In 2009 Philips Research organized the Philips Creative Challenge: “This challenge is set up around the theme ‘hospitality’ to explore and showcase exceptional design ideas. The PCC offers the opportunity for design education and industry to share and discuss their views on relevant themes within the field of Industrial Design.”

The DoorM concept lowers the threshold for CitizenM hotel guests to visit the shared living rooms, by triggering their curiosity through interactive spy holes; offering an abstract overview of these living rooms and activity, via blurred video and dampened sound. Furthermore, DoorM showcases suitable living rooms based on your preferences, as controlled via the universal remote included with each room.

Citizen M is a new hotel concept which focuses on a new type of travellers: modern individuals. These explorers, culture-seekers, professionals and shoppers seek affordable luxury. Citizen M houses small yet luxurious interactive rooms tailored by Philips. The downstairs lobby has numerous extravagant spaces where people can sociale, work and have business meetings.

The opportunity investigated for this challenge is lowering the threshold of the hotel room door. With guests being unaware of the activities in the lobby living rooms, they are hesitant to go there. The DoorM concept jumps in by offering interactive spy holes.

The door consists of 6 spy holes. The center spy hole still holds the same functionality of offering an overview of the hallway. The 5 other holes are digitally linked to the 5 different social spaces downstairs.

Whenever the cameras downstairs meassure activity in one of the spaces it is represented by light shining out of the matching spy hole (as seen in the lower right corner of the above image). This small light first tries to lower the threshold for approaching the door. As soon as a guest closes in on the spy hole, the light turns off. Through the spy hole the guest will see a blurred image of the coherent space. Also, as soon as the door notices the guest standing in front of a spy hole, dampened audio from the according space is amplified throughout the door. The entire experience acts as a metaphor for the activity being just behind the door.

In offering more functionality, DoorM ties in with the included Philips Pronto. This universal remote already controls everything ranging from the multi-colored lights and temperature to the blinds and TV. The remote comes prefit with a selection of preferences which adapt everything to your liking. If you, for example, select a ‘work preference,’ the room is brightly lit. DoorM is linked to these preferences and offers a matching space to your liking. This space is marked by a glowing light ring outside the spy hole.

Below you can see a short one-minute movie where the fully working prototype is showcased. In this scenario the guest selects a business preference, but is unable to cope with his large amount of papers. DoorM showcases an empty work space for him, and he is triggered to leave his room to relocate to a better suited environment.

DoorM is a collaboration of: Guust Hilte, Willem Knijnenburg, Loes Smits, Stefan Zwegers and Jan van der Asdonk.

Stats
completed in: May, 2009
time spent on project: 6 hospitable weeks
stakeholders: CitizenM, Philips Creative Challenge and Department of Industrial Design

A custom arcade cabinet created for STRP Art & Technology festival 2009. Free-Man takes the classical Pac-Man game to new, unfettered heights. It brings you infinite gaming pleasure. Gone are all the borders blocking mobility. Your environment is fully secure, with all the spooky terrorists safely contained. It is consumerism heaven. Insert any coin. Eat as much as you like!

The Free-Man arcade started off with two broken arcade cabinets from which we only used the wooden shell and some smaller parts.

Custom elements include: a new computer complete with cooling and a new 2.1 surround sound system.

Also, one joystick and one pushbutton controls, a re-designed single money slot wired to the computer able to register any kind of coin and a custom money-tray.

To finish things off, a white polystyrene casing, re-designed vinyl logo and graphics to accompany the changed theme and a rubber trim for that added retro touch.

So after 6 weeks of overtime we now have a cool retro arcade cabinet to play into eternity. And the best thing is we can even load new games onto the computer.

Feedback by Koert van Mensvoort: “Throughout the project, I have become increasingly impressed by the level of expertise within the team, as they continuously managed to arrive at smart, cheap, yet durable and effective solutions for every issue they encountered…Overall, they delivered more than expected. Points of critique? None. In this project David, Guus, Jan and Jasper have shown expertise in integrating of technology, form and senses, and most of all teamwork. If asked, I would definitely recommend hiring these guys.“

The Free-Man game is conjured by Koert van Mensvoort and coded by Pascal de Man. The design and fabrication were done by: Guus Baggermans, Jasper Dekker, David Menting and Jan van der Asdonk.


