Designers

Practical Advice for Making and Selling Custom Products

DESIGNERS. If you’re curious about how to convert your designs into custom-manufactured products, check out some of the how-to guides and tutorials featured on the Ponoko Blog. Or subscribe to the company’s newsletter.  

Ponoko operates the Personal Factory for making, buying, and selling custom goods online. According to the company, more than 75,000 user-generated goods have been instantly priced online, made and delivered from Ponoko’s network of digital factories in San Francisco, Berlin, Milan, London, and Wellington, New Zealand.

The Ponoko blog is filled with articles and guides that explain the manufacturing technologies, different types of materials and design software available, and how to make a profit selling the goods that you have designed.

For example, a recent issue of the Ponoko newsletter highlighted a lengthy blog post that described in detail the Ten Simple Steps to Make and Sell Your Custom Product. Here’s a quick rundown of the ten steps covered in the post:

  1. Create a clear design brief for your product.
  2. Get the idea out of your head and sketch it out on paper.
  3. Choose your materials and components. 
  4. Choose how your product will be made.
  5.  Finalize your design for the chosen material and method.
  6.  Make a physical prototype of your design.
  7.  Assess the outcome of your prototype and adjust your design.
  8. Set a wholesale and retail price for your product.
  9.  Make your product available for purchase.
  10.  Promote your product to your target market.

Here’s an example of the type of practical business advice Ponoko provides: “When selling your product online, make sure you take high-quality photos and write useful and imaginative descriptions of your product. Describe what it is made of, what the dimensions are and what it feels like. Don’t be afraid to share a bit about yourself too, so that customers can identify with you as a real person.”

“We really cannot emphasize enough the importance of crisp, well lit, high quality photos. It’s these images which will catch the eye of your potential online customers, who will assume that the quality of your photos reflect the quality of your product.”

The blog on the Ponoko website features case studies showing the wide range of products that designers have created and how they have benefitted.

Ponoko Boxes by Yyvonne Hung
San Francisco urban planner Yvonne Hung founded The Harbinger Co after joining Ponoko. Yvonne realized that her interest in traditional arts such as drawing and painting extended to creating objects. Laser cutting enabled her to branch out into intricately decorated wooden boxes and jewelry. Photos courtesy of Ponoko.

LINKS

www.ponoko.com

Ten Simple Steps to Make and Sell Your Custom Product

Are Designers Making the Most of Digital Textile Printing?

DESIGNERS. As I have watched digital-printing technology evolve to enable fabrics, wallcoverings, automobiles, and other surfaces to be custom-decorated, it always struck me that the printed examples shown in trade-show booths seemed a bit unimaginative.

It could have been due to time or budget limitations, but it’s more likely that the printing-equipment manufacturers first needed to demonstrate that the technology they were selling could replicate existing printing processes. So they simply used designs similar to what was currently being produced by designers experienced in textile or wallcovering design. Likewise, to show digitally printed T-shirts, the booth planners used designers whose work typically needed to conform with the limitations of screen-printing presses.

A recent post by Kristen Turner on the Ponoko blog indicates that I’m not the only person who feels that many designers haven’t yet caught up to everything that’s now possible in textile printing.

The post showcased some digitally printed silk and wool scarves from the spring/summer 2011 collection from Charlotte Linton and appeared under the headline:  “These Scarves Show What Digital Printing Is All About.”

Turner pointed out that “One of the greatest things about digital textile printing is that designs can have unlimited colors at the same cost as a single color. Yet designers using digital fabric printing still cling to flat designs with a few, flat colors.”

In her post, Kristen Turner highlighted Charlotte Linton designs that “have all of the life of hand-rendered illustrations and all the depth of photography,” including designs that looked like pages from a silk sketchbook. One Charlotte Linton scarf featured a polka-dot design of marsupial face photographs.

Image of colorfully printed scarf by Charlotte Linton
Digitally printed scarf designed by Charlotte Linton

The post attracted comments from Andy McDonald of the Centre for Advanced Textiles at the Glasgow School of Art who argued that “the greatest thing about digital textile printing lies in the ability to make an item only after it has been purchased, coupled with the potential for each item to be unique.”

