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Black Panther took home the 2019 Academy Award for Best Costume Design for outfits that included an intricate collar and crown created using 3D printing.

Costume designer Ruth E Carter accepted the award at the Oscars ceremony on 24 February 2019, when the superhero movie based on Marvel comic books received three prizes in total.

Set in the fictional, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda, Black Panther broke box-office records and was widely considered groundbreaking for its almost entirely black cast, and the number of people of colour on the production team.

Among the elaborate costumes worn in the movie were a crown and huge shoulder mantle donned by Queen Ramonda, played by American actress Angela Bassett.

These designs were created in collaboration with Los Angeles-based Austrian architect Julia Körner, who has previously worked on 3D-printed haute couture for Iris Van Herpen and Chanel.

“Ruth E Carter had seen my 3D-printed work at the Paris haute-couture shows and contacted me,” Körner told Dezeen. “Together with film director Ryan Coogler, they wanted to bring 3D printing into the costumes of the movie Black Panther.”

“All I knew was that the movie was about Africa and technology,” she continued. “Everything was top secret and I did not even know the name of the film, or the production.”

The beige adornments featured detailed filigree patterns, made possible by a technique known as selective laser sintering (SLS).

This involves using lasers to heat a bed of powder, fusing the microscopic particles layer by layer, then removing the surrounding excess material to uncover the finished product. The designs were fabricated by Belgian company Materialise.

Queen Ramonda’s collar was fitted around the neck and over the shoulders, and fanned out in an arc behind her head. The matching headpiece, which was also created in black, flares out from the base towards an open circular rim.

“We looked at traditional African Zulu tribes and the hats married woman wear,” said Körner. “We also looked into literature that showcased African design illustrations from traditional sources.

“Based on these 2D patterns, I then developed the complex 3D structures in the computer with architecture computer software,” she added.

The costumes were designed before Bassett was cast in the role. Once confirmed, Körner adapted the digital files to the actresses’ measurements before sending them to the printer.

Despite their delicate appearance, the 3D-printed pieces are both flexible and hardwearing. “I saw backstage footage where Angela Bassett was dancing and I was surprised how durable the pieces were,” Körner said.

Carter also wore a custom 3D-printed collar, designed by Körner and integrating Swarovski crystals, to the Oscars afterparty hosted by Vanity Fair.

“Over the past two months, I developed a customised statement piece for Ruth,” Körner said in a statement. “We found inspiration in African imagery from the photographer Seydou Kaïta, and digitally crafted afro-futuristic patterns to an asymmetrical ensemble that references the 1950s fashion designs of Balenciaga.”

The architect also spoke to Dezeen about the advantages that technology adds to fashion design during an interview in 2014, when 3D printing was beginning to be used for apparel. It has since been utilised for everything from sports footwear to costumes for drag queens.

Black Panther’s Oscars success also included accolades for Best Production Design and Best Original Music Score, and nominations for Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and the coveted Best Picture awards.

The sets were based on afrofuturist architecture and influenced by the work of Zaha Hadid, production designer Hannah Beachler told Dezeen after the film’s release in Spring 2018.

Ahead of the 91st Academy Awards, we selected our top set designs from the nominees, including Roma, Isle of Dogs, and The Favourite – filmed at England’s historic Hatfield House that was adapted by production designer Fiona Crombie.

Images are by Matt Kenneda/Marvel Studios 2018.

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A traditional method of heating a home was by using a Brazier, however, these charcoal-burning devices are both impractical and unsafe for use within the modern home due to the release of smoke and ashes. The Home Warmer is a modern reinterpretation of the Brazier, which warms the room whilst simultaneously retaining the social-element that is so iconic with the traditional Brazier.

This beautiful electric heater has a welcoming aesthetic, that has been created through the introduction of soft-touch, flame retardant fabric that covers a rounded form. Not only does this generate a distinctive look, but it also ensures that the device complements the existing furniture within the room.

Intuitive and straight-forward controls have been paired with a simple interface, which are both present on the top of the device; this leads to hassle-free and quick operation. Large, leather handles positioned on either side of the device invite the user to pick it up and move it to a place where both communication and room-temperature are at a low!

Designer: Ji Seung Kim

LED indicating the strength of the heat.

The latest instalment of our Dezeen x MINI Living series features a sustainable 3D-printed house made with soil and agricultural waste.

Italian 3D-printing technology developer WASP, built the house to showcase the abilities of Crane Wasp, a modular 3D-printer that can create homes in a variety of formats and sizes.

Called Gaia, the 30-square-metre house has a 3D-printed outer shell and internal timber beams holding a timber roof. It was printed on site in Massa Lombardo, a town in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, in October 2018.

The house was printed using a natural mud mixture made from soil taken from the surrounding site, as well as waste materials from rice production such as chopped straw and rice husks.

“Gaia is the result of a limited and optimised use of agricultural resources, which through technology have been converted into a complex building with a minimal environmental footprint,” WASP told Dezeen.

The company also claims the final product is biodegradable.

