don’t let the form + design of what exists today shape you’re future. i’ve custom designed everything from bags to gizmod’s in the past + have no intention of stopping now. after a series of flights lately i came up with a concrete concept for a fantastic new bag.

however, knowing that the complete design manufacture process is well beyond me i approached my friend matt in bend, oregon to set me straight. matt’s a creative industrial designer who’s actually developing a complete set of camera bags for a client as i type this (more on that soon).

his response to my request was so well thought out + insightful I thought i’d share it (with his permission of course). though i’m not thinking of a production mass market run at this time he brings up too many good points to pass up that relate to any branding/product work that you do. (+ just so you know i’m already moving on the automated taffy puller…)

Heath

Yes, we do do one off designs when presented with a good product. The process question is more of a book than a response. It is a tough road, however if you are interested I can guide you through. We have a monthly column in a local publication (http://www.cascadebusnews.com/index.php?m=2&s=78&id=942) that covers this process. Here are some of the high points… To keep it simple:

1) If you are worried about protecting your idea(or someone stealing it), start using NDA’s (non disclosure agreements) with anyone out of your close friends and family.

2) You want to do some market. The internet works wonders in this area. Start with simple google searches for products similar. This should take no more than a few hours. If you still have something you want to pursue, analyze (provided there was some unearthed competitors) competitors and tailor your product to capitalize on weaknesses of other products and strengths of yours. Note; sometimes competition doesn’t actually look like competition. If you had a revolutionary idea for a digital day planner (being silly of course), you could go out and see that your idea was far superior to anything on the market, however you may ignore the smart phone technology. Another example, the competition in a premixed canned bloody Mary is not other premixed canned bloody Mary’s, its beer, zima, wine, mixed drinks etc… The point is: avoid tunnel vision. Further your competition may not exist yet. If you were coming up with a new baby bottle that dwarfed all other baby bottles, there is a strong chance that P&G may see your design, and make their own version.

3) You know your competition, now you want to know what their IP encompasses. In google, under the more tab there is a patent search filter. Click on this and search for competing patents. This can be tricky as the search terms are very important. You have to find the right combination of phrases that will get you staring at that one patent that hampers your progress. You can certainly have someone do this for you, but since you are a clever guy, I am sure you can handle it. 99% of the patents won’t need a second glance. The other 1% can usually be worked around.

4) Next analyze your market. Who is buying your new home automated taffy puller. What are the demographics. How will you market your device etc… Out of this should come a plan for how you will attack your market, what channels are there to get your product to those buyers, and what price will they pay for the product.

Note: this is a lot of words for a process that in many cases may take a lot of time and research, however it may be a very simple process as well. This usually happens when a person with a product has intrinsic knowledge of the problem and industry.

5) You’ve done your homework. You know how, and you know what price people will pay. These previous steps all led up to giving your product designer the right information. You should now sit down with someone like myself and go though your product in detail. A good product developer should be able to digest all this information and by the end of the conversation have the product 90% thought out and designed in their head. For instance one of the key pieces of information is selling price and how many you expect sell. This determines manufacturing methods, what continent it will need to be produced on, limitations on design based on production methods, nifty additions to the product that may improve functionality. Additionally they should be able to tell you roughly how much money you (Heath) will have to fork out to make molds, samples, and production runs. If there are many parts going together to make one big assembly they will tell you how to produce the tools needed for this assembly.

6) If you are not scarred yet then the critical moment comes. Now you actually have to pull the trigger, or go back to drinking beer and swimming in your pool. All previous steps were at little or no cost to you. Once you bring in the designer your costs add up. And the process is not as easy as we make it sound. Often it can take a year or more of iterations to get the product ready. The process can cost as little as a few hundred dollars all the way up to 10-30k.

7) After the design is done it is time to source your product. The suppliers will make molds prototypes etc… and start sending you parts within a few months. At this point it is time to fine tune your product and get it just right.

If the product has some important features or applications you will want to test the pants off it. Often it will require some special equipment to do this testing.

9) Once through these hurdles you are ready to order a production run of parts and initiate your sales and marketing plan.

if this is not your cup of tea for the time being, then check out this fine design in a travel bag from speck products. + while you’re waiting for your flight why not reread your canon 5D II manual again.

here’s a run through of the latest from adobe on the lightroom front. version 3 beta 2 came out a week ago + i took it for a test run on a shoot for top secret project called broken. adobe’s refined a handful of things with this beta + there’s something like 350,000 of us current users waiting for the real thing sometime this summer. among other features is a revamped tethering capability that is solid so far.

to get tethered shooting working you’ll need a few things:

first, make sure your camera’s compatible. the canon 5dII is good to go as are most recent bodies.

next you’ll need either a usb or firewire cable (should come with camera). at this time it doesn’t look like the wireless transmission units currently on market are compatible. i imagine this could change in the future.

then download lightroom 3 + it’s as easy as file/tethered capture/start tethered capture.

overall it couldn’t be smoother. granted i was working with a short cord + raw images + all was solid. i would definitely like a few more things, however;

the ability to have the raw images on both the card + the hard drive. better yet an option to toggle back + forth so that if you’re ever card free you could always shoot tethered. better workflow wise though to have all the images in one place. if you start tethered + then jump off you’ll have images in two different place but not in a completely redundant way.

