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Willy

Concept visualisation of the mineral-red Willy bathroom organiser holding an electric toothbrush and a bar of soapConcept visualisation of the mineral-red Willy bathroom organiser holding an electric toothbrush and a bar of soap

Industrial Design / AI-assisted CAD

Willy

From seductive AI form to one-shot SLS production

The image was only the promise.

Project year
Project 2026
Role
Concept Direction · Form Development · CAD Direction · Digital Manufacturing QA
Status
SLS PA12 print ordered and in manufacturing; physical fit, strength and wet-use performance remain unverified.
Project context
Self-initiated · Rotterdam

00 · Project truth

Central question
How can a sculptural bathroom object keep its character when it has to fit one charger, route one cable, drain soap water and survive a one-shot print?
Relationship
Self-initiated product design study
Editorial note
The hero and early keeper are concept visualisations, not photographs of the manufactured part. V21 CAD differs where adapter, cable, drainage and print constraints required it. The physical part has not yet been inspected.

Meaning before making

The gap this work had to close.

  1. 01 · The question

    How can a sculptural bathroom object keep its character when it has to fit one charger, route one cable, drain soap water and survive a one-shot print?

  2. 02 · The shift

    Treat the image as a constraint, not as evidence: every revision had to preserve the mineral-red silhouette while proving the invisible mechanics.

  3. 03 · The form

    A bathroom organiser taken from an AI-generated form hypothesis through 21 controlled CAD revisions to a hollowed SLS PA12 production model.

01 · The promise

A bathroom object that did not look like bathroom storage.

The first keeper found the atmosphere and mineral-red character, but still read as two neighbouring objects. Research then consolidated toothbrush and soap into one continuous body, before print layers, the charger pocket and cable route made the form answerable to production. The image established the emotional target—not the final geometry.

Atmospheric concept image of a sculptural mineral-red bathroom organiser
AI-assisted concept image — form and colour keeper, not a product photograph and not the final CAD.
Mineral-red Willy form study integrating toothbrush and soap into one continuous body
Integration study · the bridge became body, turning two functions into one object.
Later mineral-red Willy study with layered print texture, charger pocket and cable exit
Production-facing study · surface, charger fit and cable exit entered the form language.

02 · The collision

The image had to survive the cable.

The charger was not a neat circle. Its broad oval base, narrow moulded tail and cable exit forced the tower to open without turning the object into a technical dock. On the other side, a 90 × 60 × 30 mm soap volume needed clearance, a raised floor and drainage. The final contour is the negotiation between those incompatible facts.

Top view of Willy V21 showing the charger pocket, cable route and soap recess
V21 top view — charger pocket and soap recess resolved as one continuous plan.
Rear view of Willy V21 showing the open cable route
The cable route remains visible and serviceable instead of being hidden in an unprintable cavity.

03 · The invisible work

Beauty moved underneath.

A solid version was too expensive to print. V21 opens the underside, keeps 3–4 mm functional walls and adds ribs only where the soap floor needs support. The exterior sample stayed unchanged while model volume fell from 494,243 mm³ to 235,326 mm³: a measured 52.39% reduction from V20.

Underside view of Willy V21 showing the hollow body and support ribs
V21 underside — open, hollow and ribbed; one connected watertight export, not a sealed material block.

04 · The production model

Twenty-one revisions. One definitive print.

There was no budget or time for a chain of physical prototypes, so risk moved forward into digital QA. The final 280 × 112 × 40 mm package includes editable Rhino files plus watertight STL and 3MF exports. Geometry, dimensions, collisions, connected components and export integrity were checked before an SLS PA12 order was placed through Craftcloud.

  1. 01

    Preserve the promise

    Keep the low mineral-red silhouette and continuous domestic gesture.

  2. 02

    Prove the interfaces

    Model charger, cable, soap clearance and drainage as geometry, not annotations.

  3. 03

    Remove invisible cost

    Hollow the body without changing the exterior surface samples.

  4. 04

    Name the open proof

    A watertight mesh is digital evidence, not proof of physical fit or wet use.

05 · Current status

Ordered is not proven.

The SLS PA12 part is in manufacturing. The digital package is complete, but the decisive evidence still has to arrive with the object: adapter insertion, cable behaviour, toothbrush stability, soap drainage, cleaning and strength in daily bathroom use. Until then, Willy is a production-stage case—not a validated product claim.

Willy V21 CAD assembly with the charger proxy and soap volume in place
V21 assembly render — final digital geometry. Physical verification remains open until the manufactured part is inspected.

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