This year, the White House, in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution, invited makers, innovators, artists, engineers and students from across the country to design winter holiday-inspired ornaments in its first-ever 3D Printed Ornament Design Challenge.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Designer Gil Rivera\u2019s winning entry, \u201cWinter Snowflakes,\u201d was chosen from more than 300 entries. The Montclair State alumnus was among 20 finalists and one of five grand prize winners whose ornaments were selected for display in the White House. Rivera\u2019s ornament, a frosted globe which features intricate, interconnected, cutout snowflakes, is displayed on a tree in the White House\u2019s East Room. This holiday season, more than 65,000 visitors are expected to visit the White House to enjoy the holiday decorations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s such an honor to be recognized by the White House,\u201d says Rivera, who has pursued a successful career as a graphic design professional since receiving his BFA degree from the University in 2005.<\/p>\n
Rivera\u2019s \u201cWinter Snowflakes\u201d design reflects his simple, clean aesthetic. \u201cAll in all, I wanted a design that\u2019s reminiscent of a vintage tree ornament but still appealing to the technological process of 3D printing,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n
Currently freelancing from his home in Montclair, Rivera is also working on advancing his skills as a 3D modeler and finding new ways to apply those skills to 3D printing. \u201cMy goal is to transition into a full-time career as a 3D designer,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n
The 3D Printed Ornament Design Challenge supports White House initiatives in promoting innovation and creativity in STEM-related disciplines. Once prohibitively expensive, today 3D printing offers innovative and inexpensive solutions in everything from fashion and food to health care and engineering \u2013 and design. \u201cWhite House support for this new technology and recognition of its potential for improving the future has been both motivating and reassuring in my decision to change careers,\u201d says Rivera.<\/p>\n
His winning design not only hangs on a White House Christmas tree, but is also on display on the Smithsonian\u2019s SD data platform, where it can be downloaded and printed out. Rivera\u2019s ornament will also join a small collection of White House ornaments in the political history division of the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of American History.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alumnus’ \u201cWinter Snowflakes\u201d ornament decorates White House Christmas tree<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":206644,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-210_art-design-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207322,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13789\/revisions\/207322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}