Once upon a time… Artur spent a lot of time making 3D printed things. Artur made wind chimes, sample kits, ways how to get your sketched made steel, titanium tidbits and a new kind of paperclip. 3D printers were complex and expensive machines with low reliability. They were hard to operate. You had to be a designer to make things, you had to spend a lot of time learning how to 3D print and you had to spend months learning how to 3D model. It was 2010.
It was clear that one day… one day… 3D printing was going to be the technology that would let people make whatever they want to make, on their own terms. But it would take years of gradual improvement for existing 3D printers to become good enough to function in the home. Artur thought, “what would a 3D printer that would work in the home look like? What if we could make it easy enough so that kids could use it? What if it could recycle its own material? What if it was affordable and easy to use? What if it would just work, all the time. What if we could start from scratch and create a true home 3D printer, a 3D printer for kids. If someone wanted to make the “first on the desktop” for every kid in the world, what would that 3D printer look like and how would it work?
Artur began to work on the Origo, the 3D printer that will hopefully answer all those questions eventually.
Artur made scenarios.
He worked with kids to see what they wanted to make and how.
He looked at the core technology.
He looked at the different possible materials and 3D printer designs.
He designed numerous 3D printers with different 3D printing technologies.
He made models and Origo prototypes…
… and then finally a 3D printed prototype of the Origo.
The prototype was done at i.materialise where a friend with whom Artur had worked at Shapeways and i.materialise managed to get a discount on that prototype for him. That friend was Joris.
Joris believed in 3D printing, he drank the Kool aid and is mixing up batches for everyone else. Joris loved Artur’s project but really didn’t believe that kids could design. Anyway, there were plenty of other people and plenty of other markets to tackle first before 3D printing could conquer the world.
Then along came 3Dtin – an online application that eliminated the 3D modeling and 3D design constraints from 3D printing. With 3Dtin anyone can design whatever they want in minutes and the results can be 3D printed.
Joris was also asked to do a TEDxKids workshop and help teach a group of 56 ten year olds to 3D print. Using 3Dtin the kids were given a short workshop and the uninhibited kids and their 3D printed results blew Joris away. One thing Joris could not get out of his head for months, was Ritik. Ritik and the 3D printed sunglasses he made. Ritik’s glasses were designed by him before the workshop and they were 3D printable without any adjustment or guidance. More importantly not only could kids design for 3D printing they did so with a freedom, drive and whimsy that surpassed the calculated stumbling efforts of adults.
This is what finally made Joris realize that the best chance that there was to really, truly let anyone make anything was to join Artur and help Origo come to life. Origo wants to be “first on the desktop”, a reliable easy to use 3D printer for ten year olds.
