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Schultze & Webb have an interesting blog/site dedicated to a project they are working on for Nokia. The project is all about exploring the boundaries of design and functionality of mobile devices and revolves around understanding three areas; craft (specialist makers), hacking (combining the phone with other devices or altering its functionality) and mass-customization (small scale or limited run production).

The project is in its early stages, but they have already started to play with some interesting thoughts and ideas.

They have explored the use of wood

And fabric

For some, it might seem like an avant-garde experimental art project, but there are some great insights and thoughts coming out of this. This idea of local manufacture is really compelling.

"Instead of this manufacture culture, how about one where phone covers (even the phones themselves) are designed and made locally, in runs of only a few hundred, if that. How could we make it possible for non-experts to co-design the phone for their friends, neighbors, and people in their town? I'm talking about a culture of casual manufacture (that is, amateur and part-time), or folk factories (bottom-up and commonsense)."

This project is a great example of play and experimentation, it doesn't follow set rules, it has areas for exploration and like a good documentary, it doesn't quite know what it is going to find. It has an openness and playfulness to it that makes it fun for the client and the researchers behind it.