All posts in Introductions

Great phones ask for great covers

By | April 10, 2012 | Design, Introductions, designers | No comments

Your own unique cover in 1 2 3 ( 4 5)

Look what our friends Jonas and Daaf from Samson design studio have created. Yourkees allows you to create unique and awesome looking iPhone covers.

You are able to build your own KEES (Dutch for ‘Case’) by combining a side bumper with two back layers. These layers can be selected in two libraries. The first one is filled with 3D structures; the second one is filled with beautiful images of –mostly everyday- objects. The magic happens when you see the combination of both. As if that is wasn’t enough, you can also add your own piece of text on the cover AND select different material options! Some of the covers have a very special velvet look, of which you will soon hear more on our blog.

i.materialise is proud to work together as production partner for these guys. We see many great 3D printed covers passing by, but the configurator they have developed allows everyone to create cool designs with a unique touch.

This is what Jonas and Daaf are saying:

“We like to make things that look good, and we believe that everyone should be able to buy products that are beautiful, functional and cool. These products must be affordable and easily attainable. This is now possible with the cutting-edge 3D printing technology of i.materialise”

The covers are for sale starting from 37,5€. Go to Yourkees to check it out.

 

Meet the Team: Darya

By | November 25, 2011 | Community, Introductions | 2 Comments

Our dear colleague Darya

My name is Darya, I am 24 years old and I am a customer support engineer at i.materialise. Meaning, I’m one of those people who are e-mailing you every day saying that you are about to get your desired 3D printed models and I must admit that I’m more than excited to be one of them! I’ve been working for Materialise for almost 2 years and my way to get to i.materialise was more than unusual. I started my career as a part of the HR team at the Materialise Ukraine office. It was the very first time that I came in contact with 3D printing and it became an amazing discovery to me. I was impressed and proud to work in such a company and told everyone about King Tut’s replica made by Materialise. As soon as a vacancy for customer support engineer at i.materialise opened up, I jumped at it to become a part of the world of 3D printing and I did not miss it. Everyone was surprised with such an unusual shift from HR to support, but here I am!

customer servicer at its best

There are several things that bring it close to being a dream job for me. First of all, it is getting to know people from all over the world and working with talented designers, engineers and people who are as excited with 3D printing as I am. Second thing is helping out these people and seeing the results of my work. At first it is just a virtual object on the screen and with my help it becomes real so you can take it in your hands – isn’t it a miracle? And ultimately, I enjoy it very much when getting positive feedbacks from our customers on what we are doing. I’d like to take this opportunity to say hi to Rendy Himawan, the designer of the Diavolo chairs who has sent me this lovely postcard.

I have a Master degree in English and French philology, so aside from my main job, I’m giving private lessons of the English language to people who are in search of work in an international environment. Besides, I have several hobbies such as playing guitar, singing and writing short stories (some of them were even published). From time to time, I also take part in a “car quest” game and spend the night solving difficult puzzles, driving all over the city and visiting abandoned houses in search of hidden codes. I am also a great theater lover as I graduated from drama school and even spent some time of my life being a mime. The proof is in the picture below.

Darya as a mime

It was a pleasure to introduce myself and, as always, I am ready to help you with your 3D prints, so feel free to e-mail us.

Meet the Team: Dmitriy

By | November 9, 2011 | Community, Introductions | No comments

Hi everyone, I’m Dmitriy or you can also call me Dima. I’m the part of the team that makes sure your models are printed as nice as possible, who clarifies your questions and keeps you happy.

I’m quite new in the world of 3D printing. I’ve started working at i.materialise roughly half of a year ago, but I have learned a lot since then. It was so fascinating to discover the technologies and materials, to see the possibilities of it. Like our teammate Franky said, 3D printing sounds like the coolest thing in the world. I totally agree. And I’m willing to share all the knowledge with all of you guys: talented designers, creative people and simply everyone who is interested in 3D printing.

In my work I get most of the pleasure when I see a 3D printed model which has a part that was somehow fixed or improved thanks to our support service in cooperation with the designer. In such case I see the results of work and when I realize that this is absolutely nice, I’m really glad. I also like it when the models are shipped out and I know that in a few days the person will open the package and will be happy about what is inside. Walking near the 3D printers in our headquarters and seeing and feeling their work also puts me in a nice mood.

I have several hobbies; mainly computer graphics art, photography and mountain bikes.

The part about computer graphics is that I like to sometimes draw the pictures on a pc. They are mostly portraits of people or images of cats. I’m usually doing this looking at the reference photo and using a pc mouse.

