I’m trying to wake up and do a sketch every day, these are the last two days. After a few more with the concept/character more refined I may photoslop paint them just for fun.

This guy’s space-monster mount is just a giant anomalocaris, a pre-dino creature so weird it had to come from space.

These folding tables were awesome, they stand and stack when collapsed!

These coffee tables reminded me of the piece by Mondrian. They’re made of layers of colored wooden slabs that slide out of all the sides letting the things grow to all sorts of sizes and layouts.

A typical scene with the students and profs drinking and playing games made for children:

Jenga tower for advanced players:

On the last night there was an ice bar made of packed snow on the back porch. Someone had setup the digital project to shoot out of the top floor window and onto the snow in front of the bar. It started out as just a natural screen to watch videos on but it soon turned into a live-action photoshop game with guys running around and jumping on the buttons to pick colors and paint in the snow. The projector was so bright that we could shine it onto the side of the nearby mountain and still make out what was on the computer.

and of course the scenery, my only regret is not getting to the top of a mountain with my camera:

Photos:

Billy Mays! He even sells things in countries that don’t usually speak English.

Mucha stainglass, this was definitely a big highlight of the trip:

Lil’ robots:

Mei’s mom had sent us an e-mail with a planned-out Thanksgiving dinner and Mei was fully expecting to help out if not be in charge. Too bad, the responsibility fell to Aaron and me to get done. Which we actually pulled through on! And it was one of the tastiest Turkey days ever. Brined, coverd in herb butter, wrapped in bacon and layed on a tray of vegetables and wine our two turkeys were almost more like works of art. That with green bean casserole, home made mac n cheese, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes and a pork roast from Ben pretty much completed our Thanksgiving dinner. The Germans who luckily happened to stumble upon our Thanksgiving feast agreed it was awesome.

Afterwards we were all too tired and full of food-comas to do much else than sleep, so after a lot of sitting there asking “should we go out?” repeatedly we just went to bed. Mei had to head home the next day but Aaron and I spent the day walking around and eventually saw pt. 1 of the final Harry Potter. This just left Aaron and I frustrated that we couldn’t see pt. 2 yet. Oh yah, and it was AARON’S BIRTHDAY! Yaaaaay birthday turkey/Harry Potter! In Berlin! On Monday I met up with Anouk at the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) and headed out for a few days in Prague, I’ll post on that next.

This place was great but we didn’t stay for too long the first day because we needed to drive back to Mei’s place and crash. We got back to Antwerp, grabbed some food and headed out to find Mei. A few drinks and a jazz bar later Mei and I felt like crashing while Martin and Mei’s roommate Sean stayed up for a few drinks and music.

Anyways, Dutch Design Week day 2. Awesome, we hung out with Aaron and Ben who had arrive from Berlin. There were meeting tables with built-in swings, walking canes that you can step on to bring back upright, lots of more maker-fair type exhibits, a few cars, some pretty weird bikes, student work, an edible candy design project and some really big really comfy bean bags perfect for taking mid-day naps in. Pictures to follow:

This lamp could be adjusted with a counterweight that pulls the wooden rings up one by one to change the curvature and length of the colored threads.

This car is street legal AND up for sale. I’m not sure they have any takers.

This one booth had nothing but levitating things, woooo magnets! Very appropriate to make Apple’s holy iPad float and spin magically except it makes it completely useless as a device.

These chairs are all assembled with a single standardized piece in the middle and panels of various materials/color so you can mix n match to make your own custom set.

Apparently the reason so many new lighting designs include copper shades is to that the reflected light gives the cold temperature of fluorescents a warmer color.

Crazy bikes:

These guys had rigged an SLR to a Pico Projector and used it as a 3D scanner. The whole kit costs 2,000 Euro which isn’t that bad. You get the software, projector, camera, tripod and a turntable for placing your scanning object on. The projector projects a grid image on the object and you rotate the turntable at even intervals to take pictures which can then be stitched together. It sounds a little more involved than the demo we got at school with the handheld 3D scan gun but a lot cheaper.

This replica aircraft engine with props was 3D printed. What the heck?

Objet by far had one of the coolest booths. The resolution is superb and you can really feel the material differences in the lighter hard plastic and black rubber printing.

The clear half of this screw driver was printed and fits perfectly onto the mass manufactured half AND it worked.

This group of students was sponsored by Bosch to enter into some competition where you design a vehicle to be driven by a single screwdriver. There’s was this crazy 3D printed hammerhead trike… thing.

This e-bike frame (with internalized chain!?) was entirely 3d printed. And I thought our bike model was expensive.

And this little guy is also 3D printed, happens to be made of titanium and is the size of a small marble.

Antwerp Central Station:

Design Fair:

3d printed lamps:

This look familiar to anyone?

This little guy (and two more of the robot in different positions of transformation) took waaaaay too long it seems. I still a have some rather intense sketching I plan on doing for my power tool and the E-bike project. This on top of our current projects at Wuppertal (which thankfully haven’t heated up too much yet). With any luck I’ll have a project or two pretty much done by Thanksgiving and then get the rest done by Xmas. I’ll try to post on progress and I’ll get up a link to my WIP once there’s something to actually look at.  Feedback is always welcome and for all you other design dorks, how are your folios going?