On Monday at 7 a.m., the Global Make-a-Thon baton passed to IDEO Boston. The making commenced with materials ranging from sharpies to cornstarch, dye to wood, and pencils to laptops.

Using only natural materials to create physical pixels, Ryan Habbyshaw, Brad Crane and Greg Wolos used the contrast of various side grain and end grain wood blocks to recreate the IDEO logo.

Rolling with the idea of creating intent over presence, we decided to create an experiment that we've been running simultaneously with two current clients. One client operates in the music industry; the other is focused on quantified self and is responsible for a mind monitoring device which is worn as a headband.

We mixed up a batch of non-Newtonian fluid (cornstarch and water) and laid it on a plastic sheet over a speaker. We then used the mind monitoring software to create sound based on our level of focus. The video explains it best.

The thinking behind the idea was to take the inherent structural nature of the existing IDEO logo, and dematerialize it into something more organic. The experiment became a physical metaphor of intent over presence and an illustration of how, when we combine learning resources from two completely different projects, we can create new and interesting solutions.

Fran Barros deconstructed the letters that make up the IDEO logo into the unique symbols that represent each one. Meanwhile, José explored how light would interact with those symbols in a three dimensional space.

Check out Boston's concepts on our Six Themes Tumblr site.

Brand New IDEO:
» Preview with Michael Hendrix and Paul Bennett in Conversation
» Opening Remarks by Michael Hendrix
» Tokyo: Robots, Cherry Blossoms & Bento Boxes
» Singapore: Origami & Experiments with 3D
» Mumbai: Minimum Viable Logo & Windows on the World
» Shanghai: Morning Exercise, Jump Rope and Calligraphy
» Munich: Personalize, Simply and Move
» London: The Grid Grows
» Boston: Crafting and Prototyping with Wood, Dye & Cornstarch
» New York: Exploring Music, Verbs and Cubes
» Chicago: Sketching Sine Waves to R&B
» San Francisco Bay: Build to Think, Dive Into Abstraction, and Embrace the Infinite Grid