Co.Space Collaboration: Based on a true story
Well, it isn’t really based on a true story – because it actually happened! It is Co.Space collaboration at its finest and it all started with a dude called Oscar, his company Industrial Oscar, and his work with The Pratley Co.
Oscar’s latest project is The Pratley Co.'s 'True-View' product, which was inspired by everything old and cool, as well as essentially celebrating the 'view-master' - a product first released in the late-30s. And while he can’t go into too much technical detail at the moment, Oscar can explain the basic idea of the concept.
“You place your smartphone in the product and the attachment manipulates your camera lens to change everything to 3D.
“You can then use The Pratley Co. app to then take the media yourself while your phone is inside the product – we will be working on the full app development side of things when we get funded on Kickstarter.”
And while Oscar and The Pratley Co. are an undeniable awesome bunch of people, four other residents of Co.Space can say they have ‘touched a piece’ of the True-View ‘pie’.
“Without Co.Space the development side of things would have gone a lot slower,” says Oscar.
“You basically just put your hand up and there is always someone there to help. If not, chances are that they know someone who knows someone. It's has been a fantastic resource.”
First off the mark was Hanna Eastvold from VixenLab who helped to develop the engineering side of things to get the product sorted for manufacture. She and Oscar looked at aspects of the design that allowed him to balance user interface and aesthetics with cost impact and they also visited suppliers together to assess how suitable their manufacturing processes were going to be for a small-to-medium sized production run.
Hanna works on generating physical design solutions to projects and has recently been working on an infant incubator, a small unmanned aerial vehicle, a cover for an HRV product and a few products that she can’t disclose. Ooo exciting! After working in CoSpace for a year Hanna says that the BizDojo crew and community have acted as almost an extension of her business.
“I’ve hired resources, established partnerships, hired interns, met suppliers and customers, conducted brainstorming sessions, workshops, design reviews, designed and built product, and much more. It’s a versatile space filled with lovely, talented people.”
Next up was Danny Dillen from Vivenda, who is a 3D printing specialist that sits right next door to Oscar at Co.Space. Once the lads realised they spoke the same language (English? No, industrial design!) they were away laughing with a working prototype in no time and at very little cost!
“Oscar passed the model onto me for prototyping which meant cutting the model up into pieces best suited for print,” says Danny.
“Since he was close by, we were able to discuss this in an ongoing manner which made the process a lot quicker and easier. It also meant we reduced print times and sped up the handing over of the finished prototype.”
On a daily basis Danny is normally doing one of two things. If he has a client or prospective client, he is working on their proposed ideas, seeing if he can further them or if they’re fully established, Danny will print a copy of the model sent through. Otherwise he is working on his own projects, whether artistically motivated or commercially - from custom jewellery/accessories, to point of purchase displays and most recently some prototyping for furniture.
After this was all well underway Nick Baillie, a designer for Threaded Magazine, happened to be chilling in Co.Space and thought Oscar’s project would be an awesome feature for the magazine (out now by the way). So Nick mentioned it to Kyra Clarke, Threaded's Founder and Lead designer, and after learning more about Oscar’s product development, Kyra thought he would be a suitable fit for the magazine's 'pigeon-hole' section. Nick says he learns new things everyday from the Co.Space residents and that it is a great community of people who are always happy to lend their advice.
And last but definitely not least, one of Co.Space’s newest residents Seun Shote from Seun Shote Photography got in on the collaboration action by taking some snaps of Oscar for the magazine feature.
Phew! That really is one epic tale.
At this stage Oscar and his crew are gearing up for a product release to be launched on Kickstarter and they are super excited. Once funded, they aim to distribute the True-View and Pratley Co. app to suppliers internationally. Oscar’s says the product will be ready for release later this year and can't wait to share it with the world - keep your eyes peeled for it on Kickstarter and pledge to give your media another dimension of awesomeness!