3D Printed Event Hashtag for Google IO 2016

Back in 2008, I attended my first Google IO event - a conference put on by Google to focus on tools and platforms for developers mostly (programmers).

Since those early days, the event has grown tremendously and is now the premiere forum for Google to introduce new, innovative products for everyone, with a deep focus on platforms like Android and Chrome and developers on those platforms.

But this isn't a post about Google IO. This is a post about a 3D Printed keychain I designed to celebrate Google IO 2016.

Model design

I admit - I didn't give much thought to this design. I simply wanted to have something to give out to my friends and others who show interest in 3D Printing (if you see me there, mention this post and I'll give you one if I have any left).

I just used the Google IO 2016 hashtag that I hope everyone decides to use - so not the long version #GoogleIO2016 - but rather the shortened #io16.

To make this model, I simply created the text, using Gill Sans font (which seemed to match the font on the GoogleIO site the closest) and then made a frame to hold all the parts easily. I actually referred back to my old post about 3D Printing text to help choose the font and to consider positive and negative (cutout) designs.

Making the model slightly more interesting

This is a rather boring model, I know. To add just a bit of interest, I decided to try rotating each letter/number a bit on the y-axis.

At about 15 degrees, this looked pretty good! I simply chopped off the bottom part (underside) of each letter/number after rotating to keep a flat base, and this became the preferred design for sure.

Got an event coming up? Got a Twitter hashtag you like? Make a 3D Printed keychain to show some love!

The Model

If you've really become a fan of GoogleIO, you might want to print some of these before the event on Wednesday this week (May 18-20, 2016).
Here is the model on Thingiverse :)