Materialise has been contacted by Italian architect Antonio Pio Saracino to build his new Eni trophy design for the Moto GP in Sachsenring and Formula 1 race in Budapest with additive manufacturing technologies.

This year the front line protagonist in the racing world Eni, had asked the designer Antonio Pio Saracino, who currently lives and works in New York, to give a dynamic and contemporary reinterpretation to their traditional six-legged dog logo. Saracino is a young upcoming talent whose works of art and design have been shown in galleries and museums around the world, including Rome, New York, Brussels, Moscow, Cordoba and Sydney.

Being fascinated by both technology and art, Antonio Pio Saracino often combines the two in his work. For this project, he immediately thought of Materialise to collaborate with. For the Eni trophy he wanted to transform the body of the dog, its legs and the flame that comes out of its mouth into strong lines, stressing the movement and the dynamics of the six-legged creature. His idea would have been impossible to realise with traditional manufacturing methods. Materialise was able to bring to life the complex shapes of the trophy designed by Saracino. The result shows how technology and art can come together, in a fascinating, and emotionally engaging way.

The trophies are manufactured by means of selective laser sintering, which is an additive manufacturing process that uses a high power laser to fuse small particles of plastic powder into a mass representing a desired 3-dimensional object. The polyamide material has been lacquered afterwards in gold, silver and bronze. Whereas additive manufacturing technologies in the past were mainly used to build prototypes, they are now gaining ground in production and artistic environments.

MPF