Design Fabrication Zone

🚨 Attention Creative School Students! 🚨
Are you ready to push the boundaries of creative technology and digital fabrication? The 2025 Student Grant Competition is NOW OPEN! 🎉

The Design + Technology Lab (D+TL) and the Design Fabrication Zone (DFZ) are offering up to five $1,000 grants to empower your innovative tech and digital fabrication projects! Whether you’re into AR/VR, 3D printing, robotics, creative computing, or wearable tech, this is your chance to bring your ideas to life.

💡 Eligible Projects: From bioart to photogrammetry, CNC machining to projections, we’re looking for groundbreaking ideas that explore the future of creative fields.

🛠️ What You Get: Access to state-of-the-art tech, tool training, expert mentorship, and up to $1000 in financial support to complete your project!

📅 Key Dates:
• Application Deadline: Nov 18, 2024
• Program Start: Jan 16, 2025
• Project End: June 1, 2025 (UG), Dec 1, 2025 (Grad)

🌟 Who Can Apply: 4th-year undergraduate or graduate students of The Creative School. Projects can be tied to curriculum or independent.

Submit your proposal by Nov 18 at 11:59 PM and take your creative practice to the next level!

🔗 Application Form: https://forms.gle/wDfKco6qwLuaGHX8A

To access the application form, students must be logged into their TMU email ID .For details and to apply, visit the link in bio or email us at [email protected]

🌟Meet Cookie Brunel, our 2024 Creative in Residence!🌟

Stay tuned for their upcoming workshop this Fall, where they’ll dive into human relationships, plants, and tech degrowth. This non-hierarchical space will spark discussions on degoogling, right to repair, open source, and sustainability. 🌱🔧💬

A former archaeologist, Brunel became disillusioned after witnessing how modern discrimination in archaeological interpretation is widely presented as historical fact. Informed by these experiences, Brunel’s artistic practice argues for the importance of intersectional approaches to research that value subjectivity, bodily knowledge, and poetics. Themes that persist through their research include pedagogy, identity, shapeshifting, surveillance, and waveforms. They strive for an anti-capitalist digital art practice, exploring ideas and movements such as de-growth, de-googling, open source, and the right to repair… and they would love to talk to you about it!

Brunel has exhibited and performed internationally as an artist and musician. They have worked professionally in fabrication and art education, in spaces such as Artscape (RIP), OCADU, and the University of Toronto. They hold degrees in Archaeology and Studio Art from the University of Calgary, the Alberta University of the Arts, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 

Welcome Cookie to the DFZ! 🎨🌍

For more, visit cookiebrunel.com or follow .refl

DEADLINE EXTENDED apply for membership today!
🛠️🪛🪚🗜️🧰🔩⚙️

Ready to bring your creative project to life? The Design Fabrication Zone (DFZ) at TMU is now accepting membership applications until midnight, SEPTEMBER 3RD!

Whether you’re a student, staff, faculty, or part of the public, we want to hear from you. Apply for our Start-Up or Experimental Track and join our dynamic community.

Learn more about the application process and apply today! 🔗 https://www.torontomu.ca/zone-learning/
design-fabrication-zone/apply/

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN! 🚀

Ready to bring your creative project to life? The Design Fabrication Zone (DFZ) at TMU is now accepting membership applications until midnight, August 28th! 🎨✨

Whether you’re a student, staff, faculty, or part of the public, we want to hear from you. Apply for our Start-Up or Experimental Track and join our dynamic community.

Learn more about the application process and apply today! 🔗 https://www.torontomu.ca/zone-learning/design-fabrication-zone/apply/

🎭Networking a digital performance across multiple cities! Discover how motion capture brings art to life, exploring the collaborative work between and Lu Yang .

🗓️Thursday, August 1st
⏰Doors at 5:15PM, lecture begins at 5:30PM
📍110 Bond St. (2nd floor), The Design Fabrication Zone, TMU Campus

🎟️Tickets are $15 for the lecture (1 hour) or $35 for the lecture and workshop combo (3 hours).
Register at bit.ly/dfz-motion-capture or use our link-in-bio.

