Category: Drawings

Sketched thoughts, ideas and inventions

Invention in the Space station

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As some people here know I started an organisation called Little Inventors to inspire children to become the creative thinkers of the future. We ask children to think up invention ideas, draw them then we ask skilled makers to turn the most interesting into real things for exhibition. Recently, Little Inventors teamed up with the Canadian Space Agency to set a ‘Life in space’ invention challenge. Over 3000 ideas were sent in and over 20 were made into prototypes and models. Amazingly the astronaut Davis Saint Jacques did a live video link from the International Space Station to assembled young inventors at the Canada Wide Science Fair. 2019. See some pictures below of some of the ideas…


It was great to see a child’s invention drawing on a Little Inventors drawing sheet floating around the Space Station.


This was an idea to make life more fun and also to get around the moon quicker, a roller coaster on the moon


I made this into a model with a crank to turn the moon…


The great designers based in Canada, Radical Norms made a brilliant version of the space suit for pets by Ella age 11.


Designer James Plant made 3 objects including these working space tool gloves, an idea by Eimaan age 10.

This is an amazing collaboration between Opal age 12 and expert animator and model maker Chloe Rodham.


The live video link from the International Space Station by astronaut David Saint Jacques for the final presentation of winners of the Little Inventors Life in Space challenge.

To see more visit this page on the Little Inventors website here.
The project was brought to Canada by NSERC.

For more info on Little Inventors and see over 10000 invention ideas visit www.littleinventors.org

Arguing with my iron

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future600

In the future we will develop relationships with inanimate objects. I fully expect I will love the humour of my sofa that comments on the tv show I’m watching. I’ll smile at the front door as it welcomes me home and tells me the gossip spreading amongst the furnishings upstairs. We all like people with a good personality and technologists will always try to turn objects into things that make us feel good. I don’t think that robots need to look human. They can be simple, like this robot spoon I designed for Kelloggs. Adding two nicely animated eyes makes you feel like this object has a life and has thoughts. It’s lack of arms and helplessness makes me want to pick it up and look after it. (Thanks to my friends Florian Dussopt and Seb Lee-Delisle for their help and skills giving the spoon life.)

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Robot Spoon by Dominic Wilcox for Kelloggs

 

Little Inventors: Children’s ideas made real.

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Back in October of 2015 I returned to my home town of Sunderland and asked 450 primary school children in the city to think up and draw their invention ideas. Then I asked skilled local makers to make the best into real things. We rented an empty shop and turned it into a gallery. The project went viral and we had tv cameras from around the world visiting the show. 5 objects were taken into the V&A museums’s permanent collection which is amazing.

I started to get emails from people in other countries asking me if they could do the same thing so we decided to start Little Inventors as an ongoing project. We now have expanded to Little Inventors China and in Canada and many other countries. One project we are working on now is in Canada with the government’s NSERC organisation. We are working with the Canadian Space Agency to ask children there to think up ideas for life in space. The best idea may even be shown on the International Space station!
Here is a nice short film about the very first project.

I see the project as a fun way to inspire children to gain a lifelong passion for creative thinking, problem solving and innovation as well as coming up with some brilliant ideas and objects. The ideas can be fantastical or function, there are no limits placed on the children’s imagination. I add my drawings to to create a playful feeling to the whole thing.

Our website now has over 7000 childrens amazing invention drawings www.littleinventors.org

All weather invention oddities

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I was asked by Goodyear Tyres to think up 30 inventions that could be used all year round, in different seasons. I was a bit of challenge to think of that many ideas on one theme. I just have to think and think and draw and think until I find them all. 3 of the ideas were made real…

It’s difficult skateboarding in the snow unless you attach a flame thrower.


An idea for a sledge that can also be used as a sun lounger.


Ice cube tray snow grips

No more slipping in the snow and enjoy ice in your drinks all year round. (3D Printing is useful)

Ice cube tray snow grips


With thanks to James Plant and Niki Wrigg for their help turning the ideas into reality.

By the way there is a 12 page article about my work in the Feb/Mar 2018 issue of Creative Review magazine.

