Quick vid of my neckbangles… and me being over excited as I rush off to Newcastle to meet @bartv & @shapeways

Developing a new product family quickly using @blender

My blog’s been pretty quiet of late as I got ready for @shapeways at the Maker Faire http://bit.ly/10z8u4V  And here’s why…

As you know I’m really into designing typographic cufflinks… but I’ve also been working on something a bit more accessible to a wider audience (who aren’t type geeks or cufflink wearers, which is a pretty small audience to be fair).

Introducing the “Neckbangle”  (I wasn’t sure what it was, it’s not a necklace, it might be a choker, it’s like a bangle hence the new product framily name is neckbangle).

Here’s the basic concept - I built it using Blender (which is awesome for rapid development).  It’s a contoured, spherical wrap around one-piece design.  Styled to sit at the base of the throat…

This took about a day to work out the specifics… it’s an asymmetrical slice through a hollow sphere - which gives the base structure a close-fitting, natural look which should fit most female necks.  It’s got a 76mm aperture at the back which allows it to hook on without too much trouble but not fall off.  In theory anyway…

Then I took a couple of hours to experiment with the form and create two other versions…  the ancient neckbangle (inspired by the metalwork styles of old Saxon / Roman jewellery)

And the Shoredtich neckbangle - a punk themed version:

Cutting holes in an asymmetric slice of a sphere ain’t easy… you really need to do it by eye, changing the slice angle by -1 degrees on the X axis, regular (ish) rotation increments around the Z axis and adjusting Y axis coordinates by instinct.  Blender is awesome for that - the controls for rotation around the object’s origin mean you can quite literally click away in each axis until it looks right on the little control box, no complex movements necessary.  Also, for each hole or spike, just <shift><d> duplicate the last one and move it again… easy really.

What’s next?  Well I’ve got a few prototypes in plastic and steel coming, so gauge the sizes with some real women… then it’s a matter of working out how to attach pendants and, of course, mount typography on it.  

I’ll keep you posted ;)

One for @bartv and the @shapeways team - new prototypes, more wine, learning the lessons of articulation, 0.2mm tolerances and materials

a whole load of typographic 3D printed cufflinks - finally put the vid on tumblr

Spore prototypes arrive: 2 piece interlocking design (thanks @shapeways)

The Spore is my first experiment with interlocked printed components.  It’s a 12 point hollowed-out conical star inside a 2mm thick spherical shell with 24 holes cut in it.  It was a material test as much as anything - I wanted to get a feel for alumide, transparent plastic and sandstone.

As you can see, it’s worked out quite well.  The really interesting thing is how sturdy and usable the sandstone is (the white one) and how good the definition of the alumide is (the grey one).

The next step is working out how to link them so I can 3D print a whole necklace… stay tuned ;)

New project: Typographic cufflinks…

Type cufflinks are nothing new, but I wanted to address the typography angle and the ergonomics.

One major problem with type cufflinks (and typographic jewellery in general) is in the mounting of the type on the housing structure.  The thing is, type floats in space (on a screen or on a page) it doesn’t link together.  That’s great for graphic designers but in the 3D world you’ve got to attach the type somehow.  I learned from my initial experiments that you can do this by connecting the letters to each other by extruding the characters, but that means the type changes it’s typographic identity, it works ok with italic, chunky fonts but really spoils the look of traditional serif and san serif characters.

Unfortunately, connected the dot to the ‘i’ is still a necessity.  I could have done this with a central bar rather than a full width connector to give it a proper 3D impression, but given the small sizes of such a connector, I’m concerned the little dots would break off to easily.  It will need more testing.

A lot of designs avoid joining the individual characters by extruding them out from a back plate, but then you’ve got a back plate, and I think the letters should have a face from all angles rather than only the front perspective.  Also the back plate approach affects the light cast on the type and it diminishes the elegance of the letter forms.

These experimental designs have taken the approach of mounting each individual letters on individual supporting arms.  That way you minimise the amount of material connected to the letters, making the type appear to float.  But this approach has it’s flaws.  To get the supports thin enough to leave the letter forms more or less intact, you need multiple supports - otherwise the letters will break off the cufflink structure or bend out of alignment.  

I’ve opted for a mix of supports, some based on circular designs (to distribute pressure along the letter evenly, if knocked) and secondary straight supports where a circular 2 pronged approach would be visible outside the edges of the face of the character, for example, on an ‘s’ you can’t attach a circular support at all, because you see it through the curves of the ‘s’.  With an uppercase ‘G’ you can only hide a circular support behind the thick curve of the letter, you need a single bar to connect the inner end of the G or you’ll see too much of the support… etc.

Obviously for strength, these supports are connected to a central bar, which is visible from the front of the word - but less so than a back plate, and distance from the characters is increased by the use of the supports, so it recedes into the background nicely.  

The second issue I have with cufflinks is the link structure itself.  Round bars enable the face of the cufflink to rotate in the buttonhole, so it needs to be flat to keep everything oriented correctly.  But I can’t be too wide or it won’t fit the buttonhole properly.  Adopting the strut approach, I tried to make a strong form of connected struts which will, as the cuff expands, give the lateral stability to prevent the word rotating in the button hole.  

This structure couldn’t be solid because I’ve carved out the Unique Plastique UP logo mark in the button end, and I wanted to keep the letters clear.  It also spells ‘up’ as a handy reminder to put the cufflink on straight.

The net result is a clearer, floating typeface of distinct, unadulterated letter forms, and a mounting structure of interconnecting struts that has an architectural vibe to it, functional and designed to be strong without being bigger and weightier than the word it’s supporting.

The font is Helvetica, the cut is bold because the thicker characters are essential to give them visual impact and create a strong enough base for the mounting structure… I’m going to try some other faces and words over the next week and post them.

Next step… do some material tests to see how it prints, plus experiment with the sizes… right now it’s about 50mm deeper than most cufflinks, which might make the links too long, on the other hand, it might make them easier to insert and less likely to break under the stress of repeated use… or fit people with big wrists.  I have an idea on how to fix that if it does, more on that as the project develops ;)

Phase 1 of the Unique Plastique experiment is over.  I’ve explored the potential of using typography and simple 2D linework to create 3D objects, which has worked well.  It’s tested the materials, got a feel for tolerances and the way fonts work in 3D.  Now it’s time to move on to the next phase - vases, chains and more complex models.

Day #77 - after a bit of a break I’ve finally got my first large size typographic wall hanger back.  It’s a birthday present for my old business partner Brad.  It’s designed to use interconnecting type to make the characters sit as naturally as possible without supports - using the merging of characters to support the text and make it ‘float’.  

The typeface is Aksidenz Grotesk bold, which adapts well to 3D printing.  It’s a bit thin in the z axis (only 5mm) which isn’t super strong - it could have used an additional 5mm to be really robust and function as a coathanger, but the price was a bit high.  

It also has a graffiti style cock (an in-joke) in relief which has worked quite well, but has a couple of flaws in it. Same with the frame, there’s a couple of nicks which came from the SVG not being super smooth (a vertex out of alignment).  So it’s a great prototype for giving insights into how to fix it next time, but overall the text works well and hanging against a coloured background works well as a piece of typographic art.

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