Kostika joined us for the first episode of PYLON Talks on the 28th of March 2021 inside ILLUSORR’s virtual auditorium. PYLON Talks is the first virtual talk series of its kind where we interview leading figures in design, tech, gaming and other related industries.
Kostika is a 3D expert, VR expert, futurist, and the cofounder of ICA & KOSTIKA; a company established by footwear designer Ica Paru and architect Kostika Spaho. Ica and Kostika met in New York City in 2014 to collaborate on their 3D printed shoes and ended up falling in love. Now the duo runs their studio as a fashion footwear brand pioneering computational design and mass customization. ICA & KOSTIKA is an emerging design studio accentuating the fusion of fashion design and technology. The studio highlights exclusive made-to-order production while focusing on computational innovation.
In this first episode Kostika is interviewed about design, fabrication, biomimetics, VR, the future of humanity, and more. The talk begins with a brief history of ICA & KOSTIKA, how they met, fell in love, and formed a company, and then some background about the workflow of the studio. They also discuss what some of the inspirations are behind the designs, especially nature and how biomimetics/biomimicry can be useful. Then Kostika briefly took us through some of the 3D creation software and fabrication methods they use to achieve these complex, organic forms. The shoes are 3D printed and that method comes with a lot of benefits including efficiency, complexity, mass customization, and even projections of a possible future where you can buy/download the 3D models and print them at your local 3D printer, instead of having them shipped worldwide to your location. The conversation then went into VR/AR, the possible future of virtual retail, and whether virtual retail stores will replace physical stores in the future. Kostika confirmed that they are looking to sell their products in virtual retails stores in the future, and that the shoes are currently available via their website - icakostika.com.
After a short Q+A session with the audience, the talk in PYLON’s auditorium ended and transitioned into a brief tour of ICA & KOSTIKA’s products displayed in the main hall. Kostika answered some more questions, gave a bit more insight about the shoes, and then we all tried the QR code scan feature which showed a cool AR version.