The 3D printable collection consists of designs inspired by the three cities that host events for the Maison & Objet international furniture faire. The Paris, Miami and Singapore collections of clocks, lamps and containers are available from le FabShop, a French 3D printer retailer.
The designer of the collection is Canadian industrial designer Samuel N. Bernier who is currently living and working in France. Bernier wanted to create a line of products that removed the requirement of a middle man, and allowed the designer to sell directly to the buyer who could then fabricate it themselves to their own specifications. Customers can print the design in any material or colour that they wish, and they can even mix and match parts from the various cities represented in the collection to create their own custom designs.
Each design is available for download from French 3D marketplace Cults3D, costing between $8 to $12. You can print them on any 3D printer, however they were optimized to print on a MakerBot. The lamp will need to be printed in smaller parts and then hand assembled, however they can be printed in one piece if you use a larger format 3D printer.
The Paris collection was inspired by, naturally, famous French landmark the Eiffel Tower, and shares the same aesthetic as its designer Gustav Eiffel. The Florida collection was inspired by Bernier’s colorful childhood memories of Miami Beach. And the Singapore collection is meant to represent all of the water and reflective glass surfaces within the very modern city core.
Every few months a designer tries to sell products like this directly to 3D printer owners, and every few months we never see them try it again. However 3D printing technology is finally starting to catch up to the concept, so eventually products like these are going to start to catch on. We’ve already seen some success with licensed products from Hasbro over on Shapeways, so 3D print at home consumer goods are starting to look more and more like an inevitability.
It may not be this collection of lamps and clocks that gets us there, but they are certainly lovely. I really like the Paris lamp myself, and love the idea of mixing and matching to create your own versions.
If you’d like to purchase the STL files for some of these designs you can visit le FabShop on their website, or you can find le FabShop’s store – with the entire collection, and tons of other cool designs and products – over on Cults3D.