Press - Category Archive


Sep 26
Friday

Ponoko Turns Your Drawings Into Real Things

Filed under Press

September 24, 2008

Turn hand drawings into real life things with Ponoko’s Photomake

San Francisco, CA - World leader in product individualization Ponoko has today launched another world first. It’s a service called Photomake. You can use it to turn digital photos of hand drawings into real products simply by uploading them to the Ponoko website.

Ponoko has established itself as a place where you can shop online for one-of-a-kind goods direct from popular and upcoming designers, or design and make them yourself. The company is on a mission to make it super simple for anyone to make anything that is on their mind, at low cost.

Previously at Techcrunch40, Ponoko launched Designmake for designers to make things on demand – over 10,000 have signed up. Earlier this year, they also launched Ponoko ID for shoppers to request goods to be made just for them by these designers. Now with Photomake they’re inviting creative people who don’t know how to use design software to participate simply by sketching what they want on a piece of paper and uploading a photo of it to get it made.

Chief Strategy Officer, Derek Elley says Photomake is child’s play. “It’s great for crafters, makers and artists,” he says. “One of the cool things about Photomake is the quality of the result – it’s truly hand drawn. Because digital making is so very precise every tiny bump in the hand drawn creation is picked up and made for real. This gives a very natural and human feel to the things you make.”

All you need to get started with Photomake is a felt tip pen and piece of paper. Just draw what you want to make, take a photograph of it, upload this digital photo to the Ponoko website (no login required), get an instant online price to turn your drawing into the real thing, then click to make. Your product will be delivered to your door in days.

CEO Dave ten Have says Photomake is made possible by some very clever file conversion technology that is more accurate than anything that has come before it. “It is designed so that what you draw is what is made, without any touching up required in a design software program,” he says. “It is also 100% online, so you don’t need to own a design software program to use it.”

And for those who know how to use Microsoft Paint and popular photo editing software like Photoshop and GIMP, Photomake is the perfect tool to turn creations designed in these programs into real things too. This is because Photomake accepts common jpg, gif and png files.

Elley says that, as with Ponoko’s original Designmake service, designers can use the new service to make cash as well as make things for themselves. “When you make something with Photomake, you can keep it for yourself, give it as a gift or sell it online from your own free Ponoko e-commerce storefront. You can also sell or give away for free your design file templates too.”

So if you’re worried about the cost of Christmas shopping this season, Photomake may be the easiest and most affordable way to give the most personal of gifts – hand drawn and made by you.
For more information contact:

Derek Elley
Chief Strategy Officer
USA +1 415 690 3364
NZ +64 21 88 66 81

All entries filed under Press


Global Entrepreneurship Week, co-founded by the Kauffman Foundation and Make Your Mark Campaign, draws worldwide support
Comments - Posted 09.23.08
WASHINGTON (Sept. 16, 2008) — Global Entrepreneurship Week representatives today announced that 75 countries have pledged their supportand participation in the Week. This inaugural event, co-founded by the EwingMarion Kauffman Foundation in the United States and the United Kingdom’s MakeYour Mark campaign, is expected to involve tens of millions of young people aroundthe world. ...continue
AniBoom Holds it’s 3rd Annual Animation Competition
Comments - Posted 09.19.08
The 3rd annual aniBoom Awards animation competition is here again. This year we’re giving away $50,000 worth of cash & prizes with two ways to win, Community and Judges Selections. The judges panel includes a prestigious group of industry professionals Read more about the judges here. The animation ranked highest by the ...continue
WellMixed.com Extends Free Mix promotion, Announces AmpliTube and SampleTank Giveaway
Comments - Posted 09.18.08
Kansas City, MO - September 18, 2008 Today WellMixed.com announced an extension of its "First Mix is Free" promotion. Through September 30, anyone who registers and uploads a ProTools, Cubase, GarageBand, or Logic project will receive their first stereo mix in both MP3 and AIFF formats free of charge. WellMixed.com is the ...continue
Digital Media Industry Veteran Predicts You2Gov Will be ‘A Powerful Force in the Political Spectrum’
Comments - Posted 09.17.08
LAS VEGAS, NV -- Today, veteran social network developer Robby Berthume released a review of http://www.You2Gov.com that predicts the new political social network is "well on its way to growing the site into a powerful political force in the political spectrum." Berthume, the CEO of one of the premier web design and ...continue
Site9 Introduces ProtoShare 2.0: The First Tool that Enables Real-time Collaboration on Enterprise Web Development
Comments - Posted 09.16.08
New York, New York—(BUSINESS WIRE)—September 16, 2008—Site9, a Portland, Oregon based developer of collaborative web development software; today announced the release of ProtoShare 2.0. ProtoShare 2.0 brings a new set of features that facilitate real-time collaboration across multiple web development and creative projects. ProtoShare 2.0 has several new key features that ...continue
TheCaringSpace Responds to the Caregiving Crisis
Comments - Posted 09.16.08
Online community, TheCaringSpace.com, offers new solutions to the rising need for in-home care ANN ARBOR, Mich., June 12 /PRNewswire/ -- As American families face an unprecedented challenge in the realm of long term care, TheCaringSpace.com has emerged as a new web-based solution to the caregiving needs of many. One in ...continue
MindTouch and SnapLogic Announce Deki for CRM to Enhance the Value of Leading CRM Solutions
Comments - Posted 09.15.08
Deki for CRM Offers Smarter Collaboration and Augmented Intelligence within Leading CRM Solutions to Dramatically Improve the Context around Leads and Customers NEW YORK, O’REILLY WEB 2.0 EXPO, Sept. 16, 2008 - MindTouch, creator of an award-winning open-source social enterprise collaboration platform, and SnapLogic, the SaaS integration company, today announced Deki ...continue