Remember when printers used to cost an arm and a first born child? Then the prices came down and the ink was an obscene amount of money? We’ve come a long way in printing technology since then. We can print photos, posters and most recently, 3D models. If you’ve seen Iron Man 2, then you’ve seen these 3D model printers in action. That’s right; the armour was entirely made from desktop sized 3D polymer printers.

Costume designers aren’t the only people to have realised the potential these printers hold for fashion design. The Lo Res womens shoes from United Nude is in my opinion, one of the most interesting pieces of fashion design in recent memory. While it may look like a bit of injection moulding it is actually made with this new printing technology. What the good folks at UN have done is take design images of their shoes then lowered their resolution and printed them out. The result is a faceted shoe that resembles a precious stone to some and an 8-bit image to others.

What I find so fascinating about this is the use of new materials and new technologies to create their product. These shoes become more interesting when you take into consideration what they represent. This is a wonderful new way to combine a virtual and digital world in our ever changing tactile space. It’s refreshing that they have taken such a playful approach.

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Featured Contributor: Eric McDonald

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