Industrial & Product Design

All our industrial and product design processes start with an introductory meeting and an initial briefing. The benefit of this first step is to gather information about the project and its goals, as well as to explain our process to the client.

Based on the client’s inputs, we pre-plan the project, estimate project costs, draft the timeline and write an offer for the project kick-off workshop. The workshop is a useful means for us to gain insights on the project environment, users, strategy and processes. Equally, it is the ideal setting to provide consultation on product strategy and to clearly define the project goals and scope.

During this phase, our team of consultants works closely with our product design team to support our clients. When the need arises, we also have our service design » team available for the development of an integrated, larger scale product-service system.

As a next step, we provide the client with the final offer of all services, the definition of project steps, information about our availability and also a recommend a timeline.

Investigating the project conditions helps us identify potential problems, which we can then provide solutions for. To uncover these problems, we analyse the product, its users and how they use the product – a process called ‘customer journey’ – and define focal points.

In-depth insights, lots of research and several proposals for solutions make up the majority of this design step. To get there, we first receive a ‘package’ from our client, their engineers or experts respectively, which includes the actual status of the technical components, measurements, limitations and other required factors such as legal safety requirements based on the proof of concept and prototype of the engineering team.

Research and analysis of the status quo, industry benchmark, target group and users, as well as the technology and materials follow next. Thorough research of the product environment equips us with a strong understanding for developing the concept and building a solid foundation for the project.

Once our analysis is complete, we move on to developing product design concepts with sketches and models based on the package we earlier received from the client. A selection of 2-3 contrasting concepts is then presented to the client for discussion, which allows to balance the positioning of the product. The client chooses one of the product design concepts, which we work out in detail in the next project phase.

As product design projects involve a lot of technical as well as legal requirements and specifications, we need technical feedback and a final package from our client, their engineering team or other experts – specifically for their chosen design concept.

Our industrial and product designers create further sketches, renders and CAD models, use rapid prototyping and define a high quality CMF strategy (colour, material, finishes). All these processes define and develop a solid design for the physical development of the product.

The resulting product design is presented to the client for discussion, which leads to feedback rounds. Once all feedback has been incorporated, we have a viable design and a looks-like prototype – and implement the design freeze as the visual design part is now finished.

Data are prepared for the looks-like prototype and the model making is commissioned. Having a physical, touchable and assessable prototype is the essential basis on which ergonomics and safety can be confirmed and a final decision can be made.

When we have the client’s final decision and approval, the product design process is finished. We are still involved in the project, however, by supporting the engineering team throughout the production of the final product.

We support the transition to the series production to ensure maximum quality via precise implementation of our design as well as engineering-relevant details. The transition entails exact and compatible 3D data (STEP, SolidWorks – typically for the outer envelope) for production preparations.

In case changes are required by the engineering team, we adapt our product design a final time based on technical and visual requirements. We also support the technical department of the producer or client with the assessment of product parts to ensure the design quality and CMF once more before going into the final series production.

Depending on the needs of the client, we are also able to further support the project, for example for showroom presentations, marketing materials or entire content marketing campaigns ».