there's no business like small business

THERE’S NO BUSINESS

LIKE SMALL BUSINESS

THERE’SNO BUSINESS

LIKE SMALLBUSINESS

BRAD RUDER & GUESTS SCION

INSTALLATION 6: VIDEO (WICHITA)

JOHNATHAN ZAWANDA IT WAS ON EARTH

THAT I KNEW JOY (INSTALLATION LA)

SCOTT HOVE PALATE (INSTALLATION LA)



SCOTT HOVE PALATE (INSTALLATION LA)Image shot using PX-100 Silver Shade film from The Impossible Project

STAFFScion Project Manager: Jeri Yoshizu, Sciontist Scion Project Coordinator: Stephen GisondiEditor: Eric DuckerCreative Direction: ScionArt Director: Ryan Di DonatoProduction Director: Anton SchlesingerAssistant Editor: Maud DeitchGraphic Designers: Mike Afsa, Cameron Charles

CONTRIBUTORSWriters: Jonathan Cunningham, Reyhan Harmanci, Caroline McCloskey, Evan Shamoon, Jeff Thrope, Eliot Van BuskirkPhotographers: Marina Chavez, Kevin Ito, Neil Krug, Megan Luke, Bryan Sheffield Illustrator: Mario Wagner

Cover: Ecovative Design’s EcoCradle packaging photographed by Megan LukeInside Cover Photography: Neil Krug

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Printed on 100% Post Consumer Waste Recycled Paper.

This issue of Scion magazine is dedicated

to small businesses, highlighting people and

companies that run on true innovative spirit.

You won’t find any get-rich-quick schemes in

here. The past few decades have taught us

enough about the art of getting over, and all

it really got us was a lot of major problems.

Now we’re living in uncertain times, but

thankfully, uncertainty breeds all kinds of

opportunity. The rules have changed and the

possibilities for how things could be have

opened up. It’s during these historic moments

that we crave substantive ideas that will have

a lasting impact, whether they are as small as

the businesses that dream them up or if they

are big enough to change entire industries.

KICK-STARTER

ONE OF THE BIGGEST AND OFTEN

MOST DREAM-KILLINGEST

CHALLENGES FACING CREATIVE

PEOPLE TODAY ISN’T COMING UP

WITH THAT MILLION-DOLLAR IDEA.

RATHER, THE REAL CHALLENGE IS

COMING UP WITH THE $5000 NECESSARY TO MAKE THAT BRILLIANT BRAINWAVE A REALITY.

In a climate of widespread economic insecurity, the question is not whether or not you want to do something groundbreaking, it’s whether you have access to the capital to make it happen. Kickstarter hopes to change that.Kickstarter is an online fundraising platform for creative projects. Ideas are submitted to the company and, if approved, an explanation of the project and a fundraising goal are posted to the site. The creators, Yancey Strickler and Perry Chen, try to take advantage of the vast webs that creative people are able to cultivate using social networks to help meet the goals. Creative gentlemen themselves, Strickler was formerly head of the editorial staff at eMusic, while Chen was a struggling event promoter. After meeting in 2005 and raising capital from their families and friends, the two saw their idea made into reality in April 2009 when Kickstarter launched online.

In order to make Kickstarter a sustainable reality, Strickler and Chen developed an all-or-nothing funding rule, stating that a project had to reach its full funding goal in order to be funded at all. They also decided that for every successful project that met its fundraising goal, Kickstarter would receive five percent of the money raised.

INTERVIEW BY MAUD DEITCH

“IT WAS JUST VERY CLEAR THAT THERE WAS SOMETHING EXTREMELY BROKEN, AND THAT IS WHERE KICKSTARTER CAME FROM.”

In an interview with Strickler, he explained a little more about how the site got started and what he looks for in a project.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - How did Kickstarter begin?

My partner Perry Chen first had the idea back in 2002. He was living in New Orleans and was putting on a concert. He was going to have to front something like 15 or 20 grand to make it happen and he just thought that seemed idiotic. He knew people would be into it, if only he could get people to conditionally pay up front. That way, if the goal was met something happens. The initial idea came out of that, and then

he and I started working on this together about five years ago. We’d just met in Brooklyn, where I was a regular at Diner in Williamsburg. He was a waiter at that restaurant, we became friends and then we started working together.

We had this idea for the conditional purchase and the idea of applying it to creative projects. Feeding creativity came very naturally to us because that’s the world that we come from. Just looking around at all of our friends and ourselves, we saw that everyone was trying to get money and it’s really, really hard. Most of the traditional funding opportunities are looking for a return on their investment or they want to own your work or they want to make lunch boxes and sequels out of it. Or they want to do all of these things that have no relation to the actual art of what the person’s doing or their motivation or anything like that. It was just very clear that there was something extremely broken, and that is where Kickstarter came from.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Did you always think the internet was the only vehicle for this?

An interesting thing is that when we first started working on this in earnest, there was no social media. There wasn’t a Facebook or a Twitter or any of these things. It’s a very obvious thing, but now we all have a broadcast platform. This is the first time in history that has been the case, and so it ends up that we continually gather these friends and followers and things without any clear idea of what we’re going to do with them. But it turns out that a really good application for them is raising money.

The beauty of Kickstarter is that it just sits on the back of these existing networks, and since most projects are funded by people with some kind of relation to the people who started them, you know there are people who care about it and are willing to take a chance. Only after you’ve built a movement of those people do you start to see strangers pop in and get involved. But the internet is just super powerful for something like this, and it’s just so easy to share, so that makes a lot of sense.

There’s an interesting statistic that relates to that a bit, which is that if a project reaches 25 percent of its funding goal, it eventually succeeds 92 percent of the time. And so what that says to us is you get this core group of people who love you and who really care, and they start to tell your story with you and for you. And when people start to see that somebody’s in trouble—like, How are they going to make up this big gap?—they just jump in to help because it’s exciting, because it’s fun, because it feels good, because there’s some reward that you want and you make sure that you get it.

pledged, funded, backers $15,255, 102%, 229

- BICYCLE PORTRAITS - EVERYDAY SOUTH AFRICANS

AND THEIR BICYCLES

pledged, funded, backers$8,485, 100%, 170

A DICTIONARY STORY - ART BOOK -

3

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Is that statistic you just mentioned a big motivation for the all-or-nothing funding?

We had no idea that statistic would be true. We like all-or-nothing because it’s fun, there’s sort of a game and and interactive element to it, and so you get to follow along and find out “Will it make it or will it not?”

But there are other good reasons for this system, too. If it’s just an open-ended sort of thing there isn’t a real impetus for people to jump in. You can

procrastinate forever, and people do. You ask anyone with a PayPal button on their website, and I’m sure that’s what they’ll say—they’ll say it doesn’t work, raising money online doesn’t work. And it doesn’t work because there aren’t clear reasons why people should do it.

If people know where the money is going there’s some level of protection for both the creator and the backer, which means we’re all agreeing to these

terms. And if we hit these terms, then great, and if we don’t, no big deal. I talk to almost everyone who starts a project and people are often terrified of the deadline idea, and more so at the beginning. I think once people launch a project they love the deadline, because it gives them a finite point.

A lot of people use Kickstarter as a place to test ideas and concepts. If you’ve had an idea that you’re convinced is genius that’s been sitting on the top of your fridge forever that you’ve always wanted to do, well now you can finally see if it’s worth your while. And you

know, it’s funny—when it comes to launching an idea or following a dream, you know you either want it to succeed immediately or fail immediately. You don’t want it to take a long time to fail. That’s the worst.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Is that something you look at when you’re approving projects to go on the site? Do you actively weigh whether or not this is something that will appeal to a lot of people, or do you just look at the project and the dedication of the people and allow it to take its course?

I get excited when it seems like a big idea, but no, when we’re choosing to approve projects it’s entirely about whether this is a creative project that fits our guidelines. Then we’ll help you sculpt your project as best we can, and if you’re nice and show that you’re really dedicated then we’ll work that much harder with you.

