Design

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

This week’s selection is “Fallen Woman” by Netherlands-based 3D artist Wilfred Stijger.    The piece was designed in Z-Brush and subsequently 3D printed in white material as you can see above. Stijger works in a wide variety of materials, including sand, ice and snow. We’d like to see him test out a snow-3D printer, if… Continue reading Design of the Week: Fallen Woman

This week’s selection is the utterly fascinating “Sphere Autoglyph” by master mathematical modeler Henry Segerman. Segerman has used his extensive mathematical background to generate a vast collection of fantastic generated artwork; his Shapeways shop contains 94 items as of this writing, and all of them are Design of the Week-worthy.    At first glance the… Continue reading Design of the Week: Sphere Autologlyph

This week’s selection is the Coffee Filigree by Brian Drescher of The Netherlands. Drescher says:    Another variation of the coffee cup design…organic filigree. An example of common objects transformed into art via 3D printing. Click the blue animation button to see it from all angles. Available also as a full-scale (10cm) table-top object.  … Continue reading Design of the Week: Coffee Filigree

This week’s selection is a practical one: the Safe T Bagel by Thingiverse contributor poetryinmotion.    It’s not particularly artistic, but it is very functional. The method of use involves placing a bagel (or other bagel-sized and shaped food object) into the middle of the Safe T Bagel. Then simply slide a knife along both… Continue reading Design Of The Week: Safe T Bagel

This week’s selection is artist Sean Dabbs’ “The Lost Boys”. It’s actually a small collection of designs related the the movie of the same name.    We specifically liked the rendering of Kiefer Sutherland’s frightening vampire character, especially the teeth. Also included in the collection are vampire-like hands and feet.    Dabbs is a UK-based… Continue reading Design of the Week: The Lost Boys

This week’s selection is Spiralis by Shapeways designer Emm@nuel. There are actually two variations of Spiralis in the Shapeways catalog, the Spiralis+0,025-7cm and the Spiralis+0,025, which appear to differ only in size.    Designer Emm@nuel describes Spiralis as:    Mathematical oddity composed with 20 triskelions (triskelion, triskele) and 12 spirals.   Definitely!   You can… Continue reading Design of the Week: Spiralis

This week’s selection was observed at CES at the Sculpteo booth. We didn’t manage to find the official title of this work, nor the associated artist, but nevertheless, we think it’s very cool.    It’s a rather large wall composed entirely of 3D printed iPhone cases, each with slightly altered visual characteristics, gradually building up… Continue reading Design Of The Week: Albert Einstein Wall

This week’s selection is Matthew Plummer-Fernandez’ Yellow Vessel. We spotted this wonderful vase at the 3DEA exhibit in New York and it was sufficiently interesting that we looked it up to find out more about the artist behind the work.    Plummer-Fernandez uses his own software interface developed with several open source software systems for… Continue reading Design of the Week: Yellow Vessel

This week’s selection was encountered during our visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, specifically in the Modern Art section. The Fractal.MGX table is a stunning demonstration of the possibilities when one combines creativity, size, mathematics and of course, 3D printing.    The Fractal.MGX table was designed in 2007 by three:… Continue reading Design of the Week: Fractal.MGX Table

This week’s selection is the astonishingly beautiful Chrysanthemum by South African artist Michaelia Janse van Vuuren. A PhD in Electrical Engineering as well as an accomplished artist, van Vuuren focuses on designing artwork specifically for 3D printing from her studio outside of Pretoria. (Click image for larger view)   This 250x250x82mm piece is a centerpiece,… Continue reading Design of the Week: Chrysanthemum

This week’s selection is a tremendously functional design with an unusual name. The Key Waffle, designed by artist Tim Potter, attempts to simplify the use of keyless mobile devices.    You’ve probably heard someone say, “I need REAL keys to type on my mobile!”, when they discount full-screen phone options. This item is designed for… Continue reading Design of the Week: Key Waffle

This week’s selection was observed in a small display in a less-traveled corner of Euromold 2012. The evolution bracelet attempts to show the process of evolution along its axis, from molecules to humans, with lesser creatures in-between.    Designed by Netherlands-based Studio Mango, this beautifully detailed bracelet is 70 x 65 x 20mm in size.… Continue reading Design of the Week: The Evolution Bracelet

This week’s selection was seen at Euromold 2012: Accommo by artists Levin Wagner and Jannis Thiele of the University of Arts, Berlin, Germany.    This design was also selected as one of the top ten finishers in the 2012 Extreme Redesign 3D Printing Challenge by Dimension/Stratasys.    The Accommo at first appears to be a… Continue reading Design of the Week: Accommo

Occasionally great designs can happen accidentally. This week’s selection is the “Holy (USB) Hand” by Newcastle University’s Dr. Javier Munguia’s team of three mechanical engineering students.    The origins of the hand were practical: the team required a “hand” to test an experimental wrist splint concept and prepared a “hand” model to print on their… Continue reading Design of the Week: Holy (USB) Hand

This week’s selection is Thingiverse user Achim Esslinger’s beautiful “Würfel in Würfel 2”. The title in English means “Cube in Cubes”, which it clearly is.    It’s a two-part item that you could easily print on most personal 3D printers. When assembled it should clearly demonstrate your ability to produce amazing objects right in your… Continue reading Design of the Week: Würfel in Würfel 2

This delightful and shocking design by German Thingiverse user FMMT666 has been selected as this week’s Design of the Week.    What is it? Simply a coffee mug, but with a surprising difference: the lower portion is sliced off, making it appear to be embedded in the table. You’d visually expect it to either be… Continue reading Design Of The Week: Sunken Coffee Mug

This week’s selection is a set of Antique Scandinavian Stoves by New York-based Thingiverse user PrettySmallThings, also known as Kacie Hultgren.    Hultgren’s design represents a class of 3D print we’ve been seeing more frequently lately: miniature furniture. She says:    I’m a scenic designer in the theatre industry, using my makerbot to make amazing… Continue reading Design of the Week: Antique Scandinavian Stoves

We’ve selected designer Paul Kweton’s Doublefeature as this week’s noted design.    What is it? It’s a dual wristwatch, apparently “custom made for a client in Houston, TX”. If you’re interested in getting one, don’t fear, as Kweton says: “For custom orders please contact us via email at …”    Obviously the intricate time-telling watch… Continue reading Design Of The Week: Doublefeature

This week’s selection is the RD Time Extrusion. What is it? We’re not sure, but the designers, Nervous System believe it could serve as a pencil holder, as depicted here. You’re free to figure out other uses for this unusual item.    The item was designed mathematically, like many Nervous System products, and is freely… Continue reading Design of the Week: RD Time Extrusion

This week’s selected design is Julia Vase #001 – Aqua by Virtox, also known as the Dutch artist Stijn van der Linden.     Virtox has released this amazing design on Shapeways, where you can purchase a 3D printed version in a variety of materials, and also on Thingiverse and GrabCAD where you are free… Continue reading Design Of The WeeK: Julia Vase #001 Aqua

This week we turn to i.Materialise where we found the beautiful “Love Bone” by Studio Mango, selected as Design of the Week.    This smoothly shaped item is intended as a necklace by attaching a chain:    For our loved ones Studio Mango designed the Lovebone necklace, the last missing bone in the human body.… Continue reading Design Of The Week: The Love Bone

Thingiverse maker jtbowden created the beautiful “Turk’s Head Knot”. This design caught our eye not only because it’s visually attractive, but also for two other reasons.    First, this design should be very easy to 3D print even on the most basic 3D printers. Some designs can be quite aggressive and require particular resolutions or… Continue reading Design Of The Week: Turk’s Head Knot