Eric Ho here, Social Media Strategist at Shapeways and most recently the shop owner of the Shapeways shop Raw Legend Collaborations. One of my most recent collaborations was with designer Kostika Spaho and we worked together to create a 3D printed Tardigrade figurine and bring it to market. In this post I’ll walk you through the design process from 3D model to sale and share my tips for 3D printed success.
I first became fascinated with the Tardigrade, which is also known as the ‘Water Bear’ or ‘Moss Piglet’ when a segment about it aired on the hit science show COSMOS hosted by Neil Degrasse Tyson. Tardigrades are resilient microscopic creatures that can survive some of the harshest living environments, such as the vacuum of space, boiling water and near absolute-zero temperatures. They even can survive doses of radiation lethal to humans!
After doing many weeks of research I was inspired to bring this amazing animal to life as a 3D printed figurine. I reached out to my friend and talented 3D designer Kostika and he quickly sculpted the Tardigrade in ZBrush and I ordered and received the prints in the Full Color Sandstone material a week later. I do not have the 3D modeling experience to create such a great 3D model myself, but I did provide the creative direction for how I wanted it to look and it came out amazing. I posted the render in my Shapeways shop and even before the test prints arrived there were a few sales coming in, which demonstrated to me that there was a demand for this product.
Once Kostika and I were satisfied with the design and print quality it was time for me to apply my social media and marketing experience to get this product out to the right, targeted audience, which for this model is the science, animal, and nature community. I did a simple Google Trends search on the Tardigrade and saw that the Tardigrade was still trending since it was featured in the COSMOS episode. I also used a Twitter listening tool called Topsy to track how many people were tweeting about the Tardigrade. I also identified current community members who were influential in the science community. For example, I asked shop owners Somersault1824 if they would help showcase our 3D printed Tardigrade to their social audience of over 460k fans on Facebook. After sharing it across my own personal social media channels and 3D printing / 3D modeling Facebook groups I followed the social media tips highlighted in my previous shop owner bootcamp blog post here.
Within two weeks sales were beginning to come in and I continued researching niche science blogs to get the 3D printed Tardigrade featured in. It got picked up by The Featured Creature and I was even able to get my Tardigrade in the hands of Paul Adams, senior editor at Popular Science who tweeted about it.
It has been a great experience going from an idea to physical product to actual demand and sales for that product, all fueled by my passion for natures most fascinating creatures and Shapeways 3D printing. What is your favorite fascinating animal? And will you bring it to life or bring it back from extinction with 3D printing?
Let me know in a comment below!