2nd Award: Venus – Digital Drinkware by TG Design Studio

Venus is a modern drinkware set designed to introduce cutting edge digital fabrication technologies into the home.

Our brief tasked us to design a vessel to be utilized within a highly refined environment. The vessel must comprise of no more than 2 independent forms. The manufacturing must utilize one of Victoria University of Wellington’s or university partner’s 3D/4D printers. Materials available included multiple forms of plastic (ABS, PLA, TPU, etc), metal (steel, aluminium) or wax moulds for faux metal printing, nylon (glass and/or carbon reinforced), ceramics, wood, resin (polyjet), voxel. Emphasis was placed on the design process thoroughly undertaking an exploration of form, simplicity, and geometry.

Aiming to celebrate the forms, functions, and social innovations digital fabrication can provide, Venus takes additive manufacturing methods – such as 3D printing – and combines them with contemporary industrial design.

For thousands of years; since the invention of the lathe in ancient Egypt; subtractive manufacturing methods have been implemented as the industry standard. Even today, many products are still manufactured by taking away material through cutting, sanding, and thinning. These processes are imprecise, often requiring multiple passes to compensate for flaws produced by the previous; and consequently, produce immense quantities of waste; many times the size of their products.

Venus aims to break this trend.

Digital fabrication introduces a new possibility; additive manufacturing; the means of production by adding material rather than subtracting. Chiefly amongst these means stands 3D printing. Whilst traditionally a prototyping tool, recent innovations in 3D printing have permitted it to become a fully-fledged manufacturing method. When combined with highly precise material quality control through a digital interface, allowing complex heterogenous forms to be created perfectly with no waste; 3D printing can produce marvels of geometry and interaction. Seizing this opportunity, Venus was designed to both captivate minimalistic contemporary industrial design, and celebrate the raw material quality through such a pure manufacturing method.

Venus was 3D printed in a ceramic polymer mix, before being fired and polished. The base was printed in a PLA based wood filament.

Venus was designed by Tiger ChongSheng Guo at Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Design.