How do you work through 10 different colour ways or logo designs without having to guess which will be the best? How do you enthuse and excite your stakeholders about your design before a sample has been made? How can you test multiple aesthetic variations… Read More »Virtual Samples
Gross National Happiness (GNH) is used in Bhutan as an alternative measure of a country to Gross Domestic Produce (GDP)
“Describe it….don’t infer interpretation” Amber Butchart’s advice to police officers
Angelica Dass: Humanae Project
Mussels are able to cling on in the face of waves that ought to overwhelm….
It was known to ancient Chinese traders as mermaid silk and mentioned on the Rossetta Stone. Those who weave it swear a Sea oath to never profit from its production….
The idea of darning up a missing piece of skin…
Chloe Ball-Hopkins isn’t like most of us….
…but for the rest of us we rely on our waterproof jackets to stay dry in the rain. Unfortunately….
Most of us would rather not consider the possibility of sustaining a serious burn…
Thread Loves Edna Mode in The Incredibles.
Assuming you’re happy that yeast is definitely not an animal (it’s a fungus….I double-checked) then Zoa is an animal-free alternative to leather. as far as I understand it there’s a bit of DNA cut-and-shut which is re-homed into little yeast cell factorys which grow the… Read More »Nobody’s skin…
I find saddle points (or hyperbolic paraboloids as they’re mathematically known) a deeply pleasing shape. This little hook was developed as part of a large project we’ve been collaborating on. It’s strong and safe as it has no sharp edges. For more hyperbolic paraboloid and… Read More »No exaggeration, I think saddle points are amazing..
Wouldn’t it be nice to have even natural light in a room regardless of the position of the sun in the sky?
This glove may look cumbersome but it could seriously reduce the communication burden for thousands of sign language users.
Gobag 2 clip detail Gobag 2 waist strap detail Gobag 2 shoulder strap detail Gobag 2 When James from Gobag approached us to help him build on the success of the original Gobag, we leapt at the chance. The new design was to be a… Read More »Bag is Go
We produce beautifully finished prototypes of concepts for our clients to use in many different ways; we work hard to create prototypes that work right and look great.
As a child Dr Franz Freudenthal visited indigenous communities in the mountains of Bolivia with his doctor grandmother. On these trips she would quote a snippet of Rudyard Kipling “Something hidden. Go and find it.
Exosuit gives athletes proprioceptive feedback to help improve posture, stability and feeling of power.
It’s possible that future computers could have memory devices based on eggshells
A focus on frugality and a willingness to explore unlikely mechanisms has led this team of Stanford bioengineers to develop an incredibly low cost ‘paperfuge’ – a centrifuge made of paper that requires no electricity – as a diagnostic tool to serve the one billion… Read More »A playful solution to a serious problem
Wishing all our clients, suppliers and collaborators a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. We look forward to working together in 2019!
We’re always interested to come across materials that meet particular requirements. In this case a leather alternative that is not an animal product. Muskin is a material based on a large parasitic fungus that grows on trees in subtropical forests. It is similar in appearance… Read More »Fungus based leather alternative
I have an ongoing fascination with bats, bat wings and bat flight and so was delighted to come across this bat-based aerobatic robot.
Apparently bacteria can be engineered to produce thermoplastics….
A big theme in textiles and materials development at the moment is sustainability and recycling so this story about egg packaging made of eggs has scrambled our minds. Researchers as Tuskegee University added egg shell nanoparticles (350,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair) to… Read More »A cracking idea
To me, this sounds like the story line from a children’s book, but no, this is something that really happens.
This morning we were discussing how hot a roomful of 30 people doing tap get in the summer (not a theoretical discussion but a pressing one after a very hot tap class). Another person in the class had a cooling towel which was as cool… Read More »Hot tap, cold tap
…on saturday he ate through one piece of chocolate cake, one ice-cream cone, one pickle……and 184mg of supermaket plastic shopping bag.
While sorting through images I came across these photos of a prototype bag for a highly technical mechanism we made a few years ago.
3D printing can seem a magical way to produce an object as if from nowhere.
We were intrigued to come across Dextrous Blue, a robot developed in a collaborative project between three european universities
Merry Christmas from Thread!