Stats
completed in: March, 2009
time spent on project: 6 weeks of overtime
stakeholder: Koert van Mensvoort and STRP Art & Technology festival 2009

With my father’s life-lasting adoration for motorcycles and his newly acquired Harley Davidson I was destined to ride a motorcycle eventually.

Being inspired by his handyman-skills and the Biker Build-Off episodes at the Discovery Channel (a show where 2 bike-builders square off and build a custom motorcycle), I started thinking: why buy one if I can design and build one?

Fueled by the knowledge I can do anything I set my mind to, I started doing some research on how I could fulfill this dream.

A couple of weeks and lots of Euros later I was the proud owner of a revised 1952 Harley Davidson Panhead engine and 4-speed transmission.

A genuine 1952 HD manual and the World Wide Web provided me with all the knowledge I needed. Soon I was skilled in motorcycle maintenance, welding, grinding, and all kinds of metal working crafts.

What started as a passion, is now my main activity each Sunday for a few hours when I get to visit my parents garage. And yes, I do get to see my parents from time to time.

Besides the obvious paint, the motorcycle now only needs a new electrical system and some little tidbits.

My current operations focus on getting the bike ready for its approval, which is scheduled to take place some time this summer.

It’s an illustration of my broad range of ever-developing skills and my ability to conjure anything I can get my hands on.

When this project is done, I’ll ride a custom motorcycle, 100% designed and hand-built by me.

Stats
completed in: sometime in the coming months
time spent on project: almost every Sunday afternoon for the past 8 months
stakeholder: me, myself and I

Unfortunately this project falls within a non-disclosure agreement, and is therefore not yet available to the public eye.

Stats
completed in: January, 2009
time spent on project: 8 scientific weeks
stakeholder: Adidas Innovation Team and Department of Industrial Design

The WagBoard 360 is a crazy take on a classic skateboard. Outfitted with four industrial steel bearings, this board can roll and rotate in any directions. Ultimately being a very challenging contraption for even a seasoned rider.

The Wagboard 360 is materialized by: Guus Baggermans, Jasper Dekker, David Menting and Jan van der Asdonk.


Stats
completed in: March, 2009
time spent on project: couple of hours of fabrication and 1 day of mastering and filming

This one week individual course dealt with designing a new interaction based on a classical piece of music. It’s essence was not to reflect the movements of the music, but to capture the underlying elements and emotions. The music excerpt for this design was Olden Style Pieces I by Henryk Gorecki, a polish composer of contemporary classical music.

Having experienced the music for several hours, analyzing it’s underlying elements and emotions, the conclusion was made that it dealt with repetition, slowly building, with a conclusion at the end, as if a certain goal was reached.

the concept was integrated into the design of an interative light system with the interactivity focussing on the activation of the light.

The first iterations dealt with the motion of opening flower petals. This was visualized with various orgami flowers.

A second prototype, based on the continuous repetition aspect of the music, was constructed using a glass tube and circular foam panels. These panels would allow for rotation, with each panel operating a particular segment of the lighting inside.

The foam’s adherence to the glass resulted in a feeling of inertia, something obstructing rapid movement of the foam panels, in turn strenghtening the link with the slow-paced music.

The first prototype was used as a demonstrator for further study of the subject at hand. Feedback and experiences with modelling pointed out the unfeasability of constructing such an elaborate flower-petal mechanism in the 3 remaining days.

This ultimately resulted in a different approach where the prototype would have 3 movable panels, each operating a single segment of the tube. Finally this light would be bundled at the top.

The final prototype was constructed using the glass tube from the first iteration, combined with various high power LED’s and light sensors to measure the rotation of the foam panels through the glass.

Again utilizing the inertia from the foam panels,separated by small plastic rings, the interaction for the light segments was complete. In the final hour a cap was fitted at the top with a small salt crystal to capture the bundle of light.

