Still, to many designers at least, QR codes are generic and ugly. Someone realized that QR codes implement error correction and that means that a certain amount of the data can be corrupted without losing effectiveness. For a long time, it was largely a trial and error process of deleting sections and seeing if it was still readable. Odds could be increased by padding the code out with additional data. But there is another way to better your odds. The secret was explained to me in this great blog post.

Here is the process I followed to create one for Artifacture. First, I created a QR code using one of the many websites devoted to offering that service. I used BeQRious.com.

First, certain regions of the QR code are reserved. The red shading is devoted to alignment of the scan. The green and blue shaded areas tell the scanner other details including the size of the code, the encoding version, etc. Nothing can interfere with these areas without making the code unreadable.

The balance of the code is composed of small squares. Those squares are divided into groups of 8 (bits), or 1-byte of data. The bytes are read beginning at the bottom-right corner and read up and then down, right-to-left. The bits are initially arranged in a 2×4 grid and stay in that arrangement until the reserved areas are encountered. Then the bits have to shift around to fit. The bytes are shown as various shades of gray. in the diagram below.

If we lay that diagram over our QR code, we can see how the data is divided up. The key to removing data is to understand that once you remove one bit in a byte, it’s corrupt, so you may as well remove all 8 bits.

Going back to our map so it’s easier to see, our goal is to pick the areas to remove that represent as few bytes as possible. Here I put in a part of our logo. After some experimentation, I arrived at this arrangement. You can see where I positioned it just right to retain the light gray and medium gray bytes at the top-middle of our logo.

I tried having it read without erasing the data behind the logo, but it didn’t work. So I marked out the area to fill white. For aesthetic reasons, I didn’t white out the whole bytes in all cases. It doesn’t matter, as it knows where they should be, and once some is gone, the whole byte is invalid.

Here we’ve filled the background with white.

Here we put the QR code back in.

And lastly, we turn off the mapping layers to get the final product.

To stay true to the feel of the place ( pictures below ), we elected to make the gears a combination of dark stained wood teeth around an acrylic core.  Since the tree would be moving, we decided against trying to make a set of meshed gears to drive the rotation – non-metal gears would mark, and would shed material over time even if perfectly meshed, so instead, we created a gear form with a silicone rubber contact surface.  It’s elegant looking, and simple to fabricate.  More importantly, it’s easier for the hotel staff to assemble and disassemble, and safer to guests and staff since there are no meshed teeth to create pinch hazards.

The photos shown are a 1:8 scale model.  The final tree would be approximately 7’2″ tall with the largest horizontal gear approximately 4′ across.  If we cannot reach an agreement for the Joule installation, we plan to make scale kits available next Christmas – and potentially full size ones as well.

While it’s not the most complex piece we’ve done, this is easily one of the most popular and well received.

The couple is holding their wedding at The Joule, a high end downtown hotel with a 25 foot kinetic gear sculture as a center piece.  They were looking for something distinctive to suit their personal style, and the uniqueness of the venue.  The bride was already a steampunk fan, so playing on the gear theme was a natural.

We kicked around some printing ideas, but a plain old wedding invitation just was not our speed (and the client was willing), so we started playing with kinetic designs.

We went through a number of designs, but none of them seemed to be quite right until Donna who was brainstorming with us suggested making it a fully functional part of the design instead of just decorative.  With that decision, things came together quickly.  Meshed gears with symmetric openings in the large gear to hide and reveal information about the services and the reception following.

One of the big practical challenges about kinetic cards – and meshed gears in particular – is getting the piece rigid enough to make all the moving parts mesh and move correctly.  To that end, the gears are a metallic Bronze cover laminated to 50pt black chip board.  The bronze had a black core that made for a nearly seamless lamination when cut.

To maintain the period/steampunk aesthetic, the back sheet is a brown columned cover stock, and the printed piece is a columned vellum cover laminated to 25pt black cover for rigidity.