We’re delighted that the GoBag 2 Kickstarter campaign has launched and already exceeded its £10,000 goal
Georgie is a textile prototyper with a background in costume construction, tailoring and bridal. Georgie’s interest in costume was born out of a desire to explore different and unusual materials, construction techniques and the chance to create something visually exciting and that communicates to its… Read More »Georgie Leigh
This month we’re back in Thailand, finalising the production set-up for a product launching later this year.
It’s interesting how frequently a simple idea requires a large amount of perseverance and follows a complicated path before it physically exsists.
Designer Suzanne Lee has produced (and continues to develop) a fabric that comes from a zoogleal mat formed during the fermentation of a sweetened tea. The fabric that is produced is still made up of cellulose (like cotton, linen, viscose and rayon) but it comes… Read More »Pickled fabric? Not quite, but it is grown in a jar.
“I do not consider myself a remarkable person. I am just a guy with a very large bump of curiosity”
I’m British. It’s over 30 degrees centigrade. Today I want to be covered in this cooling film
In his book, Things come apart, Todd McLellan takes everyday objects, breaks them down into their constituent parts, lays them out and photographs them. These images highlight the hidden complexity of the products around us.
Great to see all the hard work that went into this product being recognised Website link: reddot award winner 2017 – N-Pro scrum cap
Great to see Nike have launched a sports Hijab. In 2014 we worked with the pioneering and inspirational Iranian triathlete Shiz Gerami
…turn the heating down and put another jumper on, except that now that extra jumper might be dip-coated in a silver nanowire solution that makes the fabric highly radiation insulating.
Katia Vega seems to work at the intersection of the functional and the fabulous.
Interesting to chat to Hal Watts from Unmade at a reception for The 1851 Commission (an amazing organisation who funded both Hal and me to study at the RCA) about knitting as the earliest form of Additive Manufacture. In knitting you take a continuous material… Read More »Knitting as the first additive manufacturing
Tackling head injuries for all rugby players The Rugby world is growing increasingly aware of the effect of head injuries on players long term health so N-Pro determined to create a product that could reduce the risk of head injuries. We helped N-Pro to realise… Read More »N-Pro: the world’s safest scrumcap
Researchers at the University of Rochester have developed a cloaking device that uses standard lenses and optical equipment rather than exotic materials. It works across a range of distances and angles and avoids distortion of the background which often reveals that cloaking is being attempted.… Read More »Not quite as convenient as an invisibility cloak…
We’ve been helping N-Pro develop their new rugby headguard which launched today
Researchers at the University of Warwick have developed a low-cost conductive plastic composite that can be 3D printed using a standard 3D printer.
The Gecko’s ability to climb walls and ceilings captures the imagination of many design and engineering students.
How can baby product design save parents time? Reduced mess = less tidying
Concept gloves by Layer
For a long time all bikes were made of steel, then came aluminium and then carbon fibre. For fairly similar reasons (improved strength per unit weight) KONE have developed the Ultrarope (TM) lift cables based on a carbon fibre core.
I still remember being a child and my Grandad telling me that black was the absence of all light. It was an astonishing thought as I couldn’t fathom how it could be absence if I could see it.
Thread attended a consultation workshop for the UK textile community exploring textile R & D priorities for 2017-2020 organised by the Knowledge Transfer Network. One of the main themes was development of textiles that can integrate with data gathering equipment for monitoring purposes eg medical. Another strong theme was… Read More »The future of textiles R&D in the UK
On Monday, Thread is off to Munich for ISPO, the sports industry trade fair….
Chris is a product designer who became passionate about specialising in products with textiles after designing a technical jacket for hand-cyclists.
We’re looking for a responsible Office Assistant capable of performing various light administrative and practical tasks in our office.
We’re looking for a highly skilled textile prototyper to help us create beautifully well-finished 3D prototypes of a diverse range of products eg. Rucksacks, body armour, pouches for medical devices, technical sports clothing etc.
Inspiration can come from many places and often seems to come from seemingly unrelated fields. I was recently at the Science Museum’s Cosmonauts exhibition and found the clothing particularly fascinating. (Frustratingly for me there was almost no information on what the garments were made of… Read More »The wrong trousers went into space in 1971!
We develop and incorporate mechanical and functional features such as mechanisms and moulded fixtures into products we design, and can develop moulded components, mechanisms and internal structural elements.
We work closely with our clients to realise their aims. Some know exactly what they want their product to be like, and others come to us with a problem to solve. Collaborative sessions are a great way to find solutions, generate ideas and drive innovation:… Read More »Industrial design
Manufacture lead times often get extended by toing and froing with the factory. This is why we take an engineering approach to technical packs; Patterns, samples and detailed specifications eliminate ambiguity in the handover from designer to manufacturer, minimising errors that can arise through misinterpretation.
