3D printing has empowered designers and creators to bring their ideas to life more easily, but many designs still require some assembly before the final product is finished. That can sometimes be wasteful, especially when using plastic materials, but it doesn’t always have to be that way. Sometimes you can get interesting yet functional designs with just a simple model.
This desk organizer is one such example that’s curious both in its shape as well as its functionality. It redefines how you see pen holders while also adding some visual flavor to your workspace. Best of all, it is designed for simple printing without the need for supports, joints, or even brims.
Designer: Liam de la Bedoyere (Bored Eye Design)
Pen holders are often designed as vertically standing containers, making it easy to pick up any pen. That said, that design also makes it difficult to quickly pick a specific pen because your eyes have to scan over all the pens and look for the one you need. Pen trays, on the other hand, can lay the pens out for easier viewing, but they can easily become a jumbled mess quickly.
Snappy uses a rather unusual solution to the latter, employing a ridged surface to keep pens separate. Each pen can be neatly placed in between each triangle to prevent them from rolling away or getting mixed up with others. You can quickly pick up the right pen just by glancing at Snappy, and you can still have a semblance of organization at the same time.
The concept design, however, doesn’t end there. Rather than just a flat tray, Snappy curves up a part of its length until it’s parallel to the other part. This creates a shape that is supposedly inspired by a crocodile, at least if you look at the Lacoste logo, though it also looks like a scorpion’s tail if the shorter side is at the top.
Curiously, either the short or the long side can be at the top, and the flat surface can become a place for small objects like an AirPods case, a thumb drive, or even a small pad of sticky notes. The design is simple enough to be 3D printed in one go but still has enough complexity to be an interesting sight on your desk, offering both functionality and visual appeal.
The post Quirky 3D-printed pen and stationery holder is meant to look like an abstract crocodile first appeared on Yanko Design.