Update 012.
“Sundoko” Launch
12 products in 12 months!
I started this newsletter 12 months ago as a means to hold myself to my own personal goals. I wanted to keep my design skills fresh and develop meaningful, highly crafted, uncompromising products - sharing them openly. The type of products that live up to my own personal values. I am incredibly proud of the distance travelled over the last 12 months and I hope you have been enjoying peering behind the curtain?
Product number 12 is the biggest one yet and I am taking a risk by sharing it so openly at this early stage in development.
Having announced each of these products, they are all available on my website either to purchase or to back. By backing one of the concept products on the website you are helping bring the product closer to being put into production. As soon as the minimum number of backers is hit, you will receive an email and we will push the button on production.
If there are any products above that you’d like to see go into production, I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
What next? Having spent the last 12 months developing a product to announce each month, I’d really like to hear your thoughts. Do I continue to develop and announce a product a month or do I focus on refining and getting the products I have already announced into the world?
Don’t forget, help me to spread the reach and get more products off the ground by getting your friends and family to sign up below :)
Scoop is live!
Scoop is available to back now. All backers ensure they are not only the first to get their hands on this but also guarantee you get the lowest price it will ever be sold at as a thank you for helping me put this into production. We only need 12 people to back scoop - let’s make this happen! Scoop will be made 100% in-house by my own hands and all backers will get behind the scenes access to the production process.
Last months most clicked link: Nendo x Alessi
My top 5 pieces of content I have found helpful/inspiring:
1.
dorodango. My 4 year old son broke his leg last month, so we have been thinking outside the box for things to be able to do together. Whilst we didn’t end up making a dorodango, we really enjoyed this video showcasing the time and effort involved in this ancient Japanese art form.
2.
Blender for Industrial Design. As a strong advocate for Keyshot over the years for product rendering, it’s clear it’s only a matter of time before I will need to make the jump to blender. Blender continues to innovate at a pace that outstrips most other software and Will Gibbons is a trusted voice in this area.
3.
We Are Makers. As a long time admirer of the work Kate and Jack do with We are Makers, I was delighted to see they have started a new mini video series showcasing makers craft. This is their first video and a real peach.
4.
Analog Productivity with Jeff Sheldon. The second Jeff Sheldon podcast recommendation and another really enjoyable listen.
5.
Race around the world. Having enjoyed this BBC tv show since its inception, the latest season has just finished and it goes to the wire! Such a compelling concept with a real focus on living in the moment - hands down, me and my wife’s favourite.
Introducing “Sundoku”, a bedside light designed to encourage you to read those books that have been piling up.
Sundoko (積ん読): The phenomenon of acquiring books but letting them pile up in one's home without reading them.
I have always enjoyed reading. As a designer I am always looking for opportunities to grow and there are few better ways to grow than to read a book that distills an experts knowledge. Unfortunately, I also have a bad habit of buying books and not always finishing them. I now have a pile of books by my bedside that stare at me every evening, making me feel bad for not reading them.
I had a lightbulb moment when reading Atomic Habits by James Clear when he talks about creating an environment where doing the right things is easy - for example, “Put a book on your pillow to read more before bed”. This really resonated with me. What if your book was the first thing you saw by your bedside each evening?
What if you didn’t have to awkwardly reach for the switch on your bedside lamp? What if your bedside lamp turned on, simply by picking up your book to read? What if it turned off again when you put your book down?
Sundoko, is an LED bedside lamp made from powder coated, folded steel, enabling a design that will stand the test of time whilst fitting in effortlessly within any home. A bio-plastic diffuser, houses the electronics and ensures a soft light with the right luminosity to make reading comfortable. A sustainable wool felt or machined hardwood tray offers the perfect home for your every day carry. Powered by USB, Sundoko is universal, no plug adapters needed.
Sundoko - create an environment in your home that makes reading easy.
Prototyping is one of my favourite things to do as a designer. You can’t beat testing something physically - it tells you far more than paper or digital models ever can. Too often people think prototypes have to be highly refined models, so I thought it was important to share the iterations to date for Sundoko. I view all prototypes as questions - each prototype should really only answer one single question. This helps to keep focus and ensures you don’t overdevelop a prototype. Through these prototypes I was able to test:
whether holding a book open like this damages it
what the right scale is
What size fillet works and how the folded sheet metal will work
how the lighting element works
how bright the lighting element needs to be for comfortable night time reading
how the diffuser element connects to the sheet metal
Do you have a favourite version of Sundoko? Let me know in the comments.