• Store
  • Design Jobs
  • Firms
  • Awards
  • Conference
e

Core77

Sign In / Join Now;
e
  • Topics
    • Product Design
    • Process
    • Technology
    • Lifestyle
    • Business
    • News
    • Furniture
    • Tools
    • Transportation
    • Education
    • Footwear
    • Impact
    • Reference
    • Video
  • Features
    • Features
    • Yo! C77 Sketch
    • Photo Galleries
    • Bizarre Inventions
    • Design Calendar
    • Weekly Maker's Roundup
    • DiResta's Cut
    • Industrial Design Tips
    • Hand Tool School
    • Tools & Craft
    • Design Experience that Matters
  • Shopping Guide
  • Projects
    • Projects
    • Firm Projects
    • Reader Projects
  • Forums
    • Forums
    • General Discussion
    • Students & Schools
    • Design Employment
    • Sketching
    • Software & Technology
    • All Forums
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • About
    • Contact
    • Advertise

DIY in the Digital Age: Samuel Bernier's "Project RE_"

By Ray Hu - Dec 21, 2011

  • Join Core77 Today
  • Submit your projects for publication
  • }Favorite This
  • Y1
  • m1
  • U1
  • [1
  • X1
  • H1
hesge hesge
Originally hailing from the Quebec countryside, Samuel Bernier has found his calling at the University of Montreal's product design program, where he has launched "Project RE_" with the blessing of his thesis supervisor Louis-Philippe Pratte. It turns out that Bernier's collaboration with Udi Rimon for ENSCI Les Atelier's SupraDesign project was but a diversion from his true passion: DIY design. For his graduation project, Bernier asks:What motivates people into making their own stuff? Is it to save money? Is it to express themselves? Or is it just a human need to create, as proposed by the Italian philosopher Piero Ferrucci.

Some people appreciate standing out of the crowd by creating a unique product. Others build to show off their skills and values. Today, with the rise of automated manufacturing machines and the access to cheap and intuitive 3D programs, the quest for customization will become a reality.

Project RE_, then, is as much a thought experiment as it is a series of hands-on projects, the realization of Bernier's interest in "do-it-yourself communities and the capacity of their members to reproduce locally objects designed in other countries." In this sense, he's taken a cue from Instructables (which was recently acquired by Autodesk), championing the same "open source principles and successful business model," noting that "all 3D printing files and laser cutting files will also be published on Thingiverse."

All of which would sound like the same old spiel if not for the fact that Bernier actually produces—upcycles, in the parlance—some pretty neat "Things That Look Like Other Things" from otherwise quotidian raw materials:

See how each set of materials fulfills its destiny after the jump:
Screwdriver flatware = food-drivers?
Screwdriver flatware = food-drivers?
There's also a tutorial video of the Dishrack, below

The Basketball Bag echoes E13's upcycled Day Bag

The Jerrycan Speakers sound like jerrycans

The Kitchen Clock is perhaps the least interesting of the projects, IMHO

The Brush Organizer could be a riff on other bristled desktop organizers

There's something a bit Duchampian about the Shovelamp

Be sure to click through to the individual project pages, where Bernier shares his own inspiration for each project in addition to step-by-step project walkthroughs. I imagine he'll be posting videos (as he did with the pencil dishrack, below) in the near future...

The latest design news, jobs & events.
Straight to you every other week.

Join over 300,000 designers who stay up-to-date with the Core77 newsletter...

Subscribe

Test it out; it only takes a single click to unsubscribe

  • }Favorite This
  • Y1
  • m1
  • U1
  • [1
  • X1
  • H1
  • Object Culture

Ray Hu

  • x
  • x

Formerly an editor and currently a contributor to Core77 (among other publications), Ray brings a broad interest in popular culture, media, and technology — alongside an abiding passion for art, music, and cycling — to his practice as a journalist and critic.