McDonald also raised these questions: “What are the creative opportunities for designers once production shifts from just-in-time to on-demand? Why is digital textile printing not being explored in the same way as 3D printing?” Andy further commented, “The greatest thing about digital textile printing is that collections can have unlimited designs at the same cost as a single design. Yet designers using digital fabric printing still cling to fixed collections, with a few fixed designs.”

If you have come up with some fresh ideas for digitally printed textile designs, we would love to see them!

Note: Ponoko is an online service that enables creative people to turn their ideas into real things, and sell them to the world. More than 75,000 user-generated goods have been instantly priced online, made, and delivered from Ponoko’s digital factory network in Wellington, San Francisco, Berlin, Milan and London.  

LINKS

Ponoko

These Scarves Show What Digital Printing Is All About

Conferences Examine Future of Graphic Communications and Cross-Media Publishing

DESIGNERS. In the 2008 book “Get a Design Job,” RitaSue Siegel suggests that you “Think about developing your skills in areas of practice that didn’t exist before, as they tend to attract the highest salaries until everyone catches up.”

One way to better understand future design opportunities is to go to the same conferences that potential employers attend. For example, two upcoming conferences in the fields of graphic communications and on-demand printing will examine what types of skills and workflows will be required to more easily and efficiently move content between print, online, and interactive projects.

While both conferences include some design-oriented sessions, that’s not the only way you can give your career a boost. The more you learn about your customers’ business goals and technical challenges, the more prepared you will be to position yourself as the type of problem-solver they need to hire.   

Graphics of the Americas (GOA)
Feb. 24-26, 2011
Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, FL
www.goa2011.com

Companies that once specialized exclusively in printing now must offer a wider range of graphic-communications services that can help their customers deliver marketing messages across a broad mix of print and digital formats. To serve this new graphics-communication industry, the GOA conference features educational sessions that appeal to printing company executives, designers, and creative professionals.

For example, during the cre8 conference held in conjunction with the GOA conference, you can attend sessions that will help you update or expand your skills. You can learn how to:  

  • create interactive Flash and PDF documents with Adobe InDesign;
  • simplify the transition of print content to the web;
  • preflight all components of a mixed-media project to ensure that corporate branding is maintained in print, on the web, and in mobile messaging
  • use XML publishing with InDesign to create documents to be shared for print layouts, online, mobile devices, and e-readers
  • ensure your user-interface elements are attractive and easy to use.

The keynote address “Inspiring Digital Innovation” will be presented by John S. Bracken, director of digital media and director of the Knight News Challenge at the Knight Foundation. Bracken will share his views on the future of media and its role in society. Other sessions will discuss “The Digital Landscape for 2011 and Beyond” and “New Media Revenue Streams.”

On the trade-show floor, you can see various digital-printing technologies in action. You might even run into some forward-thinking graphics-business owners who can tell you more about the type of design skills they need most.

 

Publishing Xchange Conference
March 22-24
Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC
www.publishingxchange.com

The great “e-blending” of digital content delivery through social media, ebooks, digital publications, media tablets, and new forms of printing is opening many exciting possibilities for traditional publishers, as well as corporate marketing groups that have begun acting like publishers. But this “cross-media” revolution is also creating noise and confusion.

Co-located with the Info 360 Conference and On-Demand Expo, the new Publishing Xchange Conference will strive to help publishers, marketing-communications content providers, ad agencies, commercial and in-plant printers, and graphic designers build a stronger roadmap to success. Seminar tracks include topics such as the state and future of publishing, cross-media marketing, and e-media technologies.   

One keynoter will be Rob Covey, senior vice president of content and design for the National Geographic Digital Media Group.  He will talk about how National Geographic has evolved to market exciting and engaging content across all media channels and share some of the challenges and opportunities associated with today’s new era of publishing.

In another keynote session, Charlie Corr of Mimeo will talk about The New Era of Printing and Publishing on Demand and some of the threats and opportunities that will impact everyone from publishers to printers to end users.   

Other workshops will talk about digital typography, how designing e-books and digital publications differs from designing for print, and digital advertising challenges such as wrangling pixels from print to mobile to billboards.

