INSIGHTS - Industrial Design Insights

Vacancy: Embedded Electronics Engineer

SLIMDESIGN develops consumer electronics for multinationals and ambitious start-ups. We are based in Amsterdam within walking distance from the central station. For multinational clients like Samsung, Panasonic, and Fujitsu, as well as for ambitious start-ups, we...

Radar Level Sensor

As a high-tech startup Staal Instruments was looking for a mechanical Design Agency to support them with the development of an industrial, durable and smart enclosure for their Cloud Level Radar sensors. They found out that working with professionals is faster, more efficient and with less headaches. Now they can focus on all their other technological and commercial challenges of developing and selling high-tech products internationally.

How to create product design guidelines for your brand guide

The goal for creating product design guidelines for your brand guide is creating a cohesive brand language for your complete product portfolio. We’ve selected the top elements your brand guide should have.

The value of product design in branding, and why you should be doing it different

Translating your core brand value into understandable product design features should be the main focus of you and your company. And we see a lot of companies where the product is an afterthought in their (re-) branding process, or worse, not even mentioned. But if you had to explain why you love a certain brand, where would you start? You would start with the product.

5 Tools to design a better User Experience in a connected world

More and more consumer electronics are becoming connected. To prevent your end user from getting lost somewhere in between the intangible digital world and your physical product, it is important to apply an overarching user experience (UX) perspective. A quick look into my world as a User Experience & Product Designer at SLIMDESIGN and some of the tools that we like to use!

Congratulations to our friends at Rocean!

We want to congratulate our friends at Rocean on joining the Pentair Family. It is great to be a part of this journey together with you. Another step towards reducing the amount of single-use plastic bottles worldwide. Keep up the good work, Keep on innovating and keep on being the future of water.

Dutch Police selects Zepcam bodycams

Zepcam’s cameras have proven to be user friendly, robust and trustworthy, amongst many other positive things.

Closed: Vacancy Industrial Designer

We are looking for an experienced all-round Industrial Designer to strengthen our team.

Product Design Companies (and interesting design books about them)

We selected a range of product design companies that we admire and give us inspiration. They pushed the boundaries, changed markets, and enlightened the world with their products. We have been lucky to be able to work for several of them.

Feasibility Study, to kickstart your product development project

Kickstart your project and analyze all the important aspects. Within two weeks we create all the insights needed to make well well-informed decisions (and start-ups can use the information to create a convincing business plan or pitch deck).

How to write an effective design brief for your project

The design brief is the foundation of any project. A good design brief saves development time, mitigates risk, and reduces costs. It clarifies the requirements, roadmap, and goals of your project and is beneficial for communication between your design agency and manufacturers/suppliers.

Kickstarter Tips & Advice

For small start-ups and entrepreneurs bringing a product to market can be a daunting and complicated endeavor, but it doesn’t need to be. Here we give tips and advice.

Industrial design portfolio tips and application advice

We see that some talented students have trouble presenting themselves and their work. Therefore we created this post to share our tips and preferences. We hope that this information will help you to get accepted into our studio. (or somewhere else… 😉

How to bring your new product to market

Not all our clients know that there are several different ways to develop your product and bring it to market. In the majority of cases, there are already similar products on the market. If the manufacturer is located in Asia, they are...

Intellectual Property: The Full Guide

Many clients struggle with the question of what they need to do in order to protect intellectual property (IP). To provide some useful insights we have created this article, including tips, links, and example documents.Disclaimer:...

Visit Qingdao

In August, our design team visited Qingdao, China. During the visit, we conducted interviews with a number of modern Chinese mothers. The goal was to gain an understanding of the positives and negatives associated with a product used by working Chinese Mothers. All...

Pros and Cons Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is becoming an increasingly popular way for creators to raise money and start businesses. There are of course a lot of upsides to using crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo but what is often overlooked are...

Top Kickstarter failures due to manufacturing problems

New ballpoint pen design for Monami

New ballpoint pen design for Monami Monami has a long-lasting history as Korea’s leading manufacturer of stationery products and office supplies. Their basic ballpoint pen, named ‘153’ has continuously been on sale since 1963, with over 3.3 billion units...

Circa Smart Alarm Clock funded on Kickstarter

Circa funded on Kickstarter We are pleased to inform you that Circa smart alarm clock has recently raised €117,056 on Kickstarter. To make this project a reality, SLIMDESIGN is engineering the project for production. If you missed the Kickstarter, You're now able...

Dutch Design Week

It was a cloudy day in Eindhoven, but the designs were bright and full of energy. There were lots of interesting designs displayed, from professional design studios to large companies to students work. One unifying theme was how many optimistic concepts were presented...

Reviving revolution in washing

At IFA 2017 we saw that Samsung is reviving the counter-rotation action Dyson developed 18 years ago. It was taken out of production after 3 years because it was expensive and often used in an industrial way, resulting in extensive wear. Great to see that Samsung also...