If you’re trying to pitch a charity or a general business expense or trying to buy Jenny a prom dress, then we’re going to decline that and say we’re not the right place for this. For us, it’s just about creating an environment where you know people can do things that they’re excited about, and so a charity

is an interesting example. A lot of charities want to work on Kickstarter, but we built this specifically for creative projects, and it’s tough, because if I’m writing a book of poetry and you’re saving Haiti, I look like a jerk because I’m writing poetry even though that’s what this is meant for. But there are a lot of resources out there for non-profits already.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Do you advise people about what a realistic amount to ask for is or do you just ask for the amount that it’ll take to get this project going?

I think that determining a funding amount is probably the single hardest thing about starting a project, because you’re plucking a number out of the air. None of us is trained in this and it’s really tough. If you ask for too little then your momentum might die when you hit your goal. If you ask for too much, then you can be completely screwed. I always tell people, “You can always raise more than your goal but never less.”

Ideally you’re shooting for the upper end of what you think is gettable, because you want people to dig a little deep in terms of spreading the word along. But I rarely give specific advice [on how much to ask for]. Honestly, with most people, what they can raise is proportional to their own sort of outreach, their own network. I would love if magically one day we could have a little equation that factors how many Twitter followers you have, how many Facebook friends, how much money is ideal to raise and then be like, This is your goal. But we’ll never be able to do that.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Do you think there are some types of projects that get funded faster, or do you think it really has to do with the people that are behind it?

I definitely see a lot of trends, but they’re not really based on category. If you think about it, communities are really good at learning for themselves. If you think about the first eBay auction, I’m sure it had a manufacturer’s photo as the picture of the product. And it was the tenth guy who was like, Oh, I’m gonna take a picture [of the product] on my really ugly blue couch so people know I really have this thing, and then suddenly that became a new way people behaved on eBay. And we see stuff like that. We’ll see someone make a really good video that has a really interesting style, so we’ll highlight it, and for the next month all the videos will mimic that to some degree. And it’s a great thing. I love that people are learning from each other.

I feel like the actual stated goal of the project is actually much less important than the person doing it. I think in almost any case that’s true. I think I’ve backed the most projects out of anyone. I think I’ve backed about 180 projects. It just becomes this

“I THINK I’VE BACKED

THE MOST PROJECTS

OUT OF ANYONE. I THINK

I’VE BACKED ABOUT

180 PROJECTS. IT JUST

BECOMES THIS SOCIAL

ENDORSEMENT.”

“IF PEOPLE KNOW

WHERE THE MONEY

IS GOING THERE’S

SOME LEVEL OF PRO-

TECTION FOR BOTH

THE CREATOR AND THE

BACKER, WHICH MEANS

WE’RE ALL AGREEING

TO THESE TERMS.”


PLASTIC BAG AS HUMBLE PRESENT

- AN ARTIST’S BOOK -


-BRIGHT BIKE DIY KITS- NIGHT VISIBILITY FOR

SAFER RIDING

4

OPEN INDIE

Though the means and tools to make movies have become increasingly accessible, these days even accomplished independent moviemakers have trouble finding venues to show their work. With this problem in mind, filmmaker Arin Crumley teamed up with web developer Kieran Masterton to create OpenIndie, an online forum where, for a $100 fee, filmmakers can post a synopsis and trailer of their films for a year and, based upon response gauged by zip code, hold screenings in receptive cities around the world.

“Crowd funding” is an increasingly popular way of raising money on the internet. In the case of OpenIndie, the response was even greater than expected and the sum generated by fees and donations has so far been substantial enough to sustain the enterprise.

“The majority of our films come from filmmakers or microstudios who are fiercely independent and want to manage the entire lifecycle of their film, from production through distribution and exhibition,” says Masterson. Directors are often frustrated when a successful run on the festival circuit fails to snag a decent distribution deal and look for other ways to make their work available to the public. “That isn’t to say we don’t think there is a place for festivals or traditional distribution,” Masterton says. “We recognize this is still the goal for many filmmakers and OpenIndie is designed to augment existing avenues rather than replace them.”

On OpenIndie, visitors wander the site, “requesting” any film that catches their eye (a request is essentially a promise that the requester will attend a screening in

their area). The site then groups these requests geographically so that potential hosts—theaters, community centers, film clubs, a group of friends with a projector and a white wall—can see where demand is the greatest. When a screening is scheduled, anyone within 50 miles who requested the movie is invited to attend.

“Our goal is to expand and build a theatrical network of cinemas that show OpenIndie films on a regular basis,” says Masterton. They would also like to create a revenue-sharing tool for venues and filmmakers. For now, though, Masterton explains that OpenIndie is guided by a perhaps equally ambitious objective:

“To provide indie film fans with an alternative means to see the thousands of beautiful films created every year that would otherwise never see the light of day.”

openindie.com

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CAR

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SUCCESSFULLY FUNDED BY KICKSTARTER

LUMICO

Jesse Genet was just your average 17-year-old, making T-shirts in her basement “as you do,” she says. Possessed with an entrepreneurial spirit that didn’t allow her to be satisfied with keeping this activity a hobby, however, Genet developed her T-shirt company into a full-scale business, selling her wares at local boutiques. This is no small feat for a young artist and designer, but for Genet it wasn’t enough. On the advice of an apparel executive who told her she would only be successful if she did something nobody else could or would, Genet set out on what would become a five-year quest to find a new and different way of printing.

She knew she wanted to move beyond the limitations that traditional screen-printing imposed upon her, primarily in regards to printing images onto natural fabrics like leather. When she approached established printing houses and asked if there was any way to do this, the response was a unilateral

“impossible.” After much basement experimentation, Genet discovered, she says, “the seed of something that [she] thought could become a very interesting new textile printing process.” Still very young, however,

she “didn’t have the resources and know-how to make it happen at the time.” Genet didn’t give up, but slowed her investigation in favor of attending design school in Los Angeles. It was there that she met Stéphan Angoulvant and took “two steps back to look at the tools I was using and re-imagine them,” she says. From this, Genet and Angoulvant started Lumi Co.

Due to a pending process patent, Genet is unable to go into detail about how exactly Lumi Co. produces their photorealistic prints on natural fibers such as raw leather. Genet says her success is largely due to the fact that she based it on her research into printing techniques outside of textile printing (although again she can’t tell us what those techniques are). Genet will say that she and Angoulvant, with the help of engineers and friends, built every element of the machine they use to

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Genet wanted to move beyond the limitations that traditional screenprinting imposed upon her in regards to printing images onto natural fabrics.

produce their images themselves. “We have just been building things from scratch and figuring stuff out,” she says, and makes it very clear that the process of optimizing this technology has only just begun. Apparently, she says, this drive to

create a new tool “isn’t exactly normal for designers,” and it was something that Genet recognized in Angoulvant immediately. “For a lot of designers, this would be too technical for them—they just want to use the tool,” says Genet.

lumi-co.com

SUCCESSFULLY FUNDED BY KICKSTARTER

social endorsement. Sometimes I care about what I’m going to get, other times I just think they’re special or I want to feel connected in some kind of way. And when I look around the site, I really don’t think of it as a bunch of different fundraisers, in fact I never think of it that way. I think of it as little narratives. There are times when I feel like I’m the dude who loaned Basquiat 50 grand in 1980 and now I’m getting to go over to his loft and see his works in

progress. It feels like that, except I’m just a guy that gave them a dollar on the internet.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - How much do you feel that promising rewards affects the success of a project? Do you think the straightforward rewards, like a copy of an album or a tote bag, work better than the weird stuff?

I think people really want the weird. I think what people want is a story that they can be a part of. They want to be able to say, I found this weird thing on the internet that was super cool and this is what I got out of it and this is how I’m involved now. A really good example is an early project by a guy named Earl Scioneaux—he’s a musician from New Orleans and he was making a record. One of his rewards was that for $50 you could come over to his house and he would make you gumbo. And he was like, I make the best gumbo, and they obviously take it pretty seriously down there. So he posted this and all ten of the spots filled up immediately. He was totally shocked by that, so he decided to have a party in his studio and these ten people would come over and they’d have a big potluck and he’d make the gumbo, he’d play some songs and have some musicians come over, you know, it’d be just like a New Orleans party. And people who had never met him before drove there from places like Atlanta and Houston. He’s just some dude on the internet. But I’m sure for them it’s like, What an interesting story, what a cool thing to be a part of. I think things like that kind of push the project further out and it’s a story that we can share.

