Makies SXSW
SXSW Interactive has very much been a 3D printing orientated show; we had Makerbot announce their Digital Scanner ‘Digitizer’ plus their impending partnership with Autodesk, we had Defcad launching their new “pirate bay for 3D printing”, we had Ping Fu making the rest of us feel like freeloaders with her description of how she founded GeoMagic and last but certainly not least, MakieLab winning an Accelerator for their Makies toys.
SXSW’s Accelerator prize has a habit of naming 3D companies as winners. Last year’s winners of the Innovative Web Technologies prize was Viztu Technologies for their first product Hypr3D, which allowed a user to capture real life objects and turn them into 3D models. Viztu were later acquired by 3D Systems and Hypr3D is now known as Cubify Capture.
This year it was British based MakieLab who scooped the $4,000 Entertainment and Gaming Technologies prize (complete with comedy big cheque) for their development of Makies. the customisable 3D printed dolls. They faced tough competition for the prize, there were 500 applications and seven other finalists, it was a strong pitch by MakieLab’s CEO Alice Taylor that snatched the prize out of the hands of their rivals.
“We are delighted, humbled and grateful to the wonderful people of SXSW for this award,” said Taylor. “We’ve had the most amazing five days here, and this finale is the icing on the cake. It seems to be the year of 3D printing: Bre Pettis keynoting, Bruce Sterling wearing a 3D-printed Bruce Sterling around his neck… it’s fantastic, and we’re very much enjoying being part of this movement!”
2013 has been a huge year so far for Makies, they became the first 3D printed toy to garner the CE mark, launched an iPad app, lowered the base price and now have won this most coveted of prizes. Who knows what is next for the Shoreditch startup, world domination?