At Surfaceink, we believe it is important that your brand values are clearly communicated through your product, whether it be through iconic visual expression, intuitive usability, precise functionality, excellent performance, premium materials or delightful packaging.  Your product is a physical ambassador of your company and should represent your brand’s ambitions while deftly addressing the needs and desires of your customer.

Our Industrial Design team is dedicated to creating product solutions that capture the essence of your company vision, and express it through exquisite usability, functionality and aesthetics.

Our process is flexible and depends upon your specific project goals, but generally includes the following phases:

We begin by investigating the market or product area in question to gain a better understanding of the “state of things”. This includes evaluating existing products, existing technologies and commonly used materials. We also scour through the latest market research and product reviews, and most importantly, speak with current or potential users of the product to better understand their needs and desires. These activities bring crucial insights which allow us to better understand the opportunity, and clearly define goals for subsequent design efforts.

Armed with a clear understanding of the opportunity, we begin to explore new product concepts. During this phase, we consider all aspects of the user experience, including interactive, functional, visual, cultural, and emotional elements. Our design team uses a variety of media, including hand sketches, 2D layouts, storyboards, 3D CAD modeling and physical prototyping to explore new product ideas and demonstrate them to our client. The goal of this phase is to identify a wide variety of product solutions that successfully address the product requirements, and present opportunities for a great user experience with an appropriate brand expression.

Once a final design concept has been selected, we proceed with the fine detailing that transforms a concept into a fully realized product design. These refinements include areas such as product form, surface detail, ergonomics, interaction areas, lighting, connector placement, ventilation strategy, parting line specification, assembly strategy, materials, colors and more. By the end of this Concept Refinement phase, we have a clearly specified product design, which can be shared with development partners and potential customers, and ultimately engineered for mass production.

As the product transitions from design to engineering, prototyping and mass production, Surfaceink’s ID team will stay involved to ensure that the original design intention is upheld. This effort includes any design modifications that are needed due to specification changes, inspection of prototypes and first articles, as well as direct liaison with critical vendors and manufacturing partners. The goal of this effort is to maintain the integrity of the design all the way to production, so that your product looks exactly as intended when it finally ships to your customers.