I really think a driving thing with Kickstarter is something that we will often talk about internally as

“affinity commerce.” It’s this idea that we really care about where the things that we buy, the things that we consume, come from. This is the thing that’s

driving farmers’ markets and it’s the reason that we go there and pay the extra $5 for the block of cheese with the notecard on it that says it was raised by an Argentinean amputee. When you get to go to dinner that night you have this story about the cheese that

everyone loves. And that’s sort of the thing that we do socially now and there is value in that. We put value in that. I think with Kickstarter we want it to be on a macro level. We all know who our audience is better than anyone else does, better than some record label would, or some store, and so when you put that power in a certain kind of person’s hands, they get really creative and you have these sort of magical rewards happen.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Do you feel that “affinity commerce” appeals to a particular age group? Do you see that a lot of the people who are getting involved are either from similar socioeconomic backgrounds or ages, or are coming from a certain cultural perspective?

There is a certain kind of consumer who cares about these things, but I think that it’s growing and that the internet makes it easier to share this kind of information. There are just so many ways that things we buy are obfuscated from us, but clearly that’s changing. And I think that as it changes more and people begin to highlight these things more, that it will begin to feed itself.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Kickstarter is able to sustain itself through the percentage commission, which allows people to not have to feel insecure about whether or not you’re going to go under before they get their project funded. Did you have a hard time developing a workable business plan for the platform?

I think that we just hoped it would work, and we felt good about charging five percent. We thought that seemed more than fair. We just sort of hoped people would like it, we were making a lot of guesses.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Do you keep in touch with people after they’ve gotten their funding? Have you received a lot of feedback about whether these projects are actually getting started?

Programmatically we don’t do anything like that, but in the bubble of their own project, there’s a lot of communication between the creators and the backers. One of the things that I struggle with is that the way we treat projects is that we really celebrate them when they’re getting funded because we like them and we want them to do well. Once the fundraising ends

we don’t really do much to highlight it, but that’s when a lot of the interesting stuff starts to happen.

kickstarter.com

pledged, funded, backers $200,642, 2006%, 6,479DECENTRALIZE THE

WEB WITH DIASPORA

pledged, funded, backers$10,653, 107%, 193

THE OLDEST LIVING THINGS IN THE WORLD

7

BLACK IRIS

Black Iris Studio Space Echo Park, California

BLACK IRISTHE LIFE OF AN INDIE ROCK MUSICIAN HAS ITS PERKS—TOURING THE MODERATELY SIZED CLUBS OF THE WORLD, THE SLAVISH DEVOTION OF A SMALL SEGMENT OF THE POPULATION, GIFTING SUITES SURROUNDING MUSIC CONFERENCES—BUT A STEADY INCOME GENERALLY ISN’T ONE OF THEM...

STORY BY CAROLINE McCLOSKEY

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN SHEFFIELD

9

“At that time in advertising, there were a lot of

people licensing tracks from indie and

underground bands,” says Hollowell. “We said,

We come from this world, it seems like there’s a

market for the kind of music we make. We

thought if we teamed up with some of the bands

and people we’d been touring with we could start

an indie rock music house that employs them.”

Of course, there was no way of anticipating the

demand this side project would generate. What

began with a Pro Tools setup in a Hollowell’s

closet has blossomed into Black Iris, a collective

of musical talent with outposts in Richmond,

New York and Los Angeles that has created

work for Sharp and Gatorade, among others.

With a stable of three full-time composers and a

couple dozen freelance artists, Black Iris has

enough depth to produce original music in

genres ranging from acoustic rock to hip-hop. “I

think that because of things like TiVo and

people not being forced to watch advertising,

content needs to be really entertaining in its

own right if anyone’s going to pay attention to

it,” says Hollowell. “That’s led people to want to

do excellent, creative work in advertising. They

want to work with people they feel are coming

from a place that’s authentic and not just

bringing cookie-cutter ad music to the table.”

As musicians themselves, the founders

understood the ambivalence some artists might

feel about using their personal work for

corporate clients. Consequently, almost all of

Black Iris’ ad work consists of original

commissions made by the collective rather than

pre-existing songs by a particular artist. In

2008, Black Iris launched a label of its own,

putting out 7-inches of original material by

some of the artists they’d collaborated with on

commercial work, including Foreign Born, Best

Coast and Bad Veins.

Beyond providing musicians with some extra

income, working with big companies has yielded

unexpected benefits. “One thing that was

surprising to us is how creatively rewarding it’s

been to write the stuff on the ad side,” Hollowell

says. “You’re working in so many different

styles and challenged to do so many different

things, it actually feeds your art as well.”

blackiris.tv

WITH THIS IN MIND, IN 2004, FRIENDS AND SOMETIME

BANDMATES DARON HOLLOWELL, JUSTIN BAILEY AND

DAVE JACKSON TOOK THE SUGGESTION OF FRIENDS WHO

WORKED AT AN AD GIANT IN THEIR HOMETOWN OF

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, AND STARTED WRITING ORIGINAL

MUSIC FOR COMMERCIALS ON THE SIDE. AFTER THE

EXPERIMENT PROVED SUCCESSFUL, THEY KEPT IT GOING—

NOT TO SUPPLANT THEIR PERSONAL PROJECTS, BUT AS A

MEANS TO SUPPORT THEM.

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While the rise of the digital camera has opened up its share of creative possibilities, it’s also taken some of the verve out of photography. Craig Strong, inventor and president of Lensbaby (and former wedding photographer), went digital early on, but missed the organic feel of shooting film. He began tinkering with old Speed Graphic lenses and Shop-Vac hosing and the original Lensbaby was born: a special lens for digital SLR cameras that allows users to manually control the focus and achieve idiosyncratic, expressive results.

Since that initial flashbulb went off inside Strong’s head in 2004, Lensbaby has become a full product line of creative effects lenses. In addition to selective focus photography, the company now offers pinhole, fisheye and soft focus options. “We’re a much larger company than we were six years ago, but we’ve still managed to stay true to our original grassroots vision of helping professional and amateur photographers see and document their worlds in unique and creative ways,” says Strong. To

account for the company’s success, he cites how the unique look created by Lensbaby products help photographers stand out in an age when everyone and their mom is snapping photos at all times. Then there’s the price: Lensbabies cost a fraction of what Nikon or Canon glass goes for.

As digital SLR cameras with HD video become more prevalent, Lensbaby lenses are edging their way into the world of moving pictures as well, being used for music videos and Julian Schnabel’s Oscar-nominated film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. That’s not bad for a product that officially launched at the 2004 Wedding and Portrait Photographers International trade show in Las Vegas. “It was such a hit [back then] that we were building the lenses up in our hotel room and rushing them down to the trade show floor and still kept running out of stock,” says Strong.

lensbaby.com

STORY BY EVAN SHAMOON

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARINA CHAVEZ

“Double Glass OPTIC” at 4.0 w/0.6 X Wide Angle Lens Accessory (2 second exposure)

“Double Glass OPTIC” at 2.8 w/0.42X Wide Angle Lens Accessory (32 second exposure)

14

“Double Glass OPTIC” at 4.0 - no lens accessory (5 second exposure)


17

STORY BY ELIOT VAN BUSKIRK

PHOTOS COURTESY OF FREEDOM OF CREATION

Freedom of Creation founder Janne Kyttänen grew up in Finland dreaming of a world where anyone could design objects and have them created three-dimensionally. That was the stuff of science fiction at the time, but today, 3D printing machines are real and increasingly available.

