start of the design process
Every new product starts with an idea. Discover how we can help you with our design process from the initial contact up to production of your new product.
initial contact
Feel free to reach out with your idea or plans for a new product. The initial contact is mostly by just writing an email or giving us a call.
During the first contact we will check with you whether we feel we could be the right partner for your project. Mostly we can give you already some early indications about how your specific design process will look like, lead times and budget for your project.
nda
If the initial contact leads to the conclusion that a cooperation could be interesting and fruitful, we move to the next step.
We send you a NDA, a non-disclosure agreement. This documents makes sure that everything we discuss from then on will stay between us.
If you like to sign a NDA right now, then write us an email, we will send you one.
We will also send you our Designguide, a document that helps you deeper understand the process and way of thinking of product designers. At the end of this page you can request this Designguide right now if you like.
briefing
It is important for us to get a clear idea of your plans. Not only about the product itself, but also your plans for production, logistics and marketing. If you do not have structured plans yet, don’t worry, we will talk about it several times again during the project.
During a briefing meeting we will also discuss the product in more details, the market, competition and what makes your new product stand out.
We are happy to have you over in person in Amsterdam, but obviously an online meeting is great as well to discuss more details.
offer
After the briefing we are able to make a detailed quotation for you. This is a document that describes the outcomes from the briefing and outlines the phases and steps we propose to design and develop your new product.
Our offers contain the estimated lead times per stage, budgets, ways of payment, general conditions, etc. Once signed, the quotation serves as a contract for the project.
For the first stages of the process we can give you fixed budgets, for the later stages only estimates are possible, as we do not know yet how the final concept will look like and which technical solutions we need to find.
This means that buying design services is very different from buying a car for instance. The stages of engineering, prototyping and production support are now still very fuzzy in terms of what is needed and what it will cost. We will help to find the best route to the P1 prototype and production, but budget overruns do happen in product development.
IP
The full intellectual rights (IP) on the new products are always part of the contract. This means that after the project is finished you are the only and complete owner of the product design and can do with it as you please.
It is important to understand that many design firms do not have this policy, so if you would work with a different design firm, you might end up paying royalties to use the design.
next step
Once the offer is signed, we will start the project with a kick-off meeting.
Get the designguide. It helps you understand what is needed to make your product a reality. Sign up and we will send it by email.