Orchestral manoeuvres in design

The concepts of open design – the collaborative creation of artefacts by a dispersed group of otherwise unrelated individuals – and of individualized production – the direct digital manufacture of goods at the point of use – at first sound like something from a utopian science fiction film. And yet, here we are. We can now easily download designs from the internet, alter them at will to suit our own needs and then produce perfect products at the push of a button. Magic.