The tiniest metro card machine for New York Design Week

We were delighted to be invited to participate in the NYCxDesign Souvenir show in Hudson Yards. Would we like to design an NYC-specific item for display? Why yes, yes we would.

We settled on a metrocard machine because they are being discontinued in favor of digital payment and we wanted to honor an iconic part of the NYC commuting experience. Did you know they were designed in the 90s by NYC design studio Antenna?

We 3D printed the chassis (thank you, Makelab) and used a combination of stickers and hand enameling to make it as accurately colored as possible:

And because we are extra, we made it spit out little metrocard stickers:

Rather than building the electronics from scratch, we hacked a small label machine to unspool our custom stickers. Of course we underestimated how much people love stickers and once it went on display they ran out pretty quick.

The show was awesome! There was at least one Flaco, some manhole cover coasters, multiple rats, and pigeons galore. It was really cool to see the city through the eyes of some of its most creative residents.

Also thanks for the share, Coolhunting.