Have you ever heard of the "Napkin Stage" of product development?
When you come up with an idea, and believe it "could really work" you find yourself explaining it to friends and family over dinner or drinks and scribbling on a napkin to really get your vision across. For the first time, your vision has been penned.
Keep this napkin.
Fold it up & pop it in your wallet then re-visit it in 2-3 weeks. If it's still a good idea, come and see us.
Once you've decided your idea is worth the effort, we'll meet with you for a completely confidential discussion about your idea and discuss any issues we may notice. We will then take you through the product realization stages.
Our processes may differ, depending on your idea, however, the following are our general steps:
- Napkin stage - Is your product feasible?
- Discussion - Use us as a sounding board. We have experience in vast areas
- Concept into design - Where we nut out the micro mechanics and product lifespan
- Concept building - Printing of parts using our 3D printer & finding solutions
- Tooling & prototyping - Done in-house to keep costs low
- Problem solving - Any issues arising from prototyping. Then back to step 5 until we get it right
- Final tooling - Building the tools, lines & manufacturing processes for large production
We can help you with any or all of the above stages.
During the concept into design stage, we will discuss every aspect of your product, from materials, to manufacture, shelf appeal, usability, recycling/waste and beyond. It all needs to be built into your end result.
It takes a whole village to raise a new product.
So if you want to use us to do the design and planning then send it over to get manufactured in China, or if you want to use your cousin who has just finished his design degree to design your product, we're happy to take over the prototyping and tooling. It's your choice and we'll support your decisions.
New products take on a life of their own very quickly so really choosing the right team and product flow is vital and you need to harness or let go of the outside influences.
We like to encourage you to be a large part of the whole process. Come in and see how it's all done, watch your product be created and have input on how it's being developed. After all, this is your idea.
So bring in your napkin, sketch book and any other supporting material and lets get this done.