like to see more options on the shoot bar within lightroom. great to see the camera controls + have a nice lg shutter but the horizontal bit takes too much room. i’d like to be able to opt for a vertical stack as well.

this would be brilliant for video as well. when’s that out adobe? you’ve gone far enough with this beta to include video import + metalogging into lightroom so how far off are we? be way smooth to pull a histogram up with live video while you have one subject interview another etc, without you even being in the same room. the day that comes around + works wirelessly i’ll be one happy puppy as canon already has video doable over their WFT-E4A.

if that isn’t enough of the future for you in one day, try this from the photoshop front or this from ol’ pogue himself on the iphone front.

and lastly, rip jim marshall

the G11 is here… + the same price i paid for my G9 nearly two years ago. a huge fan of the 9 as it is one solid little multi platform machine. you have your raw images, quick auto jpgs if you need them, a slew of video settings including a sweet little 1024 + don’t forget the time lapse setting. that later just really does it for me when i want a quick mix of stuff. and with the raw at 12.1 it gives you room to work with in post.

with the G10 last year, however, the rez was bumped up to 14.7 but canon dropped the time lapse. though i haven’t handled one other then once or twice that’s really the only difference. i could care less about the bump up as it’s not worth the trade off in my book.

with the 11 out now, canon continues to knock out a solid g line of cameras that consumers + pros alike are working with, albeit for different reasons. the noise performance might be the most striking feature on the 11 though i’m sure the fold lcd will get a ton of attention (nice flash sync speed of 1/2000th this time around as well). but oddly enough canon has backtracked on the rez with an interesting offering of only 10 megapixels this time around. i’m sure we’ll hear more about this later.

if you don’t have a p+s, or something that you can easily carry nearly anywhere i can’t recommend it enough - “the best camera is the one that’s with you”. just had a blast documenting time in nyc, boston, cape cod + an island the last few weeks with more to come soon.

canon

dpreview

here’s a great way to start the week – a sweet mix of inspiration in the form of new hacks + variations and a discussion on crap.

one of public radio’s greatest features is no doubt, this american life, hosted by ira glass. a long time radio host/producer who’s now expanded into tv. you know that he knows his stuff by the way he puts his shows together. the topics are engaging and the edits are tight. was discussing my post “edit” + the idea of how to get to the best of your work lately and this came up. part of a larger series, here’s why we all have to deal with the crap.

in your quest to fight through all the ho-hum mediocre stuff, here’s some fascinating alternative firmware for canon point+shoots called CHDK. it unlocks a ton of hidden potential in your powershot camera – HDR bracketing, time lapse + my friend ross’ favorite, motion detection! supposedly fast enought to get lightning strikes… wtf! haven’t tried it yet but definitely worth a go. and if you’re wondering the G9 is compatible thank you very much. cheers for the connect ross.

the best way to find more info on CHDK or anything online for that matter is now here. google’s been great at searching + really can’t be beat there but for the new wave of information presentation, the future will look a lot like kosmix – the web organized for you. another well financed silicon valley start up it is but another search engine it is not. not only does it find what you’re after but it presents it an encyclopedic format – a wiki definition, images, blogs links, videos, related links – all right in front of you in a google second. hard to go back once you’ve given it a whirl.

more inspiration ala pdx’s own w|k with their latest for nike + king james. the candyman is back (which incidently is the only nickname i ever really had) is up on their blog.

and lastly a bit of bono, inline with the new release, on theft. in this case, music theft via the copyright alliance blog.

couple of good friday things today aside from the weather. rob haggart always has great lists over at aphotoeditor so especially interesting to see his take on the ‘outdoor sports & lifestyle’ world. a fairly complete post though i’m sure there are more – keep in mind that this is his list, as he prefaces, based on who he’s worked with or would like to collaborate with.

strobist talks up the canon G9 as the new polaroid which i can attest to as a fine tool. working with a client here in the rockies from atlanta recently it worked like a charm to lay down specifics during a day of scouting. i’m actually surprised to hear that only “20% – 25%” of outside’s photographers are using this technique – G9 or otherwise.

and on the gear front, obviously big day for the iphone. always think there’s something to be said for second generation goods though – be it outdoor, photo or tech – as undoubtedly the first round needs some work. anyone remember bd’s first round of avalungs (nice pete)? until the machines are making everything then patches, fixes and upgrades are a fact of life.

even moreso than the iphone i’m ready for apple to roll out their new access everywhere service mobile me. for anyone who travels this will be great. true, it’s been around in some form or another for years but to have push programing, online storage and remote access all in one solid package will be pure efficient sweetness. of course, to be honest, i’m really looking forward to tying it all into the nice new mac pro enroute.

finally, speaking of computers there’s no way around their boa like grip on photography. this means we could spend time dealing with more 0′s & 1′s or find someone smarter and get the hell out of the way. here’s one such blog that i think will develop into a great resource. computersforphotographers is the work of photographer, digital darkroom instructor and all around tech guy dave marx. bring it dave.