When Life Gives You Pollution, Make Art | MAKO Design + Invent

When Life Gives You Pollution, Make Art

As the world’s population continues to rise (and fast), so does its pollution. The result is a vast amount of car emissions and air toxins causing great environmental concern which causes more than 3 million deaths each year. Our friends at Graviky Labs and their industrial design firm had a truly innovative solution to this global issue. They have found a way to recycle air pollution by transforming it into something you can create art with. To acquire one ounce of liquid ink, which is the amount needed to fill a pen, you would need to gather 45 minutes of car emissions.

Industrial design firm creates many variations of Air Ink

Air Ink’s many tools for creating using recycled pollution.

Product Inspiration

The project started almost 4 years ago as more of a DIY experiment at the MIT Media Lab. Graviky Labs and their industrial design firm repurposed the soot particles produced by almost all air pollution sources into ink. The prototype featured a soot-catching pump connected to an HP inkjet cartridge to become a print platform. Since then, their industrial design firm has made several improvements to make it the product it is today.

The Industrial Design Firm’s Product Developments

Industrial design firm and the inventors created the product with many applications in mind.

The detail of this helmet shows the ink can be applied to any surface with great precision.

The result: a new Air-Ink Kickstarter campaign offering five different tools of creating that can be applied to anything from fabric and outdoor paints, to screen printer, oil painting, and markers. The product founders and their industrial design firm collectively note, “Each stroke made with Air-Ink arrests particulate matter, which would have otherwise ended up in the lungs of common people. Scaling this is saving lives.” From artists to environmentalists to air breathers, this is something we can all be grateful for.

If you’re interested in finding out more, you can pre-order a bottle of Air-Ink for just $25 with shipping set to take place in June. Let us know what you think of this innovative new product!

About: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial designmechanical engineeringelectrical engineeringpatent referralprototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Also, our founder Kevin Mako hosts The Product Startup Podcast, the industry's leading hardware podcast. Check it out for tips, interviews, and best practices for hardware startups, inventors, and product developers. Click HERE to learn more about MAKO Design + Invent!

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