Pukk — how I built this thing

Inspiration, synchronicity and the birth of a physical product­­­— from concept to Kickstarter

Erik Kittlaus
Jul 23, 2017 · 3 min read
Pukk holding iPad. Pukk holding iPhone.

(This post is an extension of the Pukk Kickstarter campaign telling the story behind its creation)

As an information junky I had a set of interests I followed in the 80’s and early 90’s that kept me running to the bookstore. It was the early days of computing and the years leading up to the rise of the internet. I picked up the original 128k Mac in ’84 and quickly developed a thirst for developments in the arena.

MacWorld magazine was one of my go-tos and I remember reading an article regarding John Lasseter’s unveiling of Pixar’s first animated short, Luxo, Jr., at Siggraph in 1986 that was garnering lots of attention.

It showcased the first ever human-like motion and kinetics of inanimate objects via the interaction of two lamps and a ball (seen up top). The smooth kinetics of the jointed structures projected convincing personality with stunning execution in ways never seen before. Here it is:

It was ground breaking stuff at the time and I remember ruminating on the articulating joints behind its function. How could you not.

Sixteen years later (’02) Apple released the iMac G4 featuring an arm extending from its base with two joints on either end. Again, human-like kinetics with an inanimate object…no doubt, influenced by Luxo Jr.

This to me was even more interesting than Luxo Jr. Real product. Real joints. Real kinetics.

And Apple put all its marketing weight squarely on the G4’s articulating arm in its commercial, Window Shopping, seen below:

“Ball joints might be interesting for function like this on other things,” I thought.

Nearly a decade later (’11) I came around to asking myself, “What does the most desirable tablet mount look like and how does it function?” I was in search of something to build.

The answer came in an instant, “It’s got an articulating arm for dynamic positioning…with an efficient, minimal design.” Arms, ball joints and kinetic possibilities bounced around in my head, earlier on, as a solution for…something interesting…but I didn’t know what.

Until that day. My concept finally found a home and I was anxious to validate it.

I started in, studying all the best ball joints and modeling in 3D the most efficient solutions for structures applying friction to the two ball joints. Not long after I quit the project. Even the most efficient designs applying external pressure to the ball came off clunky and inelegant, and that just wasn’t going to fly.

Four years later, while Googling search terms for particular magnetic processes (for a different project), I found something that lead to a breakthrough — an article regarding a unique approach connecting balls and joints magnetically via specific magnetic assemblies that amplify magnification by 20 or 30x.

“Holy crap! Could this be the missing piece for that thing from before?” I had to find out.

I reached out to my engineer contact in China, Edmond, and asked him to prototype a series of arms I modeled up to test for strength and function.

Three weeks later he sent me these:

I pieced together a few of the parts and had the guys at Hatcher (the local prototype shop I work with) machine a plastic part replicating the size and weight of an iPhone 7 plus to test with the arms.

And here it is, my first working prototype:

Two ball joints, two magnetic cups

Twisting, pulling and spinning this thing for the first time — feeling the fluid rotation of the balls — was easily my most exhilarating moment as a creator of physical products.

Now all that was left was dialing in details regarding size, weight, friction, materials, color and finish. With dozens of prototypes.

Six years from start to finish.

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