Aug 27, 2015 | By Simon

Although it might appear that there are downloadable products for seemingly anything that you could want on a range of file sharing platforms including Thingiverse and Shapeways, there is still a lot to be desired when it comes to the final quality of a 3D printed product design.  

Because of this, we’ve been starting to see a new crop of file sharing platforms that also act as curators - effectively bridging the divide between more seasoned designers and those with access to 3D printers.

Among others is WonderLuk, a new online platform aimed at helping fashion and jewellery designers, car designers, industrial designers, architects, and others create and sell their own unique 3D printed accessory collections.

Aiming to be an “umbrella brand” that helps give young independent designers an arena to showcase their talents, WonderLuk was founded in 2013 by Andre Schober and his business partner Roberta Lucca - both fans of good and clean functional designs who met while working together at the luxury mobile phone maker Vertu.        

“We don’t have a very restrictive creative direction, it’s very open in fact,” explains Schober in an interview with The Memo.  “The designs just have to be original, wearable; and printable, obviously.”

Already, the company has worked with some prominent 3D artists around the world including New York fashion designer Francis Bitonti (who created the first 3D-printed dress), the Chennai-based Architect studio D-Domain and British industrial designer Oliver Smith (who created some well-known 3D-printed bow ties).  

This weekend however, the company is holding their first-ever 3D printed jewellery pop-up shop in Boxpark, Shoreditch - leading up to London’s Fashion Week.  

“The whole fashion chain has been quite wasteful,” explains Lucca.

“50% of all the garments and accessories that you see  in stores will end up in landfills.  At WonderLuk, we create jewellery on demand, so you never have the situation where we have lot of products going in the bin because the season has passed and nobody bought them.”

Lucca believes that the process of customization is the key to creating sustainable designs; not only is a customer getting a product that’s tailor-made for them, they are also offsetting traditional manufacturing waste.  Additionally, she sees 3D printing materials as being very versatile, such as nylon plastic which can be either flexible or sturdy.  

“(The 3D design process) also allows designers to create geometries and shapes that would not have been possible before; a structure in a structure, interwoven strings, or cross sections. The same is true for metal 3D-printing,” she says.  

Of course, it’s hard to consider the benefits of 3D printing without bringing mention to the speed of production.  According to Lucca, it takes between three and six months for a ‘fast fashion’ item to be produced in the fashion world, whereas it takes WonderLuk users just two weeks in some cases to create a product and deliver to an end user.

Currently, the company is receiving approximately 100 applications per month and are only able to accept 5 or 6 of them at a time due to their high quality expectations - which ultimately means better quality products for the end user.  

“(Our designers) design the pieces and we support them with our in house design team,” explains Schober.

“Then we sample the pieces to ensure that wear, fit, durability are all perfect, and when that is done, we do all the marketing wrap and put on the website.  The great benefit for designers is they can focus on what they do best, which is to create.”

Lucca is quick to add that even though 3D printing by nature can be costly, it is still much cheaper than minimum production orders that are common with most traditonal manufacturing processes.

“In our case, we don’t need to invest anything up front, we can create just one pair of earrings,” she adds.  “In time, this becomes much more cost effective for everyone in the chain.”

Currently, WonderLuk is working with an undisclosed London museum to launch a new collaboration which will be unveiled in September.  In the meantime, the company is focusing on staying two steps ahead of the technology and keeping their platform streamlined for their designers.    

“We work with designers from all over the world,” adds Lucca.  

“The reason why they are able to now progress now in their careers is because they are totally tuned into technology and startups like ours who offer a whole new way for them to create.”

To shop for WonderLuk's latest wares or to find out more about becoming a designer yourself, head over to WonderLuk.com.  

 

Posted in 3D Printing Applications

 

 

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