How 3D Printing Allows For Customization of Products: Meet Martijn Joris, Co-Founder of Belgian Start-up Twikit
Martijn Joris has a passion for 3D creation and making. He co-founded Twikit in 2012, a Belgian start-up that builds easy creation tools, allowing consumers to create unique products and bring them to life with 3D printing. Twikit is pioneering a new way of using digital production technologies in the creation of customized products.
Martijn Joris, co-founder of Belgian start-up Twikit
Twikit is an Antwerp-based start-up that is rapidly carving its place in the 3D printing world. What they do is fairly straightforward: Twikit built a 3D customization engine off of which they’ve developed a range of easy-to-use apps, with more being added as inspiration strikes. That way, everyday people and brands can create unique 3D objects, without actually having to master the complex skills or software that are usually needed.
Twikit launched in 2013 with their customizable trophy app
Martijn and his colleagues launched their first app to build customizable trophies back in 2013. The Twikit team created an online platform through which anyone can personalize and order their very own 3D printed award. Shape, size, font, and text: everything can be easily customized by the user. No 3D modeling skills are required, no software needs to be downloaded.
Anne Zellien’s customizable 3D printed jewelry
Martijn constantly searches for new ideas, inspirations, and partnerships for customizable 3D printed objects. After launching Twikit, It was only a matter of time before a customizable jewelry app was created: Twikit teamed up with Antwerp-based jewelry designer Anne Zellien to launch a webpage that lets you design your own necklaces using individually selected text and charms. Other product lines such as fashion items, home décor, and toys were added over time. Eventually the start-up enabled collaborations, which lead to a customizable 3D printed collection of men’s accessories and customizable 3D printed lamps.
Mauro Pawlowski with Costume Cufflinks by DAMN x Café. Thanks to Twikit, these cufflinks can be customized with your initials.
Twikit and Dutch design studio Mr Maria joined hands to create a customizable 3D printed lamp.
“We see ourselves as an exponent of the ‘maker’ era, with a strong consumer-oriented point of view. We want people to tweak and build products in the easiest way possible. Everybody can tweak and customize designs using our intuitive configurators.”
– Martijn Joris, co-founder Twikit
Martijn Joris will be speaking about ‘3D Customization’ at the Materialise World Conference on April 24, 2015 in Brussels. Tickets can be purchased here, or for more information about the Materialise World Conference, please see our event website. You can also check out our 3D modeling workshops on April 25 here. If you want to learn more about customizable 3D printed products, you can read our article about start-up Toyze here.
