The 2023 3D Printing Industry Awards returned to celebrate excellence in additive manufacturing. This year’s nominees and distinguished guests from across the 3D printing world gathered in London to learn who would win the trophies created especially for the event.
Since the 3DPI Awards were launched in 2016, the winner’s trophy has always been designed by a member of the 3D printing community, selected via a design competition. We are incredibly grateful to 3DPRINTUK for supporting the 2023 3D Printing Industry Awards trophy design competition as our production partner, Thangs, who hosted the design competition, and AnkerMake, who generously provided the design competition winner with an AnkerMake MC5 3D printer.
“AnkerMake is thrilled to witness the convergence of creativity, innovation, and passion that each creator brings to the 2023 3DPI Awards this year. The design competition not only showcases the remarkable talents of aspiring creators but also pushes the boundaries of what is possible in 3D printer design. Our commitment is to empower artists, inventors, hobbyists, and DIY enthusiasts with a practical and seamless tool to breathe life into their brilliant ideas and make it real. Congratulations to every creative endeavor.” said Frank Zhu, General Manager of AnkerMake.
The winner of the 2023 3D Printing Industry Awards Trophy Design Competition
After a lengthy discussion, the winning design was RWB Designs with their Tilted Hexagon trophy design.
“3DPRINTUK was proud to be chosen to sponsor the manufacturing of the awards and look forward to doing it again in the future,” said Nick Allen founder and director of 3DPRINTUK.
On the winning design, Nick Allen said, “There was a tremendous selection to choose from for the 3DPI 2023 awards this year with many of the designs showing fantastic aesthetics and great complexities that would only be capable with additive manufacturing. The final design was chosen as it best fitted the brief in terms of form, manufacturability, and beauty – congratulations to RWB Design for this!”
3DPRINTUK is offering a 10% single us discount until 31st Jan 2024; use the code “3DPI2023” to access the savings.
Paul Powers, co-founder and CEO of Thangs, said, “It was such a pleasure to partner with 3D Printing Industry this year and host the 3D Printing Industry Awards trophy contest. It was incredible to witness the creativity in this community: designers combining printing methods, showcasing technology, and highlighting 2023 industry trends – it was truly remarkable.”
Thangs is offering readers “buy one month get one month free” with code “3DPIBOGO” – this will be available until December 31, 2023.
3DPI Awards 2023: The Winning Trophy Designers
In addition to a first prize of the AnkerMake MC5, Thangs provided gift cards redeemable with Matterhackers or 3DJake and Thangs’ promo codes to runners-up.
The top three designers told us about their work.
RWB Designs, who won the design competition, comes from a family of entrepreneurs and has always favored working for themselves rather than in a “traditional workplace.” “I discovered 3D printing at a young age and was immediately drawn to its creative potential. It has been a significant part of my life ever since,” he says. “About a year ago, I decided to combine my passion for entrepreneurship and 3D design to create RWB Designs, LLC, a business through which I publish my 3D printable creations. I love to create just about anything, and my design library currently consists of over 150+ models ranging from home decor to artistic pieces, toys, and a variety of print-in-place models.”
Regarding the idea behind the trophy design, he said, “Seeing as the trophy was designed to be presented at the 3D Printing Industry Awards. I thought it only fitting to take inspiration from the additive space, this took form in the pillars at the center of the trophy. Each pair of pillars has a unique shape and size, no two sets being identical, yet they all support the plaque of the trophy. Thus, these pillars symbolize the combined efforts of numerous companies, individuals, and technologies that have contributed to the rapid growth and innovation of this field. Although no two are identical, they have all played a significant role in the development of the industry.”
The AnkerMake MC5 is already earmarked for expanding his work, “I would like to express my gratitude to the 3D printing Industry for hosting the contest and providing the AnkerMake MC5 printer as a prize. I am thrilled to have won the printer and can’t wait to use it to enhance my design work and bring new ideas to life. With an additional printer, I can now iterate faster and work on multiple projects simultaneously, giving me more time to create even more intricate and unique models in the future,” said RWB Designs.
Second place in the 2023 3DPI Awards trophy design competition went to creatrixbritt, the Art Director at Fotis Mint. Based in NYC, and “slightly obsessed with Star Wars” creatrixbritt has spent the past year learning to sculpt. Regarding their high-ranking design, they said, “I wanted to incorporate the look of FDM (base), resin (body), and SLS (top). I chose a geometric design as they are very popular in hobbyist 3D Printing, and it gave a flat surface to put an award inscription on. The gem/body is representative of the established portion of 3D printing, and the lattice up top represents the innovation and ever-growing portions of our field.”
The third-place winner was Thomas, who goes by the handle GrizzledGnome. “I first started modeling in my senior year of high school. I spent half of my school day at a vocational school where I was studying pre-engineering and taking classes that would benefit me going into college. Of which was college algebra, physics, programming, and intro to 3D modeling.”
“I never intended to get into 3D modeling or 3D printing at this scale, but 3 years ago when I found myself having some extra funds I bought one and began to document that journey on TikTok. It was a massive success, and I’ve since amassed 1.3million followers on that platform. This eventually led to me picking back up on 3D modeling and trying to integrate some of my own models into my content in hopes to one day work entirely from home. My coworker and I started a Patreon at a small scale of a few design releases a month when Paul (Powers) the CEO of Thangs, reached out and asked if we would be interested in trying out Thangs, which brings us here.”
Regard the trophy design he says, “I wanted to represent something that was not only elegant, but sort of represented what 3D printing is in my eyes. While primarily using FDM technology I’m also a firm believer that the possibilities and potential for 3D printing are endless. Through a nozzle you can make nearly anything your heart desires. Which is why I fell in love with modeling in the first place. An idea can at this moment in time become a physical product in your hand in record times that I never thought possible. It’s like magic but obviously quite the opposite. Lol.”
Congratulations again to all the selected designers.
3DPI Awards 2023 Trophy Design Competition Full Results
1st: RWB Designs: Tilted Hexagon
2nd: creatrixbritt: 3DPI Geo Award
3rd: GrizzledGnome: Trophy
4th: Genghis_Designs: Schwarz D morph trophy
5th: 3dprintbunny: Trophy 2023
7th: RYTEK3D: 3DPI Trophy Design
8th: Tdesignz3d: F1 Style Trophy
9th: frikarte3D: Spiral Cube Trophy
10th: DaveMakesStuff: 120 Cell
Want to get involved in the 2024 3D Printing Industry Awards? We’re looking for people to join our Expert Committee. The committee meets to discuss and select winners, register your interest here.
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Featured image shows the 3D Printing Industry Awards Trophy, and a Gothic Lithophane Lamp designed by 3D Printing World.
