I just adore the Prinpl. You know why? Let’s first take a look at the name. It’s a lovely amalgamation of PRINt and PLay. It also sounds like Pimple, which does make sense once you get to know what the Prinpl does. That’s the second reason why I adore the Prinpl. It takes one of my favorite toys and gives it a modern twist. Designed as a New-Age MusicBox, the Prinpl actually reads 3d printed discs with braille-like bumps on them. The bumps then interfere with prongs on a fabricated piece of sheet metal, plucking at it to generate a tune. The cool thing about Prinpl is that you can now effectively 3D print your own tunes and play them on the Prinpl’s hypnotically soothing inbuilt-instrument. The catch is that this phenomenon only plays short, looped pieces of musical data, but the ability to print your own tunes means you can generate your own mini-library of music. Prinpl doesn’t however limit itself to just 3D printed discs. It also reads conventional data and mp3 CDs, making it an instrument at some times, and a music player at others. Versatile!
It also comes with an app, allowing you to remote-control the playback features. Color me impressed!
Designer: Jeongdae Kim
