A Fab Day

Today I made my first Fab.com purchase, and I’m extremely excited about it!  For those of you who don’t know about Fab, it’s a website that has flash sales on design products.  Today’s sale included jewelry from Nervous System, which is one of my favorite jewelry and product design companies. 

Photos from Nervous System

I was tempted by all of the pieces, particularly this ring, but ultimately decided it would be more practical to get these earrings since I can never remember my ring size.  I almost got the matching necklace, but I was able to rein myself in.

Below is part of the Nervous System design philosophy, taken from their website:

Formally we are attracted to complex and unconventional geometries. Our inspirations are grounded in the natural forms and corresponding processes which construct the world around us. From coral aggregations to interference patterns, a study of natural phenomena is an essential ingredient to our design process.

To evolve such forms, we systematically engage in generative processes. Instead of designing a specific form, we craft a system whose result is a myriad of distinct creations. These systems are interactive, responding both to changes in specific variables and to physical inputs. There is no definitive, final product, instead the many designs created allow for mass customization.

When I first read this, I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between their work and my Degree Project.  For my final studio project in grad school, I designed a roof structure that expressed the emergence of patterns of spatial organization from interactions with site conditions.  By defining a set of rules of assembly, a portion of the project was intended to be disassembled and reconfigured in different locations based on the new site’s local conditions.  New patterns emerge based on new stimuli.

Here are a few diagrams from my Degree Project.  You can click on the images to enlarge them if they're difficult to see.

It’s amazing what the computer and digital fabrication allow us to create, and it’s this combination of art, machine, and nature that results in such beautiful forms.  I hope to continue this exploration in my own design work, but in the meantime, I’ll try not to spend all of my money on Nervous System products!