The same way regular office printers replicate words on paper, these machines create objects of any shape using a somewhat similar method, except they print in plastic instead of ink. This technology lets the Amsterdam-based Freedom of Creation manufacture everything from lamps to customized headphones while Kyttänen sits on his couch or at the beach, using his laptop. When he’s done, Kyttänen electronically sends his designs to a 3D printer to put them into the real world, where they’re attracting growing interest from some rather prominent shoppers. Apple recently bought some of Kyttänen’s iPhone case designs, the Museum of Modern Art sells his work in its stores, and he’s been treated like a star everywhere from Dubai tradeshows to furniture exhibitions in Milan.

Kyttänen envisions his products being distributed “in the same way images and music travel through the internet today,” which is a fairly ambitious mission statement. In an interview we asked him to elaborate.

YOU HAVE BEEN INVOLVED WITH THE 3D PRINTING SCENE SINCE YOUR EARLY WORK AT THE GERRIT RIETVELD ACADEMIE IN AMSTERDAM, WELL BEFORE EVEN TECHNOLOGY INSIDERS STARTED TALKING ABOUT IT. WHAT WAS IT THAT FIRST FASCINATED YOU ABOUT THIS TECHNOLOGY, AND HOW DO YOU FEEL NOW THAT THE REST OF THE WORLD IS CATCHING UP?

I had my first computer when I was eight years old. My older brother is a fantastic 3D graphics professional—animations, commercials, stills, etc.—so I was introduced accidentally to 3D by looking over his shoulders and seeing what he was doing. I also had a great mentor very early on, which enabled me to create using 3D software as a replacement for my pen. The pen was no longer a limiting factor, which it still is for most.

When I first saw 3D printers in the mid ’90s, it was really like a swoosh going through my brain. Everything around me turned into wireframe. This might sound cheesy, but it was pretty much like in the movie The Matrix. In that moment, I knew exactly what I could make in 3D on the computer, and now I also had the tools to make anything I ever wanted. I stopped drawing with a pencil at that very moment.

I was a bit frustrated that I didn’t have these tools available when I was a kid, because I would have made the craziest toys for all the kids in the sandpit. When I began, I didn’t want to create products, I wanted to design an entire new industry for this planet. Our work at Freedom of Creation is inspiring the design world and many designers to do just that. I am glad there are now others following in my footsteps and we fully support everybody getting into this field.

WHAT MAIN ADVANTAGES DOES 3D PRINTING GIVE YOU AS A DESIGNER AND SELLER OF PHYSICAL OBJECTS?

From a commercial perspective, I started working from my sofa with zero money. I had a computer, 3D software, the internet and some bright ideas. When I started emailing my files around to the 3D printing production companies, they started battling it out just to be able to print my designs for free.

With this way of working, the world is totally open. I can literally run a company from the beach with a laptop and control an entire outsourced supply chain of goods with very minimal investment. Sure, it takes a while to get it all going, but I am now on the tenth year of my company and things are moving very fast. People and large companies who eight or nine years ago did not fully understand the idea have since dusted off presentations we made many years ago and requested our services.

ARE THERE ANY DISADVANTAGES?

Sure, there are disadvantages—limited materials, limited size—but friends of mine who are in their eighties started by packing their products in their cars and driving around Europe trying to find producers and distributors. During their entire careers they were probably able to make 10 to 20 successful products. I create new products every day.

WHAT DO YOU THINK IT IS ABOUT YOUR APPROACH TO DESIGNING OBJECTS FOR 3D PRINTING THAT HAS MADE IT RESONATE SO WELL?

You have to aim high, and to stay at the top you simply have to create astonishing designs. I am glad the museums and big companies like Apple like my work, so that enables us to stay ahead of the game.

MANY OF YOUR DESIGNS—FOR EXAMPLE THE RIOT AND FILAMENT LAMPS—HAVE THEMES BEHIND THEM. DO YOU THINK IT’S IMPORTANT TO START WITH A PARTICULAR THEME OR EMOTION IN MIND WHEN TRYING TO INVENT AN OBJECT?

I am very driven by global issues such as politics, economy and religion, and since everything is moving faster and faster on a daily basis I attempt to create products for a specific day, event or week. For example, the Riot light was the first energy-saving light I designed, so I decided to make its theme “a demonstration.” As a result, plenty of companies came to us and wanted to create custom lights for different events with different messages. This is a perfect example of how the technology enables us to evoke the creation of products.

WHAT KIND OF SOFTWARE DO YOU USE TO MAKE YOUR PRODUCTS?

I use polygon-based software (similar to what game designers use) such as 3ds Max (aka Studio Max), Maya and Cinema 4D. Those give me the most freedom of creation.

SOME OF YOUR EARLY WORK HAS TO DO WITH AUGMENTED REALITY, THE LAYERING OF VIRTUAL ELEMENTS ON TOP OF THE WORLD AROUND US. CAN PEOPLE USE AUGMENTED REALITY TECHNOLOGY TO DESIGN OBJECTS?

This is a very fundamental concept. I want people to upload AR products into their living rooms, see how they look, maybe customize them a bit and then use 3D printers to produce them locally. It’s on our agenda to remake that connection to AR I first made ten years ago since now the technology seems to be more commercially proven.

WHAT ARE THE HOTTEST SPOTS FOR 3D PRINTING? WHAT SORT OF OBJECTS OFFER THE MOST POTENTIAL, AND HOW WILL THEIR DESIGNS CHANGE? WILL MOST OF THE FURNITURE, ELECTRONICS AND OTHER STUFF WE USE ALL THE TIME HAVE MORE AMBITIOUS DESIGNS AS A RESULT OF THE 3D PRINTING MOVEMENT IN, SAY, TEN YEARS FROM NOW?

Things will get much more complex and difficult to imitate. I see potential in pretty much all markets around me, from fashion to interiors to spare parts for washing machines. We are trying to pick up on as many markets as we possibly can. Some industries take more time to mature, though. At my first presentation at Louis Vuitton eight years ago, when I told them that we could design dresses with built-in zippers, pockets and buttons all in one go, coming out of one machine, they asked me how much our 3D fabric cost per meter. That made me realize I was at least ten years too early. Now they are coming back to us to design buttons for them. Most industries will require an entire generational shift in order for 3D printing to penetrate the old corporate structures.

IN ADDITION TO DEMOCRATIZING DESIGN, 3D PRINTING ITSELF IS BECOMING DEMOCRATIZED—HP SELLS A 3D PRINTER FOR UNDER $20,000, FOR INSTANCE. IF DESIGN REALLY BECOMES DATA, AS YOU ENVISION, WILL IT BE HARDER FOR COMPANIES THAT SPECIALIZE IN DESIGN AND PRODUCTION TO COMPETE WITH STUFF PEOPLE DESIGN THEMSELVES? OR WILL GOOD DESIGNERS GROW IN STATURE EVEN MORE, BECAUSE EVERYONE WILL BE ABLE TO PRINT THEIR DESIGNS?

Good designers will always lead the way. Do-it-yourself type people will always be there, but they still need guidance if they want to make something great. I see the biggest potential in our business in selling 3D files rather than selling physical products, and we have a ten-year archive of files already ready to go. We want to start selling the 3D files of my designs and see what people do with them.

However, we don’t know what effect this might have on the future of product creation and our brand. If a design of mine is in the permanent collection of the MoMA, for example, and there is a file on the internet that lets anybody download, produce and customize my design however they please, what will happen to permanent museum collections in the future? I’m dying to find out.

HOW ELSE WILL 3D PRINTING CHANGE OUR WORLD? HOW IS IT CHANGING THINGS ALREADY?

