Design

This week’s selection is Matthew Amey’s beautiful Octopus pendant. 

This week’s selection is Neil Degrasse Tyson – Badass by the anonymous Shapeways designer, TheInternets. 

This week’s selection is the St Christopher medallion by jeweler Chris Parry. 

This week’s selection is the very simple, yet powerful 4-way, 3/4” PVC Connector by Thingiverse contributor Jason Powell.

This week’s selection is the Gemini Chaise Lounge, by 3D designer Neri Oxman. 

This week’s selection is Hannah Soukup’s beautiful “Insides” neck piece.

This week’s selection is the incredibly detailed Mazzo di Fiori by noted 3D print artist Joshua Harker. 

This week’s selection is an unusual hybrid 3D printed piece, Stuck Together Pieces by Eric Goldemberg and Veronica Zalcberg of Monad Studio. 

This week’s selection is Antonis Kiourktsis’ elegant Inmotion figurine. 

This week’s selection is an articulated doll by digital sculptor Ryan Kittleson in collaboration with artist Elizabeth Shupe. 

This week’s selection is Michiel Cornelissen’s Hatch for Eyewear Kit. It’s a frame for lenses, but unlike any you’ve likely seen before. 

This week’s selection is the the P6*6 120 Pinhole Camera by Todd Schlemmer. It definitely looks like a camera and indeed if you print the parts and assemble them you can actually capture real images using standard 120 analog film. 

This week’s selection is Thyra Hilden and Pio Diaz’s Forms in Nature. This work uses a technique we’ve not seen previously: using a centrally illuminated 3D printed structure to cast shadows on the walls of a room. Don’t believe us? Just check out the image above.    The artists say:    Forms in Nature is… Continue reading Design of the Week: Forms in Nature

This week’s selection is Dotsan’s 3D Lying Kitten. It’s a wireframe version of a kitten, and we apologize profusely to readers for not selecting a kitten as the Design of the Week previously.    The 3D Lying Kitten is a simple design, but it works best when you have several placed together as in the… Continue reading Design of the Week: 3D Lying Kitten

This week’s selection is Madeline Gannon’s Reverberating Across the Divide project, a 3D printed, custom-fitted decorative collar.    Gannon, a doctoral student studying generative fabrication and computational design in the CMU School of Architecture, developed a technique for generating this collar using a combination of computational and manual processes.      Please watch the video… Continue reading Design of the Week: Reverberating Across the Divide

This week’s selection is Quantum Object #1 by sculptor Frederik De Wilde. It’s a trippy piece we first noticed at this year’s London 3D Printshow, where it was on display among many other spectacular pieces.    Visually, it’s a plane with drips extending in opposite directions, defying gravity in two different directions. But why is… Continue reading Design of the Week: Quantum Object #1

This week’s selection is Claire Thompson’s Shades of Grey. It’s a fascinating work that is both smooth and two-tone. Perfectly sized to sit on the edge of a table, the portrait carries an interesting story. From Thompson:    Shades of Grey is a portrait, digitally and manually created, which references the complexity and ambiguity of… Continue reading Design of the Week: Shades of Grey

This week’s selection is an incredible 3D printed table by Ole Hermann Godø. It’s not entirely 3D printed, but as you’ll see, the “guts” of this table were definitely 3D printed.    The table’s innards have been replaced with several dozen intricately arranged 3D printed gears – that move! Combined with interior lighting, the effect… Continue reading Design of the Week: IKEA Ramvik Reinvented

This week’s selection is Ravi Venkataraman’s Wit’s End, which as you can see above, captures that feeling quite distinctly.    It’s part of Venkataraman’s “Emotions in 3D” series, where a variety of emotions, from profound to fun are explored in 3D sculptures. We’ve seen several of these works but this one somehow resonates the best;… Continue reading Design of the Week: Wit’s End

This week’s selection is Imprinted Bodies by NYC-based sculptor Lilia Ziamou. It’s actually two pieces, #1 and #2. While the pieces are certainly not as dramatic as some by other artists, there is a story behind these unusual works.    Ziamou explores the “concept of the female body”, using “curve and crevice”. She initially develops… Continue reading Design of the Week: Imprinted Bodies

This week’s selection is the stunning “Icarus Had a Sister” by artists Masters & Munn, a.k.a. André Masters and his partner, CJ Munn. It’s the obvious selection, as this piece helped the pair win the “Rising Star” award at last week’s Global 3D Print Awards at the 2013 3D Printshow. (Note the actual award trophy… Continue reading Design of the Week: Icarus Had a Sister

