Quick Facts
Cosmic Inter-Galactic Product Project | January 2017
3D Designer (Additional Details & Crystal Chamber Design Lead)
Process Involved:
Product Research | Human-Centred Design | Hand Sketches | Ideation | 3D Drawing Drafting | 3D Prototyping | Prototype Iteration
Outcome:
CnC Aluminium Product with 3D Printed Parts (With LED & Sound electronics)
Softwares:
The Brief
To design, research, and interpret an original prop based on an existing concept of a sci-fi weapon from the Starwars universe. Produce it as a viable collector’s prop.
The Research
We spend a tremendous amount of time researching and evaluating all the collections and props that we owned or are existing on the collector’s market. Analyzing all their prices, design and functional details in terms of their pros and cons. Our profiling of our target customers and market segment by going through long hours of secondary research online and on hobby forums gave us a glimpse of who would we target our marketing towards. We also took time to be engaged with collectors in the forums on their feedback, and all their questions and answers in the hobby-building posts to gain valuable insights to consider in our product design.
The Design Process
The design process begins with a lot of ideas playing on what we have as a vision for the product as a movie memorabilia for collectors.
The current collector’s market is filled with many similar types of products. Hence we endeavored to innovate; to produce something we could ‘coin’ as our own flagship product. We eventually settle after all the sketching to design a ‘crystal chamber’ that will light up as the key selling point for a display type of light saber, it is a concept that is in line with the science and plot of the movie. We selected a particular movie character’s weapon that is not found on the market yet and start to interpret and design our very own version.
The Prototyping
We decided that 3D printing and prototyping will be the essential as part of our processes, hence I did heavy research and went ahead and bought our first 3D printer, after countless hours devouring tutorials online. The learning and human factor research processes is a truly rewarding journey as well, but we managed to pick up the most befitting knowledge of it to help us carry out our R&D. The prototyping refinement went well and we are confident of the work done. I actually enjoyed the processes a lot as an R& D/Product lead.
The Product
The product that we had envisioned finally came through after about 9 – 11 months of process and iterations. We were proud to present our first production model and major effort start to go towards marketing and delivering them to buyers.
The Iterations
The Learning
This product and project is the one that really provide us with the most challenges but the most rewarding project too. We learnt so much that it is an immersive course for saber product building that we think we went through with. The design process wasn’t what we have expected and we found ourselves always returning back to the drawing board or checking in with our research papers, and certainly, the production iteration were happening all the time.
The product, to our surprised was sold out and was very well-received by our customers who even wrote in with testimonials to support us. We learnt about creative thinking, design receptivities when challenges came up and also to work closely with external vendors. Patience and professional convictions were all tested fully and we learnt to stick to our original visions no matter how daunting it can be. The result and final outcome was definitely worth it.
The customers love our product