It will make the world a smaller place, and production will get more local, sparing our planet from excessive production, shipment, storage, logistics and so on. Mass production was great, the living standards got much better, but due to the greedy nature of human beings, this whole infrastructure is also killing us. Our whole infrastructure is 200 years old, and very outdated. There simply needs to be a change for this.

freedomofcreation.com

22

The recent rise of relatively affordable 3D

printers could inspire a whole a new wave

of home inventors, tinkering in their garages

and basements towards major innovations

in manufacturing. The company Contrap-

tor hopes to assist these aspiring industry

transformers with construction kits for, as its

website says, “experimental personal fabri-

cation, desktop manufacturing, prototyping

and bootstrapping.” Founder Vitally Mankev-

ich explains how Contraptor came to be and

why if you liked playing with Legos as kid,

that might be the starting point for your

grownup mechanical impulses:

For a long while, I’d been toying with an idea to make a

3D printer that would glue paper cutouts together to

build wood like objects. The commercial rapid prototyping

machines with similar functionality were prohibitively

expensive for a hobbyist. While doing online research, I

came across an article in Make magazine describing a

homemade plastic-powder-fusing 3D printer built from

what looked like a scaled up Erector Set. I immediately

thought that something like this could be very helpful in

my prototyping work and contacted the people behind

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MEGAN LUKE

CONTRAPTION BEFORE ASSEMBLAGE

CONTRAPTION AFTER ASSEMBLAGE

this project (in Russia) to buy one. However, they wouldn’t start

selling it internationally until a few months later. I also wanted

more capabilities than what their set seemed to offer and I

decided to design and build a similar prototyping system that

would be inexpensive, open source and could be manufactured

at home. This was November 2007 and I thought that it would only

take me a few months and I’d be back working on my 3D printer.

The primary purpose of the Contraptor set is quick prototyping

of Cartesian robots, and 3D printers fall mostly in this category.

Let’s say you have an idea of some fabrication technique. You

could test it out on a quickly assembled Contraptor 3D robot

in a matter of hours, instead of taking days or weeks to build

everything from scratch. I think it will help accelerate the arrival

of cheap desktop fabrication machines capable of working with

variety of materials.

Contraptor is an excellent tool for learning to design and control

3D Cartesian robots and CNC machines. Somebody who’s

played with Meccano or Erector or Lego as a child would likely be

excited about Contraptor. You don’t need to be an engineer, and

actually it’s a great way to start learning about engineering and

electronics hands-on, without a workshop but with a few basic

tools like a screwdriver, hex keys, a couple of wrenches and a

soldering iron. However, it’s not a pushbutton solution, and it will

require learning some specifics about how things work.

The Contraptor project is open source, so the plans are freely

available. One of the things we are thinking of doing is generating

the kit products from various contraption designs uploaded

by people to the Contraptor site, so that the authors of these

designs could get a share of the sales of their kit. The idea is to

promote functionally useful, clean and well-documented designs

that we hope the community would naturally prefer, as well as

stimulate the development of various machines that could be

built from a Contraptor set.

contraptor.org

S T O R Y B Y J E F F T H R O P E

P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y M E G A N L U K E

28

mycelium (mushroom roots) bonding to woodchips

on the forest floor. Realizing that mycelium acts like

living glue, they started growing the stuff and bonding

it to rice hulls and cottons burs—waste materials that

farmers don’t have a good way of disposing it. From

these experiments, Bayer and McIntyre developed

their company, Ecovative Design, and EcoCradle, a

biodegradable packing material.

“Producing EcoCradle is an extremely low-energy,

natural process,” says Sam Harrington, Ecovative

Design’s Environmental Director and Design Engineer.

“An EcoCradle packaging buffer has extremely low

embodied energy, and significantly reduces greenhouse

gas emissions compared to expanded polystyrene.”

This weird mushroom technology is a new paradigm

of manufacturing where high performance, low cost

material is literally grown. Ecovative Design strives

At this point in the age of green, it would seem impossible

for anyone to be unaware of the environmental liability

of synthetics. Cheap padding can sit in a landfill for

thousands of years, patiently waiting in a large box

once filled with a $20 DVD player, before it begins to

break down. For those of you doing the math, that’s a

lot longer than it takes a banana peel or apple core to

go through the same process.

It’s one thing to boycott the local fast food joint that

serves its ice cream in one of these eco-monsters—

that’s a job for an episode of Saved by the Bell. It’s

another thing to aim to replace all the synthetic foams

in houses and DVD packages (okay, all packages) with

a material that can be dumped into a tulip garden and/

or compost pile when the user is through with it.

In 2007, while hiking through the woods of New

England, Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre noticed

to produce its raw materials locally and produce

packaging materials as close to the end user as

possible to cut down on transportation.

Right now, Ecovative Design is concentrating on

packaging and insulation, but the company wants

to continue to expand. “Eventually we want to

replace harmful synthetics and plastics for a wide

range of applications, from insulation structural

cores to surfboards,” says Harrington.

Ecovative’s products have already attracted a lot of

attention and its production facility in Green Island,

New York is booked until the end of 2010. Until

then, we’ll all have to wait patiently before we can

go mushroom surfing.

ecovativedesign.com

Ecovative Design’s EcoCradle packaging

29

ITO: Japanese Curry + Homemade Kimchi Apples

MEL & STEVE: Asian Sesame Slaw + Scallions + Sesame Seeds

VINH: Vietnamese Banh-Mi Style: Spicy Aioli + Pate + Cucum-bers + Pickled Carrot And Daikon + Cilantro + Jalapeno

GINNY: Kimchi + Seaweed Flakes

SIDNEY: Thai Style Mango Slaw + Crushed Peanuts

WANGDING: Chinese BBQ Pork Belly + Scallions

~

STORY BY MAUD DEITCH PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEVIN ITO

asiadog

AsiaDog, New York’s premier pop-up sausage shop,

started in the garden of Trophy Bar—a small, dark

watering hole underneath an elevated subway line in

Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Founded by Melanie Campbell

and Steve Porto in 2008, the original idea was just a

friendly one-time backyard barbecue. Their first event

was such a hit that the two decided to turn it into a

business. “We packed the place,” says Campbell, “and

friends and random bar patrons alike all asked if we

would be back next week. We looked at each other and

said, ‘Uh...sure!’”

AsiaDog has since become a staple for New Yorkers

looking for nourishment at the end of a long day of

shopping or an even longer night out. Acolytes follow

them every day of the week, going from the Brooklyn

Flea in Fort Greene to the Terminal 5 music venue near

Hell’s Kitchen to backyard parties, and hitting every

item on the menu along the way.

What differentiates AsiaDog from New York’s many hot

dog vendors is its toppings. Inspired by Campell and

Porto’s favorite dishes from the company’s namesake

continent, customers can choose dogs with kimchi and

seaweed flakes, Chinese pork belly and scallions, fish

sauce and crushed peanuts or Japanese curry.

Though AsiaDog started somewhat naively, they’ve

since been submerged into the murky world of New

York City mobile-food vendor permits, which, accord-

ing to Campbell, are virtually impossible to obtain.

“There are only around 3,000 [permits] and they are all

owned by your average NYC hotdog vendor,” she says.

The AsiaDoggers took this setback in stride, deciding

to stick with private events and the pop-up restaurant

concept. It even got them a new nickname. “We have

been called ‘hot dog gypsies,’” says Campbell.

The nomadic approach has also put AsiaDog in the per-

fect position for growth. Campbell describes it as “the

most perfect way to test your menu and your whole

business plan before you take that ‘leap of faith’ with

opening a place of your own,” a move they are planning

for in the coming year.

asiadognyc.com

31

When Polaro id announced that they would be discont inuing

product ion of thei r iconic instant f i lm in 2008, photographers

and fans were upset , but not shocked . There had been rumbl ings

that the f i lm would be discont inued for years—al though the

photos , and the art behind tak ing them, remained a favor i te

medium among both professional photographers and amateurs .

THE IMPOSSIBLE

PROJECTS TO R Y BY M A U D D E I TC H

P H OTO G R A P H Y BY N E I L K R U G

32

Polaroid’s high price and clunky packaging just didn’t fit with the slimming and digitizing that photography was experiencing across the board. In fact, the high price of analog instant film had already made it a niche media, but for the people who favored it, that high price (usually between one and two dollars a photo) was worth it.

One of the people dedicated to the medium was Florien Kaps, an Austrian businessman who ran an online shop specializing in Polaroid film, as well as an online photo platform similar to Flickr but specifically geared towards Polaroid photographers. When Kaps heard that the days of Polaroid production were numbered, he contacted the company to see if there was any way it could be saved. He was told they were not interested and just wanted to shut down the plants. The best Kaps could do was get himself an invitation to the closing party of one of the plants located in the Netherlands. It was here that Kaps made the acquaintance of Andre Bossman, a former engineer at the plant. When Kaps

Image shot using PX-100 Silver Shade film from The Impossible Project

33

Image shot using TZ Artistic Silver Shade film from The Impossible Project

34

expressed his sadness about the closing, Bossman responded that as long as the machinery was still there it could be purchased and a new formula could be developed for the production of the film.