This week’s selection is Thomas Davis’ Liquid Pinewood Derby Car.   The ISDA (Industrial Design Society of America) and Inventables are sponsoring a Launch Day Challenge, where teams submit designs for 3D printed cars. And some of the designs are very far out, including our Design of the Week, the Liquid Pinewood Derby Car.   … Continue reading Design of the Week: Liquid Derby Car

This week’s selection is Nervous System’s Cellular Lamp, a beauty of a housing for an LED light using their typical “cellular” style that you can download and print yourself.    The object is actually a torus that has been shelled and “cellulared”. You can mount a small LED in the torus’ hole.    This is… Continue reading Design of the Week: Cellular Lamp

This week’s selection is “Mining Habitat” by artist Micah Genske. It portrays a bizarre combination of artificial gravity-rotating space station with industrial mining operations, complete with smokestacks.    The work is huge, as you can see in this image. Despite its size, it was apparently produced on a standard MakerBot personal 3D printer. We suspect… Continue reading Design of the Week: Mining Habitat

This week’s selection is maría/ixchel by artist Ana Marva Fernández.    The work is a combination of a traditional Maria figurine with the Mayan goddess Ixchel. They’re sitting on a moon, of course.    The work is 3D printed in full color, and if you look closely you’ll notice something fascinating about its surface. It’s… Continue reading Design of the Week: María and the Mayan Godess Ixchel

This week’s selection is Virtox’s Julia Vase #011 – “Heatwave”. We previously selected a Julia Vase as the Design of the Week, but “Heatwave” is so beautiful we simply had to choose one again.    Virtox, a.k.a. notable 3D modeler Stijn van der Linden, specializes in generated designs. Julia vases are created mathematically using complex algorithms.… Continue reading Design of the Week: Julia Vase #011 – Heatwave

  This week’s selection is the Four Jaw Self Centring Chuck by UK Thingiverse creator hexitex. The Four Jaw Self Centring Chuck is not a new item, having been designed in 2011, so we’ll classify it as an “oldie”.      The purpose of this design is literally its name. It’s a chuck used to… Continue reading Design of the Week: Four Jaw Self Centring Chuck

This week’s selection is the very beautiful Dequan Li Attractor by programmer and artist Nicolas Serouart.   The design is entirely mathematically generated and presents a beautiful sweeping shape, as if the complex motion was captured in an instant.    We’re not certain of the tools Serouart used to create this incredible shape, but he… Continue reading Design of the Week: Dequan Li Attractor

This week’s selection is “Grmpff” by German-based designer Kai Bracher.    The piece is entirely ornamental, displaying a figure exerting strong force on a sack, which is apparently pinned down by a wall peg. In reality, of course, the figure simply slides onto the peg. You can also apply a magnet to the base for… Continue reading Design of the Week: Grmpff

This week’s selection is the Alien Ball Bearing by Thingiverse creator Steve Medwin.     This bizarre shape actually functions, slightly. Medwin says:    This thing has five independent balls that roll around inside the organic ring. It reminds me of an alien version of a ball bearing, even though the inside doesn’t roll separately from… Continue reading Design of the Week: Alien Ball Bearing

This week’s selection is the Finger Hook by prolific Thingiverse creator spooner2011.    The Finger Hook is obviously a very simple piece, but it carries a couple of important properties. It’s a highly functional item, particularly if printed in strong ABS plastic. By adding a couple of holes, either by adjusting the STL model, or… Continue reading Design of the Week: Finger Hook

This week’s selection is a physical representation of the massively popular Internet meme, Success Kid. You may recall “the kid” providing wisdom and entertainment with such classics as:    DON’T KNOW A QUESTION ON A TEST – ANSWER IS IN ANOTHER QUESTION CHECKED TEXTS AFTER A NIGHT OF DRINKING – NONE! MOM TOOK MY NOSE… Continue reading Design of the Week: Success Kid

This week’s selection is Norwegian designer Even Erichsen’s Shopping Bag Handle.    The design is incredibly simple, yet totally useful for almost anyone. These days most people struggle with heavygrocery bags filled with calories. The Shopping Bag handle simply fits under the lift strap and saves your fingers from unwanted indentations.    This is a… Continue reading Design of the Week: Shopping Bag Handle

This week’s selection is the Wave Vase “Touch” by the Italian KIORO’design team.    The “Touch” reinvents the common practice of placing dried tall vegetation in a vase with a new 3D printing approach. Colorful and obviously from non-organic sources, the design is so reminiscent of dried tallgrass. Except it’s red, yellow, pink and blue.… Continue reading Design of the Week: Wave Vase “Touch”

