Even though MakerBots have pushed development and adoption of consumer 3D printing, they have a built-in braking speed: their looks. A classic MakerBot Replicator looks like it belongs in a hackerspace or a high-school shop class; it looks feral. You wouldn’t put one in a corner suite.
When I saw a picture of the Stratasys Mojo, a prosumer 3D printer released in India earlier this year, I said to myself: that looks like something that every office has. That’s an ugly office machine. Coffeemaker? Inkjet printer? Who knows? Who cares? Sure, it’s not gorgeous like the Apple-slick Buccaneer, or as crazy-cheap. But it won’t scare the horses, and that indicates a design intention to make it a ubiquitous workplace object.
The Buccaneer, now, that’s a desire object- at a quotidian price. Which is why their Kickstarter is at $860k of their $100k goal, as of this writing.
this post originally appeared on the T324 Blog.