Additive Manufacturing (AM) / 3D Printing – Giving you the freedom to design (Opening keynote)

Emerging application summit: Additive Manufacturing (AM) / 3D Printing – Giving you the freedom to design - Opening Keynote Understanding the capabilities and commercial progress of Additive Manufacturing (AM) and how it is opening new applications and markets The flexibility offered by digital design and manufacturing technologies allows us to reassess the relationship between consumer, manufacture and designer. Direct digital manufacturing can deliver bespoke solutions, industrially produced or simply printed at home. Using Additive Manufacture (AM) the economies of scale associated serial production can still be enjoyed whilst employing a more personal approach to design and manufacture. Consumer products can be tailored to an individual’s need or desire; so called mass customisation. For well over a decade Lionel T Dean has been exploring AM business models that seek to engage the consumer in the creative process. These ideas range from an automated, computer generated approach termed mass individualisation, to co-creation, where the consumer takes a more active role in the creative process. This presentation explores the issues that surround a paradigm shift in consumerism. To what extent do consumers wish to shape the world them around them and what tools might they need to facilitate this? Can consumers become ‘prosumers’ without undue effort or the compromise of amateur results? Can the designer retain control as creative ground is ceded to the user and what are the implications for creative ownership, identity and brand.