Join us on Tuesday, August 6th, for an inspiring Bioplastic Jewelry workshop with Anastasiya Yatsuk! While we won’t be making bioplastics, you’ll get to craft personalized jewelry using unique and innovative DIY biomaterials from Nastya’s collection. Experiment, create, and take home your handmade pieces. Don’t miss out on this eco-friendly, creative experience! 🌿✨

⏱️When: 5:30-8:30PM, doors open at 5PM
📆 Date: Tuesday, AUG 6th
📍Where: 110 Bond St., Toronto, ON
🔗RSVP: link-in-bio or at bit.ly/bioplastic-jewelry

Check out these beautiful photos from her recent bioyarn project Tender Loops. These biomaterials creatively explore traditional craft techniques like knitting and crochet, blending them with mindful and sustainable material innovation to enhance the longevity of physical objects. 📸 by Adam Whyte.

Anastasiya (Nastya) Yatsuk is an artist and materials researcher from Brooklyn, NY. A DFZ member since 2021, she is the founder of Near Future Objects, a practice dedicated to exploring the intersections of creative biology and multispecies relations. Her work integrates ecological responsibility with technological advancement, aiming to create sustainable futures through innovative manufacturing practices and community engagement. Nastya is the Biomaterial Studios community project lead at Genspace in NYC, the world’s first community biology lab.

Learn more about her practice in this month’s Member Spotlight blogspot!

🎭✨ Dive into the world of Motion Capture for Live Performance with at the DFZ! Join us for an immersive evening featuring a captivating talk and hands-on workshop. 🌟

Discover how motion capture brings art to life, exploring the collaborative work between MetaObjecrs and Lu Yang

Limited spots available—secure yours now!

⏰When: Doors at 5:15PM, lecture begins at 5:30PM
🏢Where: 110 Bond St. (2nd floor), TMU Campus

🎟️ Tickets are $15 for the lecture (1 hour) or $35 for the lecture and workshop combo.

🔗Register at bit.ly/dfz-motion-capture or use our link-in-bio.

📸 Photo from the Hong Kong performance of Lu Yang - The Binary World. Captured by Eric @ Moon 9 image, Courtesy of West Kowloon Cultural District Authority.

📢 Join us for “Wax On, Wax Off” - a hands-on 3D modeling and 3D printing workshop for jewelry making open to everyone! 💍✨

🗓 Date & Time: Wed, Jul 24, 2024, 6 - 8 PM
📍Location: DFZ at 110 Bond St., Toronto, ON

Explore SLA 3D printing and modeling for jewelry with Krystyne Kontos, Partnerships Lead & Creative Technologist at the DFZ! Learn 3D modeling, walkthrough file setup and printing for Formlabs printers, and create castable wax models ready for metal casting.

🔧 What You’ll Learn:
- Fundamentals of SLA 3D printing
- Intro to 3D modeling and resources
- Formlabs printers and resins
- Tips for high-quality prints

💰 Cost: Sliding scale from $10 (recommended $20). Additional $15 for taking home 3D prints. Payable by cash or card at the door (recommended amount: $20.00).

🔗 Register using our link-in-bio
🔗 or at bit.ly/dfz-wax-on

Don’t miss this chance to turn your digital designs into a wax castable prototype! 🚀

Applications close in 10 days! 💜

Are you a making-based creative in Toronto? Are you passionate about circular design and material explorations? APPLY to the 2024 Creative in Residence Program (CiR)! Applicants are encouraged to expand on this year’s curatorial theme 🌬WIND ROSE as allegory, reflecting on the dynamic patterns and forces that surround us.

📅 Program Dates: Tuesday August 13, 2024 - Thursday November 14, 2024
⌛ Deadline to Apply: 11:59PM on Sunday, June 30, 2024
🔗 bit.ly/dfzCiR

The residency includes a $1643 artist fee, a $400 production budget, three months of 24/7 access to The Creative School Innovation Studio with workspace amenities valued at $750, access to the Urban Farm rooftops during weekdays, and free access to public programming by the Design Fabrication Zone and Urban Farm.

Don’t miss out on this unique, paid opportunity! Visit bit.ly/dfzCiR to learn more and apply!

Are you a making-based creative in Toronto? Are you passionate about circular design and material explorations? APPLY to the 2024 Creative in Residence Program (CiR)!

Applicants are encouraged to expand on this year’s curatorial theme 🌬WIND ROSE as allegory, reflecting on the dynamic patterns and forces that surround us.