IFA Berlin 2017

We spent two days at IFA Berlin, visiting all conceivable types of booths and meeting industry professionals from all fields. It was a busy, yet a meaningful time of learning and connecting that provided us with insight into the future of product design.

20x Event

We had a great discussion at the Association of Dutch Designers (BNO) for the 20X Event about the future of Industrial Design. One of the discussions was about globalisation; Is the difference in product design languages becoming smaller? Does it change because the...

Panasonic Nubo Cam winner in consumer test!

Panasonic Nubo Cam winner in consumer test! Panasonic Nubo Cam winner in consumer test by Smarthome Magazine. They compared seven IP cameras and the one that scored the best was the Nubo Cam, designed by SLIMDESIGN. They appreciated the excellent images, extended...

Mobile world congress 2017

Mobile World Congress 2017 What will we remember of this year’s fair? Please find our selection of interesting announcements. Withings becoming Nokia One of the first things that drew our attention, is the re-branding of the Withing products to Nokia. Indeed,...

Zepcam Camera

Introduction New Zepcam T2 body camera designed by SLIMDESIGN At the Enforced Tac security expo in Germany, Zepcam introduced their new Zepcam T2 body camera. With this Rec only model, Zepcam continues to expand their range for the body-worn camera...

Mobile World Congress News

Oppo announced a slim optical zoom lens for their next mobile phone. Optical zoom changes the focal length between the lens and the optical sensor. normally this distance makes the product thicker. Oppo uses a prism to create a 90-degree angle like in a periscope....

Leonardo da Vinci: Brilliant design-engineer avant la lettre

Leonardo da Vinci: Brilliant design-engineer avant la lettre Yesterday we saw an exhibition about the great Leonardo. It is amazing to see what da Vinci created five centuries ago. The exhibition shows many mechanical and technical projects. Leonardo da Vinci had a...

3D Human Model Hyperloop

3D Human Model first hyperloop passenger We at SLIMDESIGN created the 3D Human Model to visualize the human interaction between a product and it’s user. The tool is accessible for other...

3D Human Models

SLIMDESIGN created the 3D Human Models to validate designs at an early stage of the development process. We make the tool available for other developers through the 3D Human Model website. Beside Solid Works, we also have the other main Cad software available...

ZYXEL

We are pleased with the new cooperation with ZYXEL. They have asked us to give our vision on the quickly changing networking environment. For more information www.zyxel.com.

Flexible meeting room system

Circuinvest’s flexible meeting room system is featured in the ArchitectNL. SLIMDESIGN developed the smart (tool-less) fixation method. It makes it possible to set up the room in a very short time, change panels and move the whole room when...

Long lasting cooperation Zepcam

Zepcam continues to innovate and lead the body worn camera market. We are honored they asked us again, to help achieve their new ambitious goals.

Design workshop Fujitsu

Fujitsu Japan selected SLIMDESIGN to help develop a new range of products. We had a great time working with the designers of Fujitsu.

Dare Festival

We will attend the Dare Festival 2016 in Antwerp on 26th of August. Wouter Konings will give a talk about Consumer Product Design, the difference in developing for small, medium and large production quantities.

Dyson

Founder Wouter Konings was involved in the development of the third Dyson vacuum cleaner and the Dyson washing machine. Dyson is technology-driven and approaches and employs an integral development method wherein one team of design engineers develops a product from start to finish.

Bike Tracker

Our tracker is encapsulated inside the aluminum seat post tube and offers up to 10 years of autonomy. This is achieved by reducing the number of location update intervals and using the movement of the bicycle as the update trigger. The system uses an app to notify users of their bike’s location.

Police Body Cam

The result of the body camera development is a rugged, compact and lightweight camera that is capable of filming day and night. It enables individuals, for instance working in law enforcement or the public transport industry, to record important events. The product is now used worldwide by multiple organizations such as for example the Dutch national police.

Baby Monitor

In a longlasting partnership, we successfully implemented the design language into a wide range of products and supported their product development and implementation.

4G Security Camera

With our help Panasonic was the first to launch a 4G security camera. They were very pleased with the final design. The product launch was a big success, and SLIMDESIGN was asked to develop the camera further and to support the production.

Circa

The Circa alarm clock uses a breathing assistant and soothing sounds to help you fall asleep. The included sleep sensor placed under your mattress helps you wake up at just the right moment.

Train & Track

Train & Track is a reliable and maintenance-free tracking solution that can educate children about a variety of dangers in and out side of the house. A soft fabric strap wraps around the child’s wrist making it comfortable for the child.

SLIMTIME

SLIMTIME is a minimalist clock that embodies many of our design values.

Mixed Reality Tools

Tools were essential to the development of humans. Augmented reality is no exception to this. We believe that current hand gestures and controllers are not ideal in the work environment.

Roccat

For Roccat we designed a concept for a gaming mouse that reflects ergonomics, great gaming experience and fits the Roccat product-line.

Smart Doorbell

The smart doorbell design enables users to connect their doorbell to their phone. This project is a good example of how we introduce a lean start-up approach in established companies.