As for photography, I like to take pictures of my friends and love to see when the photos are nice, this is not always the case. It was also interesting for me to learn about how the camera works and which techniques to use in order to get the right quality of pictures. I also like making tilt-shift photos: it’s when large objects look like tiny ones.

Well, funny thing is that i.materialise also does this, but literally.

And regarding mountain bikes, my passion is not only riding, but also seeing nice bikes with great design and style. That’s why I like to visit cool bike shops, for me it’s like a gallery of MTB art.

It’s a pleasure for me to write all of this and I hope that now you have a better view of our team and that you get to know i.materialise better.

Introducing the New Community Manager

By | September 26, 2011 | Community, Introductions | No comments

My dearest community,

Today I am proud to announce that I have the honor to be your new community manager. My name is David Arroyo and I have a professional background in 3D content creation for the entertainment and movie industry alongside a very useful customer service and sales background. Just like my colleagues have done this before me, I will continue to provide you with the latest and most interesting topics within the 3D printing world on a regular basis and will also be there to have interesting two-way conversations with our community.

So to get the ball rolling, I’ll quickly introduce myself by giving you a look into who I am and the things I love. First of all, I love the creative world of art and culture in all of its forms. Having an artistic background myself, I find it a pleasure to look at other creative individuals and their work. As an artist at heart, I obviously also do my share of art creation and I have worked as a 3D artist on video game and movie projects alongside a long line of TV commercials in Europe. This has allowed me to have a solid understanding of the 3D world with now more and more a specialization in 3D printing.

I also spend some of my spare time as the writer and artist of a comic book series that is currently under development with the intention to someday publish it. I love to research topics of interests, turn them into fictive stories to then discuss them and make people think about the provided contents. That pretty much explains why I also keep myself busy with the creation of a comic book.

So there you have it in short. It’s the first step of many more to come and I’m sure that as time goes by, we’ll get to know each other a whole lot more. I look forward to our future conversations and by all means, please don’t hesitate to join in and let us know who you are as well. Whether you are the next grand future designer to make use of 3D printing or someone who is just curious about it, let us know! We look forward to getting to know you as much as we enjoy introducing ourselves. After all, it is you what i.materialise is all about…

David Arroyo
Community Manager

Meet the Team: Karen

By | August 10, 2011 | Introductions | 2 Comments

My name is Karen Meulemans, I am 27 years old and as the customer services manager for i.materialise, I try to help all of you with your 3D printed projects.

I have spent the past 5.5 years at Materialise, working in different departments and gaining a wealth of experience.

I started as project manager in a business unit devoted to 3D printing designs sent to us from companies, artists, architects, etc, and while there I first came in contact 3D printing technology. Immediately, I became fascinated with the results that came out of the printers and the endless possibilities they opened up. However, most of the models I saw there were industrial models used as prototypes, functional models, concept models, models used for photo shoots…

After 2.5 years I moved to the production side of the unit as a project engineer. It was then that I had the opportunity to spend even more time on our shop-floor.

My next function within Materialise was as a quality engineer for our orthopaedic unit. There, I had the chance to come in contact with another application of 3D printing, medicine. In this unit, laser sintering is used to print guides that are used during operations. This is possible thanks to Materialise’s software and 3D printing technology.

One year later, I moved to i.materialise to start working as a customer services manager. The knowledge I gathered during my previous jobs is very useful when it comes to helping you out with your projects. I love to see your creations come to life and I like to be on the shop-floor to see the results of your creativity. That’s why I hope to see much more creative work become touchable.

In my free time I like walking my dog, swimming, and doing aerobics. At the moment we (my husband and I) are also spending a lot of time decorating our home as we’ve moved into our new home and still have a lot of work to do. Friends and family are also very important and therefore, I like spending time with them.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Our customer services team is ready to help you! You can contact us via contact@i.materialise.com

Meet the i.materialise Team: meet Anna.

By | May 17, 2011 | Community, Introductions | 1 Comment

My name is Anna and I am working as a front-end developer at i.materialise.  I’ve been working for more than 6 years in web-development. During this period I’ve worked as a developer and as a designer, as a part of team and as a freelancer. Actually, I like to do lots of different kinds of work, and usually I am in love with what I am doing. It makes me happy to see the results of my work, especially if the result is good.

Maybe it is strange for developer but I am not person of logic, usually I am doing everything by how I feel even if it is against all the rules and all standards of work (maybe I shouldn’t write this on the blog!). Even the area I am working in, IT, was chosen incidentally. I entered my faculty at university because there were preparation courses in my school and most of my friends were entering them too.  So, I think that the work chose me, I did not choose  the work. And I’ve never  regretted it. I trust my destiny.

