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Industrial design firm: Finding the right one

If you are an inventor or a have a great product idea, you may be looking for an industrial design firm to help you with your product development needs. But how do you choose the right one?
The tips in this blog will help you decide.

Versatility

You may have a very specific, innovative design for a new toothbrush, a new type of protective gear like a helmet, or maybe a medical device that will help save people’s lives. No matter what type of product it is, you need to find an industrial design firm that is versatile. The more fields a product design team has worked in, the more they will know about various market segments and what is needed for your product to succeed.

Industrial Design Portfolio

Before choosing an industrial design firm, you need to learn what kind of work they’ve done. Check their industrial design portfolio, along with the products and different processes they have experience with. Industrial designers work with an endlessly varied range of products. Since they can’t be experts in every field, talk with them about the ways they research products and find answers to questions they might have. In sum, the more products they have in their portfolio, the better it is for you, since you can see the different kinds of ideas they have been exposed to and what they’ve done to make those ideas a reality.

Team

Industrial designers are not just product designers. A great product development team is composed of mechanical designers or mechanical engineers, industrial designers, graphic designers, and marketing. In some cases electronic engineers are in-house or outsourced, as not all new ideas have electronics involved. Make sure that you choose a company with a complete team that can take care of all aspects of your product development. If you plan on protecting your idea, check the company’s knowledge of patents and find one that has patented hundreds of products. Again, in this case, the more expertise they have, the better.

Experience

This point is pretty self-explanatory. It is extremely important that you find an industrial design firm that has years of experience in the field. In the product development world, like in any other field, a company with wide-ranging experience will be more likely to anticipate issues and meet any challenges that arise during the product development process.

Look into the company’s history to learn how long they’ve been working in the field and the number of products they have been involved in patenting. Review the products they’ve brought to market to see if they have worked with categories or products that are similar or related to yours. Keep in mind that they may not always list every product on their website, so it’s always a good idea to ask about their experience with inventions like yours.