Bossman and Kaps immediately entered into a partnership, with Bossman keeping the machinery safe in the plant in the Netherlands while Kaps went on a mad fundraising campaign. Both were successful, and in October 2008 the two bought the machinery from Polaroid and leased the factory from its new owners. The Impossible Project officially began.

Taking its name from a quote from Edwin Land, the forefather of instant photography, in which he instructed, “Don’t undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible,” The Impossible Project was launched with a countdown clock on its website that ticked away how much time the team of inventors hired by Kaps and Bossman had to figure out a new way of making instant film.

To accomplish this feat, Bossman and Kaps enlisted a team of Polaroid developers who had been working in the medium for most of their adult lives. “They were all between 50 and 60 years


35

old, which gave them an enormous amount of knowledge,” says Marlene Kelnreiter, spokesperson for The Impossible Project. “It’s only because of that that they could help us with the development. It was about the chemicals in the film, because every picture is like a chemistry laboratory.” This year saw the release of the first film made by The Impossible Project: PX 100, which is also called First Flush. The chemistry experiments conducted by the development team led to a film that is more reactive and sensitive than the old Polaroid film, with a sepia tone and an unbelievable amount of manipulatability.

Right around the time The Impossible Project released its initial batch of First Flush, Polaroid caught wind of the enthusiasm surrounding analog instant film. When Urban Outfitters began selling (and selling out of) Fuji’s analog instant camera, the Instax, Polaroid fever only got hotter. It was around this time that Polaroid announced it would begin making its instant cameras again, with Lady Gaga as their spokeswoman. This was exciting for many Polaroid enthusiasts, and rather remarkable to The Impossible Project. “They didn’t see any future at all and they just wanted to stop everything that had to do with analog,” Kelnreiter says of Polaroid. “When they realized the amount of hype that we created, and that there is still some customer


36


37


38

“DO

N’T U

ND

ERTAKE A PROJEC

T UN

LESS IT IS MAN

IFESTLY IM

PORTAN

T AND

NEARLY IM

POSSIBLE”

demand, then they decided to come back in the analog business.” According to Kelnreitner, “The most hilarious thing is that Polaroid, the company, is not able to produce instant film” because The Impossible Project is the sole owner of the necessary machinery.

The Impossible Project folks knew from the very beginning of their undertaking that they would have the support of many Polaroid fans and photographers, a fact made evident by their strong online presence even before they knew whether or not they would be able to complete their difficult task. Of those initial weeks Kelnreiter says, “everything was still very insecure then, it was a real adventure because we were not sure if we would succeed in developing a new film that would work in the end, but we did it.” Which is, at this point, the most important thing.

the-impossible-project.com


39

“SOLAR AND WIND POWER ARE GREAT, BUT WON’T DO ANYTHING FOR THE CO2 CURRENTLY OUT THERE.”

(ABOVE: DESIGNER BIOCHAR)

40

When environmental scientist Jason Aramburu was an undergraduate at Princeton in 2006, he went to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. While there, he heard a lot of talk about biochar, the carbon-rich result of burning biomass. When biochar is put in the soil, it both helps plants grow and sequesters the harmful CO2 that would normally be released into the atmosphere. “I heard about it in Panama because the process of burying charcoal originated in the Amazon,” Aramburu explains from his office in Austin, Texas. “Indigenous farmers two thousand years ago would bury biochar in the Amazon Basin to improve soil quality,” he says. “Go there and you’ll see—it’s still in the ground.”

Aramburu began thinking more about biochar when he returned to the U.S. and soon hit upon the idea to use pyrolysis—a heating process for liquefying coal developed before World War II that fell out of fashion as fuel prices dropped—to create carbon neutral/negative biochar. Aramburu’s company, Re:Char, launched in 2009 to do simply that. The company aims to educate farmers

around the globe about the positive effects of biochar and foster technological innovation in the pyrolysis process, including making better mobile pyrolysis units.

Aramburu believes this combustible (sorry) combination of old school technology and current environmental know-how could transform the planet. Biochar is “the greatest possibility of any technology out there to drastically sequester carbon and reduce it in the atmosphere. Solar and wind power are great, but won’t do anything for the CO2 currently out there,” he says. The world is taking note: Famed climate change scientist Dr. James Lovelock and entrepreneurial expert Courtney Nichols have signed on to Re:Char’s advisory board, and the company was named Top Innovation at the Economist Carbon Economy Conference earlier this year. Aramburu may well have started a smoke-free fire.

re-char.com

STORY BY REYHAN HARMANCI

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MEGAN LUKE

AHEAD OF

THEIR TIME

STORY BY ELIOT VAN BUSKIRK

ILLUSTRATION BY MARIO WAGNER

42

But Compaq wasn’t alone. Creative Labs’ players also held more music than the iPod and even sounded better, due to the company’s experience making SoundBlaster sound cards for computers. But that company made the mistake of designing its first players to look like the portable CD players they were replacing, and consumers mostly ignored them.

Both these players featured hard drives that had yet to shrink down to a size that made carrying that much music feasible. They stored music on large, 2.5-inch hard drives, whereas Jobs cagily waited to release Apple’s model until it could contain the 1.8-inch drive in the first iPod, making the device’s tagline, “1,000 songs in your pocket” a reality.

DAVID SCHWARTZ’S PROTO-MP3 STOREInventor David Schwartz claims he showed a graphic flow chart to executives at all of the major record labels back in 1985 in order to demonstrate how music could be compressed digitally and sold over phonelines, through kiosks and home computers.

They thought he was crazy back then, but Schwartz’s system is remarkably similar to how digital music stores like Amazon MP3 operate today. The music industry continued to rely on physical formats until the inevitable future Schwartz had seen coming arrived and music became something that was increasingly and irreversibly delivered digitally. If they had listened, perhaps the labels would have been able to adapt to the internet earlier, rather than being surprised when fans started sharing music online.

TRIPOD.COMBack in the last millennium, start-ups like Tripod.com encouraged people to build their own websites as their own little corner of what was then known as cyberspace. The problem was not many people wanted to spend their days learning how to code HTML and build new webpages on an ongoing basis.

The personal website is largely a thing of the past now because it’s so much easier to use sites like Facebook or blogging platforms like Wordpress to set up your online presence. Not only do you not need to know HTML, but your friends are waiting to read your updates, unlike personal webpages that too often remained unvisited.

Tripod was right about everybody wanting their own little corner of the net, but they were wrong about us wanting to build it on our own. After all, who wants to type in endless <s and >s just to post a picture of their cat?

POINTCASTAround the turn of the millennium, one of the things geeks and the entrepreneurs who loved them were most excited about was “push” technology. This feature was capable of running a screensaver-like application highlighting all of the news, weather and stock information people wanted to see. A program called PointCast was probably the most popular of these, and for a while, it could be found on office desktops across the land.

As with so many other ideas from the first dotcom boom, PointCast and its ilk were relegated to the dustbin of history until the most ambitious predictions about push technology came true. In the second decade of the new millennium, we’re using a stunning variety of push technology every day without even thinking about it. Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds, location-aware smartphone apps like Foursquare and text messages are, at their core, push technologies.

You could have the best idea of all time, but if the rest of the world isn’t ready, chances are it won’t catch on. Poor timing can’t keep a good idea down forever, though it may take a company down in the process.

The following six technologies flopped when they were first introduced to the public—or, in some cases, to company executives—only to reveal their true potential years later when everyone else had finally caught up.

THE APPLE NEWTONIf you don’t even remember the Newton, you’re not alone. Unlike the iPod, iPad, iPhone and other big hits for Steve Jobs and Apple, the Newton—an early “personal digital assistant” or PDA—was largely forgotten after its ill-fated debut in 1993 following years of development. Maybe the Newton was simply too clunky or people just didn’t understand it well enough to spend the $1000 Apple wanted for it.

