Agência Bambu de Conhecimento. Last thursday july 30th, at the Renaissance Hotel São Paulo, more than 300 people attended the International Design Excellence Award Brasil 2009. The Digital Bamboo JAM Guitar, developed by Agência Bambu de Conhecimento and MODO Design, was awarded with the Ecodesign silver trophy.
The Digital Bamboo JAM Guitar was conceived for trendy musicians in search for sustainable instruments. A built-in digital converter board allows direct USB connection with regular personal computers, making recording very easy. Beside that, the musician can listen the guitar through an earphone without the need of an amplifier.
Among the category´s awards there is one laminated bamboo tricycle (by Fibra Sustentável Design), showing the growing utilization of the material by brazilian designers. Another tendency noticed was that most of the Ecodesigners awarded were cariocas, i.e., from Rio de Janeiro (Tátil with laser printing in dead leaves, Índio da Costa with recycled plastic chair, and Habto with a flat pack wood bench, besides the previously mentioned guitar and tricycle).
The first prototype is going under aditional improvements at N. Zaganin Custom Guitars (São Paulo), deadline set to late august. A musical inauguration event for the guitar is being planned for São Paulo capital, which will anteced the presentation of the instrument to professional musicians in Rio de Janeiro.
The guitar is the second of a series of sustainable instruments being developed by Agência Bambu de Conhecimento. First came the laminated bamboo violin, designed by luthier Carlos Melo, and a digital bass and acoustic drums are already in queue.
IDEA Brasil is the most important brazilian products designer competition, and it is the brazilian phase of the renowned american IDEA, currently in its 19th edition, organized by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA). The event was attended by the Mayor of São Paulo Gilberto Kassab (who received a prize for the Clean City project), Ambassador Roberto Abdenur, IDSA President Prof Eric Anderson, amongst other dignitaries.
Guitarra Digital JAM
Datasheet:
Manufacturer – Agência Bambu de Conhecimento/Sher Marketing
Original idea – Eduardo Giacomazzi and Raphael Moras de Vasconcellos
Design – Modo Design and Raphael Moras de Vasconcellos
Lutherie – N. Zaganin and Gaúcho