Minor Project. Christopher Birch.
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Question / Brief. Creative Enterprise. Setting up a business. Why business fail. Industry talk. Next steps. Purposed Market Area. The Market. Bespoke Homeware. Mass Homeware. Google Trends. UK Homeware. Target Market. Decor Trends. Design Styles. Scandinavian Design. Rustic Design. Minimalist Design. Asian Zen Design. Mid-Century Modern Design. Assessment. Minimalist Features. Exploring Decor Trends. Choosing Products. Clock Sketch’s. Mirror Sketch’s. Box Sketch’s. Clock Development. Mirror Development. Box Development. Small Scale Batch Production. Lean Manufacturing. Workshop Visit. Routing Jigs Drilling Jig
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Drilling Jig #2 Sanding Jig Batch Production. Production Costs. Profit. 1:5 CAD. Product Evaluation. Colour Variation. Business Plan. Workshop Costs. Brand Identity. Name & Logo. Minimal Logo. Logo Design. Business Cards. Design. Website. Existing Websites. Website Concept. Social Media. Evaluation. Renders. Image Ref. Text Ref.
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Design Brief.
This project will look into how to set up a creative enterprise, covering things such as commercial awareness, basic management skills, and several others topics relating to the creative design industry. The aim for this project is to create a batch production style of manufacturing, having a consistent quality and design relationship throughout a range of products. These will fit into the cross over section between product design and furniture design (Homeware). With the main focus being on designing products that could be sold on a website and sent out easily to customers. Hopefully preparing me for the future.
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Creative Enterprise. A creative enterprise is another term for a business that is focused around something within the creative field. Regardless of this being art, games or design they are all classed as creative industry and number within the UK are slowly growing. According to the Creative Industries Council (Grande, 2019) the UK’s creative industry in 2017 was valued at £101.5 billion which was a 7.1% increase from 2016. Setting up a business in an area of the market that is growing would be good as it means there is high demand for that type of work. But with this increase it also means there will be more competition between companies.
In order to get a better understanding of a business, research needs to be done into what makes a successful business, how to stand out and why some of them fail. This will then hopefully influence some of the decision that need to be made throughout this project.
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Setting Up A Business. A key part of this project is going to be looking into how to build a business and what it takes to run one. All business starts somewhere, either as a sole trader or in partnership, either way diving in head first is never the best option. Statistics show that at the start of 2018 there was an estimated total of 5.6 million small businesses within the UK (“Small Business Statistics�, 2018). Some succeed others fail, but having a good understanding of how to set up a solid foundation on which to work is always good. Looking into some of the key steps of how to set up a business is a good starting point.
Investigate the market Write a business plan Choose a business structure Name your business Develop branding Find finance Get an accountant Set up premises Create an online presence Have a specific work schedule Understand legal issues Learn how to sell Know what your worth (Ovsyannykov, 2016) (Barrow, 2018) (Tracy, 2005)
There are many useful websites that can be used as reference that are aimed at helping individuals to set up a new business. The majority of the websites all have a similar structure that they follow as a standard practice. In bold is a list of steps consisting of several articles that advise individuals on building a business.
These are all very good points for building a business, some are more relevant to this project than others, but all will be considered. The overall feeling from reading several articles is to be sensible and think about each point properly, as they will all build upon one another. The points that are highlighted are things that would be considered if this was to eventually become a full business. However they might be touched on during research to get a better understating of how they work.
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Business Failure. Even businesses with the best intentions can fail for a number of different reasons. SBA (Small Business Association) states that 30% of new businesses fail within the first two years, 50% fail in the first five years and 66% during the first 10. With only 25% of business making it past 15 years (Sutton, 2017).
will be a considerably decreased. Especially in this day and age where people go online to search for practically everything. A business plan is there to help focus strategy’s, identify potential hurdles that you may have to deal with, work out what resources you may need and to see how feasible the business would be before starting. Without this your business could get into some complications that might have been highlighted if a business plan had been completed. The less of these steps a business does the more likely it is to fail.
