visual effects industry needs people who are serious about their art and/or science, are willing to work hard, and are also level-headed enough to know when they are being abused. And second, I might get some emails about this one, don't feel like you have to do the NY or LA thing to have a happy and rewarding career. I started in NY, worked on some big jobs with big clients and agencies on their terms, but I left after six years because there's more to life than that. Now three years later I'm starting to work with bigger clients and agencies from NY and LA again, but this time I work my own way. Some of my favorite projects, and the best projects, were for clients that most people would call "small." There are some local business people out there with great vision and also some brave people who will follow you in your great vision for them. The world is a big place, don't settle for a small box.

 

See more of Cris Waner's work on his website and Vimeo channel.

Interested in Maya and RealFlow? Check them out on our website. And don't forget to connect on Twitter and Facebook.