Mini Snow ball Freezer

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No one has snowball fights in the summer. It seems a shame, it would be nice and warm, running around in shorts and t-shirt hurling snowballs at each other. I guess it would sting more being hit on legs and arms. Anyway here is an idea I had to bring a bit of winter fun into August.

Hello again

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It’s been 3 years since I last posted here. I think I stopped after the short film The Reinvention of Normal about me came out. I got inundated with requests for interviews and to do interesting projects and to give talks about my thoughts on creativity. That was all great but it meant that I no longer had the time and space to write things here. One of those requests was an invite to be a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Here’s a video of the last part but I was on for about 7 minutes and showed 7 other things. I should write a post about it one day.

Since last I posted I’ve started a worldwide children’s project called Little Inventors, spoke at the UN, and been made an Honorary Doctorate in Art and Design at my home town University of Sunderland.

When I’m busy it keeps my mind in the normal day to day, but I need to get my thoughts outside of that place to find interesting ideas. So I’m going to return to this blog to use it as a sort of diary for me and place to share new ideas, big or small.

I began this blog in 2009 while living in Berlin for a few months and it changed my life. At the time, I was searching for some direction, not sure what I was doing or what I should be doing.

I’d gone through the best creative education I could have hoped for including an intense 2 years at the Royal College of Art in 2002. I learned a lot at the RCA but I lost myself a little when surrounded by famous designer tutors all giving advice and me testing myself to see if I could apply my imagination to the various design briefs we were set. Then I had a few years working with a friend I’d met on the course, we were called Mosley meets Wilcox. We did some interesting work including collaborating with a famous photographer Mick Rock designing some objects inspired by his photos of Bowie, Blondie and Lou Reed. Then from 2006 I went solo and drifted along, not sure as to what I should do.

I was interested in things that didn’t fit neatly in the design or art world at that time so I couldn’t rely on the support of the art gallery system, but I also wasn’t interested in designing things for mass production. I just didn’t know where my work fitted in the world or how to show it, and so I sat about not doing much.

I lived in London but decided to visit Berlin for a few months for a change of perspective and to try to sort my head out. I visited Gorlitzer park and sat watching some old punk rockers playing golf and frisbee each day. I had some sketchbooks of ideas that I’d always talked about putting together as a book but never quite got around to it. Boredom is a great motivator and I had the idea, while sitting in the park, to start a blog called Variations on Normal. I uploaded 7 invention idea drawings and it got picked up by a big website called digg.com. Suddenly I had people commenting on my work. I’d found a way to show my work and it motivated me to keep adding more ideas and things took off from there.

I think the thing I’ve learned is that if you want to find a direction in life then it is best to just get on with doing it, not thinking about doing it. The process of doing things gets the train moving and it can take you to unexpected places.

Short Film: The Reinvention of Normal

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I’ve been featured in a short film by Liam Saint-Pierre who followed me around while I tried to think of new ideas. He even travelled up north with me to talk to my parents. You can view the film here….

“Go straight off the wall” said his dad and Dominic does just that. This film follows Dominic Wilcox, an artist / inventor / designer, on his quest for new ideas….Transforming the mundane and ordinary into something surprising, wondrous and strangely thought provoking.

Directed & Produced by Liam Saint-Pierre (liamsaintpierre.com)
Edited: Sam White
Post Production: The Whealhouse (thewhealhouse.com)
Original Artwork & animation: Dominic Wilcox
Additional Animation: Shroom studios (shroomstudio.com)
Original Music: Olly Jenkins (ollyjenkins.com)
Sound Mix: Iain Grant
Dominic Wilcox’s project website: dominicwilcox.com
Dominic’s book ‘Variations on Normal’ : dominicwilcox.com/the-book

The Reinventing of normal
The film features a quick idea by me to listen to birds by attracting them with a tray of bird seed on a pole with a listening horn and tube.

TRON_06

stainedglassdriverless

The Stained Glass Driverless Sleeper Car of the future goes for a spin.

fatherandson

Dominic and his father Derek.

