digifabshop A Letter From John For our second newsletter, I'll continue with some more history on how this all got started. I left off with Dustin and I working in a barn with our first CNC, and we continued on there for about two years. We had no real overhead other than our loan payment each month, but, for the most part, we also had no projects or income other than our own experimenting and some carpentry projects here and there. We knew this wasn't sustainable, and we had learned enough (and broken hundreds of bits!) where we wouldn't embarrass ourselves, so we decided to solicit some work. We designed and printed a couple hundred postcards, we sent about ten out to architects and designers we admired, and we got some interest. As projects slowly began coming in, we began to need other tools, and finishes, and materials to get the work done. And as the projects increased in scale, we were bringing in larger and larger raw material orders, and having to store what
we made as well. We found ourselves having to be hyper-organized in our small space, making racks, hanging things everywhere on the walls and ceiling, and adding casters to tools and tables for flexibility, but at some point it just wasn't working. This was a huge thing to grapple with, as the only solution involved moving out, renting, and all the overhead and reality that came along with it.
Employee of The Month
DISPATCH FEBRUARY
Our employee of the month for January is Gary Mossey.
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In January, Gary was responsible for the completion of a large finishing project for PGS, and it was a definite success. He nailed the sample on the first try, he instilled a sense of confidence in the client that we could do the job, and their confidence increased as the project progressed and as Gary came up with proactive solutions to unexpected problems as they arose. PGS was very satisfied with the end result. We expect that this project will lead to more contract finishing work down the road, and we demonstrated to ourselves that with Gary at the helm, we can expand the range of projects that we bring into the shop.
In The Works 01 — DIGIFABSHOP @ TEFAF
Gary's great work goes all the way back to when he started here at Digifab in September of 2013. Finishing was always part of our projects, but it
Having no guaranteed idea of how it was going to work out on a month-to-month basis, we ultimately decided we had no choice if we wanted to continue down this path we were loving, and so in 2007 we took a huge risk, and we rented our own shop. We packed everything up, a friend loaded our CNC onto a trailer with a landscaping skid steer, and we moved into a 1600 square foot building that seemed like more space than we'd ever need...
was done by whoever was available, and thus we had a hard time with consistency, learning from our mistakes, and ultimately efficiency. Though we weren't sure if we had full time finishing work at the time, we decided it was a necessity in order to grow, and Gary has been a perfect fit ever since. He's experienced and knowledgeable. He communicates well. He systematically and efficiently works through small jobs, large jobs, and a simultaneous mix of both. He's always willing to lend a hand on the floor, and he's always excited to try new things. Most of all, he runs our finishing department with great pride. We value Gary's recent input in our production meetings, we look forward to getting him some more space in the spray area and adding powder coat capabilities, and we're incredibly thankful to have him on the team! Thanks Gary, for making Digifabshop better.
Digifabshop 2015
We're continuing our stellar run of art & design fair work with a couple of exciting booths for the upcoming TEFAF Maastricht show in the Netherlands this March. The first is for new client Agnew's Gallery of London, and features triple-laquered Valchromat with a warped vortex pattern CNC-engraved into the floor creating a wild optical efect. The second is for friend of the shop and frequent client Jason Jacques, and continues in the same vein as his last two, this time with galvanized steel walls in addition to built-in and free-standing shelving. 02 — 3D PRINTING
CLIENT SPOTLIGHT
Snarkitecture is a self-described “collaborative and experimental” design practice founded by collaborators Daniel Arsham and Alex Mustonen and based in Brooklyn, New York. They design full-scale architectural installations, stores, pop-environments, furniture, and objects, many of which showcase their taste for the monolithic and the monochromatic. Their colorless “palette” of bright white has become an unofficial hallmark, and many of their projects feature it prominently, or exclusively. They do a lot of work within the realms of art and fashion, and the Aventura Mall project currently in production is a perfect example of the latter. The set of seven fully-Corian® media enclosures are destined for a luxury shopping mall on the outskirts of Miami, Florida with a list of featured retailers that includes the likes of Cartier, Dior, Louis Vuitton, and Tiffany & Co. The first of the series is in production as we speak, and has been as challenging as it is exciting to engineer and build.
DISPATCH 002: FEBRUARY 2015
Digifabshop has made its first foray into the world of 3D printing with the purchase of a Formlabs Form 1+ SLA Printer. This desktop-dwelling cube is far from a production machine, but will be a great platform for modelling and experimentation with the technology. Our first print was a clear sphere, and the laser-cured resin process resulted in a remarkably smooth, high-resolution object.
One Year Anniversaries NATHAN LAURANGE HEATHER PARISI JAMES POMEROY JASON VERDON
FEB 17th FEB 17th FEB 3rd FEB 3rd
ROW 1 — Neil Allen, Greg Stuckart, Darrell Bolden ROW 2 — Shawn Cleary, Sam Logan, Dina Macari, Aigars Kildiss, Brett Williams, John Coons, Terri Drobner, David Mueller, Nate Laurange ROW 3 — John Tompkins, Chris Stapleton, Charles Geiger, Julian Smith, Kevin Leader, Paul D'Errico, Sean Morrissey, Chris Howe ROW 4 — Ben Rauch, Heather Parisi, Jason Verdon, James Pomeroy, Jamon Schlimgen, Saul Schisler, John Loercher ROW 5 — Dustin MacKinnon, Gary Mossey, Dee Voss, Bruce Milikofsky, John Cuti, Ed Sanderson, Dylan Languell, Piper Olf ROW 6 — Eric Febus, Andy Schermerhorn ABSENT — Sarah Brunetto, Linc Harris, Jim Kidd, Garrett McClure
DISPATCH 002: FEBRUARY 2015