# 3D Trophy Factory

3D Trophy Factory Blog

## Optical illusions and 3D-printed trophies

Admit it, we have all tortured our eyes with optical illusions and we all love to do it. The fact that we see things that are different than reality intrigues us. We all know ‘the dress’, where you see the dress as gold and white, but your friend is certain that it has the colors black and blue. Or the famous picture where one sees an old woman and someone else a young lady. How is this possible? Why do our eyes see things so differently?

‘the dress’ old women – young lady

Optical illusion, also called visual illusion, is caused by the visual system and characterized by visually perceived images that differ from reality. There are three different types of illusions: literal optical illusions, physiological illusions and cognitive illusions. The first one are images that are created by smaller images, that aren’t related to the overall image. In the example of the elephant, the artist drew an elephant with only legs and no feet, and then he also drew feet without the legs. This resulted in the illusion that the elephant has more than four legs.

literal optical illusion

Physiological illusions are the effects of excessive stimulation of brightness, position, color, size, movement… They are the ones that hurt the eyes the most and make you dizzy when you look too long at it. Just have a look at the picture below, you’ll understand what I mean immediately.

physiological illusion

The thirth and last type of optical illusion are the cognitive illusions. They are the result of unconscious inferences. These illusions rely on our stored knowledge about the world and are under some degree of conscious control. So, cognitive illusions arise from an interaction of perceived reality with assumptions about the world, leading to “unconscious inferences”.

cognitive illusion

3D Trophy Factory can make awards that have this optical illusion. We made a polyhedron award that appears to be round, but is actually flat. Have a look at this cool award below:

Polyhedron award: Thüringer Forschungspreis 2017

For more cool awards, don’t forget to check out our website!

## Meet our product designer, Gilles!

Have you ever wondered who makes all these beautiful trophies? Read this blog to find out more about one of our creative product designers, Gilles Borremans!

Picture: Gilles Borremans

 _Hey Gilles, let’s start by asking what you studied in College?_

I studied Product Development at the University of Antwerp. I completed my Bachelor and Masters degree there.

_How did you get in contact with 3D Trophy Factory?_

About 2 years ago Martijn talked about Twikit and 3D trophy factory at Antwerp Management School, where my girlfriend was studying. She told me that it seemed like a really cool company to work for. It was March and I had just finished my Masters, but I was leaving in May for an internship in Argentina. So I contacted them whether they needed someone for a month, they replied and I could start working there during the month April. After my internship they contacted me whether I was interested in working full time for them. I’m working here for 1 year and 8 months now.

_What is your function in the company?_

I develop the customizable trophies in this process. I have to make sure that the configurators work as custom-friendly as possible and also add new products to the website. Briefly said, I’m especially focused on developing products for the webshop but I also develop the fully customizable trophies.

_How does a typical working day look like for you?_

First of all, before I start my day, I have a really strong coffee. Then, I look whether there are some things that have to happen immediately, and restructure my planning according to this. I try to do the running orders in the morning, this are the fully customizable specials trophies. In the afternoon, if there is some time left, I have a look on how we can improve the webshop. But actually, I don’t really have a standard working day.

_What was the first trophy you developed?_

That’s a good question. I actually don’t know that anymore. But one of the first big ones was for Q8. The award was for the celebration of the oil plant in Antwerp. They send me pictures of there building with big cillo’s and they asked me to use this as a basis. The trophy was almost entirely out of plexi, only the blue text was 3D-printed. Creating this award was very interesting, because since then, I have done three more projects for this company. When you do something good for a big company, most of the times they will come back to you.

Q8 Oils Trophy

 _What was the coolest trophy you have ever made?_

Definitely the one for Wacom. Wacom sells drawing tablets that you can connect to your computer and in that way you can draw digitally. The briefing from the company about the trophy was just a scratch with a pen. That was all. The award was called the Wacom Inkathon Award. They wanted the award to be an Inc Splash, but entirely in the Wacom style. The end result was a kind of ink explosion structure with the colors of Wacom. It was fun to do because it was a challenging design, because the award had to be strong enough, but at the same time appear very light.

Wacom Inkathon trophy

 _If you could choose, for who or for what would you like to develop a trophy?_

For Kendrick Lamar. He’s a real Hip Hop poet and I have a lot of respect for him. It would be nice to thank him for his music with an award.

## The Oscars returns to its original version thanks to 3D printing

source: http://www.geekster.be/films/oscars-2016-geekster-verslag/

Since 1928 The Oscars promises every year an evening of total glamour and prestige where stars show up in the most beautiful and magnificent outfits. Such a night, calls for an equally impressive award. For 33 years the statuettes have been manufactured at a Chicago trophy company. But over time, little changes have crept in the award. The foundry decided they wanted the Oscars to look again like the original one in 1928. The Academy Polich Tallix in New York offered the solution: it could scan the orignal award and then make a 3D-printed modern version out of the scan.

First of all, the process starts by scanning a classic Oscar from 1928 and a modern one of 2015. These two are then blended to make a new design that resembles closer to the original award.

source: http://www.polichtallix.com/2016/02/16/oscar-returns-to-bronze-at-polich-tallix/

This new design is then 3D-printed in wax and dipped in ceramic shell slurry. After this, the award gets fired in an oven and bronze is poured into the shell. It has to cool overnight, before the final step can occur: the bronze castings are broken out of the shell the next day and the award is covered with 24 karat gold.

source: http://www.polichtallix.com/2016/02/16/oscar-returns-to-bronze-at-polich-tallix/source: http://www.polichtallix.com/2016/02/16/oscar-returns-to-bronze-at-polich-tallix/

3D Trophy Factory is specialized in making beautiful trophies and awards. We also made our own modern version of the Oscars, what do you think of it? And don’t forget to check out our website for more cool trophies!