After Palm, Microsoft and others made great strides in getting people to use PDAs in the first years of the millennium, they evolved into smartphones capable of connecting to the internet. Then in 2007 Steve Jobs introduced the world to the iPhone, a revolutionary new device that allowed users to install a wide variety of software on their phones, and the concept quickly spread to Android and other smartphones.

But was the iPhone really that revolutionary? Although the Newton suffered from a monochrome screen, a pen interface and a much slower processor, it was otherwise remarkably similar to the iPhone. It even featured the strip of menu icons along the bottom of the screen that’s still found on Apple’s devices today.

PHOTO-CHROMATIC MICRO-IMAGEDeveloped in the 1960s, the Photo-Chromatic Micro-Image system promised to fit thousands of photos and magazine pages onto a single index card by shrinking down images until they were illegible to the naked eye. This photo card—the result of applying “grain free coating” to already-reduced microfilm to create an even smaller image—could be magnified on a screen and displayed in regular size.

Although it caught on in pockets (for example, as a way for manufacturers to check manuals), this brainchild of the National Cash Register Company ultimately proved impractical at the time because it was impossible to zoom in on each photo with speed and precision. Another problem was that there had to be someone to decide which publications and photos would be produced in the format.

Today, you can easily access, magnify and view thousands of your own photos—plus publications and videos—from countless sources on all sorts of mobile devices with no one authorizing what gets put in this format and what doesn’t.

HANGO REMOTE SOLUTIONS PERSONAL JUKEBOX & CREATIVE LABS DIGITAL MUSIC PLAYERFrom 1998 to 2004, I reviewed portable digital music players pretty much full-time, but none of my friends or family understood what that meant until the iPod showed up in 2001. Little known fact: a group of engineers from Compaq’s laptop division built an MP3 player that could hold 6GB of music, which was more than you could fit onto the first iPod. It was released on a small scale as the Hango Remote Solutions Personal Jukebox PJB-100 in 1999. When people saw me carrying around that music brick, they didn’t know what to think. It was quite the conversation piece.

Convinced they were onto something, this team of engineers behind the Hango flew to Compaq’s company headquarters in Texas to show their idea to top brass, only to be laughed out of their offices. Surely most people didn’t wanted to carry around music on a hard drive! Hewlett-Packard (which later acquired Compaq) missed the boat on digital music completely and later had no other choice but to license the iPod from Apple to resell them from its own online stores.

45

THE WAY SEAN MOSS-PULTZ SEES IT, THERE ARE TWO MAJOR FLAWS WITH MOBILE PHONES. FOR ONE, THEY AREN’T UPGRADABLE, SO INSTEAD USERS ARE FORCED TO BUY A NEW ONE EVERY FEW YEARS, OR MONTHS, IN ORDER TO ACCESS NEW FEATURES. SECOND, MOBILE PLATFORMS ARE PROPRIETARY, MEANING DEVELOPERS HAVE NO EASY WAY TO CREATE APPS TO SERVE ALL USERS.

His answer to these problems is Openmoko, a project whose mission is to create, among other things, an open-source

family of mobile devices. Openmoko output has ranged from the open-source FreeRunner phones and the Openmoko

Linux software that powers them, to the WikiReader, a portable, offline device made solely for accessing Wikipedia’s

vast base of knowledge as quickly and easily as possible. The company is more a point of view than a brand, a platform

to harness the collective knowledge and creativity of the worldwide development community.

“We foresaw the app phone revolution, but didn’t execute well enough so we adapted to come out with Wikireader,” says Moss-

Pultz. “The ideas beyond product development for us were the same. Pick an idea that we believe is strong and meaningful. And

work to focus in on that idea and remove anything not exposing the original idea.”

OpenMoko has achieved its goals in part by working directly with suppliers, factories, and sales channels—a feat made

possible by being based in Taiwan. “We use our products every day,” says Moss-Pultz. “We understand them. We feel

we are in the position of the consumer and the researcher at the same time. This is what gives us the confidence to

really change things and take big risks.”

openmoko.com

OPENMOKO

STORY

BY

ELIOT

VAN

BUSKIRK

PHOTOGRAPHY

BY

MEGAN

LUKE

46

OPENMOKO

47

WE’RE KEEN TO BE DIFFERENT, TO BE IDEALISTIC.

S T O RY BY J E F F T H R O P EP H O T O G R PA H Y BY M E G A N L U K E

48

They want to help the world save water. Unlike some of the other eco-friendly companies that are sprouting up, Dry Planet makes no apologies about existing at the intersection where branding meets going green. Save-a-Flush, a device that can save a liter of water after every flush, can be packaged (in a recyclable bag) to help promote any corporation, organization, politician, band, etc. Dry Planet wants people to gain community support by replacing pins and placards with bags full of biodegradable crystals adorned with their pretty faces and slogans.

Of course, Dry Planet is not all about brand promotion. Far from it. They recently worked with a town in Mexico that gave each of the 30,000 households the Save-a-Flush. The town now saves

around 100,000 gallons of water a day and over 30 million gallons a year. Another creation of theirs, the Waterpebble, helps people take shorter showers by issuing a series of soft, flashing lights when it’s time to get out. It’s a perfect present for the roommate who keeps you waiting outside the bathroom door for 20 minutes.

Jonathan Smith, one of the company’s founders, wants Dry Planet to keep growing and help solve our world’s water problem. “So far everyone’s reacted very well to our products,” he says. “We’re keen to be different, to be idealistic. There’s little point in us being a same-old, same-old business. We realize that we’ll only progress if we do more.”

dry-planet.com

DRY PLANET’S BUSINESS CONCEPT IS SIMPLE:

INDUSTRY

With all the fuss about airlines adding charges for formerly basic amenities like food and legroom (not to mention volcanic delays), it may seem like there’s no good news about flying the friendly skies. But in Seattle, the home of Boeing, cheers and stock prices rose in late March 2010 when a critical hurdle was cleared to ready the brand new Dreamliner (787-9) for takeoff in as early as 2011. Priced at $150 million each, and with 850 on order, this is a big deal for both the company and the region, as Boeing employs around 72,000 people in Washington State.

While Iowa may lead the country in wind power per capita, Texas still maintains the overall national lead with more than 9,400 mega-watts produced annually via strong breezes. The country’s largest wind farm is in Roscoe, Texas, but with the sizeable Lonestar, Mesquite and Trent Wind Farms in the area, Abilene has seen major growth in this field. As the country gets more invested in green energy, expect technological breakthroughs in har-vesting capabilities to increase production even more. There are already rumors this year, according to the Abilene Reporter, that a $1.5 billion joint Chinese-American turbine farm will eventually be located in this West Texas town.

While Pittsburgh’s steel industry has been in deep decline since the latter half of the twentieth century, the local economy around steel and metal technology has actually thrived due to the concentration of metal experts in the area. As Dr. Carey Treado of the University of Pittsburgh Center of Industrial Studies wrote in a 2010 paper, the city’s economic success contradicts the principal argument of Thomas Friedman’s globalization tome The World is Flat that “the expansion of global markets…is often assumed to have made location less relevant.” Location is still everything. Pittsburgh might not actually produce steel the way it used to, but the Steelers won’t be changing their name anytime soon.

M E TA L L U R G YPITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA

A G U I D E T O W H E R E T O M A K E I T I N A M E R I C A

S T O R Y B Y R E Y H A N H A R M A N C I

CITIES OF

W I N D E N E R G YAbilene, Texas

A E R O S PA C ESeattle,

WAshington

It’s no secret that Boston has long been strong in biotechnol-ogy research as the city is home to Harvard, MIT and other higher education institutions with some of the world’s most prestigious life science, medical and pharmaceuti- cal research labs. Even though the Research Triangle in North Caro- lina has also grown, it was New England that bucked the recent downward economic trend in early 2010 and managed to raise more venture capital funding in this area than in the previous three quarters. One reason for this development, according to a Boston Globe story in early 2010, is a unique kind of recycling. Or, as one entrepreneur put it, “cannibalism.” As one start-up or lab would go under, another would buy all of its tech supplies for as much as 90 percent off, enabling quick turnaround from one project to the next.