Upon rotation of the lowest foam panel, the bottom segment would adjust it brightness: counter-clockwise rotation meant a decrease in brightness, and clockwise rotation resulted in an increase in brightness.

When the brightness of the bottom segment was set to its maximum, the middle segment would be activated. When this segment reached its maximum brightness, the top segment was activated. When the top segment was eventually set to its maximum brightness, the segments would switch off their lights one by one, starting at the bottom. When this action was completed, the top most light switched on, capturing the light inside the crystal. This illustrated the completed interaction.

Below is a movie illustrating the interaction. The music was intentionally left out, since most people seem to associate the pace and movements of the music with the interaction, instead of its underlying elements and emotions.

Movie to be added soon…

Stats
completed in: November, 2008
time spent on project: 1 intense week
stakeholder: Department of Industrial Design

An art object created as a statement for Next Nature, a one week course at the Department of Industrial Design. “Next Nature is culturally emerged nature, it is the nature caused by human culture. That may sound like a contradiction, but really, it isn’t. Our technological world has become so intricate and uncontrollable that it has become a nature of its own. This means we have to re-investigate our notion of nature.”

It seems that yesterday’s leaves are being replaced by today’s garbage in the streets. This garbage is turning into a natural feature of our environment, we become more familiar with a coke can or McDonalds wrapping than with leaves of the few trees in the cities. This garbage, Urban garbage, is becoming our next nature. It is invading our streets like a modern tumbleweed, effectively creating a phenomenon known as Urban Tumbleweed.

This Urban Tumbleweed creates a footprint of a city. To illustrate this footprint, Urban Tumbleweeds were constructed using genuine trash from the streets of both Düsseldorf and Eindhoven. Though the results appear similar, they offer a lot of detail when being observed from a closer perspective.

In the end the question remains: what would Urban Tumbleweed from another continent look like?

Urban Tumbleweed is a collaboration of: Guus Baggermans, Brian Garret Schuur and Jan van der Asdonk.

Stats
completed in: October, 2008
time spent on project: 1 week saturated with the smell of garbage
stakeholder: Department of Industrial Design
links: blogged by Bruce Sterling at Wired - posted in Orion Magazine - blogged at Next Nature

Over the duration of one week we received a crash course in design sketching and rendering from Mark Baskinger, an assistant professor from Carnegie Mellon University and co-founder of LETTER13 Design Agency.

As a special favour, Mark Baskinger collaborated with the members of FRAAI magazine to create a sketching video tutorial. Here, he sketches a rather different looking vase using a wide assortment of tools.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the 4 minutes and 36 seconds of pure speed sketching. And mind your volume.

Stats
completed in: October, 2008
time spent on project: 1 colorful week
stakeholder: Department of Industrial Design

An individual design project of 8 weeks, during the first year of the Master course at the Department of Industrial Design at the University of Technology Eindhoven.

A life has a beginning, a middle and an end. Just like any story. With this project the end is the focal point. The topic for this project focussed on designing an unique and truly innovative approach to an afterlife artifact. With afterlife artifact meaning objects such as a grave, urn or any other of object left behind when we pass away.

However, there are some problems with today’s afterlife artifacts. For example: in locations such as Tokyo and London it becomes challenging to find a spot for graves. Moreover, there are some environmental issues with dumping all the chemicals and radiation our bodies collect during their lifespans into the soil.

Then there is the urn. Ancient as it may be, it is vastly becoming a popular alternative to the burial ritual. But these ceramic jars have not seen any decent design changes since their introduction and still resemble vases with a cap on top. All in all a very static representation of a dynamic person.

Then there is the fact that with graves the opportunity arises to bury family next to each other. An urn, on the other hand, is always alone, and has to be shared among the remaining family members.

In finding a new, more dynamic approach to representing the uniqueness of an individual, new materials were investigated. The lightbulb-moment came in the form of crystals. Using the chemical process called sublimation, where an element or compound changes from solid to a gas-state without an intermediate liquid stage. This meant a very dynamic material, with stunning properties.

