3D printing vs Mass Production: Part IV More beautiful landfill
This is a part of a series of posts on 3D printing versus Mass Production.The other parts are: The Power of Unique, Manufacturing Complexity and Marketing Promise, Everything you own Sucks and Wish Fulfillment.
IV. More Beautiful Landfill
Mass Production will bring us a world where our landfill is ever more beautiful. We will just keep throwing away prettier, newer & more complex things at ever accelerating rates. We will in fact be hoovering the world’s resources into a self defeating search for happiness through consumption. As marketing and disposable income spread around the world many more people will want and be able to buy mass manufactured goods. The current negative impact on our environment is already noticeable but is only being created by a small segment of the world”s population.
If we look at OECD statistics we can see the Domestic Material Consumption of the OECD countries (under Environment Material Resources). This is the sum total of all materials extrac
Winners of the 3D printed jewlery contest
We”ve evaluated all the designs and chosen the winners of the 3D printed jewlery contest. We were very impressed with the quality and creativity of the works and it was tough work evaluating them, but here are the winners.
In 3rd place is Unellenu with Chain Necklace.
In second place is Dario Scapitta Design with Stone.
In first place is Nexus Chocker by Igor Knezevic.
Each of these designers wins a 3D print of their piece as well as a place in the .MGX Shop. Igor also wins a personal workshop by Elvis Pompilio. In addition to the top 3 we have selected other designs that will also become a part of the Summer 2011 .MGX Jewel Collection. We hope that this serves to not only be a good commercial opportunity for the winning designers but also a great step in their carreers. Thank you so much for all your entries!
Wavelet bracelet & Guilloche Necklace bij Igor Knezevic
Diamond inside by Cunicode
Star Grafitti pendant & Chandelier earrings by Unellenu
Where did my models go ?
2 New topics from the release front :
– Getting back to your uploaded designs
-Â Can you build models bigger than 1 meter ?
Getting back to your uploaded designs
We had several requests from people who wanted us to store their previously uploaded models in the 3D print lab. We”ve now made this possible for you.
But how ?
We got your previously uploaded models neatly stored in your profile, under the tab called “uploaded models”.
No need anymore to upload them again.
You can move them back into the 3D print lab using the button “add to 3D model workspace”.
In the 3D Print Lab you can start playing with scale, quantity, material to see the influence on the 3D printing price. You can then leave and return to your model later.
The only thing you should check is that you are logged in before you upload.
If you are not logged in, we cannot know it is you that uploaded the model and we can not store your model for you or allow you to retrieve it.
The models will
i.materialise 3D printed jewelry workshop by Karen Wuytens
In September we will be organizing a workshop in contemporary 3D printed jewelry design at the .MGX flagship store in the Sablon area in Brussels. The 3 day workshop by Karen Wuytens will take place on the 8th, 9th and 16th of September. Participation is free of charge, but limited to ten participants.
Karen is a jewelry designer and PhD-researcher at MAD-Hasselt, who uses 3D printing in her designs. For this she works closely with us here at i.materialise. Karen will share her experience in 3D printed jewelry and take you through the creation of a 3D printed jewelry piece. Karen would like to, “let designers taste the spatial possibilities of this innovative new technology as well as the acompanying production and design process.” Noted hat designer Elvis Pompilio will also attend and help give you some insight into his work. Fabien Franzen will also be there in order to give you guidance of the 3D modeling aspects of the workshop. The attending designers will also be given
3D printing vs mass production: Part III Everything you own sucks…
This is the third installment of a series of blog posts on 3D printing vs mass production. The other parts are: The Power of Unique, Manufacturing Complexity and Marketing Promise and Wish Fulfillment.
Everything you own sucks…
There has been a widening credibility gap between the promises marketing makes and what is actually being delivered for years now. And even though some marketeers struggle with the underpinnings of their industry they also need to keep telling us lies. They can not admit that they”ve been lying to us for so long. They can not just come out and say, “buying a new toothpaste will never make you happy.” Also they”ve been obscuring an even darker deeper secret. That secret is that Mass Production is by design unable to give us the “best of anything.” Mass production can provide us with wonderfully complex things and cheap things but it can not give you the best shoe, camera or shirt. Mass production is bound to making millions or thousands of t
Columbia GSAPP 3D printed designs Watercolor
Alistair Gill and Veronika Schmid held a Saturated Models seminar at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. During the seminar the Master’s students explored 3D printing and created 3D printed objects. i.materialise made the resulting 3D prints. This is the second interview with a team of participating architecture students. The first one is here.
