Looking for DIY Inspiration? Two Must-Follow Bay Area Makers

Rock Paper Scissors Glove by Steve Hoefer

We're fortunate to be surrounded by a large community of nerds and DIYers in the Bay Area. The community is a constant source of inspiration for me, whether I'm looking to create a self-destroying robot (as I was for Sparkfun's Antimov competition) or a piece of wearable art.

Here are a couple local makers to follow for creative ideas, inspiring designs and to spark your imagination:

Steve Hoefer

When Steve and I first met in a crafting group, I had no idea what an accomplished maker he was. Game designer by day and maker by night, Steve has made items such as a Rock Paper Scissors Glove (seen above), a Secret Knock Detecting Gumball Machine that he showed off at Maker Faire and much much more. His work, hacks and mods have been featured on Gizmodo, Lifehacker, BoingBoing, MAKE and many others. Check out this video of Steve's Secret Knock Detecting Lock.

In addition to sharing the details of how he's created these cool projects on his blog, Steve's viewpoints on technology are a breathe of fresh air. I highly recommend following Steve's work at Grathio.com. He's been a huge inspiration to me.

Mitch Altman

Mitch is a force in the San Francisco maker community. He is the co-founder of San Francisco hackerspace, Noisebridge, and the CEO of Cornfield Electronics, makers of the TV-B-Gone. He gives workshops around the world teaching others about microcontrollers and is also the inventor of the Brain Machine, a project both available for ready made purchase and in kits for assembly, which uses visual and auditory triggers to bring users into deeper states of meditation. I've tried the Brain Machine for myself and can attest that it a rather trippy experience!

Mitch can be found most Monday evenings at Noisebridge teaching a hardware hacking workshop.

Mitch isn't much of a blogger, but can be found occasionally shooting out messages on Twitter. He is one of the nicest guys around and give awesome advice for hardware hackers from newbie to expert, so make sure to catch up with him at Noisebridge for inspiring conversation.

Who are your favorite Bay Area Makers? Where do you get inspiration from? Let us know in the comments!

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