"blog:ludens

This NY Times article discusses a new collaboration of young designers and software developers. They aim to give non-designers and design amateurs control over the 3D shape of everyday products like pens, vases and lemon squeezers. The article focuses on the shift in attitude that underlies the mass-customization and co-creation and is a good introduction for those new to these concepts.

I believe Digital Forming is on the right track. Letting a designer set the manipulation boundaries for a product and then allowing the user to play around within the “save zone” makes the whole process less scary for consumers. As we have noticed during our own interface explorations, good and easy-to-understand interfacing between product and user is essential for building confidence. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a screen shot of the software, so it’s hard to see how well it fits their target users.

If anyone has some more info on this project, please post links in the comments!

Over the past month, we have been busy with the Repper tool. We think there is some amazing potential for improvement and with your input we have decided on a bunch of new features for the next version. These will be:

• Improved interface
  You know we love creating easy and fun interfaces so the next one will be even better!
• New patterns
  You have seen the two patterns in the current Repper tool, but this is the top of the iceberg in pattern land. In total, there are 19 patterns and we will be implementing more and more of these. To make it even better, we will integrate a lot of them in the online version too!
• High-resolution input images and resulting patterns
  This is a much requested feature of all you pattern freaks online, and we’re happy to say that you will be able to go really big with the new version, so it can finally be used for print! We are really curious what you will do with this.
• It’s faster
  We have decided that an online app is all good and great, but if you want to use big images this can really put a strain on your internet connection. Therefore, the new version will be a desktop app, ready to use with a click of your mouse.
• We love the creators
  All of you who have created one or more patterns know how cool it is to design something yourself. Therefore we want to make it possible for everyone (not just you designers) to make real products with your patterns. This is very much an ongoing process, so we can use all the input from you. What do you want to make with it?
• Vector support
  This is more for the fabric creators amongst you. How cool would it be to make patterns for your fabric in any size? Pretty cool, we think.

Apart from these key new features, we will be adding more and more over time, based on your feedback. You might have seen that we put a short questionnaire on the Repper page. By filling in this questionnaire, you will be helping us to get a better idea of what you want.

There’s nothing left but showing you some screenshots of our work in progress.

More after the jump…

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You may have noticed we have recently included a great way to move your digital patterns into physical reality. With the TouchNote postcard service, you can send your (and others) beautiful patterns to anywhere in the world.

Three steps to send a unique message

1. create a pattern with our Repper tool or choose one of the many pretty designs made by others in the Repper gallery
2. click the TouchNote button
   
3. Add your personal message and send it straight away to your loved ones (or yourself)

40% introductory discount

For all you early birds out there, we have a introductory discount of a whopping 40%! Just fill in the promotional code “Repper-Cards” when ordering at TouchNote.

And what does it look like?

Because of overwhelming interest in the Repper tool, we have decided to move to a new server with more space and faster access time. Over the next couple of days we will migrate our tools to the new server. During this time, you might experience some problems, such as broken links (if you use a linked patterns in your site) or the site being temporary unavailable. Please do not panic, this is all part of the plan to give you the best design tools ever !!

Regards,

The studio:ludens design team

We’ve been planning this for a while, but it is finally there: the Repper Gallery! With the gallery, you can explore all the patterns that you and other people have made with the Repper pattern making tool. All patterns in the gallery are released under the Creative Commons license for non-commercial use.

We have provided you with some options to find patterns in every shape, color or style you can think of. You can search on:

• Tags: find patterns with a certain subject or style. And if you find a nice pattern, please help all other people and yourself search for them by adding tags yourself. (we’ve just launched it, so not very many patterns have been tagged yet. We need your help!)
• Color: we’re really excited about this one! It’s still in beta-stage, but you can search for patterns in a certain color. Click the color box next to the search field to select the color you want and get inspired by the amazing variety of patterns out there.
• Size: different sizes of patterns can be used for different things. Small patterns often look really good as a stylish Twitter (video), MySpace or desktop background. Big patterns are good for situations where you need a lot of detail: use it in your personal art project or send a postcard with the pattern on it to your friends! (thanks to our partner Touchnote.com!)

As always, we’d very much like to know what you think of this new option. Repper is a community-driven project and we’d like to hear what you want to do with it. We’ve already got some new features planned…

More on this soon!

The past couple of days have been quite hectic here @ studio:ludens. After we put the word out that we had a new tool for you to play with, Repper, it got twittered, tweeted, twotted, twadoozled and twambled. At the moment, we have almost 3500 pattern designs. What we are working on now is a way to make all these patterns available to the community with a nice web-based interface.

We will keep you updated on our progress with that (follow us on twitter: @studioludens), but in the meantime I want to show you some of my favourite patterns.

Flower skin

Stairs

Nice flowers

Hands 1

Abstract 1

These are just some of the patterns that have been made using Repper. We are excited about the overall quality of the patterns and we want the best pattern makers to get credit for their work. So, if you recognize one of the patterns as one you made, comment on this blog post and we’ll give you credit!

More patterns after the jump…

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What started as a weekend project has developed into a working product for you to get your hands on, for free! We are proud to present to you: Repper, the pattern creator. This nifty app turns any image into a pattern you can use in your favourite image program, your social networking profile background or your website. I posted a video for you on youtube and vimeo so you can check out how it works.

Youtube Video

Vimeo video

Give it a go! And tell us what you think! If you have comments, suggestions for improvement, requests for new features or praise, you are more than welcome to send it to us. We need your input to improve this tool, and that’s what we want to do.

Stay tuned for updates and new features to Repper over the coming weeks.

And, of course, happy pattern making!

Wing Pattern Illustrator File

wing-frame01

Wing 04 Illustrator File

/more to come…

Here you guys can find all the files from the ‘Curious Cup’ project (Fablab workshop March 27th). Enjoy!

Flash 10 application

Flash 10 SWF

RFID Plastic case Illustrator File

RFID wood case Illustrator File

flashserver.as

From now on, you can find all the photos we make on workshops and images of our design in progress on our new studio:ludens Flickr page. Happy viewing!