Powered by nothing but sunlight and some threads, Thomas Traxlers‘ “The idea of a tree project” shows us how objects can grow during the course of a day. The installation is powered by a couple of solar cells which power the entire device, causing the process to move faster or slower depending on the amount of available light. The speed of the process determines the amount of saturation of the thread, giving a visual recording in the resulting object. Thomas Traxler just graduated from the IM Masters department of the Design Academy Eindhoven, 2008.
Karsten Schmidt (a.k.a. Toxi) was commissioned by PRINT Magazine to create his own generative letterforms for the August 2008 cover. He used the Gray-Scott reaction diffusion model in a Processing sketch (an open source programming language) to generate a 3D typographical model. That 3D file was then printed with a 3D printer and photographed for the cover. You can read a short interview with him at the PRINT Magazine website. In this Flickr set you can find more photos and images of the whole process.
Here is a video of an early Processing sketch, the 2D frames where later stacked to a 3D model.
Xavier Veilhan did some projects together with AIR, the French band. He was responsible for the cover of ‘Pocket Symphony’, their latest album. He also made these vacuum form figurines, I really like their 3D surface.
This is the Diamond Chair by Nendo. On the first picture you can see a step in the production process, indeed it’s a rapid prototyping technique called selective laser sintering. It’s very similar to the 3D printing that Front Design used for their Sketch Furniture.
Unfortunately this technology isn’t ready for mass production yet, it takes 5 to 6 days just to print 1 chair.
More info and images at dezeen.
This 3D printing rapid prototyping technology is really taking of. Next up: food! The CandyFab Project can make any 3D shape in sugar. I can’t wait for the first french fries coming from such a printer.
found @ wired geekdad
Indeed this watch was printed with a rapid prototyping 3D printer by Frederic Hakoune. Okay, it’s actually only the casing of the watch that was printed, but still. He could print a different casing design every … You can see more pictures of the whole process in his Facebook account.
Did you ever wonder how designers and architects come up with those crazy shapes? Well, here is the answer: they script them! Yeah it’s just some math and formulas fed to 3D software like Rhinoceros. So now you know why you pay that much …
Ok, that’s a little exaggerated, but still.
This coffee table called “Polytop” by Marc Fornes is a perfect example. Every table is unique, which is easily accomplished with scripting and modern production techniques like CNC.
Patrick Jouin designed some solid stereolitography furniture a while ago. Stereolitography is a rapid prototyping technique and gaining popularity day by day.
The four FRONT members have developed a method to materialise free hand sketches. They make it possible by using a unique method where two advanced techniques are combined.
Pen strokes made in the air are recorded with Motion Capture and become 3D digital files; these are then materialised through Rapid Prototyping into real pieces of furniture.
This is the Diamond Chair by 
