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How I Took a Product Concept to Market as a Design Student, by Rob Bye

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Text & photos by Robert Bye

I first envisioned initial concept for Hangen18 months ago, and since being featured on Core77 in February 2012, it has since gone through four major re-designs with over 100 development iterations, bringing the clotheshanger from concept to prototyping. I'm pleased to announce that it is now ready for manufacture.

Initially, Hangen was a simple problem-solving product created as part of design internship competition where I was asked to design an innovative hanger. During the lecture in which we received this brief, I immediately began sketching out quick ideas and within a few moments had a simple line drawing that I could see had potential. Taking this idea to an initial product render only took a few hours, and even though there were still many flaws in the design, the idea and function was clearly there.

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At this point, I was lucky enough to have this design featured on Core77—since I was just a second year Bachelor's student at the time, this gave me a huge boost in confidence and made me want to commit to working on the project further. However, due to time constraints and an extremely busy study schedule, I only managed to find time for to return the project six months later. Even so, this happened to be enough time for me to develop a love for the design aesthetic of Naoto Fukasawa, Yves Béhar, Sam Hecht and Kim Colin, and I wanted to try my hand at creating a product in a similar style. Taking the initial functionality and transforming it into a completely new design was a worthwhile experience, involving many sketches and quick computer illustrations to see what it would look like.

I uploaded this version to a number of design networks and after being the most viewed and liked design for a number of weeks—getting over 6000 views, receiving many comments and even having people contact me directly asking where to buy it—I realized that it might have some commercial potential. So the next step was to adapt the design for manufacture, which entailed countless CAD iterations: adding draft angles, changing injection points and developing the shape to suit the injection moulding process. Using the software Solidworks and Moldflow Synergy made the process easier, but it was still a time-consuming process. This was quite a learning process for me, as design students are generally encouraged to focus more on the idea than the nitty-gritty of manufacturing. Thankfully, since the shape of the hanger is quite simple, I only needed to make a few changes, and I encountered very few problems.

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Design UX with the Smartest Nerds Around at The Nerdery

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Work for The Nerdery!




wants a User Experience Designer
in Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Nerdery is an interactive development firm created by nerds, for nerds, that partners with creative minds and big thinkers to engineer and build award-winning interactive projects. Their UX team covers a broad spectrum of practice areas including: discovery and analysis, user research, information architecture, interaction design and visual design.

They are looking for a highly motivated and passionate user experience designer to be responsible for crafting the architecture and user experience of our projects in a fast-paced and highly collaborative environment.

This is your chance to work with some of the smartest UX professionals who possess an incredible breadth of knowledge, so Apply Now

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3D Printing Competition at Upcoming IDSA Conference Means Some of You Will Get to Create Flying Cars (in a Manner of Speaking)

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A paper airplane flying contest might have cut it at some engineering conference in the 1950s, but the upcoming 2013 IDSA conference will be holding something considerably more exciting. Come August 24th in Chicago, ten 3D-printed cars will be launched down a model of a ski jump, and the car's resultant flight (and the spectacle-worthiness of its crash) will be judged for excellence.

Whose ten 3D-printed cars, you ask? Maybe yours. The Launch Day 2013 competition is open to all comers, provided you get your 3D-printed design in by August 12th. That initial batch will be judged for both aesthetics and for "using unique attributes of 3D printing," winnowing the field down to ten. The final ten will then be printed, then launched on the final day of the conference, and whomever's design is judged the winner will take home a brand-new 3D printer. (Runners-up will get $100 gift cards from competition sponsor Inventables.)

There's no cost to enter, and each entrant can submit up to five designs. Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? Which means yep, there's a catch: You've gotta be in it to win it. Specifically, inside the conference center in Chicago, as only registered attendees are eligible to win.

Click here to get details on the build envelope and printer selection for entries.

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Japanese 'Collective Superman' Rescues Woman Trapped by Train

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Earlier this week, a Japanese commuter accidentally fell through the gap between train and platform. The accident happened at the Minami-Urawa station, which I've traveled through many times as I used to live near it; I don't recall the gap being any wider than normal, five or six inches, so the woman must have been slight of form. And she fell in up to her waist. In any case, after ordering the driver not to move, a train official got on the PA and asked commuters on the platform—average men and women who presumably do not have Henry Cavill's gym body—to help shift the train.