“If the building isn’t maintained, it will turn back into soil,” stated the company.

The mixture is layered using a 3D-printer suspended from a crane, creating walls with vertical cavities inside, which are then filled with rice husks for insulation.

The company claims this method of insulating keeps the temperature inside the house comfortable, eliminating the need for internal heating even during the winter.

An outer cavity in the wall structure is kept empty for natural ventilation in the structure and allows for an energy supply to be embedded within the walls of the house.

Rice husks were also used to create a plaster for coating the structure’s internal walls and as a layer of insulation on top of its roof.

WASP told Dezeen that the method is time efficient and cheap, taking just ten days to complete, with the mud mixture costing less than a thousand pounds to produce.

“Gaia is a highly performing structure in terms of energy, with almost no environmental impact,” the company claimed.

WASP believes that agricultural waste could become a major resource in the building industry.

“It is possible to conceive a future scenario in which one hectare of cultivated paddy field can become 100 square-meters of built environment,” WASP said.

Although this project was made with waste from rice production, WASP believes a variety of natural and recycled materials can be used in 3D-printing for construction.

“We also believe it is possible to develop materials suitable for extrusion using mixtures of materials found on sites different from this one,” the company says. “We could even use demolition waste from pre-existing buildings.”

This movie is part of Dezeen x MINI Living Initiative, a collaboration with MINI Living exploring how architecture and design can contribute to a brighter urban future through a series of videos and talks.

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It is said that first impressions matter. We spend hours going over every facet of our product design, trying to achieve the perfect version of it. And in all our efforts, we often skip out on one aspect – the packaging! The way we first see or greet a product is the moment we form our initial perception of it. This first moment is like a first date, you either hit it or miss it! But unless you do hit it, you may not get this chance again. To help you define the packaging better, the write-up below by Tabatha Johnson walks you through 12 tips that will help you craft the perfect packaging for your amazing product.

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Designing a product is only the first step. No matter how great your shampoo smells, people won’t pop the lid and give it a whiff if the bottle doesn’t make them want to pick it up first. One of the easiest ways to get your product to sell itself is through attractive product packaging design.

But what makes great product packaging? Read on to find out twelve of the top tips for designing creative product packaging that does the job right.

1. Clarity

Consumers are bombarded by products whenever they enter a store. When someone picks up your product, they want to find out two things: what it does and who makes it. If they can’t answer both in four seconds or less, which is usually the maximum time anyone will spend looking at a product, they move on to the next item on the shelf.

Part of making sure a customer understands what your product does is choosing a font they can actually read. Using all capital letters makes it harder for our brains to compute the information we are seeing. If your font is too swirly or fancy, customers may misread your label, which can be a career-ending mistake.

You also need to keep the font size in mind. If the text is too small, your customers might miss crucial information about your product. If the text is too big, the packaging can become loud and crowded.

2. Simplicity

Keep it simple. Trying to cram too much information onto your product’s packaging will remind customers of how they felt when they had to read chapters out of their biology textbook: bored and confused.

This also goes back to clarity. If all your customer can see on your product packaging is the listed benefits, but not your company name or the name of the product, you’ll be missing out on the possibility of future sales.

3. Honesty

Your product packaging should represent what your product is and does. People can smell a salesman from a mile away and they can tell when packaging is overselling the product it contains. If your packaging shows something completely different than what is found inside, your customers won’t be happy.

A creative workaround for this problem is making part of your packaging transparent.

4. Authenticity

This tip may sound the same as honesty, but it’s different. In this case, the focus is on what your brand represents. This should come through when you sit down to design your product’s packaging.

Your brand is different from every other brand trying to sell the same thing, so let that show in the design of your product’s packaging. If your brand’s mission statement is about connectedness, you could incorporate a tear-away postcard into the packaging, so your customers can stay connected with their friends in a unique way.

5. Shelf Impact

This tip generally applies only if your product is available in a physical store, but it could still have an impact in an online shopping scenario too. The way products are presented and organized in stores means that your product will likely end up in a sea of others that also claim to do the same thing.

Your product needs to stand out from the others on the shelf. But how do you make it do that? The first rule is to know your competition.

If the other top-selling brand of raisins only uses red packaging, maybe you make yours in green instead. Another strategy that can work is to mimic your competition so closely that consumers will not notice when they pick up your product instead of theirs. This can backfire, though, so think it all the way through first.

6. Make it Fun

Including creative, fun ideas and even some humor into your product packaging design will not go unnoticed or unappreciated. This invites consumers into the product and gives them a feeling of familiarity.

One company designed tea bags that look like t-shirts that also included a hanger design, so the teabags could easily hang on the edge of a mug. This design makes the product easier to use and is also sure to give customers a chuckle and keep them coming back.

7. Special Editions

Creating special limited editions of your packaging for a certain event or theme is one way to boost short-term sales very quickly. This tactic relies on consumers’ likelihood for impulse buying. This works around the holidays and it can be co-opted for big sporting events like the Olympics too.

