I met Andrew Simpson of Vert Design as part of the Rise of the Citizen Engineer panel at Vivid in Sydney and Andrew has been generous enough to answer a few questions about his design practice, 3D printing and DIY boats…
Q. Tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, design practice and why you were invited to be part of the Rise of the Citizen Engineer panel at Vivid in Sydney?
I am an industrial designer and head of Vert Design. My design practice is based around rich user interactions and a “hands on tools” design processes.
You use Shapeways to produce your 3D printed products, what is the benefit of this over investing in your own 3D printer?
I produce around U$45,000 worth of 3D prints per year which is the
price of a mid level 3D printer but I see the technology moving so fast
that any machine I buy will be slowing us down in a year or two. If we out source our printing we stay focused on the design outcomes and don’t get tempted to design for our production capabilities. We also get to stay with the pointy end of the technologies as they come out. Shapeways is so
good……I love getting those white boxes.