Today we have an exciting Design Challenge for jewelry designers. We’re reaching out to you in order to find jewelry design talent. We’re looking for new concepts, techniques and ideas in jewelry design.
We want this challenge to help us discover you so that we can then encourage and promote you and your work.
3D printed jewelry is very new and affords designers with an immense freedom to design. But, very few pieces have really managed to elevate 3D printing pieces to the level of high end jewelry. Can you do this?
Can you design a jewelry piece that elevates 3D printed jewelry? Can you make something that is beautiful, practical and above all “works” as a 3D printed jewel?
What you can win
Ten winners will be selected and their pieces will be offered for sale in the .MGX Store in Sablon Brussels. The jewelry design will always remain your property and you will receive a 5% royalty on every sold item. Due to questions below in the comments we have updated the royalty. The text used to say “you will recieve a 5% royalty.” We have put a strikethrough through this text, this indicates that this is no longer the case. This is a striketrhough. Now designers can select their own royalty. We also have noticed that there seem to be many questions about royalties. I am working on a blog post exploring royalties and the cost structure of 3D printing. I hope this will enable people to explore the concept of royalties and hopefully will lead to a discussion about what would be good royalties to use. For now, the designer can select whatever royalty they want. If you do not understand this text please email joris (@) i.materialise.com   We will explore designer royalties The jewelry design will always remain your property and you will receive a margin of your choice.
The top 3 will also receive a 3D print of their work.
Additionally the overall winner will receive a personal one on one MasterClass from noted hat designer Elvis Pompilio.
The winner will also get to collaborate on a 3D printed product with Mr. Pompilio.
There will be a further exhibition of the winner’s work at a Sablon together with a 3D printed jewelry workshop lead by Karen Wuytens. Karen is also responsible for the attractive works that illustrate this page.
Exceptional work will be considered for inclusion in the .MGX collection.
We will also dedicate PR support to you so that we can hopefully get your work noticed!
Guidelines
The contest runs from today to the 1st of June.
Submit either a sketch or 3D model as well as an additional explanation of your piece.
You can add renderings or multiple sketches if you would like.Â
You can select any material in the i.materialise arsenal. But, if we do select your piece as one of the 10 winning pieces we reserve the right to 3D print it in a material of our choosing.
Enter by submitting your sketch or 3D model here.
Is that 5% royalty a misprint? Should it be 50% or more?
How many designs can you enter?
@Thomas,
The 5% royalty is not a misprint. As far as I know a 5% designer royalty is pretty much standard for design goods.
@Janelle, its ok to enter as many designs as you want. But, “leaf earring 1″, “leaf earring 2″ etc. is not really going to help you much. So what perhaps could increase your chances of winning is to enter several different designs.
@Thomas, We””ve discussed your question internally and we””re going to discuss it with the winning designers also. We””re going to let them decide what royalty they want so 5% or 50%, whatever their choice.
Joris
I””m on it, Joris! (Yes, I””m still kicking around this site, haha)
Awesome!
Yeah, 5% – 8% is standard royalty fee you can expect from design companies these days. I have experience in that area.
BUT… It would actually be great if we can have larger discussion about this fact of design industry as it will apply to new technology of 3D printing. (and for many major design brands 3D printing is very new way of making objects)
Problem I have with this low number is that, in case of 3D printing, the designer (well, most of us) will give the design company FULL description of product (as STL, probably) and they, in turn, will go ahead and print it in exactly the same way as individual designer would do. Maybe even using same printing service as we (individuals) do.
So now… what I want to discuss with Joris (and all of you) is: how much then is fair amount of royalty in this new world of 3D printing?
Is the fact that your product is now part of larger brand worth giving up such huge amount of final price?
The answer used to be YES! But I am not so sure anymore.
Consider the fact that design company which licensed out the project will have MUCH less to worry about HOW to manufacture the object. I mean, STL is there – send it off to print. It””s not like they will now go to China and work for months reworking design to be able to make it in a MUCH cheaper way. There is big difference in that aspect of 3D printing as compared to usual manufacturing. There are both good and bad issues about 3D printed objects as you try to make them in large numbers.
Such Design company should still get LARGE part of final price… but my sense is that, if the individual designer created full STL file which prints OK – designer should get much more than 5%, because the design company needs to do much less or no work at all in the area of how to manufacture the object. (which is where they have most of the work with “traditional” licensed objects).
Of course, there is still marketing, retail connections, advertising etc – all well worth BIG chunk of final price. But 95% of it? Really? Why are such numbers still being applied to 3d printed objects when making and distributing of such objects is fundamentally different.
Shouldn””t licensing numbers also then be reconsidered? Individual designers really should be aware of this.
I licensed out one of my lamps for 8% on wholesale price… But that one is not 3D printed – it was water-jet cut. Company went ahead and reworked whole design to be die-cut and made it MUCH cheaper to produce. (like 10% of my making price). They deserve lions share in profit.
I can””t see something like that doable for 3D printed objects. (BTW, I wish it is doable but…)
But… hey… I may be dreaming
I will certainly send some of my designs to this contest.
@igor,
I would completely agree that the entire distribution/pricing model will have to be reconsidered. I””m not sure how. We””re totally open and can consider every option at the moment. I like the idea that a designer can set his own price. This is what we””ve ultimately chosen to do for this challenge also. But, I also think that standard margins for producers and designers would make many things easier and more transparent. But, I have no idea what those standards should be.
I really like your lamp example. With 3D printing and direct distribution there should actually also be more margin since you don””t have a retail store and distributors etc. But, at the same time there is a huge price shift since the 3D printed product is much more expensive than the mass produced one. The start up costs are much lower though so I would partially agree with your “less or no work at all in the area of how to manufacture the object.” I say partially because I do know that at .MGX for example a lot of work is actually being done in making designs producible. Additionally every single design is practically being made for the first time, so there is no guarantee that it will work so you do have to test and redesign a lot as a manufacturer. Returns are also much more expensive since you have to produce the entire item again.
So something like this might make sense: 5% for the designer on a complex object or object that will require additional work to 3D print or might be a risky product in some way. 30% for the designer of an object that requires no work or poses no risk. 50% for the designer who is special some way. Maybe someone that has heavily invested in engineering or the design itself. So don””t quote me on the numbers, but this could be a simple way to administer your idea.
What is the maximum .stl file size or maximum polygon count that you accept?
We have a maximum file size limit of 100MB. We don””t really have a set polygon limit but you really should not need more than 1m polygons.
@ Joris Thanks!
Why do we need you to make it at all? we should get 95% at least
@Joris
The 5% royalty is not a misprint. As far as I know a 5% designer royalty is pretty much standard for design goods.
Weâ€ve discussed your question internally and weâ€re going to discuss it with the winning designers also. Weâ€re going to let them decide what royalty they want so 5% or 50%, whatever their choice.
in the upload area: what is a “preview image” (step 2) – thanks
@Ruti, this is a thumbnail for your larger image.