## the Proxsys Cup stands for fun and spectacle!

Fun, excitement and spectacle. That’s what the Proxsys Cup is all about. This two-weeks lasting event organizes indoor soccer matches for people of all ages: seniors, ladies, youth under 17, youth under 13 and G-soccer are all welcome.

The Proxsys Cup took place in Gorinchem, a small city in the Netherlands where many sports are practised and many sports associations are based. As all the participating teams and clubs were very excited about the event, it can be said that the Cup was a great success.

We’d like to congratulate Mohamed Boukrouche for winning the Proxsys Cup 2016! He was sportsman of the year in 2013 in Gorinchem and it’s in this city that he lives his best sportsmoments. According to him it’s sports that brings people together in the city Gorinchem. It was our honour to print the 3D trophies for such a warm and fun event.

## The VRT awards diversity in Flemish Television and Radio.

For the 5th year in a row, the VRT (the Flemish state channel), presented the diversity trophies . Continue reading “The VRT awards diversity in Flemish Television and Radio.”

## The Shopping Awards recognizes outstanding e-commerce talent in The Netherlands!

On March 9th and March 23rd, the annual Shopping awards took place. The wait is finally over, and we now know the best web shops and omnichannel retailers of 2017 in The Netherlands! Continue reading “The Shopping Awards recognizes outstanding e-commerce talent in The Netherlands!”

## JUTTU wins bpost Omnichannel Award

Multi-brand retailer JUTTU can call itself the proud winner of the bpost Omnichannel Award 2017. The event took place February 2th in Antwerp Urban City. The award was created by our designers at 3D Trophy Factory and is made out of plexiglass with a 3D-printed silver part on top. Other nominees were Hunkemöller and Media Markt.

Omnichannel is a recent strategy that is used to increase customer experience, by making a full integration between the online and offline channels. That way customers can choose which channel they want to use, and they can easily switch from one channel to another. Every channel offers the same information source, experience, pricing… JUTTU won the award because the retailer succeeded in positioning the customer as a central point in their strategy and letting the different channels move around the customer. The multi-brand retailer offers the offline store experience also in the online webshops.

twitter account: Xplore Group

JUTTU is a multi-brand retailer for fashion, decoration and food. JUTTU has a store in Antwerp, Roeselare and Brugge. The retailer recently opened its stores in 2015, so the award is a great recognition for JUTTU’s omnichannel strategy.

twitter account: Thomas Vaarten

## Pigeon racing is breaking price records. But how about the trophies?

Earlier this year, The Belgian race pigeon “Golden Prince” from Wevelgem has fetched 360,000 euros at an online auction. Auction house Pipa claims that this makes Golden Prince the most expensive pigeon ever. The winning bid is from South Africa.

Belgium enjoys a long-time tradition in the breeding of racing pigeons. Buyers often come from abroad, from countries like China.

Pigeon racing is the sport of releasing specially trained racing pigeons, which then return to their homes over a carefully measured distance. The time it takes the animal to cover the specified distance is measured and the bird’s rate of travel is calculated and compared with all of the other pigeons in the race to determine which animal returned at the highest speed.

Most of the time the trophies are classic, meaning heavy decorated and gold or silver plated. But since the sport is clearly entering a new era – new investors, new tracking technology – we believe a change is needed. Our designers made these clean and simplistic (3D printed) trophies, fit for pigeon racing in the 21st century. What do you think?

## Finding Dory wins the very first Belgian Big Screen Award.

The very first “Belgian Big Screen Award”, an annual price for the most popular movie in Belgian theatres, was awarded this week by the Flemish prime minister Kris Peeters to the computer animated movie “Finding Dory” from The Walt Disney Company.

Finding Dory is a 2016 American 3D computer-animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. _Finding Dory_ focuses on the fish Dory, who journeys to be reunited with her parents.

Prime Minister Kris Peeters, Minister of work, economy, consumer business and foreign trade adds : “The audiovisual sector provides about 5000 jobs in Belgium alone, not to forget that this is and will also stay a growing industry. Between 2008 and 2014 the amount of companies in the audiovisual industry in Flanders increased with a staggering 50%. This has everything to do with the many creative and entrepreneurial talents in our country, that follow their passion. The federal government remains to support this important industry with the Tax Shelter, that provides an amount of 55 million euros to be used for movie productions. “

Serge Van Eyck, Deputy manager The Walt Disney Company : “Our Belgian team has about 50 very motivated employees, that make sure that the Belgian audience, big and small, can see Disney movies in Belgian theaters. Therefore this Belgian Big Screen Award for Finding Dory is a great recognition for my colleagues and myself. “

## The Foreign Investment Trophy 2017

For the fifth year in a row, Flanders Investment & Trade held the prestigious **Foreign Investment Trophy** on February 21, 2017. The Ghelamco Arena in Ghent provided a setting fit for this thrilling investment competition – highlighting the importance of foreign investment as an economic driver in Flanders and the world.

While five multinationals competed for the trophy for **Investment of the Year** , two other investors were acknowledged – one with the **Lifetime Achievement Trophy** , the other with the title of **Newcomer of the Year**

**And the winners are…**

Following a final, live voting poll, French biopharma firm **Sanofi** claimed the grand prize at the Foreign Investment Trophy for funneling EUR 300 million into the expansion of its biotech factory in Geel, Flanders.

The Lifetime Achievement Trophy goes to German Chemical Giant **BASF** , five decades after opening its first base at the port of Antwerp in Flanders.

And last but not least, **Kebony** could take home the award for Newcomer of the Year.

By choosing Flanders as the location for its first production site outside of its home country, Norwegian wood producer Kebony secured this very first trophy for Newcomer of the Year at the Foreign Investment Trophy 2017.