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The industrial design process is a structured, multi-phase journey that transforms an idea into a tangible product, ensuring it is functional, aesthetically appealing, and manufacturable. The process typically spans from strategic planning through to product development and often involves iterative cycles of refinement. Below is a breakdown of the key stages:
the Industrial design process explained
Strategy and Research
The process begins with the strategy phase, which sets the foundation for the entire project. This stage involves understanding the broader context in which the product will exist and is crucial for aligning design goals with business objectives.
Market Research: Identify customer needs, competitor products, and market trends. This includes studying target demographics, user behavior, and identifying gaps or opportunities.
Brand Alignment: Ensure the design is consistent with the brand’s identity, values, and vision.
User Research: Conduct surveys, interviews, and user testing to understand pain points, preferences, and behaviors of the target audience.
Feasibility Study: Analyze technical, financial, and material constraints, including manufacturability and sustainability considerations.
Concept Development
Ideation: Brainstorming and sketching multiple concepts, often with the help of digital tools and physical prototypes. This is a creative phase that encourages innovation.
Sketches & Renderings: Create 2D and 3D sketches, concept art, or digital renderings to visualize ideas. These early-stage visuals help stakeholders understand design directions.
Storyboarding: Sometimes used to tell a narrative about how users will interact with the product, helping to flesh out experience and use cases.
Refinement: Narrow down ideas based on feasibility, innovation, and alignment with strategic goals.
Prototyping
In the prototyping stage, ideas are brought to life in tangible forms, testing both their practicality and user appeal.
Low-Fidelity Prototypes: Create rough, low-cost prototypes (such as mock-ups or 3D-printed models) to test core ideas, ergonomics, and form.
Iterative Testing: Test prototypes with users to gather feedback. Iteration is key, as designs are refined based on real-world insights.
High-Fidelity Prototypes: As the design matures, more detailed prototypes are created to test materials, functionality, and manufacturing processes.
Design Development
With a refined prototype in hand, the team enters the design development phase, which focuses on fine-tuning the design and preparing it for production.
Testing and Validation: Refine the product further by testing prototypes in real-world environments. This might involve durability testing, safety assessments, or user experience trials.
Materials & Technology: Select materials and manufacturing methods that align with the desired product attributes (e.g., durability, aesthetics, sustainability).
Engineering Collaboration: Work with engineers to ensure the design is manufacturable, functional, and cost-effective. This includes detailed CAD models, technical drawings, and specifications.
Design for Manufacturing (DFM): Ensure the design is optimized for ease of manufacturing, minimizing waste, complexity, and cost.
Pre-Production and Tooling
The pre-production stage bridges the final design and actual manufacturing, focusing on fine-tuning the production process.
Quality Assurance: Implement quality control processes to ensure that the product meets all specifications and safety standards.
Tooling: Develop the molds, jigs, and tools necessary for mass production. This is often the final step before manufacturing begins.
Pilot Runs: Conduct small-scale production runs to test the manufacturing process, ensuring quality control and making any necessary adjustments.
Supply Chain Coordination: Finalize sourcing of materials, parts, and components, ensuring the right suppliers and logistics partners are in place.
Manufacturing and Production
This is where the design turns into a full-fledged, mass-produced product.
Packaging: Design packaging that complements the product’s identity and provides protection during shipping, while also being mindful of sustainability.
Assembly Line Setup: Set up production lines, ensuring that all equipment and processes are optimized for efficiency and quality.
Production Monitoring: Continuously monitor production to ensure consistency in quality, cost control, and timely delivery.
Post-Production and Market Launch
Once the product is in production, the focus shifts to the launch and post-launch activities.
Customer Feedback and Iteration: After launch, the design team often continues to collect feedback and make iterative improvements, addressing any issues that arise and planning for future versions.
Marketing and Branding: Work closely with marketing teams to ensure that the product is positioned effectively in the market. This includes promotional materials, advertising campaigns, and user education.
Distribution: Coordinate logistics to get the product to market, whether through retailers, direct-to-consumer channels, or both.
Sustainability and End-of-Life Considerations
Increasingly, industrial designers are incorporating sustainability into every phase, from materials selection to end-of-life considerations.
End-of-Life Solutions: Planning for the product’s eventual disposal, recycling, or repurposing, ensuring it aligns with circular economy principles
Eco-friendly Materials: Using materials that are recyclable, biodegradable, or sourced from sustainable practices.
Product Longevity: Designing products with durability in mind to reduce waste and extend the life of the product.
Iterative Nature of the Industrial Design Process
While this process follows a linear progression, it’s important to note that industrial design is often iterative. Designers may revisit earlier phases based on feedback or new insights. For example, a design concept might be revisited after prototype testing, or new materials may be introduced later in the development phase as sustainability becomes more of a focus.
Through these stages, industrial designers must balance creativity, user needs, technical constraints, and business goals to bring a product from initial concept to finished, manufacturable design.
the Industrial design costs
The cost of hiring our industrial design studio can vary depending on the complexity of the project and the level of service required. Below is a breakdown of what to expect in terms of pricing for our average industrial design works:
Project-Based Costs
We often charge a flat fee for a specific project, which is usually based on an estimate of the time and resources required. For example:
Concepts Development: A basic product concept presentation might range from $1,000 to $5,000 depending on complexity and the number of ideas and iterations.
Full Product Design (from concepts to prototype): For a more comprehensive design process, which includes research, ideation, prototyping, and final designs, costs can range from $5,000 to $10,000 or more.
CMF: A Color, Material and Finishing presentation might range from $500 to $3,000 depending on the number of ideas and iterations.
Comprehensive Design Packages
For end-to-end services that include research, design, prototyping, and engineering, the comprehensive packages cost is:
total costs for a product design project (including research, conceptualization, and prototypes) might range from $10,000 to $25,000
Royalty Structure
In the context of industrial design projects, royalties are payments made to our design firm based on the sales of the product that they helped create. Royalty arrangements are common in some design agreements, especially when the designer’s work significantly contributes to a product’s commercial success. However, royalties in industrial design are less common than in other industries (like music or publishing) because many industrial designers are typically compensated with flat fees or project-based payments rather than ongoing royalties. That said, there are still situations where royalties may be negotiated.
Here’s a breakdown of how royalties might work for industrial design and the factors that influence the rate:
Percentage of Sales: The most common royalty structure is a percentage of the product’s sales. The percentage can vary, but typical royalty rates for industrial design are often 1% to 5% of the retail price or net sales of the product. In some cases, it might be based on gross sales (before manufacturing and distribution costs) or net sales (after costs have been deducted).
Flat Fee + Royalty: We often negotiate a flat fee upfront for our design work, plus a smaller royalty for each unit sold. This ensures us to be compensated for our time and expertise while also benefiting from a share of the product’s success.
Tiered Royalties: A tiered royalty structure may be negotiated, where the percentage increases based on sales milestones. For example:
- 1% for the first 100,000 units sold
- 2% for units sold between 100,000 and 500,000
- 3% for units sold above 500,000
Per Unit Royalty: In some cases, we may negotiate a fixed dollar amount per unit sold, rather than a percentage of the sales price. For example, our Industrial design studio might receive $0.50 per unit sold.
If you’re unsure about costs, ask us for an initial consultation to get a better sense of what we can offer within your budget. Our Industrial Design Studio will be able to give you an estimate based on the project’s requirements.
