Wyld Collective is in Shenzhen!
We’ve been rather quiet in our preparations for our four-month-long move to Shenzhen, just telling clients, family, and a few friends. But now we can announce that we’re here, and why we’ve come.
There have been a few posts on the Wyld blog about these cute little lamps, maybe some moustache-shaped hangers, a picture or two from Maker Faire. Well, these are all part of a greater plan to develop a line of hackable housewares. We’re spinning this project off into a startup called Fabule. There’s even a little website up.
from on .
At Fabule, we’re anticipating the growth of mixed manufacturing. On the one hand, mass-manufacture of electronics has become increasingly accessible, which has facilitated a growing market for DIY electronic kits. More and more people are creatively engaging with hardware, which is absolutely awesome. On the other hand, 3D printing, lasercutting, and small-batch CNC manufacturing have also become increasingly available, both as services, and as machines affordable enough for individuals and small businesses to consider owning. What’s missing, so far, are design methods (and designed products) that use this manufacturing ecosystem to create objects of great beauty and practicality as well as uniqueness. This is where we’re taking Fabule.
So first things first: we’re going to make some lamps. Some really cool lamps. Lamps that you can hack and repair and customize. Lamps are the simplest thing. We’re going to perfect those before we move on to clocks and toys and ambient displays and internets of things and lowering the barriers for product designers to make cool objects and taking over the world and stuff.
We’re being helped along in this quest by HAXLR8R, a hardware-focused startup accelerator based here in Shenzhen. For the next 111 days we’ll be rapidly iterating through electronic and material prototypes in the world’s hot-bed of manufacturing, facilitated by and some other mentors. Look for us in the San Francisco Bay Area on May 17, our demo day, and probably at Maker Faire directly after.
And keep reading right here to learn about our Shenzhen adventures as they happen.