:: Briefing template

The starting point of any successful design project is the quality of information provided at the briefing stage. This should be in a written format to help Rodd understand your needs before our first meeting. As a Guide for companies and individuals new to the design process we have produced an ideal briefing template for your convenience.

Another important element to a successful project is the appointment of the most compatible external product design team. As well as having the right skill set it is important that the design team personalities complement your company culture and the personalities of your team members involved in the project. Some projects involve quite a long development period and therefore you need to be comfortable that everyone will work closely together.

The first team meeting will enable all parties to question and confirm the design brief and terms of reference for work required.

Once the terms of reference have been established, necessary non-disclosures and IP policies signed and a final contract agreed Rodd’s appointed design team begins work on initial concepts.

Most commonly this stage will include a creative brainstorming session, held at Rodd’s design studio, which brings expert designers, engineers and technologists together with your team to explore creative ideas as rapidly as possible. Early ideas are then filtered towards a smaller selection of preferred ideas. From this point Rodd Industrial Design will refine design concepts for review, to define both the visual brand direction and the critical mechanical principles for the product. The initial concepts are presented to a multi-disciplinary review team, as defined in the terms of reference, and which ideally should include representatives from the client’s marketing, sales and technical teams.

The objective of the review is to agree a single concept or concept direction for development.

Once a preferred direction from the concept creation stage is selected, Rodd Industrial design refines the creative proposal and produces a single detailed A-surface 3D CAD model for marketing review.

To enable the client team to get the most realistic view of the product prior to commitment to tooling and manufacture, Photo-realistic computer images, visual appearance models or test-rigs, as appropriate, are produced to fully illustrate the final concept.

Following a thorough client review and sign off of the appearance models, Rodd lead a programme of detail design for manufacture.
Working in partnership with the client team and their suppliers, a fully detailed 3D CAD dataset is produced for each component, together with production and detailed material specifications sufficient to support Request for Quotation (RFQ) documents.

Throughout the detailed design for manufacture process continuous or simultaneous rapid prototyping is commissioned via our network of strategic supply partners and managed by Rodd. Where appropriate, Rodd can also provide Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Mould Flow Analysis on request.

To ensure critical design intent is maintained during the pre-production stages, Rodd provide clients with day-to-day design support, this would typically include:

Day-to-day troubleshooting and consultancy.

Pilot tooling commission and management.

Tool making/manufacturing supplier liaison – ongoing liaison with suppliers throughout the tool making programme including attendance at first-off tool trials.

Ongoing design refinement.

Management, distribution and control of pre-production documentation.

Management of production tooling (UK/Portugal/Far East)