Maker Profile: KLO Portfolios

I first met Tarlan and Addel at a dinner party. We got to chatting and I found out they had a very unique business, KLO Portfolios, that made custom crafted portfolios. They piqued my interested when they mentioned that they use a laser cutter in the process.

Fast forward a few months and I bumped into them again at the IDS West show and we had a great time checking things out. This lead to an invite to their Gastown studio and it happened soon after.

They primarily use a Trotec Speedy 300 laser cutter to craft lots of different styles of portfolios with an emphasis on locally sourced materials.

Everything from clear acrylic, various fabrics and even wood can be used for the portfolio covers. Tarlan offered to make me a portfolio so we set out designing one for my photographs.

We started drawing something on the computer. Once we had the design nailed down, it was on to choosing materials. They had tons of options on hand and I opted for a new frosted acrylic they had just gotten in. Into the laser cutter it went:

Once it was etched, the next step was to use paint to infill the etching – in green of course:

then to ‘weed’ or remove the covering from the acrylic leaving a cleanly painted etching:

I think it turned out amazing…once I get some pages printed, it will pop from behind the frosted acrylic:

The final step was the packaging of the portfolio which was beautiful:

Even the dust jacket had extra details like the the KLO Portfolios name stiching.

Another service they will be offering soon is laser etching of bottles as they have a special insert for the laser cutter that can rotate as the laser makes its passes. They used the same design from my portfolio and etched me my own personalized growler:

Some very cool stuff that Tarlan and Addel are up to. Be sure to check out their website for a full list of services and their Flickr album for samples of their amazing work.