You Can Now Buy Your Own Piece of Design History: The Lily.MGX Pushed 3D Printing from Prototyping to Design
In 2003, Finnish digital sculptor Janne Kyttanen presented a 3D print unlike any other to the audience of Milan Design Week. Until then, 3D printing was considered more of a prototyping technology. Janne pushed the boundaries and presented a 3D print that was meant for the consumer market. Little did the designer know that his Lily.MGX print would pave the way for many other great designs to be produced with the help of 3D printers.
The designing process for the Lily.MGX lamp already started in 2002 and the task sounded very challenging at the time: Janne wanted to explore technology used for rapid prototyping by creating a commercially successful consumer product. In order to achieve this, the Finnish sculptor teamed up with .MGX by Materialise in order to create a 3D printed object that is both affordable and highly aesthetic.
To turn his idea into reality, Janne printed his design in Polyamide, a powder-based nylon plastic, which is 3D printed during a process known as Laser Sintering. This way, Janne managed to create a lamp that was ready to be used as a consumer product. Furthermore, it had all the benefits of a 3D printed product. The 3D file of the object could be edited, shared and printed on demand. The Lily.MGX won several design awards (including the Red Dot Design Award), is part of the MoMA collection in New York, and was recently added to Dezeen’s ‘Most Loved’ collection of visionary designs. It is now known as the first piece that made the successful association between 3D printing and commercial design product.
Janne’s creation led to many other product designers to join the 3D printing revolution. And now, roughly 15 years later, online 3D printing services like i.materialise can print consumer products in more than 100 different materials and finishes. If you want to own this piece of 3D printing history yourself, you can find a 3D print of the Lily.MGX right here on our i.materialise shop.