Monami Pen

South Korean stationery products manufacturer Monami commissioned us to conduct innovation strategy research on their ballpoint pens.

Switch Pen

We developed a pen with a smooth and addictive magnetic clicking mechanism to enhance the writing experience.

Philishave

Wouter Konings was asked to lead a team of engineers with the task to reduce the production costs of the low-end shaver without sacrificing quality.

Rocean

Rocean’s aim, to free your water from single-use plastic by using water from the home tap for consumption in all possible forms; created a multitude of challenges to incorporate in a range of consumer products. We focussed on bringing water and other drinks to the user’s home in the most convenient and sustainable way.

Haier

For this project, we did extensive user research in China. Through this research, we explored the use-cases, pains and gains, and possible opportunities. The unique insights were the bases of the product design.

Bravilor

Over the years, we have built a strong relationship with Bravilor. We have supported them in the development and implementation of several new high end consumer products.

Nike

We optimized the overall usability and logistics through a reduction in volume (frame and fabric backing), improved handling (dedicated flight cases), reduced set-up time (tool-less assembly), and increased flexibility (integrated graphics).
The first version was very successful (a 1 km wall was produced and used over a period of 7 years). When Nike changed its store identity, Nike commissioned us to upgrade the system to fit the new store design.

Fujitsu

Fujitsu’s wanted a clear project vision for their laptop. They were looking for opportunities to add value in terms of new features, design aesthetic and engineering solutions.

Bagtag

BAGTAG’s luggage tag required a long-lasting battery and the ability to mount to a variety of bag types. It also had to be compatible with airport scan systems and withstand heavy impacts during loading.

MSI 360 Camera

MSI, a leading computer hardware company from Taiwan asked us to support their development of a 360 camera. It required close cooperation with their electronic, software, and mechanical engineering departments.

360 Conference Camera

Startup Prometheus wanted to validate their idea, raise money from investors, and possibly attract interests through exhibiting on fairs. We were asked to support them with their investor pitch deck and maximize the outcome on their limited budget.

Rockstart

Wouter has been asked to be a mentor and give advice to start-ups on how to develop their hardware efficiently by start-up accelerator Rockstart (one of the biggest in Amsterdam).

Panasonic Nominated

Panasonic is nominated twice for the GSMA Global World Awards. The ceremony will take place during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Report Masterclass ThingsCon

We have been asked to give a masterclass during ThingsCon Amsterdam 2015. The masterclass is about IoT: Scaling IoT products. This IoT conference will take place on December 4th in Volkshotel. Masterclass IoT by Wouter Konings Production in large...

‘Smart City & Logistics’

We have been asked to write an article about the development process of ‘Internet of Things’ products. Read the full version of this article here.

Anniversary Party

We celebrated our anniversary! We now have almost 50 years of combined experience in design & development. It was an amazing night and thank you all for the great support and money that we donated to Nepal.

DMF Summit #6

We will join the expert pannel at the Design for Manufacturing Summit #6 The Design for Manufacturing Summit #6 connects industrial designers, product developers, makers, engineers and manufacturers for a more decentralized, leaner manufacturing...

G+J Family Consumer Award

Angelcare’s new baby monitor has won the G+J | Family Consumer Award. The award was initiated and held for the first time by Gruner + Jahr in association with the Kind + Jugend trade fair. 40 Products were nominated in 4 categories by the editorial department...

3DHUMANMODEL @ Stedelijk Museum

3D Human Model will show at the SUPERMODELS exhibition, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, from 6 – 9 June 2014 The exhibition consists of a survey in miniature of multiple Dutch Designs, ranging from interior and furniture design to architecture. Maarten Olden,...

Internet of Things Lecture

‘Development process of smart devices’ Wouter Konings is asked to give a presentation on the Internet of Things-event, on June 3rd, in Eindhoven. The case presentation will focus on the development process of the award-winning Baby Video Monitor (with an app user...

Meet us in Milano!

We will be visiting the Salone del Mobile Milano from Wednesday 9th up to Saturday 12th of April. If you would like to touch base or if you are interested in a visual report of the Fair and Exhibitions in town please send us an email or give us a call.

Red Dot Award

We are happy to let you know that we have won the red dot design award. The prize has established itself worldwide as one of the most sought-after quality marks for excellent design. K&K convinced the 40-member expert panel for the Red Dot Award: Product...

iF Design Award

We have been awarded with the iF design award! It is among the largest and most important international design awards: the iF label is a seal of quality known all over the world.

Partnership with TU Delft

We created an anthropomorphic design & development tool in collaboration with the Delft University of Technology Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering: the 3D Human model. A free student version, based in DINED data, will soon be available on the TU Delft...

Good Design Award

We are proud to announce that the Angelcare baby monitor AC1200 has been awarded with the prestigious Good Design Award! It is a video monitor that connects to your smartphone and is a perfect example of an ‘internet of things’ product. Good Design Award 2013.

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