Surprisingly, Salt Lake City is our country’s hub for industrial bank-ing, an exotic kind of institution only allowed in seven states that exists to make loans and may be owned by companies that aren’t actually banks—like Wal-Mart, for instance. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, over $168 billion is held in the 25 Utah-based industri-al banks. While President Obama did call for the end of these hybrid commerce-and-banking institutions last summer, it looks like an intense lobbying effort this spring has kept their doors open and unfettered.

With two Harvard-educated lawyers in the White House and some 80,000 other ones working in the region, the DC area has the high-est concentration of lawyers in the country, according to the Depart-ment of Labor Statistics. Not only that, they are paid more than those in other states ($71 per hour, on average) than those in other states with high concentrations, such as New York and Delaware. A ridiculously high 4.5 percent of the employed DC workforce is, in fact, lawyers. This figure makes sense, because in tough economic times, government jobs tend to be more stable than those at regular firms.

The “silver tsunami” of aging baby boomers first struck land in Florida. According to the Administration on Aging, 17.4% of the state’s popu-lation is over 65. Unfortunately, our nation’s aging parents are in greater need of geriatric care than is currently available. Unlike many fields, elderly medicine and geriatric care management have more open positions than people to fill them. Jacksonville currently has the fastest growing aging and elderly population, according to demographer William Frey. New hospitals, like the Mayo Clinic Hospital and the Baptist Medical Center South, have been built in the past few years to accom-modate this growth. Elderly care industries may not seem like the sexiest of career directions, but let’s face it, none of us are getting any younger.

I N D U S T R I A L B A N K I N G

Salt Lake City, Utah

L A WWASHINGTON

DC

B I O T E C HBoston,

Massachusetts

G E R I AT R I C SJacksonville,

Florida

BOXEEBOXEE IS THE LATEST DEVELOPMENT IN THE ONGOING BATTLE TO

FINALLY GIVE VIEWERS CONTROL OF THEIR TELEVISION SETS. ESSENTIALLY, BOXEE IS SOFTWARE THAT BRINGS TOGETHER

AND ORGANIZES NETWORK AND CABLE PROGRAMMING, DIGITAL PHOTO GALLERIES, WEB VIDEO, HOME MOVIES AND

EVERYTHING ELSE THAT VIEWERS WOULD RATHER WATCH ON A LARGE HOME TV SCREEN THAN THE CRAMPED CONFINES OF

A LAPTOP’S MONITOR. IT’S NAVIGATION IS CLEAN, INTUITIVE AND CURRENTLY DOWNLOADABLE AT BOXEE.TV.

S t o r y b y E v a n S h a m o o n P h o t o g r a p h y b y M e g a n L u k e I l u s t r a t i o n b y C a m e r o n C h a r l e s

Billing itself as a “social media center,” Boxee enables people to view, rate and recommend content to friends through Facebook, Twitter and other social networking tools. From it, users can access their hard drive’s entire music collection, freeing songs from weak speakers and earbud headphones. It can also play pretty much any audio or video file format thrown at it, even a AVI rip of Fraggle Rock: The Lost Episodes.

The company also has an incredibly open-source approach to home entertainment. “We don’t want to be a gatekeeper at all,” says Andrew Kippen, Boxee’s VP of Marketing. “If you have the skills, we’re like, Go for it, here are your tools.” The idea is that anything users want Boxee to do, they’ll be able to program themselves, or download somebody else’s plug-in. The result will be like an app store where everything is free and there’s no one imposing control and restrictions.

While copyright laws still apply, Boxee isn’t going to be the one deciding what users can and can’t do. So if it can be done on a computer, it can be done on Boxee. “In a web browser you can access anything you want. If the browser started blocking the illegal stuff, you’d stop using that web browser,” says Kippen. While Boxee will only have high-quality, copyrighted content in their official Boxee repository, what users download or watch on their own time is their own business.

This year, Boxee will release its new Boxee Box device, made in conjunction with D-Link. Even at a cursory glance, it’s clear the Boxee Box is unlike

any other piece of home electronics on the market. Rather than the standard rectangular footprint—long, wide and flat—it’s an angular, bisected cube, making it more sculpture than set-top box.

It’s a bold statement by the company. Other set-top boxes lay flat for a reason, namely to allow users to stack another on top of it. Boxee’s point, however, is clear: You simply won’t need anything else.

Users won’t need the Boxee Box to run Boxee, though, which points to the company’s larger goal: to be free. “We come at problems from the consumer angle,” says Kippen. “The goal was to be as flexible as possible with hardware. If you have an extra laptop, or a Media Center PC, or a regular laptop that you don’t mind plugging and unplugging from your TV, you can use that. If you need a device [to run Boxee on], the Boxee Box is cheaper than a computer with the same functionality.” (For now, the Boxee Box will cost $200.) The company wants it embedded in new internet-connected Blu-Ray players, cable boxes and videogame consoles, something they hope to achieve by licensing it for free to device manufacturers. Ubiquity is the goal.

Of course, getting cable companies and content providers on board with its vision will be something of an uphill battle, but Boxee is hoping it can leverage the support of its fanatical userbase that’s already one million strong and growing. And that’s with Boxee still in the beta stage.

boxee.tv

55

S T O R Y B Y E V A N S H A M O O N

I M A G E S C O U R T E S Y O F T E E N A G E E N G I N E E R I N G

56

At first glance, Teenage Engineering’s OP-1 looks like a vintage 1980s Casio

keyboard, its toy like aesthetic underscored by friendly white plastic and

colorful knobs. But for electronic musicians, it’s the look of the OP-1 that

really makes it desirable. Music production hardware rarely come from

designers who think holistically about the end user experience. The idea

behind the OP-1, it seems, is to do for synthesizers what Apple did for

computers: humanize them.

57

Teenage Engineering is a ten-man team based

in Stockholm, Sweden. Inspired by Elektron

(creators of the beloved Machinedrum sampler/

drum machine), Teenage Engineering has taken

upon itself the mission of creating a high-end

music-creation device for a discerning consumer

in an industry full of cheaply produced, barely

designed equipment.

The OP-1 is small enough to fit into a backpack,

runs on batteries and takes a decidedly different

approach to interface. “I think we’ve created an

instrument that you can just pick up and learn

how to use instantly, almost like a flute or guitar,”

says Teenage Engineering CEO David Eriksson.

“When you’ve played with it for a while, you learn

the hidden power features, and hopefully find your

own way of mastering it live.”

As the digital salivation from internet onlookers will

attest, the OP-1 is a rather exquisite piece of gear.

The hardware and software have been built from

the ground-up to seamlessly work in harmony with

one another, with Teenage Engineering overseeing

both. You can see the results in the OP-1’s small

touches. The numbers and shapes dancing

around its iconic screen are color-coded to the

corresponding knobs, and built into the device are

a motion-sensing accelerometer, microphone and

even, bizarrely, an FM radio. It’s a machine full of

personality, with little secrets and quirky design

touches around every button and knob.

Nearly everything in the OP-1 is being created

in-house at Teenage Engineering, thanks to a

workshop outfitted with a small CNC milling

machine, a laser cutter, a 3D printer, a 2D-plotter

and plenty of soldering equipment. Even initial

attempts to outsource the mechanical CAD

work have been corrected. Prototypes and

electronics are being produced in Sweden, with

only plastics and keyboard mechanics being

crafted in China (“The only place to do such

things,” according to Eriksson).

“We started work on the OP-1 two and a half years

ago, but before then we could not have done this

kind of thing,” says Eriksson, who points out that

tools have become much more readily available in

recent years. Chip manufactures are slowly realizing

that they can’t charge top dollar for the required

tools, which is democratizing hardware design like

never before. “They need to sell chips, and make

the development environment available to kids!”

says Eriksson. The result? Teenage Engineering.

teenageengineering.com

58

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GUESTS IT WAS ON

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