After being wowed by Slipperyskip's website of Art Deco PC mods ( http://www.slipperyskip.com/ ) I was ready to get started on an Art Deco inspired project of my own. Unfortunately I don't have the money or the need for a nano or pico-itx motherboard and parts, so I don't think making a PC-in-a-radio is in the cards for the near future. However, why make a radio-styled Art Deco PC when you can make a radio-styled Art Deco radio? So I've set out to design and build my own radio using some classic stylings of the 1930s. So far this is what I've come up with: I'm thinking of a walnut or some sort of wood that will stain nicely and be nice and shiny at a moderate darkness. Polished stainless steel pieces will be attached to the right side. The dial and speaker will fill the rest of the space. The plan is definitely missing something and the speaker is very boring. I wanted to do some sort of Stainless steel ring around it, and then put some sort of pattern on the inside of it because that was fairly common in the old days. I liked the pattern on the Majestic 149, as seen below, but I'm not sure if it will go well with the bars on the right of the radio. If that pattern is turned 90 degrees clockwise so it looks like a birds wing almost, that would keep the lines flowing and maybe it would be more suiting, but I like the skyscraper shape as well. If anyone has an opinion on this please share. It feels like its missing that special something, but I can't figure out what. If anyone has any ideas I'd like to hear them. Thanks. Majestic Model 149
Pretty neat design for that radio. Perhaps if you added a dark, polished inset on the surface of the radio, under the stainless steel pieces, similar to the Majestic? Slipperyskip's work is certainly inspiring, isn't it?
Is this the sort of thing you're talking about? I like this addition, it really fits. I still need to think up something for the speaker. I found some great fonts for the front too, but this project needs a name before I can get too much into that. Anyone have any ideas for a name? I'll ponder it for a while. Heres the two fonts I'm thinking of and trying to incorporate: I like the way the word Metropolis (name of the font) looks, I may make that the name of my radio...
I think your speaker is too big, to me it seems to unbalance the case. I especially like the ss inserts on the right. Here's a cool picture of an art deco radio. http://www.besmark.com/sleigh.html I think that having a square shape that's a little smaller might help.
Well the speaker was a 5 inch one I was going to use but I was also pondering using the guts of a Tivoli Model One radio, which only has a 3 inch speaker. I'm trying to work on a plan on how to make the body, I guess I'll build a 5-sided box and use a router to cut slats in the one side to inset the steel pieces, and possibly get some extremely thin wood (like 1/16th inch or something) and bend it to hide the seams around the edges and curves. One piece stretching from the Left side to the top and another piece stretching from the front to the right side would work quite well. That could also help me save money as I wouldn't need to buy quite as nice wood for underneath. Another idea just dawned on me to maybe put the steel slats longer across the body and put the speaker behind them... That would make them functional and stylish as a speaker guard.
Take a look at veneers. Very thin wood that will bend as you want it to. Marvelous variety of colors and grains. My $0.02 but I think this really has potential if you "STAY AWAY FROM IPOD DOCKS" overdone and way too common. Just a radio is a cool idea. John
The thought had danced through my head, but I am going to incorporate a 3.5mm cable just out the back so I can hook up my Zen because that will be a hugely useful feature without changing the look at all.
That's what I was trying to say. Just don't incorporate ipod shaped hole. I use a Zen and a Craig. Most docks are a "I'm showing off my Ipod" look. This is a really nice look. Go with this. John
My second design, quite a bit smaller with a 3" speaker behind the steel inserts. The design is a little more streamlined, which is good.
That's much better, I was going to say get rid of the round speaker. Most art deco design is about hiding the ugly parts to make the unit blend with the furniture. The '80s brought out this mentality that speaker=pen*s, and radios became a way to show off your big honkin' woofer.
It does look much nicer now, but here's my two cents. Won't the stainless in front of the speaker hurt the acoustics? In my opinion it looked more streamlined (minimalistic) without the dark wood inset underneath the stainless. A very cool idea nonetheless.
I doubt if it will hurt the accoustics any more than standard speaker mesh might, plus I'm not too worried about accoustics from a tiny little radio like this. I like your idea of it being more streamlined, I'm going to try to incorporate more of the Fada 1000 ( http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&q=fada+1000&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi ) "bullet" design into it because thats another classic design.
I do like your second design, Matt. It is definitely more streamlined looking than the first. If you wish to go further with that, perhaps you might consider tapering the steel inserts as they terminate to the left, toward the dial?
Latest design Cheesecake Keep the same look but use a quality 4" speaker i reckon, much nicer/more full sound than a 3" There are nice 4"ers around that sound excellent and actually make a little bass!
Taking on some characteristics of the Fada 1000 "bullet" Can anyone help me with that glitching texture problem I've got there? I can't seem to paint the circle any different colours and its ruining the look, but I just can't figure out how to get rid of it. @ scirocco, I was planning to taper them from the start, otherwise they could do some nasty damage to my hand if im not careful near them, with those sharp corners. I just haven't done that to the sketchup because its a lot easier to push/pull their length to try new looks and if i taper them it makes it more difficult but yes they will be sloping into the radio or have a rounded end. @ mvagusta, thanks, I used the 3" speaker and dial because I'm contemplating using the innards of a Tivoli radio, so I'm using a 3" dial and speaker in the sketchup.
Your design looks very interesting...very Fada. Good luck with this. The "classic" art deco font is called Oratory. Sometimes I've seen it called Big City. Here is a close-up photo of my "logo" showing the font style. Thanks for the link Matt!
Thanks slip! How did you print and transfer the lettering to the wood? Or did you cut a stencil. The projects a bit on hold until I can think about it some more on the weekend, but now, school. Plus my eeePC baby. Its eating up all my time.
I use laser printer decal paper and make my own waterslide decals. Sometimes I use inkjet decal paper if I need color. The inkjet paper requires that I spray it with clear acrylic varnish after printing. It is a real pain. I get my decal paper from BEL Inc. in Miami.
OOOhhh! Slipperyskip. I didn't know they had that stuff. Cool! Thanks! Would the laser decal stuff work on color laser? (-Sorry about the thread hijack.)
