Now that summer is officially over, we really should tell you about our summer intern, Abigail. While she was here she was able to design and fabricate multiple pieces, from a large cabinet to some small bench prototypes.

The cabinet was a basic design that needed to store some items we have in the shop space, but we decided to go to town withe the doors. Abigail had fun designing them, and learned a ton about our workflow here at Because We Can.

Here is what Abigail says about the project:
This cabinet was my first experience using Revit to design a furniture piece. Previously I had considered Revit to be strictly reserved for modeling larger architectural models but was both pleased and surprised to discover how intuitive and efficient Revit was at modeling not only the overall furniture mass, but also the joinery details as well. After completing the Revit model, I exported the doors of the cabinet into Adobe Illustrator where I was more easily able to design the decorative motifs. From designing and building this cabinet, I believe I gained a greater understanding of the impact modeling programs have in aiding design and fabrication.

Next Abigail worked on a bench prototype for our Burning Man camp with The Serpent Twins. She made several prototypes to make sure the design would be sturdy and easy to assemble.

About the benches Abigail says:
I took a similar approach to designing the Winged Benches as I did the cabinet unit. I first designed the overall mass within Revit and then exported the model pieces into Illustrator where I drew the decorative profiles and winged back. It was fun to design such an animated piece with such a simple configuration. Designing this flat pack bench that assembles without any additional hardware only further confirmed for me how digital fabrication enhances both design and production.

Thanx Abigail!
Good luck in school!

A couple months ago we were brought in by Techshop, SF to be guest designers for one of their corporate events. We took a day to brainstorm with the clients for a couch and a side table design. During that session we drew on paper, white baords and modeled designs in Revit. By the end of the day we had a design that everyone was excited about.

We focused on making the design one that reflected the CNC fabrication style that it was going to be made in. By using a high grade "EuroPly" and aluminum sheet we were able to do a staked design with an exposed edge to get our curved shapes. In the middle of the stack is a layer of aluminum to add strength and interest, and to use more of the TechShop machines!

The wood was all CNC router cut, the aluminum was waterjet cut and the brackets and feet were waterjet cut and welded.

It was a successful fun day for the corporate team, and in the end they got to keep the couch for their office.
So cool!

We worked on some elements for The D-School at Stanford University a little over a year ago. It was a really cool project, and the school is really awesome too!

There was just an article about the D-School in the Wall Street Journal with some photos of the work we helped out with.

The article is great in talking about what the school does for Stanford, but if you want to see more photos of the stuff we did, check out our project page on it!

We recently took a trip down to LA where we are always impressed by the amazing fonts, architecture, art and display.It is a great place for a designer to get inspired!

From fonts on apartment buildings,

to the famous Griffith observatory,

to bowling alleys you drive by unexpectedly,

and amazing wall graffiti near Silver Lake!

There are so many interesting things to do and see.
Of course we had to check out the great Modernist exhibit happening at LACMA. It's a great show if you get the chance!

And then, on to Disneyland! Where the buildings and landscapes have been expertly designed to amaze!
From the outside wall of Space Mountain,

to the wonderful statues in the Tiki Tiki Tiki room,

to unexpected nooks filled with psychedelic flowers!

Los Angeles once again, does not disappoint.
We leave inspired and a little sun tanned.

This is a great piece that we designed for a construction company that deals with numerous large drawings.
And we just posted the design of their new office here.

The counter height allows it to be a nice large standing meeting table while reviewing the large drawings, and with the accessibility to pull out another drawing for reference if needed.

The labels on the front are a dry erase material so the naming can be changed quickly and easily.

We designed it in two halves so it could be more easily shipped, and more importantly, fit through the door!

Which allowed us to make some fun joinery details...

It is a great casual meeting table, and a great center piece to the space!