At first sight, OpenDesk must seem like one of the tons of online design furniture stores on the Internet. However, it is much more than that. Thanks to CNC, buying a design piece of furniture doesn't need to happen in a physical shop, neither a finished fabricated product. OpenDesk makes available to any user several designs in Creative Commons, that we can print in any CNC machine, as well as contacting one of the hundreds of local makers that are collaborating to a growing worldwide network.
At OpenDesk we believe a new industrial revolution is just around the corner. Shaped by the increasing proliferation of digital fabrication tools such as 3D-printers, laser-cutters and CNC-machines, new ways of precision making are emerging in workshops, garages, and homes all around the world. This is the factory of the future, and it is everywhere... In parallel, more and more designers are exploring ways in which to share their designs online and gather feedback, making their products available to anyone with an Internet connection and putting them in direct contact with the people that love and use their designs.
We believe these developments will fundamentally change the way a large number of everyday products are developed and made, bringing more social openness to design and production. For such products this could signal the beginning of the end for murky supply chains practices and unsustainable international shipping and the birth of a new 21 century model of social production that is more transparent, simultaneously both local and globally-connected. Welcome to the digital maker revolution; know exactly where your products come from and how they are made - where, when, and by whom. Buy original designs, directly from talented designers, and have them turned into real products by digital craftsmen up the road from where you live.
Since early 2013 the OpenDesk team have been working to build a more integrated website for hosting and sharing designs, and ensuring OpenDesks can be fabricated locally in different parts of the world by local makers. A number of exciting new developments, partnerships and products are in the pipeline and planned for release in the near future, and OpenDesk is on the lookout for designers and makers interested in contributing.
Text.- OpenDesk.