1. Who are you? We are Kasey Josephs and Kurt Rodrigo both originally from the Western United States, hailing from Arizona and California, respectively. We are recent graduates of Columbia University”s Master of Advanced Architectural Design program and are passionate about architecture, music, and cake.Â
2. What is Watercolor? Watercolor as a medium blends color to blur the boundary between hues and tones. The Watercolor Wall is a prototype for a wall paneling system that uses this similar technique to create dynamic space around the wall. The relationship between the user and the wal
A new i.materialise 3D printing material: Prime Gray
Today we”re introducing a new 3D printing material on i.materialise, Prime Gray. We”ve been listening and trying to determine what designers and 3D modelers need and want from their 3D printing materials. A lot of people we”re looking for highly detailed materials, smoother materials and also wanted visually appealing 3D prints. Internally people were smitten by the Prime Gray material, originally developed and used  for high quality visual prototypes for consumer electronics. Some of us (OK, me) we”re skeptical about the gray color. But, we evaluated it and it turned out to also be a very nice and classy looking material for design and art pieces as well as character models. Today we”re introducing this material temporarily for one month.
Prime Gray is sterolithography material that is Air Force Gray. The color gives designs a much “tighter” and well defined overall look. The material is feels luxurious to the touch and is very smooth. Flat surfaces are shi
The Google SketchUp and i.materialise Pimp your Vehicle Challenge
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We’re asking you to come up with a SketchUp design that would be 3D printed. This product would improve your car, boat, bike, Segway, pogo stick, unicycle or any other vehicle. Your design should show what could be possible if you were allowed to improve the vehicles that you drive. You should design whatever it is that you desire. We’d like your design to be a product that you believe would work in the real world. We’re looking for creativity and a product that would be an eye opener. It could be something for everyone or it could be something for a tiny group of people. Or it could be just for you. You can submit your entry and a short explanation here . The contest starts today and you have until the 14th of July (12PM CET) to Pimp your Vehicle. You can enter here.
 The Google SketchUp team and i.materialise will carefully examine your designs and select the winning entries. You can use the handy new i.materialise SketchUp plugin to easily make your SketchUp design 3D prin
3D printing vs mass production: Part II Manufacturing Complexity and Marketing Promise
This is the second post in a series covering 3D printing versus mass production. You can find the first here. The other parts are: The Power of Unique, Everything you own Sucks and Wish Fulfillment. This post deals with the increase in manufacturing complexity that accompanies mass produced products. Mass production is in my opinion gradually undermining its own strengths by focusing not on increased utility for consumers but rather on things such as increased complexity. At the same time unrealistic and product unrelated promises by marketing create a gap between what products deliver and what they promise.
II. Manufacturing Complexity and Marketing Promise
The increase in the complexity of the cheap consumer products we can buy today is staggering. I can now buy a 12 megapixel camera with12. a 3 inch LCD and 3X digital zoom for $99. If you read this post in a few months the same camera model will have 14 or 20 megapixel. I can remember how limited and expensive the f
Columbia GSAPP Saturated Models 3D printed: Corset
Alistair Gill and Veronika Schmid held a Saturated Models seminar at Columbia”s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. During the seminar the Master”s students explored 3D printing and created 3D printed objects. i.materialise supported the project and we were amazed and impressed with the results. To showcase them we will be doing a series of interviews with the participating architects starting with the Corset team. Â
1. What is Corset?
We produced an object. This object doesn’t consist of its material aspects but of relationships between the atmosphere, between the infinite number of possible qualities / properties / situations that can be attached to it. We produced a corset. Our corset enters into a machinic assemblage with the human body. It extends therefore beyond any earlier distinction between the mechanical and the organic and includes both domains. There is a dual relation between the body and the object. The body forms and deforms and