This week’s selection is the ONE_SHOT Stool by artist Patrick Jouin, who produced this piece in 2006.    This 40cm tall item is an example of early 3D printed art, in the form of furniture. Produced by Materialise using polyamide and alumide, it rests today at the Art Institute of Chicago. So unfortunately you cannot… Continue reading Design of the Week: ONE_SHOT Stool

This week’s selection is “Soap Dish” by Thingiverse creator Tom Kerpert, a.k.a. alofus. The Soap Dish is just that: a holder for a bar of soap. Made from the word “Soap” written in script, the Soap Dish curves slightly to secure a slippery cleansing slab.   We like this design because it overcomes that most… Continue reading Design of the Week: Soap Dish

This week’s selection is designer Margot Krasojevic’s amazing Orbital Levitaiton LED Lamp. It’s a wispy, cloud-like 3D printed shape with an embedded LED light source.    Beautiful, to be sure, but that’s not the most interesting part. The lamp uses magnetic levitation to float above its mount. It floats in thin air! Even better, you… Continue reading Design of the Week: Orbital Levitation Lamp

This week’s selection is Mask 3 by artist Stuart Wade. Wade has developed a series of 3D printed masks inspired by “native masks and patterns”. The others in the series are, of course, Mask 1 and Mask 2, both similar in style but very different.    At first glance, the design of the Masks seem… Continue reading Design of the Week: Mask 3

This week’s selection is an arty yet practical 3D model: Milk Splash by CGTrader modeler GrafxBOX.    Billed as a “pens holder”, the Milk Splash is also very attractive and seemingly animated.    This model is available for purchase at CGTrader at a price of only USD$15. For that price you’ll receive the STL, suitable… Continue reading Design of the Week: Milk Splash

This week’s selection is Nervous Systems’ Hyphae Lamp collection. Nervous System is well known for producing startling  designs using generative 3D modeling techniques.    The Hyphae Lamp collection is a set of 13 unique lamp designs created using these techniques, but inspired by nature. They say:    The Hyphae lamp is a series of organic… Continue reading Design of the Week: Hyphae Lamps

This week’s selection is the Helix Wireframe with ball by Shapeways creator Wainstain.   The design is precisely what it is named: a twirly helix with a ball inside. Here’s the trick:    This is a four sided helix with a wireframe ball inside that can move freely in any direction you choose.   Like… Continue reading Design of the Week: Helix Wireframe

This week’s selection is Memorial Bust of a Woman by artist Sophie Kahn. What appears to be a relic-like representation of a woman is actually much more. It’s a self-portrait, obtained using 3D laser scanning to obtain a rough 3D model.    But it’s an inaccurate capture, as the artist moves very slightly during the… Continue reading Design of the Week: Memorial Bust of a Woman

This week’s selection is another practical item, particularly at this time of year: the Phytome by Zheng3. While this piece looks like a rather sparse-looking upside down cup, it actually has a very useful purpose:    It’s a 3D-printed seedling cage that’s designed to keep mid-sized varmits from disturbing one’s sprouts while allowing rain and… Continue reading Design of the Week: Phytome

This week’s selection is sculptor George Hart’s Centerpiece. Actually we should say, “centerpieces”, as it’s really a large collection of similar objects, each with variations in color design as well as structure.    Hart says:    For a Museum of Mathematics fundraiser dinner, I created a series of mathematical table centerpieces. These are each eight… Continue reading Design of the Week: Centerpieces

This week’s selection is a rather detailed replica model of a scissor-lift work platform by Rob’s Model Workshop. The Workshop has produced a number of highly realistic models of working machines, but we liked this one due to its articulated nature. According to the website:    RMW is providing innovative and unique accessories for the… Continue reading Design of the Week: Aerial Working Platform

Great designs often leverage two or more environments, and that is precisely what the Lightclip by Cyprus-based Lab02 does. It’s a 3D printed attachment for your iPhone that makes use of the rather bright light on the iPhones to produce a variety of lighting effects.    At this time four different Lightclips are available. The… Continue reading Design of the Week: Lightclip

This week’s selection is the wispy Reeds Bangle by MarmaladePark, a.k.a. Rachel from the Oxford, UK. The attractive bracelet is composed of repeated twisty strands that gradually overlap and form a bracelet. We liked the sweepy form as it reminded us of natural shapes. MarmaladePark says:    This design was inspired by the movements of… Continue reading Design of the Week: Reeds Bangle