8. Trends

In every industry, trends are what keep innovation alive and are necessary for the longevity of the market. While it’s true that trends fade with the times, they’re also circular and tend to come back around time and again.

While being able to predict the upcoming trends is a skill, everyone is able to keep up with trends as they appear if they’re paying attention.

9. Think about the Customer

In the many rules of product packaging design, the focus is often on how to grab the customer’s attention, but now we’re challenging you to think about the customer in a different way. Think about the way the customer is going to use your product. Is your custom product packaging design intuitive with how the product works?

Is your product good for only a one-time use, or is it something to be used over and over? If it’s only meant to be used once, make sure the packaging is easy to get into and dispose of. for disposable items is also worth bonus points for the eco-conscious consumer.

If your product is something that’s used over a long period of time, make sure the packaging is durable and will maintain the quality of the product inside. Even if they love the product, if your lip balm dries up after four uses, customers won’t repurchase it.

Something consumers have questioned for years is why cereal boxes are not resealable. This trend has yet to take off in the breakfast market, but when it does, consumers will know that the change was made with them in mind. There’s nothing a customer appreciates more than packaging that is both aesthetically pleasing and functional.

10. Easy to Carry

If your packaging is overly bulky, include handles or grooves to help with ease in carrying it. If your product is fairly small, make sure your packaging isn’t too slippery, so users aren’t dropping it. Unless your brand has a monopoly on the market, customers won’t stick around if they have too difficult a time handling the product.

11. Rule Breaking

This tip may feel like a copout, but trust me, it isn’t. When you’ve mastered the art of design for product packaging, you’ll begin to see that not all of the rules apply all the time. While these are all things to keep in mind, breaking the rules can be a good thing. In fact, breaking the rules is what will turn your brand into a trendsetter instead of a trend follower.

Following trends is a good place to start and break your way into the market, but once you’re an established presence, finding ways to break the rules of conventional product packaging design is what will set your product apart.

Whoever thought about flipping the ketchup bottle upside down was a genius and changed the rules of food product packaging for the rest of time. They still worked within the conventions of the product market, though. You can be sure that no one is designing square condiment bottles any time soon.

12. Look to the Future

The best brands keep their eyes on the prize: expansion. Leaving room for your brand and product range to expand and grow is key for your business’s long-term success. So, remember this when you’re designing your product’s packaging.

That is not to say that you can’t be extremely specific when you’re designing the product packaging for a certain product. It just means that you need to be able to make variations to the design when your brand inevitably creates new products in the same line.

We may never know exactly what it is that makes customers pick one brand of something over another, but following these rules when you’re thinking of custom product packaging design can give you a head start over the competition.

The original write up by Tabatha Johnson published on cad crowd can be found here.

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SPPARC has unveiled its designs for a museum surrounding the Golden Hinde – a full-size replica of the of Francis Drake’s Golden Hind galleon.

The museum, located in St Mary Overie Dock in London, will be partially cantilevered over the River Thames. It will allow visitors to see more of the famous working-replica of the 16th-century sailing galleon, which is currently undergoing refurbishment.

SPPARC‘s design intends to echo the structure and craft of the original ship, in which Francis Drake became the first Englishman to sail around the world.

“The brief for the new Golden Hinde visitor centre called for a unique design that learnt from the skilled craftsmanship and innovative nautical engineering of this iconic ship,” explained Trevor Morriss, principal of the London-based studio.

“The concept was derived through the desire to reflect this history of The Golden Hinde and Sir Frances Drake in a contemporary visitor centre.”

The Golden Hind’s replica, named Golden Hinde, was first launched in 1973. After sailing over 140,000 miles, it was moored at its current site in St Mary Overie Dock in 1996.

SPPARC’s proposal for the Golden Hinde museum imagines a 1,125 square metre building split over two levels, linked to a covered walkway that wraps around the ship.

It will be constructed from slats of the same solid English oak used for the refurbishment of the gallion, and lined with glass.

The upper level will comprise the entrance and ticket hall, which leads into an exhibition space as well as an education space that cantilever over the river.

It will step down into a lower level, which will host more exhibition spaces showcasing a number of artefacts relating to the explorer.

These exhibition spaces will also provide access to a the covered walkway with viewing galleries to the ship, which allow visitors to see it from all angles.

SPPARC hopes that the Golden Hinde museum will also open up new views of the River Thames, and meet the Port of London Authority’s 2035 Thames Vision to bring “community and culture” to its banks.

“Visitors will now be able to view a number of key locations along the river that have connections to Drake, including Drakes home near Cannon Street and where the original Golden Hinde was moored near Custom House,” added the architecture studio.

SPPARC’s proposal for the museum and visitor centre is expected to be submitted for planning later this year.

Its construction would follow the completion of two other UK-based visitor centres designed to showcase historic ships. Alongside Grimshaw Architects Cutty Sark exhibition hall in Greenwich, Wilkinson Eyre Architects designed a museum that houses the sixteenth century Tudor warship the Mary Rose.

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