We source materials, fixtures and fittings from a wide range of suppliers, from local retailers to global manufacturers. Our materials library is continually growing and contains materials fromcotton canvas to highly technical textiles. We are continually looking for new fabrics to fulfil our clients needs
Great to see a project we contributed to being launched. We worked with Kinneir Dufort to develop the body armour prototypes and produced the final prototype shown in the video in house at Thread. Website link: MOD unveils futuristic uniform design, 16th September 2015
We have a little phrase we sometimes uses at Thread: “Extreme to mainstream”
Here at Thread, we relish visits to manufacturers (we’ve even been known to visit factories when we’re on holiday).
An interesting conference in Cambridge with several thought-provoking talks. Kresse (of Elvis & Kresse) was particularly inspirational and challenging. I saw her speak when the company was just starting out and fell in love with the reclaimed firehose material. It’s an amazing story of rescuing… Read More »EPSRC centre for innovative manufacturing in industrial sustainability: fourth annual conference
In 2011, Edgar Martin spent 9 days exploring the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in star City, Moscow as part of a project to record the work of a space programme from an artistic point of view.
We teamed up with Iranian triathlete, Shirin Gerami to reimagine a conventional sports kit to meet her country’s modesty requirements without impacting performance.
For the last 5 years Thread have been working with Kinneir Dufort, providing design support, fabric sourcing, prototyping and manufacture data for soft medical products they design for leading international healthcare clients
Design thinking saves cost and adds realism to cosmetic leg covers
This is a post to describe the kind of work we do for brands
Design and development for Mamascent, a bottle attachment that recreates the sensory benefits of breastfeeding for bottle-fed babies.
Developing the design of portable power systems for defense, adventure and consumer users.
Making is at the heart of all projects at Thread. We prototype to explore, develop, test, communicate and sell ideas, concepts and products. This important with all design projects, and is especially important with textiles. Our prototyping studio is well equipped with industrial sewing machines,… Read More »Prototyping
Books, Google, primary research, user research, inspiration; all these help to bring understanding to a design project. Insights drive projects and facilitate successful design. Research, and particularly user research helps generate insight. We also use research to identify manufacturers, suppliers, new technologies and materials, processes… Read More »Research
Medical and healthcare projects demand careful consideration of users and the environment of use, minimisation of risks and careful material selection.
With a penchant for making products that have a distinct impact on a user’s quality of life, Rachel is our textiles specialist with a background in manufacturing and industrial design engineering.
Sam loves technical problem solving. From designing a ventilation system for high-performance outdoor clothing to developing aids for disabled children. He’s happy so long as there is a problem that would benefit from a solution.
A complete set of body armour made of bones has been discovered in Omsk, Siberia.
Soft support design gives firm postural care
Really interested to see the M&S ‘shwop’ coat. Firstly, it’s great that clothes that are unsuitable for charity shops or reuse can still have value. Secondly, it reduces costs. Lastly, I find the rebranding of what is actually a fairly old idea quite funny.
India has a long history of textile skill in development and production. This is reflected in the number of words we have in English that derive from Indian languages including calico, gingham, khaki, seersucker and chintz.
The idea of water flowing uphill seems impossible and confined to fantastical images like those created by the artist M.C. Escher.
Silk is an extraordinary material with several amazing properties. It can provide excellent ballistic protection and has been used extensively in the past and perhaps slightly more surprsingly is part of the current issue of kit for British soldiers.
I just came across this interesting article about an exhibition in 2005 of the textiles that (it’s claimed) inspired Matisse’s use of colour.
Jacquard weaving is a development of traditional loom weaving that integrates a system of punched cards (see above) that can control the position of the warp (lengthways threads) and therefore what colour and pattern is visible on the surface of the fabric. These punchcards automate… Read More »19th century digital
Shirin Gerami crosses the line at WTS Edmonton as Iran’s first and only female triathlete! Thread and Shirin worked together to make the specialised kit that had to provide complete coverage with minimal effect on mobility and thermal burden. In a world of minimal, one-piece… Read More »Shirin Gerami: Iran’s first female triathlete
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have that a small plant-hopping insect, the Issus, has hind leg joints that very closely resemble mechanical gears like those in a car gearbox.
