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  Written by Tom Powell: MBA student at Duke; Abnormal interest in innovative applications of technology, design, outside innovation, crowdsourcing, and social computing. tom@coinnovative.com
  
  
  
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It’s stuff like this that shows how product development, design, and customization will begin to explode in the coming years: Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories’ 3D Fabrication in Sugar. (which will play right into my hands. ha!) In addition to being amazing (though I would guess it doesn’t taste too great), it illustrates a good point.

I recently read Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop-from Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication which discusses the many permutations of home building and local building and small scale manufacturing of products that weren’t possible before. The coolest possibility, from my perspective (which is just about feasible today) is that someone:

1) Anywhere in the world downloads and implements the plans and software for the Fab@Home project or heads on over to a place like TechShop in Menlo Park (an open access workshop).

2) Gets the requisite raw materials and loads them into a Fab machine.

3) Downloads a design for the object to be built from, say, an online design marketplace provided by someone such as myself. Or open source, whatever…

4) Lets the machine do it’s thing. The resulting object could be a specialized farming tool, for example, useful in a specific region of a developing country or a toy or candy, whatever.

I have simplified the whole process to a ridiculous degree, but it is a good illustration. This process may therefore more fully distribute the various functions needed to create an end product. Someone in South America might concieve of an object they would like, someone in India might design it and post the designs, then anyone in the world could download the specs and make a 3D print of the object. (Granted it will always be easier to run down to a nearby Wal-Mart, but if you live where the long arms of the Mart have yet to extend and you need an extremely specialized item… this might eventually be the way to go.)

To recap the project I am working on: I am building a site to provide a marketplace for laser etching designs (http://etchconnection.com). You can see the type of stuff being done at Adafruit and iStyleCustom, for example. It would seem that for non-artist/designers such as myself who would love to get a cool etching but have no idea where to even start, this type of site would be very helpful. (Some of the etchers have designers that can help you and will work with you, but I think a centralized repository for this would be ideal.)

The site would allow:
1) Designers to create a profile, post graphic designs, and set a price
2) Customers to rate and browse designs
3) Customers to find a local engraver, buy a design, and have it sent to their preferred engraver (which the site will help them find as well).

What it comes down to is that this might help promote personalized laser etching, provide an outlet for graphic designers’ work, and send preapproved designs and great leads to etchers. Everybody wins (it would seem).

It would be great to get some feedback from graphic designers out there about this. Does it sound feasible? Like it? Questions? Suggestions? Anything!?

If you would like to be one of the first to submit designs or if you would like to provide a bit of feedback on an early incarnation of the site let me know: tom@coinnovative.com

This is only marginally related, but it’s interesting, nonetheless: Mock Up My Tattoo. You choose a tattoo design or upload one of your own, upload a picture of yourself, and then they place the tattoo on your picture so you can see what it would look like.

MyDesignIn allows you to create an interactive floor plan and drag and drop bookmarked products into the design, but THEN you can collaborate with others online

ThinkCycle is non-profit focused on fostering open collaborative design. They have a shared online space for designers, engineers, experts, etc. to discuss, exchange and construct ideas towards the design of solutions for underserved communities and the environment.