Influx

Influx has been a fan of the Make brand since its inception over a year ago.

Make is, in their words.

“The first magazine devoted entirely to DIY technology projects, MAKE Magazine unites, inspires and informs a growing community of resourceful people who undertake amazing projects in their backyards, basements and garages.”

In a world where technology is so easy to access, but hard to understand, Make celebrates the people who play with and mess around with it.

Make seems to have done everything right; from the simplicity of the name, through to the design of the magazine and their cool connection points to its community from their website, blogs and podcasts.

This weekend it was all about bringing the culture of Make to the people, in an event called Maker Faire.

The magazine took over the San Mateo Expo Center and opened up their community of Makers to some 15,000 people, who got the chance to meet the inventors, see their inventions and there were also all kinds of classes and workshops to participate in.

Influx attended the event. Here are our some of photos and below are links to our highlights. This part one of our story, part two will cover the marketing angle- discussing the brands trying to make connections at the event.

Cool Hacks

The 100 MPG Prius
The Rocket video camera- hacking disposable cameras and putting them into rockets
The Atari Enigma Machine- writing code for the first gaming console

Cool Inventions

Giant Painting Machine-a robot that paints

Cool Products

Digital sculptures printed in metal
Steam powered robots

Art Meets Education

GRL- Guerilla Research Lab- open source technologies for graffiti artists
The Crucible- a fire truck that breathes fire and a complete arts education program
Zeum- stop motion animation- a camp that let kids make their own films

Environment

Wind power from bicycle wheels

Web Stuff

Celestial Mechanics- flight path visualizations