Together with the Department of Chemistry a demo was created using iodine crustals inside a vacuum glass bulb. Iodine is solid at room temperatures but turns into a gas just above room temperature.

Eventually the crystals will grow to more concentrated chunks, because they adhere more easily to eachothers rough structure compared to the more smooth glass.

In creating the link between the crystals and the individual, assumptions were based on an existing study. This research field dealt with programming crystals by applying small changes to their core structures. The main goal of this investigation was to create crystals which could store data.

However, one of the findings resulted in crystals being programmed into a certain shape or structure. This lead to the premises that portions of human DNA could be translated into code, ultimately programming the crystals into unique structures. This would result in a totally unique construction of crystals based on the small perceptage of human DNA which is exclusive to each individual.

This process paved the way for a creative phase where concepts could be generated using this approach.

Although the creative phase spawned many ideas, they did not seem to touch that illusive area worthy of this concept. In considering the moments of reconciliation common at afterlife artifacts, the conclusion was made that this design would take on shrine-like properties.

Because the crystals were going to become the dynamic and attention-asking part of the design, the actual form of the container of these crystals should be more primitive and minimalistic. Sketches exploring a design for such a box were done.

This eventually moved to a more 3D approach where 3 models of MDF were constructed to experience the size and dimensions of the proposed design.

However, the problem with such a design is its meaning. The design of an afterlife artifact seeks to incorporate religious design cues. Unfortunately there is no such thing as a universal religious form language, they are highly religion-and culture bound.

So for this project a new form for a modern Western, culturally-diverse shrine-like afterlife artifact had to be designed. This proved to be extremely difficult.

In looking for a more satisfactory result a questionable theory was formed. What if certain visual keys of a deeply religious culture which most of us Wester people do not fully fathom, but perceive to be something magnificent, would be incorporated? Would these recognizable visual features trigger some kind feeling (be it conscious or subconscious) coupled to a holy artifact?

As an example the Shinto religion of Japan was used. This religious period spawned the well-known Shinto temples and iconic Torii gates found around Japan. 2D profile sketches of these iconic shapes were created.

Using this new visual motivation 3 main designs were constructed. Using technical drawings to illustrate their construction, these first iterations each had their strenghts and weaknesses.

Still not fully convinced a new step was needed to blend the best of both worlds into one, creating a final design.

With the final design resembling the Shinto-based style while maintaining a minimalistic view, materials were needed. With such a private object as an afterlife artifact, there is no need for flashy materials. In wanting to preserve a very common look and feel, the choice was made to use wood.

Nonetheless, in adding the quality an afterlife artifact deserves, a rare African wood was used: bubinga. In working around the extreme hardness of this material, small sheets of veneer were used on a MDF base model instead of solid blocks of wood.

A final technical drawing sported the entire wood construction, as well as the glass components needed to convey the light and act as an compartment for the crystals.

Using these drawings hand carved-and chiseled MDF base models were constructed. They provided the backbone for the sheets of veneer and glass parts.

The veneer was applied by molding the sheets into shape by boiling them in hot water. Using a very fine glue and sand paper for the edges a seamless layer was applied. In adding another small detail the top of the design holds 2 mirrored sheets into 1 plane.

The final design consists of 2 wood segments and 2 glass parts. The top part houses the crystals and the bottom acts as a medium for a very faint lightsource. This small light has 2 functions: it shows a soft glow when a person is standing in its presence and also acts as a activator by applying heat to the top glass part.

Ultimately the design showcases the unique approach to an afterlife artifact in adding the professional design qualities in creating this one-off masterpiece.

Stats
completed in: July, 2008
time spent on project: 8 weird weeks
stakeholder: Department of Industrial Design

An initative originated somewhere in 2007, FRAAI magazine is an online magazine providing the world with creative inspiration. All you need to pay are your monthly electricity and internet bills, since FRAAI is 100% free.

