When it comes to the highly shatterable iPhone, a case is key (especially when you’re navigating your hazy way down the streets of SXSW, as we currently are). You could easily go with a simple black case and have done with it, but, really, aren’t you just wasting crucial real estate thusly? Think about how often you show the plebs the back of your cell as you tap out texts to your awesome friends/check into that rad party on Foursquare/desperately scroll through car services on Yelp when you finally stumble out of said party, too bleary-eyed to find your way home. Shouldn’t you employ that 4-by-2 canvas to its fullest? Perhaps by proudly proclaiming your superior musical tastes to the slobbering masses in the most obscure manner possible?

Enter: The Vibe iPhone case, courtesy of 3D printing company Shapeways and sound-sharing platform SoundCloud. The two companies have joined together to create an online service that lets users create iPhone cases depicting their favorite sounds — in the guise of a SoundCloud waveform.

The site plugs into a user’s SoundCloud account, allowing them to pull up their own sound projects (music, podcasts, etc) or search for other user’s sounds and choose which part of the accompanying waveform to turn into the case. The above case depicts a conversation I set up between my buddies, Brooklyn band Not Blood Paint, and legendary musical weirdos, Devo.

Yeah, you could just slap some music stickers on your case (or snap up some band-designed cell-holders from Case-Mate) and be all mainstream. Or you could make like Witch House artists and their band names and make folks work to understand your tunes. The choice is yours.

(All kidding aside, these cases are just pretty rad.)