Leave it to a lamp to lather the locally manufactured back of custom design and show us how efficient some products could be. Chris Chalmers, founder of Fabripod, is the San Francisco maker/creator behind the very cool Chrysalis project, a project with the idea of helping designers create custom products. Chris, taking the essence of that project, has created his own beautiful product and with it, is setting the standard for custom designer products, and perhaps even mass-market products, to come.
A New Light on Retail
The Urchin lamp is a modern-style lamp you would see in high-end boutiques. Underneath the repeating panels, the diffused light tells more of the story and so does the video created for their newly launch Kickstarter campaign. In it Chris shows how the product came together and how TechShop, a local DIY workshop providing access to shared tools and an atmosphere of innovation, was instrumental in enabling rapid testing of the idea and material constraints.
He goes on to explain more on the materials and construction of the design. As you can see, the lamps look amazing. With the two-ply birch options each is unique, and beyond the options for the Kickstarter campaign through the Fabripod website, you can design and order your very own variation. There’s more to the story though. He’s taken the Chrysalis idea and focused it on a single product.
“These lamps are really a pivot from the Chrysalis idea.” Chris says, “They started as a parametric design that could be put online in a fully interactive way. As I continued developing the tool I realized more people were interested in the lamps than the software.”
True enough. Software, intangible. Lamp, tangible. Not to mention immediate and quite striking spreading light across your foyer. Originally, Chrysalis was a way for makers to produce a unique product for each individual need, cutting waste and optimizing enjoyment, but Chris realized that the value wasn’t in making every single lamp different. “The real sweet spot is in being able to produce a subset of really good options on-demand and that requires efficiency. Only make as much as you sell, no waste. If it doesn’t sell, make a new design; It’s agile retail.” So his research project into how to manufacture locally with minimum environmental impact continues with mindful consideration of materials, using sustainable two-play birch veneer made by a family-owned mill in Michigan and switching from polystyrene to biodegradable PLA.
The Kickstarter campaign is running for one week only, ending Columbus Day, Monday, October 14th. There are various options for the lamp, from the small PLA Urchin kit ($130) up to the fully assembled large Urchin in Birch ($365) and the complete custom designed and installed option ($1200). If you prefer even more options, their site is the place to go with an area to create, customize and design your own.
