digifabshop
2015 Holiday Happenings
DISPATCH 008 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015
A Letter From John Digifabshop's mission, to Explore Making, has until now never really been written or clearly expressed. It has, though, remained unchanged since the beginning. Before there were clients, or employees, or machines, or even a shop, we wanted to understand how things had been made in the past, to consider how they're being made now, and to see how we could help make them better in the future. Now, Explore Making is obviously an incredibly broad concept, but that was purposeful, since we didn't know how to make anything early on, and it is now as well, as it honestly expresses our fascination and interest in knowing more about making everything. We're an architectural fabrication business, so our explorations always tend to favor how they can be applied to buildings, structures and interiors, but it's the unexpected connections between seemingly unrelated ideas that can often be the most exciting. And it's the open ended result of our mission that will prevent us from ever being done. Digifabshop's core values, have also gone undefined over the years, though they too were there at the start, and we continue to embody them in our work and in our team today.
Without a mission that directs us to focus our energy on a particular industry segment, product, skill set or easily quantifiable business metrics, there is a danger that our business could be hard to understand by potential clients, or that success could be hard to gauge by our team. We've experienced just the opposite, though, specifically due to our core values. Regardless of what we're making, the quantity, scale, or the material, our customers know, or come to know, that because of our values we'll bring the same a rigor and pursuit of excellence to their project, and that we won't settle for just OK. And regardless of the talent someone starts with, the individual mistakes they make, or the speed with which they get certain tasks done, we're happy, our clients will benefit, the business will be more sustainable, and they're ultimately successful here if, overall, their values align with ours. Whether interiors or structures, fine art fabrication or product manufacturing, wood, metal or something we haven't yet even worked with yet, let's continue to enjoy exploring and making!
• Celebrate the beauty and details in any object or material. • Embrace new techniques and technologies. • Solve problems intelligently and creatively. • Continually learn and improve. • Keep complexity organized. • Maintain an energetic pace. • Be agile, efficient, passionate, thorough, thoughtful, tidy and safe.
In the works: Digifab Tee Version 3.0
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Our past two T-shirts have been quite a success - it's been a pleasure to have an informal "uniform" in the shop that is common between the offices and all of the departments. We have been working with our good friend and ex-Digifab employee Sam Logan on version 3.0 and we are really excited to see what comes out of it. Version 01 featured the grain texture of a sheet of AC plywood - an iconic material for the work that we do here. Version 02 took it to a new level both functionally and aesthetically. This long sleeve Tee sported a typical CMG perforation pattern in long sleeve which was the perfect shirt to get us through the cold winter. We can't release the concept for version 03, but we can assure it will be a good one!
DISPATCH 008: OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015
EOTM
OCT
Birthdays CHRIS STAPLETON BILLY MAYNARD FRANK MILAZZO SAUL SCHISLER CHAZ ROBINSON JAMON SCHLIMGEN CHARLIE GEIGER
OCTOBER 9TH OCTOBER 20TH OCTOBER 21ST OCTOBER 22ND OCTOBER 23RD OCTOBER 26TH OCTOBER 30TH
DINA MACARI GARY MOSSEY MOYU ZHANG MARK ZEH DUSTIN MACKINNON CHRIS HITT
NOVEMBER 1ST NOVEMBER 4TH NOVEMBER 10TH NOVEMBER 15TH NOVEMBER 26TH NOVEMBER 27TH
Two Year Anniversaries PAUL D'ERRICO CHRIS HOWE
OCTOBER 7TH OCTOBER 7TH
"Basement Youth"
Greg Stuckart joined Digifabshop in June 2012 as a bench carpenter, but he has since progressed to being our Facilities Coordinator, where he manages our ordering, receiving, shipping and facility work. His communication skills, attendance, attention to detail, volunteering and professionalism allowed him to take this role on initially, and he continues to maintain an exemplary standard of excellence to this day. In their nominations, Greg's fellow employees have noted that he is an effective and efficient leader. They see that he always has a lengthy list of varying tasks to carry out, but that he is always ready to lend a helping hand wherever it is needed nonetheless. And they mention how he takes his job seriously, thinking in terms of career, and how he always ensures he's doing what's best for the company. During our recent growth, Greg has seen each of his areas of responsibility grow as well, and he's handled it in stride. Ordering has been timely, receiving has been handled thoroughly and safely, shipping has been ontime and has met our clients expectations, and our shop has been maintained as well as ever. Thanks Greg for your continuing positive example, dedication and hard work.
