DESIGNED BY YOU
Khora is a Los Angeles startup specializing in on-demand lighting and home decor solutions. ECR Labs brought
programming, design and fabrication experience to execute the mass customization vision of the project.
The concept of Khora centered around building tools which enable the user to become the designer and,
as a result, make the objects unique in a way mass production never can.
Khora’s initial product offerings were a series of lamps and image processing wall decor. A user-friendly
interface was created for every product to give customers the ability to design the product to their
liking easily. ECR Labs put focus on shielding the consumer from the steep learning curve of production
and CAD interfaces, allowing them quick and easy access to the creative process.
Khora’s designs have been showcased at ICFF, Dwell on Design, and Design Santa Fe.
SOFTWARE SOLUTION
An approachable interface and user experience were critical in empowering a user to be a designer. The
basic design types were broken down into separate interfaces with each instance allowing customers
to choose a material and manipulate geometry within a WebGL product configurator.
Each interface output a wide range of variety while still being simple enough to be used by customers
of all technical abilities. The visualization used texture mapping and various lighting sources to
give the customer an accurate representation of the final product.
While seemingly infinitely open-ended, the interfaces were specific in only allowing the production
of products that would conform to manufacturing constraints. This allowed for one-click ordering
with no deviation from the previewed design and the final production product.
MANUFACTURING INNOVATION
Preparing designs for machining can be a daunting task even for experienced fabricators. The Kora
interface automatically prepares and packages the user-generated designs for machining either
on the CNC or laser cutting with no further intervention for manufacturing.
Once the design files were uploaded additional optimization passes were run on the files to
ensure production costs were kept to an absolute minimum. These ranged from re-orienting and
nesting for optimal part fit in the sheet material to the grouping of orders within a production
run to ensure deadlines for turn around were met.