Several dozen people are not enough to lift a 32-ton railcar, but they are enough, working in concert, to press against the train and cause the suspension on the other side to fully load. With one side sprung and the other unsprung, the gap widened enough for a conductor to pull the woman free. CG reenactment (with considerably less bodies) below:

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An Introduction To Wood Species, Part 2: Pine

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This Wood Species series comes to us from guest writer Rob Wilkey, an Atlanta-based woodworker and industrial designer whose expertise is in small home goods, furniture, and large installations.

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Over the next few articles, we'll be analyzing a number of common domestic wood species. Up first:

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Pine is the most abundant type of wood in North America. Dozens of species are harvested here, their colors ranging from pale yellow to light reddish brown. Although some pines can exceed 900lbf on the Janka hardness scale, most are much softer, commonly below 500lbf. Despite its softness, pine has remarkable structural stability and is generally resistant to seasonal movement. Pine is also extremely inexpensive, making it the ideal candidate for large-scale structural work, such as framing for houses.

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Pine's grain structure and working properties are largely similar across the different species. All pine is straight-grained and ring-porous, showing its growth rings as dark bands throughout the wood. Pine boards frequently contain a number of knots, which can be problematic during cutting, but the wood is otherwise very easy to work with. Despite its low density, pine isn't highly porous and takes glues, stains, and finishes very well. While most species of pine are too soft for use outside of structural supports, the denser species are commonly used for flooring, wall panels, and furniture. The contrasting grain and abundance of knots give pine an interesting, 'rustic' look.

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The Slim: Cocoon's Grid-It Organizer Now Available in Bag Form

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The GRID-IT organizer first caused a stir when it hit the market some years ago [Ed. Note: including a2011 Core77 Design Award], and for good reason: It was an affordable and clever way to bring order to chaos, lighting up the pleasure center of many a small-tool- or gadget-organizing geek. The seemingly-randomly-placed elastic straps, as chaotic-looking as they are, belie the object's ability to swallow whatever you want, in whatever order you want it.

My only gripe with the thing was that it was somewhat awkward to pull in and out of bags, with accidental friction causing some items to snag or shift, thus ruining my organizational OCD masterpiece. For that reason I stopped using mine. But Cocoon Innovations has now finally integrated the GRID-IT into its own bag, the SLIM.

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Available exclusively through their website and Apple, the $80 SLIM is kitted out with de rigueur materials--water-resistant ballistic nylon and waterproof zippers--but it's got that sweet GRID-IT built-in behind the front flap, while the secondary compartmant closer to your back holds your laptop/tablet. It ain't gonna hold your gym stuff, but for folks like me who are fans of slim bags (it's just 3.5" thick) this is looking like a home run.

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Carbon Fiber and Graphene: Two Great Tastes That Taste Great (and Become Even Stronger) Together

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We've looked at carbon fiber in 3D-printed bikes, in furniture design, and coming out of Lexus' crazy 360-degree loom. The stuff has long been vaunted for its high strength-to-weight ratio. And now, for the first time in decades, carbon fiber could experience a big change, thanks to one of the more popular breakthroughs in material science, graphene.

We've looked at graphene's application in battery-ending supercapacitors before, but for those who don't remember: Graphene is a one-atom thick layer of graphite (carbon) that is strong, and very, very light. And the tricky thing about graphene is making it, since it is so thin.

Recently, scientists at Rice University have managed to weave flakes of graphene oxide into carbon fiber. The result is something that surprised even the scientists who created it. The new fiber is considered to be extraordinarily strong, because knots created using the material are unusually strong.

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We might think of knots as a handy way to tie something up. But in materials science they are way of measuring strength. Typically most fibers snap under the tension created at a knot. But with this new carbon fiber the strength at the knot is as strong as anywhere else along the thread of fiber.

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Swimming World Championship Medals by La Granja

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Barcelona-based design studio La Granja Design is pleased to present their latest project, the medals for the 2013 Swimming World Championship in their hometown. FINA (the Federation Internationale de Natation) selected their design from the concepts submitted by five studios in a private design contest over a year ago; the swimming competition started about a week ago on July 19 and will continue until August 4th.

Wanting to do something unconventional but deeply rooted into the swimming world, we borrowed the idea of a silicon strap from the swim goggles. This opened to lagranja a full range of possibilities.
Silicon's technological properties enabled us to hold the medal in a completely different way, embracing it instead of hanging it. This, of course, lead us to new forms.

