| Title | THE 3D ELEPHANT PETITION |
| Brand | WORLD ANIMAL PROTECTION |
| Product/Service | ANIMAL WELFARE ORGANIZATION |
| Category |
A01. Innovation |
|
Entrant Company
|
FHV BBDO Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
|
|
Advertising Agency
|
FHV BBDO Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
|
|
Production Company
|
MINIVEGAS Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
|
Credits
| Tim De Waard |
FHV BBDO |
Copywriter |
| Daniel Samama |
FHV BBDO |
Art Director |
| Mark Muller |
FHV BBDO |
Creative Director |
| Martin Cornelissen |
FHV BBDO |
Creative Director |
| Derk Van Beek |
FHV BBDO |
Strategy Manager |
| Vincent Seeber |
FHV BBDO |
Strategy Executive |
| Eke Rog |
FHV BBDO |
Client Services Director |
| Niki Lodder |
FHV BBDO |
Account Manager |
| Ellen Visée |
FHV BBDO |
Account Manager |
| Hans Dekker |
FHV BBDO |
Online Producer |
| Carien Van Leeuwen |
FHV BBDO |
Online Producer |
| Bas De Graaf |
FHV BBDO |
Design Director |
| Nicole Clerc |
FHV BBDO |
Designer |
| Esmee Lechner |
FHV BBDO |
Interactive Designer |
| Dean Refos |
FHV BBDO |
Video Animation |
| Joris Van Tubergen |
Rooie Joris |
3d Printing Specialist |
| Dolf Veenvliet |
Macouno |
Designer |
| Marcel Kremer |
Mont Blanc |
Graphic Producer |
| Bert Hagendoorn |
|
Pr Manager |
| Lot Bosch Van Drakenstein |
|
Pr Manager |
The Brief
Five Ultimaker 3D printers printed a life-size elephant, displayed for three weeks at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. It was made for World Animal Protection to create awareness for elephant suffering: the first-ever 3D printed petition. People could add their name to the petition online, which added material to the printer. All the names of the petitioners were embossed in the design of the elephant. The 3D printing technology in this campaign was conceived specially to make this possible. The campaign and this new technology went live August 12th 2014.
To be able to print an elephant this big, with so much detail and in just three weeks meant modifications to existing 3D printing technology had to be made.
First, we widened the print head for speed. Then, the printers were flipped upside down and mounted on laser cut steal rigs. This unlimited Z-mod made the printer pull itself up alongside a rig, making it possible to print very tall objects. This is the first time ever that it was possible to print objects this big at such speed and in such detail.
We sliced the design of the elephant into 57 columns. Each printer could print one full column in about 24 hours. Each column contained the names of petition signatures, embossed into the elephant skin in a custom designed font, called the elefont. This process was automated: before sending a column to one of the printers, the names of most recent participants were taken from the database, and automatically added onto the pre-designed text paths. In total, about 20.000 names where embedded into the elephant.
These adaptions to existing 3D printing technology (mostly Ultimaker open source technology) made it possible to materialize the support of thousands of people for our cause.
In the 3D print community the idea of flipping a low budget 3D printer to print tall objects was embraced and
seen as ground breaking.
The Z-unlimited mod will be further developed and available through open source. A kick-starter campaign will follow to make the Z-unlimited available to every Ultimaker 3D printer user. The specially developed font, the elefont, is freely available. The elephant design too. They are both on creative commons licences.