Value-based design solutions
Innovation is a natural part of the design process and only ever occurs where fields of knowledge overlap. Innovation provides the competitive impetus for the development of new products, with new technology often requiring a new design interpretation. Thus, we have built up a very specific body of strategic design expertise for this purpose. Businesses can no longer compete by merely slashing prices or upping a marketing budget. Design innovation in combination with innovative research is the key to success.
For companies involved in the manufacture and marketing of products, the design of the product affects almost every aspect of their activities. This is most obvious and direct for marketing and R&D but also for logistics, distribution, sales, PR and customer services. The potential gains from effective product design are undeniable. We operate within a highly skilled research and commercial environment with a vast number of considerations influencing our working process. Our business unit for industrial design, product design, interface design, and rapid prototyping includes our own lab and is intrinsically linked with our core business, R&D in the field of micro- and nano-technology and the know-how of our strategic partners. This means we can offer our clients a unique and vivid knowledge platform, which is a formidable weapon in the battle for business success.
In a world where being able to predict and meet future needs is often the key to success, time has become a critical factor. “Time” and “risks” are the critical factors in all product development. In order to minimize the risks entailed in a development project, the right decisions must be made at the right times throughout the entire development process.
Products characterize the brand
Design is fundamentally about making things better – better for users, better for business, and better for the world. A well-conceived product will sell more, increase market share, obtain wider distribution, improve margins and create out new opportunities, all of which will increase revenue and, potentially, decrease costs.
Product design is vital to every company involved in the manufacture and marketing of physical products of any type. Products are an essential element of communication and often the only connection between the users and the brand. Emphasizing design brings creativity into an organization and increases the chance of producing market-leading, mold-breaking products.
Good design serves to protect the relationships between the producer and the user, which is good business – for both parties. This is where our Industrial Design Department can be of help. With us as a development partner, your firm has access to expertise in industrial design with the theoretical background and years’ of practical experience needed in product development. We can help you find the right solution and choose the right combination of methods required to bring your ideas to the market. Our industrial-design expertise merges ideally with the other components of our wider research and development process, giving our customers a powerful competitive advantage.
We start with careful consideration of the user’s needs. Establishing what our customer wants and then translating these needs into useful blueprints constitute the first stage of our process. We build on the results of this enquiry with a mixture of creativity and commercial insight.
The requirement that form should follow function is fundamental to the concept of industrial design in a two ways. The product must function technically and also in its interaction with the user. For a producer, a product is an item to be sold; for the user, it is a tool that helps make life more creative, convenient, safer and sounder, or more eventful. Good design is a means of creating an effective product and of strengthening the relationship between the product’s perceived value and its selling price.
Our industrial design unit has unique experience and outstanding, industry-specific knowledge at its disposal. This wealth of experience flows into another area of competence: the close collaboration of our industrial design, interface design and research. This combination is unique in its reciprocity. We have the industrial-design expertise needed to meet the demands of our customers. We can create knowledge for our customers, an additional advantage we can confidently offer because of our wide range of expertise in different fields.
Collaboration with us ensures that your company has access to the latest interdisciplinary technology. This results in rapid, efficient and low-cost product development, engineering and high-end modeling.
Product design is always critical for any company that manufactures physical products. Our customers benefit greatly from the integration of design theory and design process into their normal development activities. Idea generation and innovation are critical in all phases.
Our Industrial D Team accompanies all of the product-development phases from the early concept phase right the way through to realization and implementation.
Concept design
Ideas judged by both the client and the designers to have potential are worked out in more detail by taking into account all of the influencing factors. This is done in order to arrive at early physical manifestations in the form of sketches, renderings and foam models, and 2D- or 3D-CAD describing the architecture and the technical intent.
Concept development involves a tight focus on a smaller selection of concepts in order to bring together all of the factors that might bear upon its fruition (ergonomic, technical, production and aesthetic). Typically, the output is the same as in the concept-design phase but with more refinement and greater emphasis on 3D CAD.
Design development
These phases typically narrow the focus for work to a single design proposal even though some aspects may yet remain unproven. This design-development phase is all about intent for eventual production and is largely geared to the definition of each and every aspect of the product so that both marketing and engineering can concur on the design intent. Typical output would be 2D CAD, 3D surfaces, 3D solid modeling and the finished model. The finished model defines in every way what the final product will be like.
Models and prototypes
Trend and market indicators are analyzed in order to develop new concepts for a dynamic market. Early product prototypes result directly from these concepts. Ideas become tangible and comprehensible in our lab. Models and prototypes are useful for evaluating design, function, ergonomics, construction, tool making, and marketing. They can pave the way for innovative thinking in the relation between the user and the machine.
Models and prototypes can also simplify the production and assembly of new products. A physical product that can be held is considerably easier to understand than a blueprint, and the rapid prototyping technology now available can produce, a model in a matter of days or even hours. The model can be used to produce tools for the rapid tooling that make it possible to produce prototypes in two-component polyurethane, plastic, or metal. Thus, the design, functionality, ergonomics, etc, can be tested very early in the development stage.
With our know-how in industrial design and product development and our facilities for producing models and prototypes, we are able to provide our clients with a solid basis for decision-making by providing them the opportunity to see and test the actual products. This also means big savings, since flaws can be corrected early in the development process as opposed to having to do so during the actual production.