A classic which can be found almost everywhere around the world:

THE THONET CHAIR

Did you know that the Thonet Chair (a.k.a Konsumstuhl Nr. 14) is one of the most famous pieces of Austrian design? I didn’t. And have to admit that I thought by myself:

How the heck can a sometimes so uncomfortable chair
become so popular?

Probably it’s due to the perfect merger of simple design using steam benting, the affordable price and its timeless classic elegance.

The first chair of the chairs was designed and crafted by Michael Thonet back in 1859. Since then it conquered the world.
Curious rates & dates I found a few days ago in an amusing article by Robert Haidinger in derstandard (print version):

- between 1959 and 1938 the Thonet Chair was sold about 5 million times.

- 1859 the Thonet Nr. 14 cost about 36 times as much as a raw egg

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Where you can find the Thonet chair these days?

for example at Thonet Germany or at Thonet Vienna

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pic credits:
chair by Supertopic
Thonet found on Wikipedia

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Location of our first Creative Coding/Laser Cut Session, pic: Paraflyer

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That pic makes me pretty excited!!!

Tomorrow I am heading to the pictoresque lake region of Upper Austria to join Fluid Forms’ first Creative Coding and Laser Cut Session.

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Speedy 500 Laser Cutter, pic: SherTec

The next few days about 20 product designers, creative coders and media people crowd together to hack a nice piece of Hi-Tech: a brand new Speedy 500 laser cutter!

Stephen (@s_t_e_p_h_e_n) and Hannes (@hanneswalter) already left today with a mini-van full of stuff. Felt, glass, plastic, metal and much more is ready to be fed to Speedy, the gigantic fire-spitting monster.

The main aim of this session is to push limits of laser cutting (learn more aboutSpeedy 500 or watch what laser cutters can do) and realize some exciting product ideas.

I am not sure what happens if you give a creative and crazy bunch of people access to the latest digital manufacturing technologies. But I will definately share with you what I see and hear there!

So stay tuned, revisit our blog and/or follow us on twitter!

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After hearing some good things about Unity3D I decided to have a closer look. Check out the Unity3D keynote.

The key benefits for me are as follows.

• It is a real 3D engine with great shading, lighting and performance.

• You code in Javascript with the same performance as the other supported languages, C# or the python dialect Boo.

• Export for Wii (price unknown) or iPhone ( + US$399) with one second code-compile-try iteration.

• Built in AGEIA physics engine which can run on a physics cart if installed.

• Generates native code

Disadvantages

• You have to buy the IDE (US$199)

• Users have to install a plugin. Installation is easy but after I installed in on Chrome it didn’t restart the browser which was required to complete the installation. I’m not sure how many people have installed the plugin already.

• Javascript has advantages but also problems that are stuck in the standard

At the end of the day.

I hope everyone installs the browser plugin since it seems like a great technology. If the number of installed plugin gets up their I will certainly be getting into Unity3D.

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something I should have done a loooong time ago…

Indroducing the people behind Fluid Forms starting today with…myself

A heroic tale about honor and glory
…or how to earn enough money to buy underwear in Panamá

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Andreas Jaritz, (Social) Media Exploration Leader

…saw the first light on earth in a pristine Austrian wine region. Founding different gangs during his childhood (e.g. the „leather-jacket-wearing-Kindergarten-crew“ or the „copy-and-paste-newspaper-gang”) he early discovered his affinity for entrepreneurial activities.

He nailed his first big deal during his time as an exchange student in Chile. Together with his long-time buddy Chris (@wildscreentv) he realized his dream. A dream that should later become his ticket to business. Both being kind of „endless summer surf guys“ where on the quest to find the perfect van for their time in Chile. The van they finally bought was THE van. A hippie style 1962 VW T1.

After they had spent some of their best months in life, they where completely busted. But there was still another dream left to be brought to life: a trip to Central America. So they where confronted with a big challenge: sell the car for a reasonable price so they could eat and buy clean underwear in Panamà. Unfortunately nobody wanted to buy an old car in Chile… So there was only one opportunity left: selling it to an enthusiast in Europe. So how on earth do you think they did it?

The magic word is: Social Media Marketing.

The story is true: They used all the tools the internet had to offer in building up a strong relationship to a guy from Belgium who finally bought the car (without having any chance to test-drive it etc. in advance). This deal allowed them to visit Panamà. And the story helped Andy to get his first job as an online marketing consultant…

He now changes his underwear every day! Do you?

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What can be more personally touching than turning your own thoughts, wishes emotions or even your body into fancy stuff you can wear on your person?

Imprecious.com answers this question with delicate silver charms you give your own touch (in the true sense of the word): They craft pieces of custom jewelry out of your own or your special one’s fingerprint.

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How does it work?

Order a necklace, earrings or a bracelet in their online shop. Within 7 days they’ll send you their Print Capture Kit. Use the kit to make a copy of your fingerprint (that reminds me somehow of that James Bond thing, where they copy a key by pressing it into a block of soap). Send the kit back to Imprecious and they craft your custom piece of jewelry which makes a absolutely individual gift.

Print Capture Kit

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Ok, in general, I really like the idea of creating cool stuff out of my body. But there are some concerns worth to talk about:

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1. Fingerprints and privacy

I spoke to @s_t_e_p_h_e_n about the issue and he told me that the big problem with fingerprint-to-product approaches is that people don’t like to give their fingerprints to strangers (He must know because back in 2005 he and @hanneswalter published their fingerprint sculpture project).

This is how Imprecious handles the privacy question:

Imprints will be kept on file for 1 year from initial order, just in case you want to order more pieces, maybe as a gift for someone else! But if you prefer, we will send the imprints back to you along with your jewelry… just let us know.

Reading this I do not really know what happens with my data. Therefore I would like to read some privacy policy or things like that…

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2. Shipping

That’s actually my personal concern. The process involves a lot of shipping. The ship has to leave the harbor at least 3 times…

Is there a simpler/cheaper/sustainable yet reliable (digital) way? I imagine there are smart people out there (who have played detective as a child) with the necessary knowledge…

Imprecious, as far as I could read on their webpage, is willing to find solutions:

As we grow we intend to do so with responsibility for our “footprint” and our community. We make the commitment to reduce, recycle and reuse wherever possible.

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What do you think?

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