My new inventions book, Variations on Normal.

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Variations on normal book

{UPDATE: Variations on Normal is out now!

Available in shops and online such as Amazon

Also signed copies available from my shop sent worldwide. }

I’m very happy to say that I have a book of my invention drawings coming out on the 21st of August.  Earlier this year I signed a book deal with publisher Square Peg for a hard back, 128 page book full of my odd yet perfectly logical invention drawings.

Available to buy:

Worldwide delivery and signed by Dominic via the webshop £10 + Delivery

Or on Amazon.com here
in UK on Amazon.co.uk Or Waterstones or Foyles 

Germany amazon.de

Italy amazon.it

France amazon.fr

Or buy the Kindle version on all Amazon sites.

Variations on Normal

I’ve been lucky enough to get some nice quotes about the book from interesting people.
Paul Smith Variations on Normal

“Really bad jokes… I love them! Really great illustrations… I love them!” (Paul Smith, fashion designer)

“Dominic Wilcox’s drawings aren’t just witty and beautifully drawn, they are serious challenges to the real world to keep looking at itself with innocent eyes, wondering what else is possible.” (Thomas Heatherwick, designer)

“A delightful book of invention drawings ” (Ron Arad, architect)

‘I love this book. Laugh-out-loud funny. I want a salty thumb lolly now!’ (Harry Hill, comedian)
‘From funny through ingenious and all the way to sad, Wilcox’s resourceful ideas make for poignant questions on the way we accept the world around us’
(Daniel Charny, curator of Power of Making exhibition, V&A museum)

I made some animated gifs of some of the pages….

toothbrush Maracas

yoyo bungee

In late 2012 I self published a book of my drawings and they sold out quickly, this book includes an additional 28 new ideas now totalling around 125 of my bonkers inventions.

NEWS: I’m going to be on BBC Radio 4, Loose Ends on Saturday, 16th August, 1815-1900 GMT, talking about the book. You can listen here

Thanks
Dominic

Helium Filled Flying Suit

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Helium filled flying jump suit

I regularly come up with ideas for a project but end up not using them. Here’s one I did for my Selfridges window of inventions. A helium filled flying suit. I want to gently drift across the city to go to the pub or visit tower block living relatives…

(See the ones I did make here.)

Get more attention on your engagement ring

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side signage ring by Dominic Wilcox

Yes you’re engaged, yes you have a beautiful ring, but there are still people walking by you without noticing it. How can this be? Are they blind? Obviously some people need an extra clue as to where to look. Here is the solution, ‘Side signage rings to bring more attention to your engagement ring’.

 

My book ‘Variations on Normal’ will be out on August 21st, full of absurd yet logical invention drawings like the one above. More details here.

 

The Ages of Modern Man

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The Ages of Modern Man

Here’s a drawing I did called ‘The Ages of Modern Man’. I have to say that I have an uncomfortable relationship with the screen. I look at one most days but it feels so old fashioned. In the future I can’t believe we will be still staring at the internet through a glowing rectangle.

Beyond the Google Glass experiments, the advanced contact lens with dynamic text and images overlaid on whatever we look at seems inevitable at some point in the future. A blink to click, a slight finger flick to scroll. Beyond that, integrating brain boosting technology implants will arrive. My first reaction is to think I wouldn’t want to get something attached to my brain, but if it enabled you to speak 10 languages, communicate thoughts with fellow brain implanters and remember people’s names at parties, then there will be inevitable demand.

gps name rememberer
2ndbrain
date online video invention

See my GPS embedded ‘No Place Like Home’ shoes here

My inventions book ‘Variations on Normal’ is out now in most book shops. More info here here.

Using snoring to stop snoring

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snoring solution

For those kept awake by their snoring partner I have come up with this idea. This device dramatically increases the volume of the snorer’s own snores using a microphone and headphone combination. As soon as the snorer starts snoring they wake up from hearing the loud noise.

My new book of inventions is coming out in August, details here.