The client really wanted letterpress printing, but since we only had a week to do the project from start to finish, there just was not enough time to make the arrangements.  However, we were able to meet her half way and have it thermographically printed.

Even though the chipboard segments were added for purely practical considerations, they also ended up giving the card a weight and substance that was very pleasing, and worked well with the theme.

Finally, a big thank you to Donna Hawk for helping us get to the final design in world record time.  We could not have done it without you.

The technical stuff:

The Bronze cover is Cordenons Stardream Bronze.

The back sheet is Neenah Classic Columns Canyon Brown cover laminated to 25pt black chip board.

The printed sheet is Neenah Ultra II Columns vellum cover, also laminated to 25pt black chipboard. This had the happy side benefit of of rendering the vellum opaque, so that we did not have to obsess over keeping the columns aligned on the base and printed stock.

The vellum was printed with photo registration dots, and cut down in house on our laser to permit precision placement of the gear mounting holes.  The columned back sheets were also laser cut to size with the mounting holes.  To prevent marking and discoloration, the chipboard backers were cut separately from the same files and assembled later.

Final assembly used a pin table jig to properly align the pieces.  Since time was short, we used distressed bronze colored metal brads to affix the gears.

For those who are not into puzzles and would rather just put your Frabjous together, here is a step-by-step video to follow.

Naturally, when we got our first laser cutter, we had to make a Frabjous. When George made his, he sanded the edges and glued the pieces together. While I have a lot of patience, that seemed like a lot of work! But at the time, we happened to be exploring the use of finger joints for assembling boxes and thought perhaps it could be applied here. Sure enough, it could!

After a lot of refinement, we approached George about licensing the design for production. He was in the process of putting together content for the Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) opening in NYC in 2012, and agreed that we could produce it for MoMath. We are ramping up production so soon you will see it at a museum gift shop near you. In the meantime, you can purchase it through our Etsy shop. MoMath receives a portion of each sale.

The 12″ tower has also just appeared in the online and print edition of the Grand Illusions holiday catalog.

Grand illusions is a specialty retailer that deals in elegant, ingenious and beautiful items, from time honored illusions to mind bending science toys. A number of of our favorite things on our toy shelf have come from them, and we are genuinely honored to be included in such an amazing collection.

Here, Grand Illusions founder Hendrik Ball shows off the tower:

This is a double first for us – our first time in a print catalog, and since they are a UK based firm – our first international distribution.

Here’s the short version.  Chris ( the Client ) created an 9 piece puzzle based on the shape of the engagement ring.  He had us cut each panel of the puzzle, and then etch a drawing and a poem or verse about a significant moment in their relationship onto the piece .  This was not second rate drivel, either – this was the genuine article. (  The man made snails romantic, people.  Snails!  )

He distributed the pieces around Dallas at locations that were important to both of them, and sent her on a scavenger hunt.  Each piece had a clue with it that lead to the next.  The final clue lead to the Lakewood theatre, where you can see the marquee below.

In case there was any doubt, she did say yes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Since the piece would have to be folded and unfolded multiple times, laser scoring was not an acceptable solution.  To achieve a stable mechanical score, the piece was scored and perimeter cut by Register Marks using a traditional steel rule die.  We took the perimeter cut pieces, and cut the detail elements, using dots printed in the drop areas as registration marks for the vision system.

While not as elaborate as some of our other dimensional pieces, it is an excellent use of the form, and makes for an interesting piece that is likely to garner a place on the recipient’s desk or shelf long after the event.

Special thanks to our designer Veronica Ramos for working so hard to get it into a launchable condition.  Also a shout out to CutLaserCut.  Their brilliant “How it works section” is (obviously) the inspiration for our Process page.  They are a great shop in the UK that makes stuff that is at least as interesting and ( almost :o) as cool as what we do.

That’s it.  Next up is the stuff that is actually interesting.