http://obleo.net Wed, 16 May 2012 20:12:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://obleo.net/2012/05/power-to-the-people/ http://obleo.net/2012/05/power-to-the-people/#comments Wed, 16 May 2012 20:04:54 +0000 admin http://obleo.net/?p=1305

Renderings drive sales at Quirky's social media design site

Growing product ideas out of social media is just one of the unconventional aspects of the business model at Quirky (www.quirky.com). Another is the speed of development. New marketable designs germinate at an unbelievable rate. “We can build two products per week. It may seem radical, and it is,” says Quirky’s head of engineering, John Jacobsen. “Although the designs are not fully developed at that point, we are still taking the community ideas to a certain level of refinement.” Rendered images of these designs incubate on the Quirky website for further input. Its community members are typically ordinary (if not slighty more opinionated) household consumers. These photorealistic previews spread through members' social networks and attract cool-gear shoppers to Quirky’s catalog page, where they can pre-order Quirky inventions at a discount rate. The items that meet a given threshold of advance sales go to the factory first. “The visual feedback is definitely a necessary component. The better the imagery and higher the fidelity, the more compelling the product is to consumers,” says Jacobsen. “People can appreciate the idea behind the innovations, but it is really the image of the design gets the customer excited enough to follow through with a purchase.” ]]> http://obleo.net/2012/05/power-to-the-people/feed/ 0 http://obleo.net/2012/03/storytelling-through-rendering/ http://obleo.net/2012/03/storytelling-through-rendering/#comments Fri, 16 Mar 2012 18:42:25 +0000 admin http://obleo.net/?p=1056

Pensa and the new art of explaining products

There’s a good reason firms are getting more creative with photo-real rendering output: Now there’s a lot more of it. “A few years ago, the processing time used to be a limiting factor because if it took four hours per image, then forget it,” explains Pensa principal and co-founder Marco Perry. “To show 16 to 20 concepts or multiple views would take forever. With the new technology, anybody in the office can literally just drop the CAD in, take a snapshot, change the view, and then grab another one. It makes rendering a non-event. As a result, we now generate a lot more images and have higher quality presentations.” [...] ]]> http://obleo.net/2012/03/storytelling-through-rendering/feed/ 0 http://obleo.net/2012/01/underpinnings/ http://obleo.net/2012/01/underpinnings/#comments Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:46:44 +0000 admin http://obleo.net/?p=892 The best way to learn 3D modeling? Forget about the software. For the moment anyway. That’s part of the philosophy at PolyPlane, a new instructional site that emphasizes the broader concepts of 3D graphics before delving into the dashboard of a particular CAD application. “People just starting out in 3D modeling are forced to wrap their brains around a lot of unfamiliar concepts all at the same time,” says Gabriel Mathews, principal of Portland's Con Cor Design Group and author of the video series. “At the outset, stepping back and understanding the process of modeling in general actually makes learning an application a lot less frustrating.”]]> http://obleo.net/2012/01/underpinnings/feed/ 0 http://obleo.net/2011/05/turning-on-smart-ideas-through-visualization/ http://obleo.net/2011/05/turning-on-smart-ideas-through-visualization/#comments Tue, 31 May 2011 09:01:50 +0000 admin http://obleo.net/?p=632 How have recent advancements in visualization impacted international product development houses like Smart Design? The award-winning firm, known for its reinventions of the commonplace like OXO kitchenware, now relies on raytracing for the exchange of visual ideas. According to John Jacobsen, Senior Design Specialist in Smart’s New York studio, changes in the profession due to technology are happening on three levels]]> http://obleo.net/2011/05/turning-on-smart-ideas-through-visualization/feed/ 0 http://obleo.net/2009/05/universal-changes/ http://obleo.net/2009/05/universal-changes/#comments Thu, 07 May 2009 23:46:00 +0000 admin http://obleo.net/?p=53 Few product designers have a more conscious emphasis on process than the New York/San-Francisco/Barcelona consultants of Smart Design. The progenitors of the “universal design” movement in the 1980s, Smart Design today starts each project with extensive research into every aspect of product life, including its ergonomic use, brand identity, and on-the-shelf appeal. Smart Design maintains a close dialogue with its clients to find an innovative and exacting solution for a new market opportunity, whether it is a sophisticated handheld device or simple household tool.]]> http://obleo.net/2009/05/universal-changes/feed/ 0 http://obleo.net/2009/05/boarder-crossing/ http://obleo.net/2009/05/boarder-crossing/#comments Wed, 06 May 2009 22:24:52 +0000 admin http://obleo.net/?p=187 http://obleo.net/2009/05/boarder-crossing/feed/ 0