📅 Program Dates: Tuesday August 13, 2024 - Thursday November 14, 2024
⌛ Deadline to Apply: 11:59PM on Sunday, June 30, 2024
🔗 bit.ly/dfzCiR

The is partnering with the to present the 2024 Creative in Residence (CiR) program. Over the course of 3 months, the selected artist will have the opportunity to produce work for exhibition and steward a community engagement event at the TMU Urban Farm rooftop in the heart of downtown. The 2024 Creative in Residence will reflect on the Urban Farm ecosystem and rooftop greenhouse as a site for creative intervention, looking to this year’s curatorial theme of ‘Wind Rose’ as prompt for investigations on dynamic forces, both natural and otherworldly. Applicants are encouraged to interpret the wind rose not only as a graphical tool but as allegory for our connection to the natural world, revealing prevailing patterns and forces that surround us.

The residency includes a $1643 artist fee, a $400 production budget, three months of 24/7 access to The Creative School Innovation Studio with workspace amenities valued at $750, access to the Urban Farm rooftops during weekdays, and free access to public programming by the Design Fabrication Zone and Urban Farm.

Don’t miss out on this unique, paid opportunity! Visit bit.ly/dfzCiR to learn more and apply!

Meet the team behind the DFZ, meet teams being incubated with us, learn how you can join our membership, and what it can do for you! ⁠
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📅 Wednesday, September 20th from 11am - 3pm⁠
📍 Gould Street, TMU Campus⁠
🔗 bit.ly/zone-fair-2023 ⁠
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DM us if you have any questions - hope to see you there!

Are you passionate about sustainable practices? Are you a fashion designer or working in creative fields? Do you want to engage in open conversations about material sustainability and waste management? Look no further; this is the event for you!

Presented by the Design Fabrication Zone and featured guest speaker Narishdath Maraj.

📅 Wednesday, August 16th from 5:30-6:30pm EST⁠
📍 110 Bond Street, Toronto⁠
🔗 bit.ly/branding-landfill
🗑️ Free for the public and TMU communities

Join multidisciplinary creatives for an enlightening roundtable discussion to explore innovative solutions to material sustainability challenges. Revolutionize your creative work, collectively find solutions and create a positive impact on our communities and environments.

Learn more and RSVP at bit.ly/branding-landfill

Are you a making-based creative in Toronto? Are you passionate about circular design and material explorations? APPLY to the 2023 Creative in Residence Program themed around 🍂DECAY 🍂

📅 Program Dates: September 5th - November 24th, 2023
⌛ Deadline to Apply: August 20, 2023
🔗 bit.ly/2023cir

This year, the Design Fabrication Zone is partnering with the TMU Urban Farm to present the 2023 Creative in Residence (CiR) program. Over the course of 3 months, the selected artist will have the opportunity to produce an artwork that will exhibit on the TMU Urban Farm rooftop in the heart of downtown.

Decay is a transformative and sustaining force that will guide the artist to extend agricultural circular thinking into art making, construction, and design. Through making-based mediums including sculpture, installation, craft, and furniture design the Creative in Residence will expand on overlooked stories of decay, forging a deep connection to growth and renewal.

Don't miss out on this unique opportunity! Visit bit.ly/2023cir to learn more and apply.

Join Barbie's interior design team during our upcoming interactive workshop!

We will be working in small groups to decorate Barbie's dreamhouse at 1:12 scale. Each group is challenged to cohesively decorate one room with the following resources: scale-model laser cut furniture, craft supplies, fabrication equipment and staff knowledge. You're welcome to bring your own supplies, too. Bonus points for dressing up and bringing your enthusiasm! Don't miss this opportunity to show Barbie your fantabulous design skills!

📅 Wednesday, July 19th from 2:30-4:00pm EST⁠
📍 110 Bond Street, Toronto⁠
🔗 bit.ly/barbie-challenge
💃 $10 to participate

Transform the way you view manufacturing with Ilija Jovanovic, the visionary co-founder and COO of Taiga Robotics, at the DFZ!⁠
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Explore the incredible benefits that 3D printing can offer your arsenal of tools. Delve into topics you won't find anywhere online. Free samples of 3D printed materials will be available for attendees to take, twist, bend, and try to break. ⁠
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📅 Wednesday, July 26th from 2:30-3:30pm EST⁠
📍 110 Bond Street, Toronto⁠
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RSVP and learn more at bit.ly/3d-printing-innovations
This is a free event open to the public. Tell a friend!

