My friends Enlai Hooi (oooold website), Fabian Mürmann, Martin Bauer, Wiebke Herger and Jens Nikolaus and a handful of others have kicked off a pretty sweet project, DesignSmash.
When Enlai first approached me to bounce an idea on me we ended up chatting and plotting well into the first night, then again a few days later. And while I had to pull out because I have a full plate these days anyway, Enlai pushed forward and and got the crew together. All that happened in less than two weeks.
So what is DesignSmash? It’s getting from an idea to product in four hours. More concretely, during an event/party, several designers or teams of designers come up with something that can go into the online shop – within just four hours, just in time to join the party.
A number of restrictions apply to make things interesting and shape the process: the designs have to be laser-cuttable, and they have to be shippable in a certain standardized size of envelope.
Once they’re submitted and curated for the shop, the designs will get fixed up to ensure quality control and put on the website. The design files will be shared under a Creative Commons license (which one can be chosen by the artist). Once a product is bought, it’s produced on demand by the local producer – in the case of Berlin that’s Martin of Lasern, and shipped out to the buyer. It’s super lean, and super local.
Parallel events will be taking place in several other cities, the products will be produced locally. And all that just in time to buy Christmas presents: The first DesignSmash event will take place on 20 November at Betahaus Berlin. (Get in touch with the DesignSmash crew if you’d like to host a DesignSmash event in London, New York or another hot spot. Make sure you have access to a laser cutter!)
I can’t wait to see all this in action!
Photo by lasernlasern, some rights reserved