We are very proud to share that our very own Dylan Languell has been featured in a Wall Street International article on October 21 discussing his recent gallery opening at 67 Ludlow Street in New York CIty. The article titled "Basement Youth" discusses his work along with fellow contributor Douglas Rieger. It also discusses the implications of a show like this in the context of the neighborhood of Chelsea which has been amplified as a tourist hub with the recent introduction and expansion of the highline. The author goes into depth about Dylan's process and work, heralding it for being "real" art. He writes: "This repetitive action ultimately results in what might be called an emergent quality inherent in the paint itself. The paint loses its initlal function and develops its own potential for expression". To read more, check out the full article which can be found at WSImag.com/art/17930-basement-youth.
If you happen to be traveling to New York City during the holiday season, be sure to check out the temporary installation of "Nova" in front of the flatiron building. This interactive installation will be featured in the plaza from November 18 well into the new year. Nova was designed, fabricated and installed by our friends at SoftLab - an up-and-coming design firm in New York that frequently experiments with interactive temporary structures and our very own John Loercher collaborated with the Flatiron/23rd street partnership as part of the selection committee.
Secret Santa Secret Santa has become a fun annual tradition around the shop and it has made it's return. The gift maximum this year is $10 and the exchange date is Friday, December 18. If you haven't gotten your name yet, better hurry up! Time is running out.
Farm & Flea
EOTM
NOV
Jon Cuti begins almost every component that comes through our shop, and he does so quietly, efficiently, professionally and with care. During October we had a hugh CNC push and Jon volunteered for overtime, helped train Matt, and started cross-training Shaka, all while systematically getting his heavy workload done. Jon started at Digifab in September 2012 as a bench carpenter and then progressed through upholstery and banquettes before finding his niche in CNC operations. His co- workers have noted that no matter what complications he encounters, he always gets the job done and on time. If someone needs his assistance, he will stop and help them even when he has a large workload. Jon is our second repeat winner of the employee of the month award. He won in December 2013 and since then has maintained the “humility and diligence” as well as his “attention to detail and efficiency” that were noted then. And he has continued to grow and learn more and more about the machines every day. The closing remarks on that award write up deserve to be repeated again, because they still are true- “Awesome work Jon. We are grateful to have you on our team!”
DISPATCH 008: OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015
This Thanksgiving, the successful Basilica Farm & Flea will be returning to our neighboring building from November 27th to 29th. In preparation for the event, we will be producing all of the signs from milled AC plywood. Originally created with the intent of creating an alternative to "black friday" culture, Basilica fills every inch of its floor space with local makers, farmers, chefs and vintage collectors which helps support the local small business economy. There are many ways to participate this year including a kickoff "Black Friday Soire" on Friday from 5 - 9PM, weekend long market hours, regularly scheduled workshops as well as screenings and art installations. Check out more about this event on their website at basilicahudson.com.
2015 Digifabshop Holiday Party True to form, we do not know many details about the holiday party (yet). We do, however, know that it will take place on Saturday December 12th. Make sure to save the date and stay tuned for more information.
Digifab In The Know: Investigations in Material Treatment We have been talking about the move and expansion of our finishing department for quite some time now and it is finally in process. Much thought and analysis has been put into the planning of this area and we are really excited about the result. What we are getting out of this is a finishing department that not only meets the current needs of the business, but has expansion and potential built in to meet our needs for many years to come. To understand why this move is so significant, we must first look at the downfalls of our previous layout. Starting from the very walls that contain the area, we have created a not-so-airtight barrier that can no longer contain the volume of off gasing we now produce. In the beginning this was more than adequate - our room was large and our spray booth was venting well. With the rapid expansion of components going through the shop, we quickly fell behind on the amount of air that could be exchanged with the old system. With the new department, we are no longer kidding ourselves. We've addressed this problem by adding a dedicated drying chamber within an open finishing area (separated by floor to ceiling curtain) where components can off gas freely without worry of stinking up the rest of the shop. Our second challenge is also a direct result of dramatic increase of work volume - there was just no space to work! The old finishing area quickly filled up with racks upon racks of components and without providing the proper time to off gas, these could not be brought onto the shop floor. This left us with a cluttered room where every turn of the elbow had the potential to damage finished components. As we began adding staff to sprays and finishing in general, it quickly became an area that required a finely coordinated dance to manouver through. Lastly, when our old finishing department was conceived, we did very little metal work. There was a time when the fabrication area was a quarter the size that it is now and there weren't even dedicated staff. With the build out of this area and team, we began to experiment with metal finishing (which is much different than our other components). Our new finishing department will have the ability to spray metal with lacquer like we typically do, but we will also have the capacity to powder coat - a finish that is exponentially more durable than our typical automotive lacquer.
