MyMiniFactory Hosts 3D Print Vase & Planter Design Competition with a Twist

MyMiniFactory is holding a competition, but it’s not set up in the traditional way. The better your design is, the bigger the prizes for everyone. It costs nothing but your time to enter and while there’s nothing to lose, there’s a lot to be won.

The call is for vase and planter design, realistically, this is anything that you could possibly put something in that doesn’t have a lid. In fact, they’ve set the terms even broader than that: “as long as it resembles a vase or planter, or functions as one, your design will be accepted.”

If they were asking a submission fee, this would be baiting, but since it is free to submit, broad is better. Once you have submitted your design, it will be offered for sale through the MyMiniFactory Store for $9.99. The key is that the better your design, the more likely it is to grab people’s attention and the rewards in this contest are based on the number of sales each design can grab.

No matter what, each entry earns the designer a $50 voucher towards any 3D printer – with the caveat that you can only combine two vouchers. Then, each time your design sells, you earn 15%. The rest of the sales money goes into the pot (or money vase as I like to think of it) to be divided up among three prize winners. First prize receives 60% of overall store sales, second prize walks away with 30%, and third prize gets 10%. And to sweeten the pot, MyMiniFactory starts the prize pot with $500.

The requirements are fairly basic: the design has to be your own, and if it comes in multiple parts, it needs to include instructions. The piece also has to fit within the typical build volume of a desktop 3D printer. Finally, it needs to be designed so that it can be printed support free. Other than that, your imagination and the laws of physics are the only constraints.

Submission is open and designs will be accepted until September 29th. On October 13th voting and sales begin and will wrap up on November 3rd. Then much nail-biting ensues while participants wait for the announcement of the winner on November 8th.

There really is nothing to lose and it is a project simple enough for even those just entering the world of 3D printing to explore. It is a pretty clever competition really and a brilliant bit of marketing as well. Go on submit something, I know you want to…and I’m going to stock up on small house plants because I have a feeling that I’ll have access to some awesome planters this fall.

Let us know your plans to enter, or what you hope to see win, over at the MyMiniFactory 3D Printed Vase & Planter Design Competition forum thread at 3DPB.com.