Congratulations to Jacky Spencer with her Mama Seat is winner of the Despoke & Shapeways 100% Design Contest.

All of the finalists for the contest were 3D printed and have been on display for the last few days at 100% Design in London. After much deliberation Mark Westall from Despoke made the tough decision to choose a winner from such great entrants.

Congratulations again to Jacky and don't forget to enter the Christmas Co-Creator Contest currently being held...

TOO much to choose from this week, click on images for info...

If you ever wanted to find a way to describe to your grandparents (or parents (or partner)) exactly what the future of manufacturing with 3D printing could mean, then this is it.  Humanizing the technology and it's possibilities this animation directed by Carles Mora y Mariona Omedes of nueveojos for DHub Barcelona is short, sweet and memorable.

Ever wanted to know exactly how many hits you get in your shop on any given day?  Where they come from?  What keywords they used to find you?  How long they stayed on your page?  What browser and operating system they used? What exactly was their screen resolution and how many colors it displayed? Ok, maybe not the screen resolution.

Then it sounds like you need Google Analytics.

We have has SO MANY requests for this we have now made it possible the the latest site update.  The amazing team of developers also made it as easy as possible so you do not need to paste a HTML snippet but just a simple code, for full instructions of how to make it happen in your shop follow the Google Analytics tutorial..  And don't forget to make the most of any AdWords vouchers that Google is bound to send your way!

Now lets see it scaled up and printed full size!

It was March 11, 2010, the day the most of us stopped getting this message.

'There's a problem with your new model, "Only manifold objects can be printed".

Tears of relief flowed down our collective faces as in came Mesh Medic to automate 3D printing file repair and save hours of hair tearing frustration.

Shapeways now has Mesh Medic in Full Color, where previously when Mesh Medic fixed your mesh you would lose your color mapping, now Mesh Medic will repair holes, invert your inverted normals so they're normal, repair manifolds, all in full color!

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Another week of amazing arrivals at Shapeways!  This week there seems to be a couple of themes evolving with some really amazing 3D faces and a whole lot of math and/or generative art with a hint of the mechanical and architectural to round it out.  Keep posting them on the It Arrived forum, it is an inspiration for us all at Shapeways to see them each week.

WOAH! Custom trompe l'oeil.

Sweet present for a Shuggster's sister.

We are starting to see a stream of really cool robot designs pass through the Shapeways space-time portal and I just wanted to take a moment to share some that I could find.

It would be really interesting if we could standardize a scale so that components from different robots could be interchangeable, with standard sizes for apertures in torsos for arms, legs, heads. Standard hand/grip sizes so that weapons/tools/whatever could be purchased from each other.  Please let us know if this is something you are interested in? what scale the robots should be? What size the hands, holes etc. etc. etc....

Until then, here are some of the robots currently on the site, in varying stages of realization...

Micro Tiny Mini Robot

RetroroBo

CBot-01

So you can get to know the people you are dealing with here at Shapeways we would like to introduce one of the newer members of the customer service team, Kevin Nichols.  From his introduction below you will soon learn Kevin has years of experience in customer service, a healthy sense of humor and the infectious enthusiasm that comes when you get to see the mind blowing designs that pass through Shapeways each week.  

Dear Guys & Girls, Ladies & Gents. My name is Kevin Nichols, an English man living in Grubbenvorst, a small Dutch village on the border to Germany. I am 35 years young, married to my teenager love Nicole and nuts about my boy Samuel.

I joined Shapeways in June 2010 and have quickly been infected by the unique spirit that thrives in our community and also in our office. From my first interview it was clear that Shapeways was the place to be. I have over 13 years customer service experience for several international companies. Having lived and worked in the Germany, England and now in the Netherlands. With experience in the metal, construction, finance, supply chain, security/safety products and paper industries I can confidently say….

When I’m not thinking about Shapeways I spend most of my free time with my family getting out visiting friends and family. Apart from my Shapeways infection I was infected by Rock & Metal and the age of 12. Luckily I have not found a cure and am blessed to keep on Rockin’!!!

But that’s another story. Anyway, Can’t wait to see your orders coming in and check out your newest creations!

See you around in our inbox, forum or livechat, Kevin

Are you a student and ready for an 'Extreme Redesign 3D Printing Challenge? Or at least a T-Shirt?

Stratasys have just launched their Seventh Annual "Extreme Redesign" Contest through Dimension 3D Printing.

Nine student winners will claim either $2,500 or $1,000 scholarships in the categories of:

• High School Engineering
• College Engineering
• Art & Architecture.

 To be competitive the submission must:

• Describe the value & benefit of your Extreme Redesign in video or written format
• Have sound mechanical design / part integrity
• Be creative
• Useful (unless in art & architecture category?)
• Beauty (if in art & architecture category)

Lab Craft will challenge the relationship between the hand and machine in contemporary craft. It will focus on tangible outcomes through the examination of new practice, while exploring the impact of technology within craft practice and will feature the work of 26 designers including Tord Boontje and Michael Eden.

1. No protection for the top of the wrist where the IV was, causing much anxiety on my part on whether the dude was gonna knock his wrist against anything and dislodge the IV needle, etc (wince!)
2. Total lost of dexterity in the hands due to the support block

Rather than sit by wincing in helpless emapthy, Juniortan designed a Medibrace prototype in an attempt to ease the suffering.

Shapeways received over 70 high quality entries in the 100% Design Contest and the difficult task was for Mark from Despoke to choose five finalists which we will 3D print, then the winner will be chosen at our stand D27 at 100% Design in London. 

In the end, with so many great designs to choose from, the task was too much for Mark so he chose seven finalists instead of five! (just like Whystler)

If you would like to see the finalists come and visit us 100% Design, September 23rd to 26th, Earls Court, London. And/or look below... Who would you choose to win?