Expect to See More Artfully Designed Vehicle Wraps

Epson wrap on Bugatti Veyron autoDESIGNERS. If you were asked to design graphics to wrap one of the most expensive sports cars in the world would you put logos for Epson and SkinzWraps on the hood? Didn’t think so.

But that’s not the point. What’s interesting about this project is that it demonstrates that vehicle wraps aren’t just for posting advertising graphics on buses, trucks, and delivery vans anymore.  In the not-too-distant future, owners of luxury cars might hire designers to produce more artistic wraps to personalize their own prized vehicles.

At least that’s what the makers of printers and wrapping materials are suggesting. At the SEMA 2010 expo for sellers of automotive specialty performance products, Epson America, Avery, and Skinzwrap joined forces to design, print, and install this wrap on a Bugatti Veyron worth an estimated $1.7 million.

“Designing and applying a wrap to an automotive masterpiece like the Bugatti Veyron requires the ultimate degree of skill and concentration, the right material, and the best printing technology imaginable,” commented Peter Salaverry, CEO, Skinzwrap. This project was printed on Avery’s MPI Supercast 1005 media and output on an Epson Stylus Pro GS6000 printer. It took seven days to complete the design, print the wrap, and apply it to the car.

Most importantly, at the end of the show the car was transformed back to its original design.

Of course this isn’t the first time a high-end luxury car has been wrapped in custom graphics. In July, the seventeenth BMW Art Car, designed by artist Jeff Koons, took part in the 24 Hours of LeMans race. As part of his creative process, the Koons collected images of race cars, related graphics, vibrant colors, speed and explosions. The digitally printed graphics were designed to evoke power, motion, and bursting energy and give the car a dynamic appearance even when it’s standing still.

Jeff Koons designed the graphics for this 2010 BMW-GT2 Art Car ©BMW
Image of Koons BMW Art Car
The rear view of the 2010 BMW GT2 Art Car suggests a burst of speed. ©BMW

The BMW Art Car project started in 1975 when French racecar driver Hervé Poulain commissioned American artist and friend Alexander Calder to paint the first BMW Art Car.  Other BMW Art Cars have been designed by artists such as David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol and exhibited in the museums such as the Louvre, the Guggenheim Museums, the Shanghai Art Museum.

Another indication that custom-decorated vehicles might be gaining traction was Original Wraps’ launch of a new program that allows auto manufacturers, car dealers, and automotive retailers to offer an on-demand vehicle customization program.  Ford Motor Company offers the service through fordcustomgraphics.com. MINI USA offers the program through MINI Motoring Graphics.

So, yes! We’ve seen plenty of commercial vehicles customized with imaginative branding and advertising graphics. Now, let’s see what happens when more designers get involved in customizing personal-use vehicles.

3D Printing Provider Says a Million-Dollar Product Is Just a Good Design Away

DESIGNERS. Two trendspotting organizations—Trend Hunter and JWT Intelligence—have predicted that 3D printing (aka “tangible printing”) will be one of those technologies that could really take off in 2011.

3D Printed Vase
At Shapeways.com, everyone can make, buy, or sell their own products in more than a dozen different materials, including metal and glass with various finishes.

In a blog post on TechCruch, Joris Peels of the i-materialise 3D printing service predicts that the hardware and software will become more affordable and at least five new 3D printing startups aimed at consumers will be launched this year.

Peels even goes so far to predict that a designer will earn revenues of over $1 million with a single 3D printed product (not a prototype) in 2011. Peels says several designers have earned hundreds of thousands of dollars selling 3D printed items ranging from chairs to jewelry.

He predicts that as “As many designers get more knowledgeable about the 3D printing process, and media coverage increases, a million-dollar hit is only one good design away.”

In September, Shapeways.com, the personalized-production company started by Royal Philips Electronics in The Netherlands, announced that it will be moving its headquarters to New York. As of September, the company was 3D printing more than 10,000 unique products each month, an increase from only 600 products per month in January, 2009. The Shapeways.com online community has more than 50,000 members and more than 1,000 shops, with some shop owners earning more than $1,000 per month selling their customizable products directly to consumers.

If you’re not yet familiar with 3D printing and how it can be used, check out three sites of companies that offer 3D printing or product-fabrication services.

i-materialise

Shapeways

Ponoko