Iconic Paper Plane (Stratomaker)

Last crawled date: 6 years, 1 month ago

Would I print this in every colour?
Would I design a stand for my collection?

Insert thinky-face emoji here! Right, so, those kinds of questions were behind this design, because this is intended as an entry in the Stratomaker mascot contest. Let's think about what that really means for a 3D printer:

* The design needs to be fun to watch while it prints.
* It needs to be an object that's fun to handle and fidget with!
* Given the above, it can't be flimsy or breakable.
* It needs to be something you'd happily rest on your monitor.
* You should want to print them in all sorts of colours.
* Printing the design should be easy, even for a novice.

More specifically, Stratomaker asked for something fun, and something that could be positively associated with their company, products, and brand in general.

And so it was that after meandering through many other concepts, I finally found one that excited me - paper planes! Gliders, darts, call them what you will. They embody a sense of dynamic fun and creativity, of freedom, exploration and achievement. Also, the whole "strato" bit seemed to fit well with that, too :P

Some design thoughts:

* After prototyping some more complex designs, I decided that keeping the design simple was important to the iconic look I wanted. I discarded things like folded wingtips, and added the suggestion of a fold line across each wing.
* The real key to the design, though, is the slight "unfolding" - the wings angle away from each other, rather than sitting in one plane. This simple adjustment really makes the shape resonate on a design level.

Most importantly, though, I really enjoyed the design process on this - it's really satisfying when finally coming up with a concept that's worth pursuing, and seeing it through!


Designed for the Stratomaker Mascot contest.
#STRATOMAKER