Reverse telephone invention: A constant ringer

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reverse telephone by Dominic Wilcox

Here is my idea to make a simple alteration to the household or mobile telephone. This telephone continually rings when not in use, only when you receive a call will it fall silent.

When I first moved into a flat long ago it appeared to be quite noisy due to the traffic outside, but after a week or so I got used to it. I assume this would also be the case with my new telephone.

My new book of inventions is coming out in August, details here.

Screw in Shoe Table Combo

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screw in shoe table combo

Let’s make use of that upper area of the shoe. There must be loads of things we could screw into it. Here’s my everyday choice, a portable table that I can screw into my shoe whenever I need a flat surface.

My new book of inventions is coming out in August, details here.

Fly down warning device

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Fly down warning device
I’ve just about finished my book of invention drawings that will come out in August. Here’s a new idea, don’t you hate it when you forget to zip up your fly? Well those days are gone with my new warning device invention. It’s easy to attach and is rechargeable via USB.

Variations on Normal book to be published!

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variations on normal by Dominic Wilcox

I’m very excited to announce that I signed a book deal with Square Peg (Random House) for a hardback edition of my book ‘Variations on Normal’ with even more ideas. The book will contain over a hundred (around 125) invention drawings that are perhaps absurd and odd but also have some strange logic to  them.

In 2012 I self published 1000 books of my drawings and in a couple of month I had sold them. Earlier this year I made contact with Square Peg who wanted to publish a bigger edition with even more inventions in and sell distribute them far and wide. I took a few seconds to think (1.2) and now I’m happy to say it will be published on 21st August 2014.

If you would like me to send you an email when it does come out in order to buy please visit here and enter your email. Many thanks Dominic.

‘Dominic Wilcox’s drawings aren’t just witty and beautifully drawn, they are serious challenges to the real world to keep looking at itself with innocent eyes, wondering what else is possible.’

Thomas Heatherwick,
Designer, architect, creator of the 2012 olympic cauldron amongst other brilliant things.

Some of my invention drawings that will be in the book below. (lots of new ones included in the new edition as well)

coffinwork2gpswristladderlitter

Window of ideas for the Selfridges ‘Festival of Imagination’.

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selfridges window Dominic Wilcox

I was asked by London’s famous Selfridges department store to fill a window with my ideas and inventions for their Festival of Imagination. Over the course of two months I set about thinking up and making fourteen different objects with a plan to create something that reflected my sketchbook pages. Instead of drawing the ideas, I have made them real, but kept the handwritten descriptions and arrows all hanging from wire.  The window is open for 6 weeks so have a look if you are passing, I titled it ‘Variations on Normal’. There are so many photos and ideas to show and talk about that I will reveal the new objects each day over the next week or so rather than in one big lump.

I hung the window over four nights, we were all allowed in the shop from 9.30pm till 6am so it was very tiring.

Keep checking back each day to see the objects I came up with and pictures of me using them around town.

sidewindow

windows

people

frontfull

window before

Me in the window at the beginning thinking ‘why didn’t I come up with something simpler’ (which is a common thought for nearly every project I do).

Fingerprint activated, no waiting, pedestrian crossing

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I read an article recently on the BBC about whether or not pressing the pedestrian crossing button actually does anything. It turns out that quite a few do nothing at all to effect the time it takes for the green man to show. Sometimes the wait can be up to two minutes, think of all the things we could have done in all those minutes spent waiting to cross.

With the arrival of the iPhone 5s and it’s fingerprint reader button on my mind, I waited to cross the road a few weeks ago. A thought occurred to me as I pressed the pedestrian crossing button. What if I could pay money to speed up or remove the waiting time altogether? In fact if the button was also a fingerprint reader then it could be linked to an online account that is set up as Pay-as-you-press. Each press instantly (or as quickly as is safe) changes the red man to green and £0.40 is deducted from my account. For £0.70 you can also choose your own tune to cross the road to.

I went out on to the streets of London to test the system, listen here to find out how it went…
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24724168/quickcross.mp3%20

Fingerprint activated instant pedestrian crossing

The Quick Cross fingerprint reader pedestrian crossing button.

fingerprint pedestrian crossing

Here I designed an app for signing up to the Quick Cross system.
Quick cross road pedestrian crossing
crossroad1

BBC article about pedestrian crossing.