Published four times a year, each quarterly issue has its own theme. All the contents you find inside FRAAI is focussed around this theme. Every issue starts off with a few dozen pages of inspiration. New spreads are added each week until the next quarter brings a new issue.

FRAAI magazine is published on environmentally friendly, 917 x 600 pixels of html-coded paper, with small traces of non-hazardous CSS, PHP and Javascript.

FRAAI magazine is currently offline due to funding being spent on other initiatives.

With the publication of the first issue we started off with numerous “Fraai’s Favourites;” a selection of most-liked artist in various fields. Next to that we sported the “Creative Columns;” one-page humorous stories on everything vaguely coherent to design.

Also included were more elaborate articles on new activities in the design community, keeping readers up-to-date with the latest news.

With time came more stylized pages, utilizing special layout tweeks offering strict guidelines, yet a lot of creative freedom.

With the coming of our second issue we incorporated more interactive features, such as this fully functional pong game. Controlled by the movement of your mouse, the objective was to beat the computer, which would ultimately result in a statement related to the adjacent article.

In adding more functionality and creativity, we included embedded videos into designed pages, showcasing an artist’s work. The resulting lay out made the poster image of the video a part of the layout.

The continuation of the magazine saw the addition of a lot of under-the-hood improvements, making publication more low-maintenance and much faster.

In the third and latest issue we increased the bite-sized effect of pages by adding shorter columns, serving food for thought.

To this day we receive collaborative requests of a myriad of artists and designers who wish to be featured in our magazine.

However, due to other primary activities of the FRAAI Team, the magazine is currently on hiatus, awaiting its revision in the future and taken offline for the time being.

A collaboration of: Guus Baggermans, Brian Garret Schuur, David Menting and Jan van der Asdonk.

Stats
completed in: hopefully never, though currently on hiatus
time spent on project: many nighttime hours since Novemeber 2007
stakeholder: the FRAAI Team
links: account at Coroflot - pool at Flickr - published at the Colophon Symposium 2009 - blogged at Customer Media - blogged at Rubiqube - blogged at Scrnmgs

For the Bachelor graduation project at the Department of Industrial Design at the University of Technology Eindhoven the choice was made to start with a technology instead of a context or idea. And a most fascinating material it is. Titled ferrofluid, this oily liquid was invented by NASA in the 60’s. It basically consists of many micro iron particles in a carrier fluid made up by oil and a substance to keep the iron particles from sticking together.

The original function of ferrofluid was to create a lubrication and cooling fluid for complicated joints. The magnetic properties of the ferrofluid made it stick to the joint itself without having to be encased in a complicated container. More contemporary applications include a liquid sealant inside hard drives, radar absorbent material for military vehicles and removing heat between the voice coil inside loudspeakers.

The captivating feature of ferrofluid presents itself when being confronted with a magnet. The iron particles try to follow the lines of the magnetic field caused by the magnet, ultimately resulting in a stunning formation. The photos are all of a small quantity of ferrofluid in a petri dish with different magnets beneath it.

In order to test its characteristics an electromagnet was build and incorporated into a housing for the petri dish. This showcased the immediate response of ferrofluid to the magnetic field. After various brainstorms the concept focused on using ferrofluid’s visualization to showcase the properties of a simple audio player.

The next step centered around finding an appropriate form to house the ferrofluid. The goal here is to design something abstract, not taking away any attention from the ferrofluid. This resulted in some abstract shapes with a knob on top to control the modalities of the audio player.

A second set of full scale models explored some design directions. The choice was made to use a simple cube for the main housing with a glass knob on top.

To maintain a minimalistic exterior and interface the product will run only four controls. On/off, volume, track selection, and shuffle. Turning down the volume all the way will result in the song being put on pause. The symbols for each of these controls were designed to match a recognizable style in accordance to the existing universal symbols. Also, the symbols match a rotational motion, as coherent to the rotation of the glass knob.

After many design iterations, the four final versions of these symbols were laser-cut in various sizes and used as the pattern layout behind the plastic encasing of the product.