Have you applied to 🌸Summer Studio🌸 yet!? Applications close on June 22nd. Visit www.summerstudiocamp.com/ to learn more and apply today.⁠
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The Design Fabrication Zone is incredibly excited to support The Creative School's Innovation Studio in running this year's Summer Studio!⁠
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Summer Studio is two weeks of choose-your-own-adventure style learning, building and exploring guided by the artists, creators and professionals who make up The Innovation Studio, Design Fabrication Zone, Fashion Zone, Music Den, and Transmedia Zone. We're bringing together some of this city's most interesting people for two weeks of magic, whimsy and play.⁠
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At Summer Studio, we believe in the power of personalized learning and are heavily inspired by the ‘unconference’ model. Unconferences are distinguished by a participant-driven environment, designed to avoid hierarchical aspects of traditional conference structures.

📣 CALLING ALL CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS! Camp Summer Studio is BACK! 📣

Summer Studio is a creative camp designed for artists, innovators, and entrepreneurs. Join us for two weeks of choose-your-own-adventure style learning, hands-on projects, and boundless exploration!

Whether you're an artist, writer, scientist, coder, maker, tinkerer, musician, performer, or designer, this is the perfect opportunity to delve into something new, develop a diverse skill set, and connect with like-minded individuals. Give your creative practice a boost or simply take a well-deserved break to rejuvenate and refuel!

Join us at The Creative School Innovation Studio as we delve into the realms of creativity, community building, and innovative design practices. It's like a camp, but tailored for adults!

Don't miss out on this unique opportunity to enhance your creative journey. Apply now and secure your spot at Summer Studio—where inspiration meets innovation!

Learn more and apply at www.summerstudiocamp.com

Key Details:
📅 Dates: July 10th, 2023, to July 21st, 2023
⌛️ Application Deadline: June 22nd (early applications strongly encouraged!)
📩 Successful applicants will be notified no later than Friday, June 30th.

Location: The Creative School Innovation Studio Building at 110 Bond St.

Hosted by The Innovation Studio with support from The Design Fabrication Zone, The Transmedia Zone, and The Fashion Zone, and The Music Den.

Join our Stuff Swap! Help make an impact on our day to day waste by normalizing trading creative materials and keeping materials out of landfills! ⁠
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RSVP at bit.y/stuffswapDFZ

📣 Attention creative students (and recent grads!)! 📣 Looking to take that drive and hustle to the next level and turn them into a successful career? We can help!

Join us for workshops, seminars and networking opportunities to get you on your way to building your dream job. Visit bit.ly/career-day-2023 to learn more and register for Career Day!

Last month, in collaboration with TMU’s Branded Materials Transition Project, we took apart almost 300lbs of old merch at our Dismantling Party! We're back again, this time with an initiative to make an impact on our day to day waste. Let's normalize trading creative materials to keep them out of landfills!

Join us on Thurs Feb 23rd from 5:30pm - 7:00pm for our very first STUFF SWAP! If you're like us, you have a lot of stuff; stuff that you used to use in your creative or technical work but you no longer incorporate into your work; stuff that you don't want but would still be good for others to use! Bring your gently used creative materials (textiles, paints, laser cutting offcuts, small scrap wood pieces, plastics, harmless adhesives, tools you no longer use, unique materials, metals, paper, circuitry parts, etc) to the stuff swap! Give your things away to another creative or barter and trade your stuff to take home things that would be meaningful to you! Staff will be adding exciting fabrication materials as well as stuff from the renaming waste that has had the old university name removed.

Register at bit.ly/stuffswapDFZ & email any questions to [email protected]

Check out Tamia Campbell’s CYBERURUAL collection as part of their 2022 DFZ/LAB student grant project. Applications for the 2023 grant period are open to students of the Creative School until 5pm on December 1st, 2022. Link-in-bio to learn more!

is a fashion design student and multifaceted artist with roots in illustration and painting. Tamia transfers those skills into garments using digital elements and computer aided design to create works that obscure and validate gender identity, self actualization and expression. Tamia aspires to create forms, shapes, and motifs that mimic the body’s natural components, alters them and creates something entirely new.

CYBERURAL is an exploration of Tamia’s self actualization through virtual channels heightened by the isolation period of quarantine. Tamia worked with flatbed surface printing, laser cutting, and other digi fab technology to manipulate textiles for the collection!

