#3dconfseoul16

1. Header slide - Introduction
Background
Research
FutureFactories Project
Customisation
Individualisation
Good morning / afternoon ladies and gentlemen
My name is Lionel T Dean I am a product artist
I position my practice between product design and an art with a bit of engineering thrown
in.
I run a design practice call FutureFactories Studio which is focused exclusively on
direct digital manufacturing and the creative use of digital design and manufacturing
technologies. FutureFactories Studio has been working with 3D printing in art , craft and
design for well over ten years now
Practice in three strands:-
Commercial design consultancy and retail product design
The creation of art and gallery objects
Academic research
FutureFactories began as blue skies academic research with the question ‘why not use AM
for end use manufacture’
Because it is too slow, too expensive.
If, that is if we do like for like, same manufacturing/marketing culture but with more exotic
shapes.
Exotic geometry is something of a dead-end route, unusual forms are only unusual for so
long.
The question is what can we do differently
Mass manufacture is great, it has made high quality goods affordable to all of us.
But it comes with a compromise, its economics have been achieved through
standardisation and uniformity
We all have to have the same
As we amass more and more ‘stuff’ we have become less and less happy with that
compromise.
There is no tooling in digital Manufacturing, no moulds, no dies, just data, so why not make
something slightly different each time so called mass-customisation.
Only, because I am precious as a designer and I don’t want the hoi palloi messing
around with my beautiful work I prefer mass-individualisation. The difference with mass-
individualisation is that the variation in design difference is automatically generated rather
than specified by the consumer

2. Lampadina Mutanta, 2003 used to illustrate
computational design and code driven meta-designs
SLIDES + VIDEO CLIP
Tuber, 2003 used to illustrate animated meta-designs,
the consumer interface and fixed length animation
driven designs
VIDEO CLIP
you can move, rotate and scale
Each operation about three axes = 9 parameters
Then that is one of many circles that make up the design
This gives us a DNA code right of screen defining a particular instance of the meta-
design
I wanted to harness the power of parametric to control
virtual meta-designs that would change with every
physical artefact produced
Very quickly, to set the scene, because I am sure you
guys are familiar with 3D CAD
This is LM from my first collection in 2003.
The Geometry is based on circles
Each circle exists in cartesian space
Now we have to think about how the meta-designs are driven
I wanted to harness the power of parametric CAD to control virtual meta-designs
in real time meaning that it would be change its form for every physical artefact
produced
You could have a designer on the production line tweaking the file each time but that
would ties the designer to manufacturing and be more craft than design
I sought to automate the process through computational design linking parametric
CAD and computer programming - This work began with fixed length animations.
Tuber is an example of a fixed length animation. It is a two minute clip at 30 frames/
second giving us 3,600 discreet design solutions. This is a lot but not the infinite
variety my PhD study was aimed at.
How would a consumer or prosumer interact with meta
designs?
The concept obviously lends it self to an online
experience
I envisaged online boutiques that would be menageries
of living designs

3. Holy Ghost, 2005 used to illustrate real time script
driven designs. Discussion of building block versus
morphing approaches.
VIDEO CLIP
True individualisation with infinite variety was achieved through a computational
design approach combining CAD with computer programming
The first fully scripted design was Holy Ghost. This was a UK arts council
commission in 2005. Here the parametic CAD is driven by a custom written
computer program
For me the trick of customisation is to achieve obvious
differences between instances while maintaining a
coherent design or brand identity.
Icon was produced as a culmination to my PhD thesis
in 2008 to demonstrate just that. It was a batch of 100
individualised pieces which is pretty much industrial
scale . Looking at these iterations I think you can see
the differences but hopefully recognise the design at the
same time.
Icon, 2008 used to prove the principle of mass
individualisation. Discussion of brand identity versus
difference
SLIDE SHOWREEL
Description of Holy Ghost and the computer script
1. picking number of ‘buttons’
2. positioning
3. Uniform expansion
4. non-uniform expansion
5. Linking the buttons
Discussion of finishes
Discussion of finishes

4. SuperKitsch, 2010 used to illustrate co-creation.
Discussion of the pros and cons of giving the consumer
an active role in the creative process
SLIDES + VIDEO CLIP
T-Rex vs The Gorilla, 2014 used to illustrate
transmedia story telling and a cinematic approach to
the design process
SLIDES + VIDEO CLIP
Discuss pros, cons and my ambivalence toward co- creation
Discuss three levels of public engagement
1. Social mead like/dislike influencing library content
2. Social media suggestions - if something is popular we have to
make it
3. Public contributes models - file sharing
Discuss multi-platform work.
borrowing workflows
Ojo, 2014 used to introduce the Precious, innovate
UK work, DMLS 18k gold and the three customisation
models explored within Precious
SLIDES
Orbis, 2015
used to illustrate online customisation tools
Discussion of value and customer experience
SLIDES

5. HeartBeat, 2014 used to illustrate the power of
consumer engagement
VIDEO CLIP
Porphria, 2016 used to illustrate the latest work and
future directions
VIDEO CLIP
Collect, 2015 used to illustrate co-creation model with
direct designer-consumer dialogue
SLIDES + VIDEO CLIP
The concept of retired jewellery
The potential to encapsulate with powder bed processes
Stopping the process three times to encapsulate three charm
elements
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