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Do You Have Design In Your DNA? Bring it to BlueHive

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Work for BlueHive!




wants a 3D Designer
in Worcester, Massachusetts

How would you like to join a team whose passion and drive is in making their clients look like heroes every time? BlueHive is seeking a new talented 3D designer that is charged by tackling challenging projects and resolving designs that "hit" the client's needs.

The best candidate for this awesome job will be a good communicator and be able to present his or her designs clearly and with conviction. They will also have 2 - 5 years of relevant 3D design experience, be a self motivator and be able to work within tight timelines.

What do you think? Apply Now before someone else snaps up this great job.


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Tom Donhou's 'Experiments in Speed': The Fastest Fixed-Gear Ever?

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So there's no aerospace pioneer posthumously offering a cool quarter-mil for traveling 80+ mph on a fixed-gear bicycle, but Tom Donhou's homegrown achievement is pretty damn impressive nonetheless. Per his earlier characterization of the project as a grassroots, folk-scientific attempt at breaking the 100mph mark, from the pacecar—his mom's early-60's-era Ford Zephyr—to the track, a WWII-era tarmac with a sub-optimal surface. (When he concedes that the ad hoc spoiler is "essentially a shed strapped to the back of the car," Donhou also notes that "I'm not an aerodynamics expert by a long, long way...") As photographer Tristan Holden put it,

The project continues the time-honoured tradition of men in sheds, building stuff. The guys that pushed the envelope of what speeds were achievable at Bonneville in the 1960's all started in the same way, with an idea and the desire to go faster. Like a lot of those men, Tom didn't have huge financial backing, just the raw materials and the know how to put the bike together. Not to mention the guts to ride it.

» Previously: Tom Donhou's 100MPH Singlespeed Bicycle, Plus More Than You Ever Cared to Know about Human-Powered Vehicles (in a Single Archive)

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Helicopter Rotor Galaxy-Like Visual Effect Explained

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What you see above is what occasionally happens when helicopter rotors meet sand and dust, and when the surrounding environment is dark enough for you to see it. It's called the Kopp-Etchells Effect, named for Benjamin Kopp and Joseph Etchells, an American and a British soldier, respectively, who were killed in Afghanistan. The name was conferred by war photographer Michael Yon, who had begun documenting the phenomenon several years ago. While the photo above was shot last year by U.S. Army Sergeant Michael J. Macleod (whom Time quoted last week as saying "During my last major engagement, I shot 29 bullets and 212 images"), Yon photographed the sequence below back in '09:

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So what exactly is happening there? Prior to naming the phenomenon, Yon sought answers from pilots and one provided this explanation:

Basically it is a result of static electricity created by friction as materials of dissimilar material strike against each other. In this case titanium/nickel blades moving through the air and dust. It occurs on the ground as well, but you don't usually see it as much unless the aircraft is landing or taking off. The most common time is when fuel is being pumped. When large tankers are being fueled they must be grounded to prevent static electricity from discharging and creating explosions."

Kyle Hill from the Nautilus blog, however, looked further into it and found dissent on discussion boards about what would cause the Kopp-Etchells Effect. After doing some research, he developed an alternate explanation. The full description in all its scientific glory is written out here, but to nutshell it for you:

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DIY Webbing Tutorial on a Budget, Part 5: Putting It All Together

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In Part 1, we covered materials and hardware.
In Part 2, we covered tools.
In Part 3, we showed you how to set those tools up for webbing.
In Part 4, you learned the crucial Box X stitch.

Now it's time to put it all together and create your own projects. To demonstrate a project from start to finish, and explain some things you'll want to keep in mind as you work on yours, I'll make a dog collar from scratch. Whether or not you own a dog, watching this project being made will be useful, because a collar uses the most common webbing hardware parts: Squeeze-release buckles, a webbing slide for adjustability and a D-ring you can shackle things to. Using these same techniques you can make plenty of non-dog-related items, like the box-carrying harness I showed you in the first video. Once you understand how it all comes together, you can design your own items and start making them.

Hit the jump for some review tips.

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Who Invented the Umbrella: The Romans, The Chinese, or Frogs?

