Oct 12, 2016 | By Tess
Typically, helmet hair is not something one desires, but after seeing this new innovative product by a Danish design studio, don’t be surprised if you hear that people are lining up for it. Simon Higby and Clara Prior-Knock of DDB Copenhagen design agency have designed what could be the best helmet concept after Hövding’s airbag for cyclists, and it is exactly what you may have guessed: a 3D printed helmet made to look like a head of hair.
HelmetHair, as the product is called, was developed as part of Simon Higby’s MBA thesis and was realized with the help of MOEF, a Danish marketing design company that employs technologies like 3D printing. Like most helmets, the HelmetHair was inspired by the want to improve and promote bike safety, especially for children. As one can imagine, in a society as bike-oriented as Denmark, helmets are of the utmost importance, and with 44% of kids still not wearing helmets while biking, the designers were trying to find a way to make the bulky protective wear more appealing to young generations.
The solution, if it wasn’t obvious, was to create a helmet inspired by a Lego hairpiece—you know, the little plastic clip-on hairpieces that do admittedly look like mini helmets. To make the helmet as authentic looking as possible, the designers worked with MOEF to first 3D scan an actual lego hairpiece using a laser scanning system, which was then digitally scaled up to fit over a helmet structure.
With the 3D model of the lego hair ready to go, the team then 3D printed the HelmetHair on a ZCorp Z650 powder 3D printer. When the print was done, the helmet was then taken to the 3D printing studio’s Malekabin (paint room) to be post-processed. As a production video shows, the designers were careful to match the color from the original lego hairpiece to the one of the full size helmet.
While the 3D printed HelmetHair seen in the video is not more than an early visual prototype, as the 3D printed powder-based material would likely break at first impact, the Danish design team is hoping to garner attention for its product in order to commercialize it. As Simon Friis, who worked on the project as an intern, explains, they are hoping that Playmobil or Lego will see the potential in the HelmetHair project and turn it into a marketable reality.
There is one thing that’s for sure, the 3D printed HelmetHair just goes to show how 3D printing turn something as mundane as a bike helmet into a fun and creative object.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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It's a playmobil inspiration.
;) wrote at 10/12/2016 10:32:42 AM:
This is not Lego-hair, it's Playmobil-hair. The face is the Trademark face of Playmobil.
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