Insulin pumps and beauty pageants: one a fairly frequent topic of discussion at Thread the other less so but Miss Idaho 2014 caught our attention.
When I was on honeymoon in New Zealand a few years ago we gatecrashed (politely asked if we could join in) a symposium at the University of Otago entitled “Technologies in Sport: Performance, Bodies and Ethics”. Probably not most people’s idea of a good use… Read More »MIPS helmet technology
Thread developed and prototyped the carry bag of the TacSat Razor Antenna during development.
In a recent meeting there was a discussion about obscuring the outline of an object or body which reminded me of this early and bold camouflage.
With increasing demand for sustainable alternatives so it makes sense to minimise the weight of the sustainable energy production system so that it’s easier to deliver and uses less fossil fuel to do so! GE are developing a woven fabric that is based on fibreglass… Read More »Wind turbine blades covered in fabric? A modern technology that sounds like an old one.
Mamascent™ is a bottle attachment that recreates the sensory benefits of breastfeeding for bottle-fed babies.
Thread undertook Design for Manufacture refinement and manufacturing samples for Harry & Jack’s.
Researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Illinois have developed a lithium-ion battery that can be stretched to 300% of its original size and still function.
There are several brilliant things about bat wings and flight.
It’s not often there’s an overlap between textile product design and forensic science, but research undertaken by Poulomi Bhadra (an MSc student at King’s College, London) in conjunction with the Metropolitan Police and the Natural History Museum seems to have found one.
The Leckey Leeway pelvic cradle (that Thread helped Leckey to develop) has just been launched. It provides improved postural support and proprioceptive feedback for wheelchair users.
The upper of the Nike Flyknit is like no other trainer or spike.
We’ve just returned from the techtextil tradefair in Frankfurt. Technical textiles and non-wovens as far as the eye could see! Some interesting new materials and some great new suppliers.
The BMW GINA concept car was made a few years ago but I started thinking about it the other day. It’s such a different way of thinking of a car.
Just finished a quote for some potential work on prosthetic limbs (which we’re very excited about). We came across this amazing organisation during a bit of background research.
This video from 1957 of a rock making factory in London is astonishing. The letters in rock seemed magical enough anyway but now they seem even more extraordinary.
A series of garments were shown in Iris Van Herpen’s collection at Paris Fashion Week S/S 2013 that were 3D printed in a single piece using Materialse’s Mammoth Sterolithography machines.
Jonathan Ive talking about beauty, making stuff and being a kid who knows what they want to do.
Here at Thread we love natural fibres, particularly Merino wool, so it’s brilliant to see it being used by Patagonia to line their frigid water wetsuit.
This bowl is made of 100% cork but processed in such a way that it apparently feels more similar to leather and is very pliable.
It is both surprising and perhaps obvious that the process of making a bra is complex, careful and time consuming.
A new Banksy has appeared on the wall of a Poundland store in north London.
Researchers at the Bio-Inspired Materials and Devices Laboratory at Virginia Tech have developed and are testing a hydrogen fuel powered robotic jellyfish.
The Igarashi Design Interface Project at the Japan Science and Technology Agency is developing software that allows the user to draw in physical space on a mannequin to generate digital patterns that can be manipulated in software.
Wrecking crew orchestra is made up of eight Japanese men who perform dance routines wearing electroluminescent suits.
Kranium is made of ribs of corrugated cardboard that are slotted together into an array.
Hövding starts as a collar which deploys in an accident to protect the head, much like an airbag would. Hövding started out as Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin’s industrial design master thesis at Lund University in spring 2005. Their aim was to try to make… Read More »An alternative cylcle helmet…Hövding – an inflatable head protector
This photo is from the latest rhino move, where 19 of the creatures were taken by WWF, Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency, SANParks, and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife on a 1,000 mile journey across South Africa to reside in a new location in the Limpopo province.
We received two samples of 50mm wide webbing today and there was a “The Devil wears Prada” moment when we were discussing which would work best in a particular design and somebody exclaimed that it wasn’t an obvious decision as they were just so different!
“Saying that someone is simple is a little bit insulting, whereas it should be the highest compliment. It’s very simple to make things difficult and very difficult to make things simple. Things generally start simple, get difficult, then become simple again. The middle bit is where you learn the value of simplicity and try to regain it.”
Article link: Kevin Warwick interview, The Engineer, 03/10/11
“Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.”