Tamia: “I have lived many different versions of myself online. When I was younger a lot of the physical types of self expression were restricted, but in virtual settings the possibilities of who you could be were limitless. I’d often go to games, and online communities as a place of solace, freedom and expression. During the time I had immersed myself in virtual platforms I found ways to experiment  beyond my reality and what transponded was a transformation that allowed me to discover traits about myself that I would otherwise not have the ability to explore within my own social world.

Though the changes served to be beneficial within my mind, I realized I had begun to neglect the other physical parts of my being. Along with the good came bad, and the imagined world wasn’t as always fulfilling or as safe as I wanted it to be. I longed for a way to bring my virtual self and world into reality in a way the two could both blend in ways that were neither good or bad but suitable and alright for me. This project helps me reflect on those desires and wants and how we as  people present ourselves to be virtually and the characteristics we bring into our real lives because of those virtual encounters.”

Are you an out-of-the-box Fabricator? 🤓 🛠️

🔍️ The Design Fabrication Zone is on the hunt for a new Creative Technologist 2-3 days a week to play a critical role in the advancement of projects put forward by the Zone’s incubated design teams.

💡At its core the DFZ is an interdisciplinary hub for design and fabrication that strategically propels early-stage ideas for inventions, businesses and installations along the continuum from design to prototype to mass manufacturing. The role of Creative Technologist is therefore critical in that process!

👉🏽 YOU..... have a background in analogue AND digital fabrication technologies, an understanding of the design process and physical properties of commonly used materials (such as wood, acrylic, PETG, sheet metals, etc)..are familiar with digital fabrication equipment such as 3D printers, laser cutters and CNC routers..are a team player; highly adaptable, has a outgoing positive attitude..are self Directed and an Initiative taker

Full Details and Job Description @ https://bit.ly/CreativeTechnologistHiring

WOOOOOOOHOOOOOO! Its Almost Here!!
Join Zone Learning at the Zone Street Fair and check out what’s happening across the Zone ecosystem at Toronto Metropolitan University! ⚡Student entrepreneurs will be showcasing their projects, selling items in the Startup Marketplace, and putting on demos and performances. Free snacks, giveaways, games and more! Wednesday September 14, 11am - 3pm. Find us on Gould St between Bond and Victoria.

✨HIRING 10 TMU UnderGrad Students ✨ 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

The DFZ is looking for Student Consultants to join our team this summer and fall in an exciting paid opportunity up to 50 hours!! In our second year of this position, we’re looking to help students own their expertise in progress, boost their resume and learn how to turn their emergent skills for their major into advice for Design Fabrication Zone companies and organizations!

We are looking to hire 10 students (must be in a TMU, Undergraduate program and a non-international student) with skills that can help guide teams through their shortcomings. If you’re someone studying business, textiles, sales, marketing, or others listed below, please apply! This team will work to help companies over the course of the three months. Please apply if you are studying and would like to share your wisdom on any of the following areas of expertise...

👉🏾 Coding, Material use. Fabrication Expert, Graphic design, Marketing / PR, Business Strategy, Sales Strategy, Environmental science, Data science, Strategic Communications, Partnerships and Funding, Social Media, Robotics / Mechatronics, Electronics / Circuitry / IOT, or other expertise you bring to the table.

TO APPLY .. please email your resume to [email protected], Subject line "Student Consultant Application, (Area of expertise), (Your Name)"
In your email tell us a-little about yourself and your body of knowledge! Applications will close asap!!

If you have questions or would like clarification, please email [email protected]

💁🏼‍♀️ 🧕🏼 👱🏽‍♀️ 👩🏾‍🦳 CALLING ALL LADIES!!! 👩🏽‍🦱 👧🏿 🙍🏼‍♀️ 👧🏻 💃🏾

This Thursday June 16th we are hosting OPEN SHOP for all ✨women identifying peeps!!✨ If you craft in any capacity (completely new or a pro) we would love to meet you.
You'll have access to our workshop with fabrication tools and scrap materials plus the support of DFZ staff who all have their other creative capacities and love to problem solve!!

⏰ When: 6:30-8:30pm EST

🏠 Where: 110 Bond St, Toronto Metropolitan University Campus

👥 Who: Ladies

https://bit.ly/ThursOpenShop to register and DM us if you have and Q's!!