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We've seen umbrellas stuck into car doors; optimized for wind resistance; slapped onto bikes; and the design potential for this simple device is so great that we even ran a series on umbrella innovations earlier this year (here's Part 1, here's Part 2). The umbrella is one of the longest-lived objects I can think of (and a great example of early design). We know the Ancient Greeks and Egyptians had parasols for sun blockage, and that the Chinese had developed a collapsible umbrella design as early as 21 A.D. But who came up with the idea of the umbrella in the first place?

The amazing photos here, captured by Indonesia-based photographer Penkdix Palme, make you wonder: Was the umbrella's invention biomimetic in the sense that we saw an animal doing this and then emulated them? Or is it simply common sense that early man, caught in the rain, seeks to block it by holding a deflective object above their head?

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Building Bird-Friendly Architecture, Courtesy of Aaron Dunkerton's 'Bird Brick'

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In most parts of the world, we can't exactly say that new architecture has been kind to our feathered friends (or any part of our environment for that matter). In a time of urban sprawl, pollution and environmental degradation, London-based Aaron Dunkerton's project "Bird Brick" is a nice nod to the role design could be playing in our less than healthy relationship with the environment. We've seen some similar projects, most notably the Brick Biotope by Micaelaa Nardella and Oana Tudose at "FABRIKAAT" during Salone Milan 2012, but Kingston University grad's approach seems to bypassing some potential structural issues by sticking to the brick making basics.

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Using a traditional brick-making process and the help of MGH Freshfield Lane in West Sussex, UK, Dunkerton created a five-part brick system that provides a cavity for House Sparrows to nest. The house sparrow population in the UK has decreased by an alarming 70% in the last 50 years. Not surprisingly, pairing well-considered design with an endangered species is a pretty simple recipe for a project that strikes that sweet spot between design and doing good.

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Every Day is Different When You Work for OXO in New York City

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Work for OXO!


wants a Senior Product Engineer
in New York, New York

One moment, you might be sketching out wildly inventive product ideas with colleagues and the next you're watching the successful execution of those ideas come to a close. That's what the life of a Senior Product Engineer at OXO is like, and what could be better for a highly creative and challenge driven person like you?

OXO wants you on their team, but first, you need to have the right skills and amount of experience. Apply Now to get the ball rolling.

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Don't Watch This: will.i.am on Logo Design

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So here's a rather painful video of musician and Director of Creative Innovation at Intel will.i.am sharing his thoughts on logo design. Watch... if you dare:

Michael Bierut surmises that he lost a bet, but it turns out that it's kind of a real thing: apparently Mr., um, am is involved in a 20-week Wall Street Journal initiative in which startups are competing for the title Startup of the Year with the guidance of several well-known entrepreneurs. The entire process, which kicked off about five weeks ago, will ultimately be chronicled in a documentary; the call for entries (for which the deadline was back in April) notes that the startups must have less than $10 million in revenue and have a proof-of-concept or prototype to qualify.

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What the Media Hype is Not Reporting: 3D Printers are Bad for Human Health--But So is Cooking With an Electric Frying Pan

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A research paper from the Illinois Institute of Technology looks at a little-examined side of 3D printing: Whether or not it's dangerous to human health. Assistant professor Brent Stephens, who heads up the Built Environment Research Group in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, and a team of grad students took a hard look at the ultrafine particles (UFPs) given off as plastic is melted and extruded through "commercially available desktop 3D printers" (no brand names provided). Media outlets have been feverishly picking up the story, with some even comparing 3D printing to cigarette smoking in terms of health effects.

But hang on a second, let's take a closer look.

What the researchers found was that 3D printing gives off UFPs, in significant-enough amounts that these printers can be characterized as "high emitters" of the offending particles. They then point out that:

UFPs are particularly relevant from a health perspective because they deposit efficiently in both the pulmonary and alveolar regions of the lung, as well as in head airways. Deposition in head airways can also lead to translocation to the brain via the olfactory nerve. The high surface areas associated with UFPs also lead to high concentrations of other adsorbed or condensed compounds. Several recent epidemiological studies have shown that elevated UFP number concentrations are associated with adverse health effects, including total and cardio-respiratory mortality, hospital admissions for stroke, and asthma symptoms.