UPDATE: the BBC picked up on this post, at the bottom of this page… http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-24291571

Lift and drop inventions

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Hello old friends and new people. I’ve got a bit of news, I’ve completely redesigned my main project website, it’s got big images, videos and more content, check it out, spread the word. www.dominicwilcox.com

A long time ago I read the whole dictionary onto tapes (yes that long ago). I actually read two dictionaries, a mini dictionary and then a larger Collins one. The idea started out as part of a ‘Dominic Wilcox impersonation Kit’. A black leather case with brass engraved front held inside a copy of my clothes and shoes, a Wilcox handwriting copying kit and some tapes which started with me saying ‘Listen and repeat, aardvark…’ so you could copy my accent. I later separated out the dictionary reading to a single piece of work. Here is a sample https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24724168/dictionary.mp3%20
Pictures on my website here.

I’m going to start putting some more of my invention drawing up on this blog again. I printed 1000 copies of the first edition of my book Variations on Normal but they sold out. The book will be republished in future, can’t say more than that now but it’s quite exciting. (Email sales@variationsonnormal.com to be notified on the next edition)

I think I worked out how to lift heavy weights using this pulley system. The added weight at the back helps make lifting at the front easy.

lift helper

I once was at a photo shoot and the photographer answered his phone and I thought I’d help by holding his camera. Unfortunately the lens wasn’t attached properly and I just saw it fall to the ground in slow motion. Being a cool dude he continued his conversation as though nothing happened. It was costly though.

wrist net

Come back soon for more sketched ideas soon.

oh and I’ll be talking at this interesting event in Brighton, www.reasons.to

Sound Matters

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soundmatters

I’m collaborating with sound artist Yuri Suzuki in a new travelling show called Sound Matters by the Crafts Council UK. Last year I was commissioned by Create 2012 to make a souvenir of East London. I made a vinyl record capturing the sounds of 21 makers in the area at work. From a shoe maker tapping his hammer to the sound of making beigels on Brick Lane. I’ve always liked the idea of creating something and handing it on to another person to find inspiration from it and create something new. I gave my ‘Sounds of Making in East London’ vinyl record www.soundsofmaking.com to Yuri and asked him if he could create something new from it. I admire Yuri’s work and he has a studio within East London so it continued my record idea of highlighting the large amount of creative makers in the area.

Yuri made what he calls ‘Sounds of Making in East London: Remix Edition’. He took very short loop samples from each of my record’s tracks, then put them all onto a vinyl record (looped grooves). He created 5 movable stylus needles so you can place the 5 needles onto the record at any position to create a form of endless rhythmic music from the sounds of making.

Sounds of Making
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See the Sound Matters website here http://www.soundmatters.org.uk/
There are audio interviews with all the artists to listen to.

The show will tour around Scotland initially.

Iona Gallery, Kingussie, Scotland , 1 June – 30 June 2013

St Fergus Gallery, Wick, Scotland , 6 July – 3 August 2013

Inverness Museum & Art Gallery, Inverness, Scotland , 10 August – 7 September 2013

Sound Bulbs

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dominicwilcox

I’ve created what I call ‘Sound Bulbs’ that combine a light bulb connector with music players so that it’s possible to screw in your music player into any light bulb socket. I was invited to take part in an exhibition during Clerkenwell Design Week called Design Exquis. The idea of the exhibition was a little like the game of Chinese whispers in that a first designer/artist was given an object (a stethoscope), they then had to find inspiration from that to create a new object of their own. That object was then passed to me and I was challenged to create something inspired from that. This continued for 4 people. The object I was given was a ceiling lamp by ‘Plant and Moss’. I started to think about ceiling lights and the question of ‘why do we only plug light bulbs into lamp sockets?’

