Gantri, a California-based light manufacturer, has unveiled its own 3D printer named Dancer. Using a patent-pending process based on an FDM multi-gantry system, the Dancer is designed for the production of the company’s light fittings. It leverages a total of four gantries alongside a rotating circular build plate. Manufactured at the company’s San Leandro facility, the […]
Gantri Designers Continue Elevating Style with 3D Printed Lamps
While you may not think that a technology so often used by hobbyists to make small plastic toys could be responsible for the creation of elegant housewares, you would definitely be wrong. In 2017, London School of Economics graduate Ian Yang founded California-based housewares company Gantri, which is dedicated to selling beautiful 3D printed lamps made by designers from all around the world.
Yang told House Beautiful, “We believe that designs are more than objects—they represent the personal stories, inspirations and lives of the designer. We feature each designer because it provides context for how they arrived at their design and creates a human connection between the consumer and the designer—something that is sorely missing from the design world today.”
Konus
Each of the modern, stylish 3D printed lamps featured on Gantri are “a labor of love,” with their own unique backstories: the Lago lamp by Heitor Lobo Campos in Brazil was inspired by the texture of water, and the Konus lamp by Raphael Pangilinan was actually developed twenty years ago when the designer was a teenager in the Philippines.
“I didn’t have a lot of money, so I improvised using driftwood or pieces of metal. I first made Konus using bamboo, eventually moving on to hand-woven abacá fiber,” Pangilinan explained on the Gantri website. “I never manufactured it on a large scale because it would have taken forever.”
But thanks to Gantri’s 3D printing technology, the designer was able to take his modern lamp to the next level by producing it on a larger scale and selling it.
“I was especially fascinated by 3D printing, because even though it was mostly used by hobbyists at the time, I saw so much potential for it as a cost-effective, sustainable way to bring high-quality designs to life. So I started tinkering and researching for ways to make luxury 3D printed products, and that’s how the idea for Gantri was born,” Yang said.
The company’s technology is a little different than standard 3D printing. The company wanted a more efficient way to make better prints, so it got to work modifying existing 3D printing hardware to fit its needs.
Gantri also finishes its own lamps by hand-sanding each one, then protecting it from any potential scratches and UV damage by finishing it with a soft-touch matte paint, which is actually used most often on yachts; the matte also adds a little warmth to the lamp.
But neither of these two steps would be possible without the first – the company actually developed its own biodegradable 3D printing materials, which were designed specifically for use in its 3D printed lighting.
Yang said, “We worked with ColorFabb, a materials company in the Netherlands, to create two custom blends of corn-based PLA.
“We wanted to control the precise feel of our parts for our high-end customers. We’re comparing ourselves to traditional luxury goods after all!”
In addition, the company’s technology has managed to take the entire product development process and streamline it down from the typical 18-24 month timeline to just 14 weeks, which means that designers can bring their lamp designs to life and sell them much more quickly.
One of the coolest features Gantri offers is its new augmented reality view tool, which just launched in September and makes lamp shopping way easier.
“Visualize any of our lights in your space with augmented reality, right from your phone,” the Gantri website reads.
While browsing the Gantri website on Safari, any customer with an iPhone or iPad running iOS 12 can use the device’s camera to get a good visual of how a particular product would look in their home, without needing to download any additional apps.
Gantri is also planning on introducing some new lighting categories for its customers to browse, as well as unveiling an improved Create Hub, so more designers can make their lamps a reality this year.
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Gantri’s Artistic Lamps Illuminate the Possibilities of 3D Printing
From left to right, the Zeppelin (by L.A.–based Chris Granneberg), the Float (by Milan-based Viviana Degrandi), and the Model TL2 (a Gantri original)
There’s nothing like a good lamp to really tie a room together, and 3D printing has opened up the floodgates for the creation of some very cool lamps. Ian Yang, founder of Gantri, loves 3D printed lamps – so much so that he started a company dedicated to them. Gantri is officially a housewares company, but lighting and lamps are a focal point, and they’re all 3D printed by designers from around the world. The company launched last year with a collection of 30 3D printed lamps, all for less than $200.
The hard part is deciding which lamp you want to accent your home – they’re all fascinating to look at. There’s Iceberg by Hannah Fink, which looks, you guessed it, just like an iceberg. Or you can go with Arco by Arielle Pollock, which resembles a large crystal stood on its end. If you want a more traditional look, there’s the elegant Paris by Javier Martinez, or if lanterns are your thing, you might like 7th Order by HEWN. No matter your taste, you’re likely to find something that suits you and your decor – and you’re supporting independent designers.
3D printing, as Gantri illustrates, allows for some pretty intricate, neat designs, and it also helps designers get their designs off the ground much more quickly. Traditional manufacturing processes usually require 18 to 24 months to launch a new product, but Gantri, using 3D printing, can have a product ready in about 12 to 14 weeks.
Yang studied at the London School of Economics before moving to San Francisco and joining an open-access studio where he began learning about 3D printing, laser cutting, and other advanced manufacturing techniques. He was especially taken with 3D printing, and within two years he had launched Gantri, which is dedicated to using the technology to create unique and affordable functional art.
Sopp Table Light by Kiyv, Ukraine–based architect Max Voytenko
While 3D printing opens up new possibilities for lighting design, and makes it quicker and cheaper than traditional production techniques, it’s still quite a challenge. When asked why he decided to start with lighting, Yang replied:
“Because it’s so hard to do! It’s a perfect example of the problem we’re trying to solve.”
Gantri’s designers hail from all over the world; there are artists from North America, Brazil, Colombia, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and the Ukraine. Each brings a distinctive vision to the table; you won’t find anything like most of these lamps at IKEA. All of Gantri’s lamps are 3D printed from sustainable PLA and are available in shades of white, gray and black. There’s something surreal and futuristic-looking about many of them, which perfectly illustrates the futuristic technology from which they were made. Put a Gantri lamp in your home, and you definitely will have a conversation-starter.
Currently, the design submission process is invite-only, but Yang wants to open it up in the future.
“We attract designers who really want to build their design brands,” he said. “One day we want to support everybody.”
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[Source: Architectural Digest/Images: Gantri]