[Existing Crating/Storage]
01 -
We're taking a familiar piece of equipment - the Makor - and putting it in a new, much more efficient context that will increase it's productivity. Rather than unloading finished parts and wheeling them all the way back to the front of the line to dry, the new orientation will compliment the flow of materials directly into the drying chamber.
02 -
Rather than trying to keep the entire finishing department air tight and sealed from the rest of the shop, our new area will be open air and have a high capacity drying chamber with direct venting to the outside of the building. This will improve the overall air quality of the shop significantly and aid in reducing dry times.
03 -
Our old spray booth has served us well, but components have been getting larger and larger throughout the years. We're moving this to the heart of our new finishing area where it can be used to one-off work, R+D and samples.
04 - The new side-draft spray booth will help us take our finishing game to the
next level. This fully enclosed booth features enhanced exhaust from both sides as well as a curing feature that would allow us to dry smaller jobs independently of the larger drying chamber. The larger size means two finishers can work side by side in there - and integrated lighting will help make sure they're seeing every detail that they are working on!
05 - The finishing team produces more samples than any other department in the shop. This means they require what is essentially a science laboratory along side all of the production-style finishing equipment. We've acumulated many new color-matching and mixing tools over the past few months and we can finally bring all into one central location where the finishing department can be free to conduct their experiments. 06 -
For years we have been sending sending out metal components to outof-house powder coaters and have been disappointed with the results. This has reduced our ability to control cost and quality and has created many headaches by subjecting our work to other company's work schedules. Our new powder coating booth and oven will allow us to provide the best possible metal finish all in house and on our time. This is a huge step in progressing our expertise in metal fabrication.
[Existing Shop Layout]
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06 [Old Finishing Department]
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DISPATCH 008: OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015
NYC Fashion Week - Kenneth Cole & Tacklebox - NY
Fashion week in New York City is a big deal. Designers, industry professionals, students and fans come from around the world to witness the spectacle. Several weeks before this year's events (September 10-17) we were approached by Tacklebox Architecture, an up-andcoming design firm, to work on a "secret project" which was to be unveiled during that week. Needless to say, there was a hard deadline for this project so there was really no room for experimentation. Given the current workload in the shop, there was no way that our FLOW machine could handle all of this cutting. While this is not the typical way we work, we decided to try a different strategy for this one - The coordination would be taken on by our office, but all fabrication (minus some countersinking) would be outsourced. We reached out to Kammetal (the metal shop that fabricates many of our CMG components) and asked them about laser cutting these perforated patterns. They came back and the amount of cut time blew our waterjet out of the water - pun intended. They were able to produce each panel in a fraction of the time.
After the project was revealed to the public we were allowed to share the client. Kenneth Cole, a fashion house that got its start in shoe design, commissioned Tacklebox to design it's new storefront on Bowery. The image above shows the overall design of the not-too-large corner lot. It's clean lines provide a subtle backdrop for the product, yet sport many beautiful details on the micro scale. The entire wall system is held 8 inches off of the wall with hot rolled steel stand offs that were fabricated by our friends at Ironman machine shop. This provides a large space to run lighting and backlit the thousands of perforations featured on these panels. What this meant was that every single hole location needed to be coordinated perfectly. Steel can be very unforgiving. The detail image to the right (manipulated to highlight the perforations) shows how intricate these panels became. Not only did they sport an elaborate perforation pattern, but they also coordinated a standard and bracket system as well as all connections to the stand offs beyond.
DISPATCH 008: OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015