IMG_5933 radio1

My first thought was that it would be interesting to have music playing from the centre of a room, to be able to plug in a radio for example. I actually don’t use ceiling lights so much and prefer table lights for a more subtle light in the room. I set about finding old radios from markets and shops that I could convert with the addition of a bayonet or Edison screw light bulb connector and a 9v transformer to connect to where the battery would normally be. I decided to demonstrate the idea at the exhibition with a table lamp also. I could have chose a minimal table lamp and a modern day music player, but decided to go in the opposite direction. There are not many opportunities in life  to combine 1880 golden statues with 1980 ghetto blasters so I took it.

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The table lamp also has a little pull string to turn on and off. Of course there are many potential directions to my concept. remote. I have further uses and additions for this idea in mind.

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During research I discovered that the very first electric irons were powered by electric lamp sockets see this 1920’s picture below.

Untitled-3The link to the Exhibition facebook page is here

For larger images for use on websites, print etc please contact using the contact page.

Everyday Action Orchestra

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workshop-cover

Last year I lead a five day workshop at NABA, an art and design university in Milan. I set the challenge to create something I called the ‘Everyday Action Orchestra’. Each designer needed to think of an everyday action, such as waving, shaking hands, brushing teeth etc. They then needed to create an object that would make a musical sound when that action was made. There would be a performance at the end of the 5 days where everyone would perform their action and simultaneously make a sound. Hopefully it would look interesting and sound good.

Here is a recording of the performance at the end of the workshop to the rest of the NABA students.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24724168/ZOOM00472.mp3%20

One of my assistants was Michelle Sterchele who composed some music using all the created instruments, you can hear it below. Also some photos of the Everyday action instruments (taken by Astrid Luglio)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24724168/everydayactionsorchestra.mp3%20

You can follow me on twitter or Facebook

NABA 2012 Everyday Actions workshop Milan
NABA 2012 Everyday Actions workshop Milan
Sketch ideas
Stretch neck drums
Sit down horn
Scratch card
Play with hair
In the shower
walking horns
Stir the pot
Pull the toilet roll
Open a book
Dance
Pull Drawer
Exercise
Dry yourself
Bathroom tap
Hairdry mouth organ
Hug squeak
Stretch neck drums
Stretch neck drums
Walking horn
Wash hair
Old clothes washer
Pull chain
Turn key rattler
NABA 2012 Everyday Actions workshop Milan

On the BBC tonight and a look back at last year.

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Tonight I will be competing against a 3D printer to make a model of Big Ben on the BBC 2 The Culture Show at 10pm 30/01/13.

2012 Review:

dominic-wilcox-scotchblue-tape-flower-10

2012 was a very busy year for me, probably my busiest. I remember starting the year thinking that I had no idea what I will do in 2012. Then Jaffa Cakes commissioned me to nibble their biscuit/cakes in the shape of something. Around that time I tweeted ‘I want to race against a 3D printer to make the same thing’ a curator saw it and invited me to compete in Milan. I defeated the 3D printer and won a trophy. While I was in Milan I spent 5 days making something out of sticks and tape in front of the public. On return to London I was invited to the V&A museum to have a rematch against a British 3D Printer. A bit later I was asked to create a souvenir of East London and had the idea to make a vinyl record recording the sounds of East London makers at work. The record was cut about half a mile from my house in Hackney. BBC radio 4’s Today programme visited me and I talked about the sounds and the history behind the makers. It even got played on radio in Tokyo.

In September I had a solo show at KK Outlet Gallery, I decided to make a book of my invention drawings and released a little animation. A little earlier I had been commissioned to make new versions of my shoe field for Global Footprint in Northamptonshire. I was also commissioned to create a pair of shoes. After thinking about Dorothy in The wizard of Oz I decided to try to create some shoes that could navigate the wearer home. These shoes appeared all over the place in mainstream newspapers and tv such as The Discovery channel. Meanwhile I was asked to do something interesting with 3M tape. Finally I was asked to create something that would be suspended across a street inthe Seven Dials area of London. I made an arch of birdcages to represent the past history of pet shops in the area.

This year I’m once again unsure what direction I will go in, I might do some more sketched inventions for a start.

iceskis2