Signs of the Times - August 2017 - 20

AT LARGE

the idea, which led Chris to explore
a "maker society" context and even
more ideas. This conversation led me
to the Manufactory's front door.
The place is huge. Its 17,000 square
feet are packed with machines that
you, on becoming a member, can
use for metalworking (CNC milling,
lathes, drill presses), woodwork (CNC
router, table saws, planer, jointer,
lathes, band saws), fabrication (shears,
brakes, benders), welding (CNC plasma,
MIG, TIG, gas, stick), grinding (grinders, buffers, sharpeners), finishing
(paint, powder coating), textiles
(sewing machines), plastics (vacuum
former) and electronics (lab gear).
In addition, it features a library,
computer room (AutoCAD), classroom ( for how-to-use-the-machines
lessons), a workbench area and
multipurpose spaces. The company
ads say you can build anything you
can dream. It also says the place "is
a community of people just like you,"
which is true if you've read this far.
Similar makerspaces exist nationwide. They're sometimes labeled as
hackerspaces, hackspaces, fablabs,

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

AUGUST 2017

DIY spaces, urban workshops, urban
manufacturing and anything else
you might find on Google. (Also scan
Make magazine and web-based meetup
sites for events.) On a lesser scale,
many libraries provide maker sites
with design software and such tabletop
machines as digital and 3D printers.
Maker Faires - tradeshows events
of a type - take place worldwide, but
the major US venues are Chicago,
New York and San Francisco. Sponsors
include Mimaki, Intel, Avnet, Google,
Microsoft, IBM and several dozen
others. The February 2017 Makers
Conference, held in Rancho Palos
Verdes, CA, included AOL, AT&T,

Facebook, Getty Images, Goldman
Sachs, Google, Time Warner, Twitter,
Unilever, Verizon, Visa and Yahoo.
The online educational directory
OEDb.org says there were more than
135 million adult makers in 2015 and
that the idea of a communal creative
space is increasingly popular and
"shows no sign of slowing down."
Wired magazine, reporting on the
2014 Maker Faire, said more than
85,000 makers and fans attended and
that 530,000 people had collectively
attended local maker events the
previous year.
Wired said four themes were constant for maker success: Be open, i.e.,
share sources, ideas and experiments
with friends and associates; accept
imperfection, that is, be more interested in learning than perfection;
love the process, which focuses on
trusting the practice more than the
outcome; and build community, which
is saying a maker should meet others,
teach, learn, share and talk openly
with consumers.
Finally, three makerspace advantages exist for signmakers: A makerspace can be an alternative, specialprojects workshop for a signshop; a
makerspace can become a training
ground for people who want to expand
their machine skills; and a makerspace is also a target for signshop
owners to seek out when hunting
skilled employees.

http://www.OEDb.org

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