make your fridays matter with a well-read weekend

make your fridays matter

Worm-made stools to dice-like furniture: Digital craftsmanship in product designs
Best of 2024: Digital craftsmanship in product designs
Image: Courtesy of STIR
14
News

Worm-made stools to dice-like furniture: Digital craftsmanship in product designs

STIRred 2024: STIR rounds up innovative interventions in the sphere of product design that interlaced digital techniques and traditional craftsmanship.

by Anushka Sharma
Published on : Dec 25, 2024

What peculiarities attest to an object's craftsmanship? The tedious hours that dissipate in its making or the intricacies that unhurriedly reveal themselves as one approaches it? Is craftsmanship attributed to the traces of the maker's hand on the object's surface or the avenues of change and innovation it introduces to the world? The very idea of craft has long been inextricably linked to its humane aspect—gestures of the human hand intimately woven into the masterful processes. However, in the contemporary world, where methods and mechanisms across industries and creative spheres pace towards digitality, does a new offshoot of craftsmanship emerge?

3D printing, artificial intelligence, robotics and several other advancing digital technologies penetrate the realms of art and design, concocting a hybrid language of digital craftsmanship. Skimming through the Best of 2024 archive, STIR enlists product interventions that stem from such digital tools—perched at the sweet spot where the manual and the digital collide.

1. Digested Objects by William Eliot

British designer and founder of Biocrafting.Studio William Eliot collaborates with over 150 mealworms to produce Digested Objects. In the bio-collaborative process, larvae are exposed to waste polystyrene which they eat away, gradually shaping a three-legged stool design prototype. As the worms follow trails and burrow away, the subtractive process yields a miniature furniture piece of leftover polystyrene. "Seeing insects and animals as creative partners, not just species that need to be protected, alters perceptions we have of the creatures that inhabit the planet. It opens up creative opportunities and engages interaction and engagement in ways that go beyond charity," Eliot tells STIR.

2. Terra-Nova by Gruff Jones

UK-based designer Gruff Jones creates Terra-Nova in an effort to reintroduce interaction and tactility in product design. The ensemble includes three smart home devices—thermostat, smart assistant and light controller—that are minimal yet striking in their interactive designs. Through the use of terracotta, the industrial designer bridges the archaic material with modern applications.

3. LightMass^ by Raw-Edges Studio

Light morphs into a spatial experience and a sculptural element with this collection by London-based Raw-Edges Studio. Dubbed LightMass^, is a troupe of lighting designs that suspend in a space like art, with voluminous yet delicate meshes achieved through careful engineering of a bio-based PLA/ biopolymer blend. The luminaires are produced using FDM (fused deposition modelling) additive technology, a method that the designers chose for its zero-waste potential and sustainability. "With LEDs, we don't need to diffuse light with shades anymore but we still need structural elements to define a space," studio founders, Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay, tell STIR.

4. Ceramic Blossom by Masquespacio

Spanish design studio Masquespacio blends the cutting-edge 3D printing technology with handmade finishes and traditional craftsmanship in the ceramic collection titled Ceramic Blossom. Each lamp design partaking in the ensemble starts from the 3D printed base and is adorned with meticulously hand-moulded petals and vibrant hues—an intersection of industrial and human processes. "Our ceramic lamp, Ceramic Blossom, is a tribute to this indomitable spirit, with its vivid colours mirroring joy and emotion," the product designers say.

5. 12 archetype sculptures by Jo Fairfax

This sculptural body of work is artist Jo Fairfax's interpretation of Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung's 12 archetypes of the human psyche: Ruler, Creator/Artist, Sage, Innocent, Explorer, Rebel, Hero, Wizard, Jester, Everyman, Lover and Caregiver. Interweaving traditional craftsmanship—handcrafting, putty application, painting, custom decal positioning and finishing with wax and varnish—and 3D printing mechanisms, the designer breathes life into a series of sculptural art donned in white and subtle colour accents. "I wanted to feel my way through this set of 12 sculptural archetypes. I oscillated between my subconscious voice and my conscious sculptural analysis voice; I asked myself questions about each form and what each component was adding to or subtracting from the piece," Fairfax shares.

6. DICE by KOSMOS Architects

In pursuit of experimentation and unconventional utility, Switzerland-based KOSMOS Architects create DICE. The inventive design transcends the limitations of furniture design by shapeshifting into four distinct typologies: a stool, a coffee table, a leg bench and a lighting design. "When tipped to different sides, the DICE can serve as a stool, coffee table or footstool. DICE can be attached to a rope or similar hanging material and suspended from the ceiling for lighting or placed as a floor lamp. Throw the dice and this project will take a new shape depending on how the user rotates it," the designers share.

7. Prinx lamps by Sung Ai Tsai

Prinx lamps, modular lighting fixtures by Taiwan-based industrial designer Sung Ai Tsai, embody a singular geometric texture. Owing to the three 3D printed components, the lamps can be assembled in different shapes and sizes. The PLA components also feature varying thicknesses across their different parts, easing the process of bending and turning them. Talking about the inspiration behind the modular design, Tsai says, "My inspiration is derived from auxetic structures, which possess mechanical properties that cause them to expand in the vertically stretched direction when subjected to impact."

STIRred 2024 wraps up the year with curated compilations of our expansive art, architecture and design coverage at STIR this year. Did your favourites make the list? Tell us in the comments!

What do you think?

Comments Added Successfully!