The laser-cut panels were backed by series of LED’s in a similar pattern. This created an interface invisible behind the outer shell when not in use. When the product is activated this interface will appear on the sides of the cube.

The next step focussed on a proper material for the final prototype. A selection was made of various white and clear plastics. The white would create the best possible contrast to the black ferrofluid. The clear plastic will create a good flow with the glass knob.

The interface works as follows: When the product is switched off, it can easily be switched on by rotating the knob clockwise. The four sides light up their respective symbols. Each of these symbols is made touch-sensitive by means of a induction field created by a sensor connected to a long wire. This wire runs behind the symbol and is invisible from the outside.

In order to house the ferrofluid a complicated glass encasing had to be conjured. The problem with ferrofluid is its ability to oxidize on almost any surface. Various technical drawings were made to overcome the problem of ferrofluid coming in contact with the glass knob.

However, during this process contact was kept with the Department of Chemistry at the University of Technology, Eindhoven. There an expert in coatings was found. Together with his expertise a custom coating was developed. This resulted in the option to use a glass knob which could come in contact with the ferrofluid. An example of this can be seen below: the container with the coating is on the left, and the one without on the right. The photo was taken right after both glass bottles were shaken.

With the skills from the Glass Lab at the University, a custom glass knob was constructed. After coating the interior and filling it with ferrofluid, the knob was sealed with a special plasma glue.

With the interface hidden when not in use, the user is not confused or confronted with options which are not of importance at that given moment. With this light-interface being hidden, there is also more focus on the ferrofluid.

The ferrofluid acts as a visualization of the selected modality and is animated by a vertically moving neodymium magnet beneath the knob. For example, the level of volume is displayed in the size of the ferrofluid sphere. When selecting tracks, the ferrofluid diminishes in size when reaching the end of a album or artist.

The final product sports a certain wow-factor concerning the ferrofluid. People are stunned by its behavior and properties. And when this wow-factor lessens, a functional and minimalistic product remains. The product is targeted at high-end consumers who enjoy products which differentiate themselves from others by qualitative features.

Movie to be added soon…

Stats
completed in: January, 2008
time spent on project: 8 weeks of pure fascination
stakeholder: Department of Industrial Design

A first year bachelor project for the Department of Industrial Design at the Faculty of Technology Eindhoven.

This project focussed on designing a new twist to a cuddly toy for girls between the age of 8 and 12. The toy’s goal was to create an emotional bond with the target group by using interactive technologies.

The first step in creating this connection dealt with finding an emotion to display. Instead of working with the most common display of emotions, the face, our group decided to center on the heart. More specifically, the heartbeat. Our concept used to beat of the heart to display the cuddly toy’s emotions. When aroused, the heart beat would rise in frequency. When relaxed, the heart beat would slow down.

Instead of merely using audio equipment to present the heart beat, a more creative approach was used. The needle of a hard drive was adapted to vibrate in accordance with the audio file of a heart beat.

Encapsulated in rubber, this resulted in many tiny vibrations which created the necessary sound, and also the larger movements that produced a motion of the chest. A first prototype of this technique was utilized in a pillow to test its effects on the target group. This proved to be a succesful step, and a final prototype was constructed.

The final version of the cuddly toy incorporated a iconic shape and size; a ball-shaped body with a small tail. Besides 2 large eyes, the cuddly toy sports a very soft fur which is unable to resist touching. The prototype has the integrated hard drive needle and exterior amplifier and audio connection.

The intended use of Miko is situated around the many sensors under the skin. The beat of the heart is based on the way the product is held, moved and angled. This communicates the coherent emotion towards the user. Furthermore, when at ease, Miko can act as a relaxation product. Mimicking the same feeling of lying on a parents chest, the slow heartbeat will aid in the child’s tranquility and maybe even sleepiness.

Miko is a collaboration of: Guus Baggermans, Bram Braam, Gilles van Wanrooij and Jan van der Asdonk.

Stats
completed in: June, 2004
time spent on project: 6 cuddly weeks
stakeholder: Rolf Pixley of Anomalous Research Amsterdam and Department of Industrial Design