With the CHIL-DISH Project, Kids' Designs Jump off the Page

We’re always excited to enable creativity, no matter how big or small the creators might be. That’s why, every year, we sponsor the CHIL-DISH Project, a chance for kids to see their 2D drawings rendered in 3D by designers, then printed by Shapeways.

At last October’s Dutch Design Week, the 2016 CHIL-DISH project challenged children to draw the perfect tableware for their favorite food. Of the drawings submitted, a group of 10 were chosen to be designed and printed. Finally, last Saturday, we had the honor of revealing the completed 2016 CHIL-DISH Project collection. It may sound long overdue, but creating designs based on the kids’ drawings was quite a process. Over 300 children submitted their drawings, so just narrowing it down to 10 winners was quite a challenge. But now, after months of hard work, the results have finally been brought to life!

Above are the winning drawings. CHIL-DISH Project initiators Kristos Mavrostomos and Anna van der Leij transformed them in 3D designs, and we 3D printed them in porcelain.

Looking back at drawing day

In our exhibition space at YKSI Expo, we gave CHIL-DISH Project founders Kristos Mavrostomos and Anna van der Leij a space where hundreds of children could draw their best ideas for tableware for their favorite foods. Below is our Facebook Live broadcast from that day in which I got to chat with Anna about the CHIL-DISH Project.

Back with the CHIL-DISH Project masterminds Kristos and Anna!

Geplaatst door Shapeways op zondag 23 oktober 2016

The winning designs were so hard to choose

As you can imagine, going through more than 300 unique drawings of tableware was not easy, though it was pretty adorable. Luckily, my colleague Astrid (whom you may know from our Scanning Stories series) helped out. Some of the drawings were very both imaginative and functional, and some others were extremely creative… but less identifiable. We started by asking a few simple questions when evaluating the drawings: What is the context of the drawing, what does the child plan to use this for, and can it be translated into something 3D printable?

Once the selection was made…

Astrid and I sent over all the designs with our recommendations to Kristos and Anna, and they then chose the 10 winners. It took a fair bit of effort to translate the imaginations of the children into something physical, but they did an amazing job, and we’re so proud to finally reveal the work. See the full collection of CHIL-DISH Projects 2016 below: