Announcing the Bring the Outdoors Indoors Contest
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, people all over the world are practicing social distancing and spending more of their time at home. In order to encourage our community to enjoy their indoor time, we are hosting a design contest to bring outdoor activities inside.
In this design contest, Formlabs invites you to submit an .STL file of a design that encompasses the outdoors and can be enjoyed indoors. Ideas range from redesigning an outdoor sporting good, to designing an accessory to make an outdoor activity feasible indoors, to inventing something completely new.
In order to assess your designs, we sought out two outdoor design experts—Will Hilgenberg of Albatross Bikes and Jeff Burga of Hydro Flask—to judge your work based on practicality, originality, and aesthetics. Also joining the judging panel is Formlabs’ own Matt Lewis, who helped bring our new Tough 1500 and Tough 2000 resins to market. These new resin formulas are impact resistant, allowing product designers like Will and Jeff to create more realistic prototypes for rugged outdoor (or indoor) applications.
Next week Thomas Komar of Formlabs will be hosting a demo session on Twitch in which he designs an entry for the contest in Fusion 360 and walks through the submission process. This is a great opportunity to gain inspiration, learn some cool CAD tricks, and get an easy overview of how to enter. Be sure to subscribe to our Twitch stream to be notified about when we go live!
How to Enter
Submitting a design is simple!
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First, log in or create an account on Pinshape, the Formlabs-managed 3D model sharing platform
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Once logged into Pinshape, upload your design, title it whatever you’d like, and make sure to tag it with “OutdoorsIndoorsContest”
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Finally, fill out the submission form on our contest landing page, including your personal info and a link to your pinshape design
Meet the Judges
Jeff Burga, Senior Design Engineer at Hydro Flask
Jeff has 14 years of experience in the outdoor sports industry. His diverse roles have included Design, R&D, Testing, Quality Assurance and a vast range of manufacturing processes such as plastic injection molding, tool making, metal processing, laminates, and additive manufacturing. He’s been a pioneer of innovative prototyping solutions in his industry using 3D printed parts to significantly reduce development timelines and cost. His passion has been focused on quick turn “looks like, feels like, works like” prototypes.
Will Hilgenberg, Founder of Albatross Bikes
Will works as a mechanical engineer in the cycling industry and started his own framebuilding company, Albatross Bikes. He got his start in 3D printing when looking for a way to quickly and easily prototype products before sending them into production. Will uses Formlabs Draft Resin to prototype sections of his bike frames for rapid form and fit prototyping.
Matt Lewis, Product Marketing at Formlabs
Matt works in product marketing at Formlabs, with a focus on launching high performance SLA resins. Matt has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland and previously worked as a product manager in the consumer packaged goods industry.
Judging Criteria and Prizes
There will be one winner in each of these categories:
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Most Practical or Functional Design
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Most Original or Outside-the-Box Design
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Best Looking Design
Each winner will receive a Formlabs Prize Package which includes…
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$200 Formlabs credit
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Formlabs swag: shirt, stickers, and more!
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Tough 1500-printed frisbee
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Finishing kit
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Feature on Formlabs blog post and social media
Note: prize value is ~$300
Rules and Eligibility
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Contestant must submit at least one .stl file (contestant can submit more than one design, but winning designs are determined by quality, not quantity).
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The contest does not require 3D printing of your file and users do not need a Formlabs 3D printer to qualify.
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File must fit on the build volume of a Form 3 printer (145x145x185 mm) and be printable using SLA resins.
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Contest is open from April 17, 2020 at 12 pm ET to May 29, 2020 at 12 pm ET. Winners will be contacted and announced online the following week.
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Contest is open worldwide.
Please find Formlabs’ general contest terms and conditions linked here.
