“Very realism” and “such 3-D” are two phrases that describe the must-buy Christmas gift for that weird kid in your life who posts Shiba Inus on Tumblr all day.
It’s a 3-D-printed figurine of “doge,” a cute Shiba Inu (or “shibe” for short)—a meme featuring a dog that shows what he’s thinking in Comic Sans. Doge has won over even the hardest, most meme-fatigued netizens.
In the last year alone, 2-D Shibas have spread across Reddit, Tumblr, and 4chan. Just in time for the holiday season, doge is finally entering the third dimension. Wow.
To compare:
The figurine was created by designer Ryan Kittleson, a New York–based sculptor who specializes in meme reproductions. He’s created models of Miley Cyrus twerking, Success Kid, and the unstoppable T-Rex.
“I wanted to make doge simply because I enjoyed the meme pictures that have been floating around the net lately,” Kittleson told me. “And it’s basically my career and hobby to do digital sculpture of things like this. I think that doge is especially charming to me because of his rudimentary grasp of english and his simplistic yet contradictory emotional states.”
Before moving to New York, Kittleson lived in Orlando, Fla., for six years, teaching 3-D modeling at Full Sail University. Before that, he studied traditional illustration at East Carolina University in North Carolina.
Kittleson is currently selling doge for $19.99 on the 3-D-printing marketplace Shapeways.
Photos by Ryan Kittleson