{"id":26389,"date":"2016-07-26T17:44:54","date_gmt":"2016-07-26T21:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/?p=26389"},"modified":"2017-04-17T12:09:12","modified_gmt":"2017-04-17T16:09:12","slug":"designer-spotlight-joaquin-baldwin-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/designer-spotlight-joaquin-baldwin-2","title":{"rendered":"Designer Spotlight: Joaquin Baldwin"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a long-time member of the Shapeways Community, Joaquin Baldwin has not only mastered the art of optimizing his designs for different materials, he has also managed to flawlessly photograph his creations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With\u00a0two amazing collections<\/a>\u00a0specifically designed for Porcelain, Joaquin shared more with us on how he makes his creations shine by amplifying the strongest attributes of this material while taking advantage of the color spectrum.<\/p>\n

\"jb\"<\/p>\n

What was it like designing for porcelain, did you need to approach your designs differently?<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/i>I approached the designs based on function and specific glazing color options. The colors are vibrant and very specific, so I wanted to make objects that played with all of those unique combinations. For function, they are all planters, but with very small spaces so they can only carry tiny plants. The size limitations were tough to deal with, and so was the minimum thickness for walls, but luckily the material cost is calculated by surface and not volume, so making things thick and heavy is not a problem, but making them too detailed can be troublesome.<\/p>\n

What inspired you to make two related series of products this time rather than the more eclectic array of designs you\u2019ve done previously?<\/i>
\nIt\u2019s a brand new approach I\u2019m taking for these and a couple of other series I\u2019m working on. I\u2019m planning on selling items in gallery shows and local stores and wanted them to be presentable as sets, with an artist statement and more solid conceptual roots. I have a lot of inexpensive designs in my shop already, but I was missing higher-end home decor items, and since I\u2019ve been having fun decorating my home recently, I thought this was something worth investing in. <\/i><\/p>\n

I created two series, the Samsara Series (based on organic shapes that act as fossilized vessels for new life), and the Geometric Series (based on a synthesis of polygonal shapes that naturally occur in minerals as well as in plants), thinking that having a contrast between organic and polygonal shapes would be the best way to explore the limits of the porcelain material.<\/p>\n

\"jb2\"<\/p>\n

The photographs you take are consistently top notch, what\u2019s your process for taking them?<\/i>
\nI have a very cheap lightbox with very cheap lights. Sometimes I let sunlight from a window hit the lightbox instead of turning on my crappy lights, or use a super strong flashlight and move it around until it looks right. Terrible process, really, but I do have a good macro lens (Canon 100mm), a good tripod, and lots of experience with Photoshop to clean up the pics. I try to overexpose the background to have a pure white with just a hint of a shadow or reflection below, and have some fill light from both left and right, and try not to use too much frontal lighting. Sometimes my exposures are up to 4 seconds long since I use a macro lens up close or natural light indoors, so the tripod is a must. Balancing the lights and shadows in Photoshop is really important, and also trying to not abuse contrast and saturation, so that the materials look like the real thing and not exaggerated.<\/p>\n

I always take a main photo in pure white, and then take some more natural ones, which vary depending on the model and concept. The white keeps the storefront consistent, that\u2019s always my main goal, to look professional. I\u2019ve seem some do it with black, that looks sleek as hell too, but I would need better lighting equipment to deal with black backgrounds.<\/p>\n

I had some amazing floral design work done by\u00a0Birch & Bone<\/a>\u00a0which really helps bring the photos to life, it makes them stand out with great color palettes, and it also showcases the potential of each planter.<\/p>\n

\"skull\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Smilodon Skull Planter<\/a>\u00a0from Joaquin’s shop,\u00a0joabaldwin<\/a><\/p>\n

What brought you to 3D printing with Shapeways?<\/i>
\nAnimation is what got me into this. I made a CG short, I had the main character modeled already, and thought it would be great to have a figurine of it. It all started from there, and then I became a bit obsessed with the idea of having a physical copy of whatever 3D designs I came up with. Being able to pay for the hobby with an online shop just made it all work out great.<\/p>\n

\"polydice\"<\/div>\n
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Polyhedral Dice Planter<\/a> from \u00a0joabaldwin<\/a><\/p>\n

How do you promote your work?<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/i>I share it on social media, and also post a few links on Reddit if I think they are relevant (I don\u2019t like spamming). If it goes viral I\u2019m all like \u201cOh yeah, that\u2019s what I\u2019m talking about\u201d and I don\u2019t have to do any promotion, it\u2019s all done for me, so I hope that every idea resonates with people and that it gets shared enough. If it doesn\u2019t go viral, I self-flagellate and cry myself to sleep for not doing a good enough job. I guess my biggest strategy is to trust strong ideas, since I don\u2019t have the time or resources to be actively promoting, this is still just a hobby for me.<\/p>\n

WHAT WE LOVE ABOUT THIS SHOP:<\/b><\/p>\n