I never worked with 3d-models and I had no idea about 3d-printing technologies before I come to Materialise, and it seemed something really amazing to me. Here I made my first 3d-model in Google SketchUp and fixed it with Magics to make ready to print. I cannot say that my first model is something nice and special but it is my first one and I like it. I hope some day I’ll make something nice and then 3D print it.

I don’t like to write or to talk about my personal life or what I do in my private time.  I like to meet my friends, travel, watch movies, listen to music, actually, as all people, I think. My friends say that I am very lazy because I hate sports and other active things, but I like to shoot photographs of active people, so sometimes I am a very useful person.

One strange thing happened with me in Materialise. I found my second cousin here in Kiev office. His name is Rustam and he is working in Dental department. Last time we were in one place together with him it was when I was just born. I think it is a good beginning…

Meet the i.materialise team: Wim

By | February 3, 2011 | Community, Introductions | 1 Comment

My name is Wim Verstraeten. Consider me a battle scarred veteran in the field of the online ordering of 3d printed models. I date back from the era where Materialise was the only firm to have an online 3D printing service with its NextDay service which was started in 1997. I’m talking about the time when only the happy few had a mobile phone and Amazon and eBay had existed for almost 4 years.

I started in 1999, when I walked into the Materialise office to offer my services. I was intrigued by Magics Communicator, a free online collaboration tool for 3d models. At that time online video meetings were not free and broadband usage was expensive. Magics Communicator helped people to discuss and visualize their project, allowing them to instantly see the operations of their communication partner on the 3D model.

It was that tool that I upgraded to interact with the renewed NextDay Service internet website. Later on I converted the NextDay service to what we now know as OnSite.

2008 was the year where the consumer 3d printing market was starting to take off. Software packages that output 3D models became affordable or free. When Spore Creature Creator and FigurePrints emerged, we were experimenting whether there was a business in printing figures that people could easily create. Second Life was at that time a hype. We constructed a photographer figure in Second Life that took pictures in the virtual world of the figures standing in front of him. Then we turned these images into 3D prints.

Me at DHUB Barcelona.

It was time for i.materialise. I took the role of consultant for all process and project related matters and haven’t regretted it since. Seeing  fantastic 3d printed designs pass by each day is really great !

Personality

I’m not an internet-exhibitionistic type that puts his private life on Facebook so this post is totally against my nature.

If you would meet me in real life, I believe you would come across a no-nonsense person that doesn’t beat around the bush and whose body language reveals what the mind is thinking. I’m the kind of guy that during meetings might be tempering the joy of a nice idea with some critical questions.  I’m a number cruncher.  My specialty is knowing sufficient enough about a lot with the ability to specialize where needed. Seeing people being excited about the model we printed them makes my day.

After Work

After work, I can enjoy active leisure with a healthy competition. Sports like soccer, cross country / marathon, cycling, hiking and skiing are my cup of tea. Dancing Salsa makes me happy.  You’ll hardly find me discussing abstract philosophical situations or reading novels. I prefer to spent this time to my family and friends for a chat about life and some good laughs. As a Master of Civil Electrical Engineering I have a weakness for electronic devices, the pc and science magazines.

Meet the i.materialise Team: Franky

By | January 11, 2011 | Introductions | No comments
Franky

I’m Franky, 30 years old and I’m the website manager of i.materialise. I wireframe, do some graphical design, occasionally write requirements for our developers, find interesting topics to blog about, take photos of all the nice things you design, make videos…and more. I love to talk about 3D printing, it’s fascinating and everyone deserves to know it exists.

Before joining Materialise, I worked as an editor for a video post-production company in Brussels. After a few years of TV shows, commercials and music videos, I decided to make a career switch. Thus I traded video editing for the exciting world of 3D printing. I barely knew what it was, but it sounded like the coolest thing in the world. Actually, it still does.

I consider myself not an expert at something but someone who knows a little bit about everything. I have college degrees in online journalism, multimedia and audiovisual communication.

When I’m not at work, I’m probably in the gym doing strength and condition training or I’m running, swimming, fighting… I’m a huge mixed martial arts fan and I have been training martial arts for years. I have a black belt in judo and a few years of experience in Savate and Capoeira.

I love travelling, watching movies, my iPod (never leave home without it), street art, design, photography, Japanese culture and I speak Brazilian Portuguese. There’s a lot more so I decided to make a mood board with some things I love.