Maybe you’ve heard of rapid prototyping machines. Maybe you’ve even seen the new Discovery Channel show called Prototype This!, which makes extensive use of a 3d printer. But is it something commercially accessible to the industrial designer who wants to test out designs at home? Hardly. Look at Discovery’s writeup:

A 3-D printer: Ignore the $45,000-$73,000 price tag and ponder the possibilities. You could use this machine to print relief maps of the ocean floor, prototype products for pitch meetings, model human hearts for research or create architectural models to give construction workers a better visual picture of the design plans. And the best part — it’s all in color.

Amazing stuff, surely, but not everyone has between 45-73k to drop on one. Generally, you need access to a studio or university campus that’s got one on-site and will let you use it. But Desktop Factory is looking to change the entire game with their 125ci 3D Printer.

How are they going to do it? Mainly with the pricetag: $4,995 USD. It weighs less than 40 kilos and sits on a desk. It’s not small, but come on–a prototyping machine you can use in your house, your office, even? This is a pretty giant leap.

Desktop Factory is comparing the size of the machine to “early laser printers”, and Ponoko Blog made the same comparison recently:

When the The Apple LaserWriter first hit the mass market in 1985, the desktop publishing revolution was born. With a starting price of $6995 the unit weighed a hefty 77 lb (35kg) and was 11.5 x 18.5 x 16.2 inches the first desktop printer was not the lightweight, disposable peripheral printers have become today, in every classroom, business and home.

One of the most important segments of this new market is made up of those branding agencies who are getting into product design directly. This crossover was explored in a great article published last month on core77. It’s essential reading for anyone curious about some of the future directions in branding and advertising.

Let’s say you’re a graphic designer. Sooner than you expect, you’re probably going to be finalizing some part of a new campaign in Illustrator, printing out proofs and all the other things you do, while the designer at the desk next to you will have SolidWorks open and an entry-level 3D Printer on his desk, pumping out prototypes of that very product you’re busy advertising. Something very different is just beginning.

In related news, check out this “10 Things 3D Printers Can Do Now” from Wired.

Concrete Art by Transparent House: This is beautiful work on a hard concrete surface. Transparent House applies a floral pattern which “adds warm contrast and highlightes the cold austerity of the material.” Besides large stickers or paint, I’ve never seen anything that actually works so nicely with a plain old concrete surface before. This would work beautifully in a studio.

Cassette Tape Closet by Creative Barn: While they’re only selling one of these, it’s a great idea. Reminds me of John Cusack’s insane record collection, organized on various shelves, in High Fidelity, for some reason. I know they don’t really have much to do with each other, but there was something about those shelves that hit the same sweet spot that this closet does.

Shelflife by Charles Trevelyan: Here’s a wonderful, chaotic bookshelf with an integrated chair and miniature table/footstool built in, done by Viable London and available soon. It’s hard to execute anything with the words ‘3-in-1′ and not have it turn out ugly, so three cheers for this.

Mikado Bookshelf by Edition Compagnie: If you’ve got a big empty wall and want a bookshelf that isn’t boring, try this one. It doesn’t maximize the space it takes up by any means, but it’s fun to look at. Can’t say whether after 1 year of this I’d start longing for straight lines again, though.

Sunday Paper by David Stovell: These are rolled-up newspapers turned into stools. Re-using stacks of yesterday’s papers–without a ton of effort, anyone can do this–to make something useful is a great idea, especially since the distance between ‘a bunch of newspapers’ and ‘a useable stool’ seems kinda long. And yet it isn’t. Extremely simple and smart.

Lightboxes by Pedlars: Nevermind the price ($550 each), these are home versions of those boxes you see in various radio and television studios, or perhaps films which have scenes set in various radio and television studios. Solid and heavy with a light inside. Your fledgling home studio needs the ‘On Air’ one today.

Widely known for his wonderful Helvetica documentary (plus the great I Am Trying to Break Your Heart), Gary Hustwit’s new film is called Objectified, and it’s all about the world of industrial design. Due for an early 2009 release, the film’s blog went live a couple of months ago, and since then he’s been updating it with some real good stuff.

Now, the film is going to be fantastic, no doubt, but the great thing in the meantime is that Hustwit’s been featuring a weekly series of guest posts, entitled Objectify Me, in which “people we like discuss objects that inspire them.” This week he featured Debbie Millman, president of the design group at Sterling Brands, describing a piece of design I must confess to having absolutely no interest in whatsoever: barrettes. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen, or ever will see, a barrette that I found halfway notable, but Millman’s story about stealing her best friend’s unique little barrette (and the desire/guilt/greed that went along with it) is nicely done.

There’s no commentary about coveting the object of desire, or the irresistible childhood pull which led her to recreate that notion as a grown designer because the associated feeling was just so irresistibly powerful and forceful and etc etc etc… just a simple story about childhood greed and jealousy; draw your own conclusions about its formative role.

Stephen Heller, who writes and designs for the New York Times Book Review (among many other responsibilities), also contributes a good, short study on Paul Rand’s El Producto Cigar Tin. Hustwit’s site is a wonderful way to get the film some attention: the blog and its design posts really do take up 90% of the site, while the film provides a classy, recessed framework. If only all movie promotion was this diverse and worthwhile.

Hustwit is still finishing the film, but if the quality of the site and its related previews are any indication, this is going to be a killer tour through the wide world of industrial design. I was just thinking about that world, actually: a few friends of mine studied industrial design back in university. Every time I had to explain to various parents or other such figures exactly what kind of course my friends were taking, the words “industrial design” were invariably met with confusion.

A lot of people assumed it had something to do with designing factories, or working in factories, working in industries located primarily in factories, or optimizing an assembly-line. In a factory. The word “industrial” had become synonymous with a kind of “mechanized industrialization process”, which isn’t technically incorrect, but the verbiage ended up leading most laypeople way off in the wrong direction.

My friends eventually took to calling their course of study “product design”, which doesn’t cover the full range of what industrial design is, but remains graspable as a concept. To my mind, the only high-profile work in industrial/product design to really capture the public eye in recent years has come from Apple, specifically from Jonathan Ive.

When I say to “capture the public eye” I don’t mean to move units or look beautiful, since hundreds of products do that every year–what I’m talking about is actual public attention being paid to the industrial design (and designers) of a specific product–in this case, the iPod, and to a lesser extent the various iterations of the iMac. (Although Ive designed the iPhone too, it’s really all about the user interface).

With that said, I can’t wait for the film to bring some wider attention to some of the many other designers doing good work out there–keep your eyes open.