A Talk With Bitbanger Labs: The Guys Behind the Pixelstick

Duncan Frazier and Stephen McGuigan are focused on creating niche technology that inspires. Founders of Bitbanger Labs, a Brooklyn-based outlet for their ideas, the two friends developed a revolutionary light painting device — Pixelstick. We talked to them to find out more about their work and about this unique and beautiful way to take photos!

Hey Duncan and Stephen! Please tell us a bit about yourselves and what you do.

We’re two childhood friends with a passion for making things. In 2011, we pooled our mutual wealth of ideas and skill-sets and formed Bitbanger Labs as an outlet for our ideas. Since then we’ve had two successful launches on Kickstarter, the most recent of which was Pixelstick, our exciting and unique photography tool.

What’s the story behind the Pixelstick? How did you come up with the idea for it?

Pixelstick has it’s origins in Duncan’s work as a freelance stock photographer, where he first began building electronic rigs to help him get the types of shots he needed. After some early success in building functional photography equipment, Duncan got the idea to try and mimic the process of physically silk-screening a t-shirt in a photograph, and pixelstick was born. The first images we created “pulling” a length of LEDs through a long exposure to paint a fully formed image were visually compelling, and we were convinced other photographers would agree.

Photos by Bitbanger Labs

The Pixelstick can be used to create amazing light paintings as well as stop-motion and time-lapse animations — what’s the most incredible thing you’ve seen people use it for?

Wow, there have been so many! It’s tough to choose just one. We were immediately surprised and pleased to see how many global brands were excited to use pixelstick in their creative. Early on, we saw commercials for Audi, Volkswagen, and Citroen that used Pixelstick to great effect. Not long after we were treated to a full length music video for the band U2 that used pixelstick throughout. If we had to pick just one, we’d probably have to say that seeing pixelstick used extensively in the Season 40 credits and bumpers for Saturday Night Live was one of the more surreal and satisfying moments since launch.

With the Pixelstick being your second successful crowdfunding project, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve encountered during these campaigns?

The two projects presented two somewhat different sets of challenges. Our first campaign, Remee, was very much a learning process throughout. At the time, we had no experience whatsoever with manufacturing or mass-market industrial design, so each step was new territory and we had to rely on a project management liaison, which came with somewhat nebulous markups. Our second launch, Pixelstick, was a much more complex product to design and produce, and we had to limit overhead and unnecessary expenses to keep the price to consumers low. Because of this, we forewent the liaison and managed the production ourselves: identifying and inspecting vendors, managing international logistics, and personally overseeing final assembly and QC. It was a massive undertaking, easily our biggest challenge to date, but we proved ourselves equal to the task, shipping a product that exceeded expectations and garnering invaluable on-the-ground production experience.

Photos by Bitbanger Labs

What was the technical process of designing the Pixelstick like i.e. how did you decide on the dimensions of it?

We had to keep pixelstick lightweight (~2kg), sturdy, and relatively portable, but still long enough to reproduce high fidelity images in-camera. We landed on 6ft (1.9M) long, which, when disassembled into the included 43" (110cm) bag, allows pixelstick to be carried on to most airlines. The 200 LED pixel density at this length We used a rigid, lightweight aluminum extrusion of our own design for the housing, and a simple center-mating locking mechanism that allows the device to quickly break into two pieces with the turn of two thumbscrews.

Normal light-painting is simple enough, but the Pixelstick brings it to an entirely new level. Do you have any advice to people who have little to no experience in light-painting?

Our goal wasn’t to replace traditional lightpainting, but to augment it. We’re still big fans of steel wool and sparklers! What excites us about pixelstick is how easy it is to get really amazing images, even for people who have never lightpainted before. As long as you have a camera capable of long exposure and a tripod, walking pixelstick through the frame using one of the built-in patterns is a matter of a few moments. After that you can branch out as much as you like – download other people’s custom bitmaps or make your own. Invite some friends along, pixelsticking is a great group activity!

Photos by Bitbanger Labs

Are there any hints you can give us about what’s next for Pixelstick?

Right now our focus is getting as many eyes on pixelstick as possible! Most people seem to be pretty excited when they see it, so we’re keen to keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. We love the small but growing community that is building up around it. People all over the world are sharing their work on instagram, facebook, flicker, etc. We’re working on a fully-featured website that will allow users to upload not just the great shots they’re getting using pixelstick, but also the tons of great custom graphics they’re creating and want to share with other users. That being said, we can’t seem to stop tinkering, so we’re always working on rigs to take pixelstick to the next level: think stereo, spinners, sliders and the like.


Thanks Duncan and Stephen! We’re super excited to have the Pixelstick in our Online Shop — check it out!

written by bgaluppo on 2015-07-01 #people #lightpainting #pixelstick #bitbanger

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