That certainly sounds disturbing. However, here's the part of the research paper that isn't making it into a lot of articles:

Several recent studies have also reported size-resolved and/or total UFP emission rates from a variety of other consumer devices, appliances, and activities such as laser printers, candles, cigarettes, irons, radiators, and cooking on gas and electric stoves...
[A previous study] reported total UFP emission rates over the same size range as ours measured during various cooking activities. For comparison, our estimate of the total UFP emission rate for a single PLA-based 3D printer...was similar to that reported during cooking with an electric frying pan.... The same 3D printer utilizing a higher temperature ABS feedstock had an emission rate estimate similar to that reported during grilling food on gas or electric stoves at low power, but approximately an order of magnitude lower than gas or electric stoves operating at high power. Regardless, the desktop 3D printers measured herein can all be classified as "high emitters"....

Furthermore, the study revealed that "Emission rates of total UFPs were approximately an order of magnitude higher for 3D printers utilizing an ABS thermoplastic feedstock relative to a PLA feedstock." Whether it is the higher temperatures required to extrude ABS or the chemical composition of the material itself that makes it worse than PLA is not clear, but it does seem that given a choice between the two materials, you probably want to go PLA.

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Trendlet: Stacks on Stacks on Stacks

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Don't call them layers. What we found this week were stacks—perfectly conceived piles of objects as inventive as they are inviting.

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To compose his Stack chair's casually tossed cushions, the Milan-based designer Stefan Krivokapic varied their thickness, color and alignment. Designed for the Italian furniture purveyor Contempo, the cushy arrangement rests atop a metal and wood frame, which makes the seat look at once stable and slippery. It's a tower of mattresses worthy of a princess—with or without the pea.

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'Canoe' Dig These Handpainted Paddles by Northern Newcomers Norquay?

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Move over, Best Made Co., there's a new outdoors-inspired company in town. Montreal-based Norquay Co., a brand "dedicated to camping vibes," has just launched with a line of vibrantly painted canoe paddles. "Founded by a camping enthusiast obsessed with the great outdoors and equally for great design," the five collections—also named after places in Canada—are sure to make a splash in the design world (albeit perhaps less so in the hardcore canoeing community).

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All Work and No Pay? An Interview with Alec Dudson on Kickstarting a Magazine Devoted to Creative Interns

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One of the greatest phenomena that every design student witnesses in the midst of their education (particularly if they go to school on the east coast) is the mass migration to New York City—or any major metropolis—around May for summer internship season. The flurry of applications and interviews for summer temp positions is a race with which most are all too familiar. As me and my design school cohorts approach the midway point in our respective internship positions—it's just the right time to question the value and implications of unpaid and paid temporary employment.

In the last few years, a serious debate has emerged over the state of creative internships. Everything from lawsuits to public pouting has fueled a conversation as to whether creative internships are in fact a strength or detriment to our industry as a whole. Since we've already done away with old-fashioned design apprenticeships, a young designer can't help but ask: where the heck are we supposed to get real world experience?

Enter Intern magazine: a UK-based magazine, currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, looks to break open the often overlooked discussion about creative internships. With the tag line "Intern Magazine: Meet the Talent, Join the Debate," we can only expect that they will be adding some much needed perspective to a conversation that has, to date, been lacking a voice for its most affected demographic: the recent and current creative interns.

As a self-identifying creative internship expert (and current Core77 Editorial Intern), I spoke with the Editor in Chief of Intern Magazine Alec Dudson about their Edition Zero and plans for the future via Kickstarter.

Core77: So what does the path to publishing a magazine look like? Where did the inspiration come from?

Alec Dudson: I guess the path to launching a print magazine began in January 2011. I had spent two months traveling and photographing the USA after completing my Masters degree in Sociology and upon returning, got approached by a friend to join him in starting a website with a couple of other guys. Initially, I figured it would just be a means of disseminating my photographs and maybe having a go at writing some photo essays, it turned out though, that I had stumbled across a passion. As the year progressed, more and more of my free time outside my bar job was becoming dedicated to the site and I was taking far more of an editorial role, using it as a showcase for others rather than myself. After the friend who invited me to the project began working some pretty awesome internships, I too decided to try and turn this 'hobby' into a career.

Why a print magazine and not a blog or different journalistic endeavor?

Having released one print edition of the website, my appetite was very much whet for print media—online stuff is fine but I love the tactile nature of magazines, the texture, the inks even the smell. That was reflected in the places I interned (Domus&Boat) who both have a strong on-line presence but whose jewel in the crown is their beautiful print editions. That side of it really drew me in to the creative industries as well, and as I spent time around designers and photographers, it struck me that a print project was always going to resonate more with this community due to its qualities as an artifact.

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