Comments

Core77's Design Directory

View all Design Firms »

Core77 Adlets

Advertise Here

Recent Posts

  • Milan Design Week 2018: Exhibitions Around Town

    By Carla Zimmermann & Megan Dinius - 4 hours ago

  • Urban Design Observations: What's Up With This Bike Lock?

    By Rain Noe - 11 hours ago

  • Harry Gesner's Cantilevered House Designs from the 1950s

    By Rain Noe - 11 hours ago

  • Advanced Bondo Tips for Designers and Modelmakers

    By Rain Noe - 13 hours ago

Continued Reading
  • Object Culture
    3 Comments

    By Rain Noe - Dec 21, 2011

    The Story of the Modern Desk Lamp, Part 1: Its Invention was Based on British Car Suspensions

    When people get bright ideas a light bulb pops up over their head. For British designer George Carwardine, that light bulb was followed by a spring.Throughout the 1920s inventors tinkered with articulating-arm lamps, experimenting with parallelogram arm structures and counterweights. None of them really caught on until Carwardine, a UK-based...

  • Materials
    10 Comments

    By Rain Noe - Dec 21, 2011

    This Wallet Seams Minimalist

    "Ask any welder, woodworker, or tailor where their products are most likely to fail," writes craftsman Noah Lambert. "They'll point to the weld, the joint, or the seam—anywhere two pieces of material are fastened together."It's for that reason that Lambert makes his Uni-Fold Wallets by folding a single piece of...

  • Object Culture
    1 Comment

    By Rain Noe - Dec 21, 2011

    The Kee Klamp, Part 2: Open-Source Pipe-Based Furniture

    On a website called Simplified Building Concepts, DIY'er Chris P. documents a wide variety of furniture he's made out of pipes and Kee Klamps: Chairs, tables, clothing racks, rolling shelves, and more. In addition to providing Instructables-like photos and videos of the process behind each piece, Chris also posts freely-downloadable...

  • Object Culture
    4 Comments

    By Ray Hu - Dec 21, 2011

    The Latest from ZIIIRO Watches

    As the calendar year draws to a close, ultracontemporary watchmakers ZIIIRO are pleased to announce the release of two new models: the "Ion" and the Proton." The former watch design (left) marks a radical departure from the chic / sleek aesthetic of their debut from a year ago and Spring...

K

{

Welcome

  • YSign In with Facebook
  • mSign In with Twitter
  • USign In with Linkedin
OR
  • jSign In with Core77 Account
  1. Forgot password?
  • Cancel

Don't have an account? Join Now

K

{

Welcome

Create a Core77 Account

  • YJoin Now with Facebook
  • mJoin Now with Twitter
  • UJoin Now with Linkedin
OR
  • jJoin Now with Email
  • Cancel

Already have an account? Sign In

By creating a Core77 account you confirm that you accept the Terms of Use

K

Reset Password

Please enter your email and we will send an email to reset your password.

  • Cancel
Today On the Core77 Network...
  • ]Design Jobs

    • Director of Industrial Design

      PopSockets San Francisco, California
    • Packaging Design Manager

      PopSockets Boulder, Colorado
    • Graphic Design Internship Summer 2018 (Paid Internship)

      Annie North Wales, Pennsylvania
    • Graphic Designer

      Confidential Winston-Salem, North Carolina
    • Post A Job
    • View All Jobs
  • ]Design Directory

    View other design services:

    • _Hand-Eye Supply

      • Trusco 2-Level Cantilever Tool Box

        $65
      • Kaweco Highlighter Color Leads 5.5x80mm 3 pack

        $7
      • Hand-Eye Supply 6 PC Screwdriver Set

        $50
    • *Coroflot Portfolios

      • Botran & Co | CGI Advertising visualisation & Promo Animation film.

        Marco Serena
      • Coros Omni Helmet

        Dave Windham
    • © 2018 Core77, Inc. All rights reserved.
    • Terms
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
    • Advertise
    • About
    • Y
    • m
    • '
    • X
    • S
    • © 2018 Core77, Inc. All rights reserved.
    Advertise Here