The top reasons of why a business fails are mainly related to the initial set up. It shows if the foundations aren’t there then the business is at risk before it even starts. Lots of business set up without doing any research into the market they’re aiming for, the current economics and local area in which they might set up in. These are all crucial factors, if the market is already saturated or if there is a lot of the same businesses, in the same area, its going to be hard to compete with a business that is already established. This can also be applied to the internet, if your online presence isn’t strong, either through advertising or social media the likelihood of a business surviving
1-2 Years = 30% 1-5 Years = 50% 1 -10 Years = 66% 1 - 15 years = 75%
To run a business having capital is key, at the start there might not be much money coming in and a lot going out. Having enough capital to keep a business going up until the point where it is generating money is vital for survival. This can all be worked out though a business plan, and without one, a business might fail before it really starts to get going.
Survival Rate.
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The points that have just been talked about are all reasons a business might fail within the first 1-2 years. This doesn’t mean after that your safe, things can still go wrong. The percentage of business that fail between 1- 5 years and 1- 10 years does increase however, the percentage at which they increase less each year. The first two years of a new business are most vulnerable so keeping up to date is vital to success. New business’s start every day, the market could change and politics can affect the way in which we trade with other countries. This is something that is quite topical at this time and may affect many businesses big and small. As a result, businesses need to be constantly evolving and adapting to new changes within their area of work. It could be argued that expanding too quickly maybe detrimental to the business. Lots of things need to be weighed up as they might not be as good as they seam on the surface. Bigger premises = increase in rent and more staff = bigger wage slips etc. The key is working out the most efficient and profitable strategy for the business and this can make or break them. Making sure what the business is expanding into is like starting all over again. A new business plan might even need to be drawn up as everything will be affected. Some of the points that have been discussed will be useful to implement into this project. Thing such as the market research, online presence, business plan and maybe looking into what capital might need to be raised to set up for real.
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Industry Talk. Recently a talk was given on ‘how to set up your own business’, this was organised by the Creative Guild (a creative community of people around Sheffield area) and the Sheffield Hallam university. It aimed to help young entrepreneurs set up and understand what it takes to run a business. An industry professional delivering the presentation explained the basics of how he set his own business up. This was a good source of primary research into the world of the creative industry. The speaker that delivered the presentation was Mark Musgrave, the founder of The Level Collective and Printed by Us. The majority of his talk was about how he set up The Level Collective, starting as a university side project which then developed into a brand that now ships merchandise all over the world. His brand focused on a love of the outdoors with strong ethical values about how the products were made. The talk covered his story from start to where it is now, this really helped to understand how his business developed over the years. There were a few things that really stuck out from what he said.
“A business will take time to develop, you’ve just got to be patient” “Make quality content” “Create a consistent style” “Use social media to make the brand look bigger than it is by using brand reps”
These are all very important points to think about when building a business, and throughout this project. Some of the points such as consistency and using social media might be things that are implemented into this project.
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Industry Talk. More primary research was carried out in the form of another set of guest speakers, talking about their experiences of setting up by themselves. The speakers where all Sheffield Hallam graduates that had started their own business. “Work for yourself� was the title of the workshop, set up by the enterprise team, it focused on Q&A style questions that where put forward to the four guests. The guest speakers came from a number of different jobs but all mainly focused around the internet / software industry. There were a few key points that were taken away from the talk: You need a competitive advantage over other businesses to stand out / have a USP (unique selling point). Networking is a big part of growing a business. This is vital at the beginning as it is an excellent way of getting your name known. Pushing yourself to get better even in hard times, having a passion for what you do will show in your work. Create a business plan, set goals, then make new ones once achieved. Constantly improving upon your work, making it better each time. All of these points where very useful and can be impenitent into the project. A few of the points that the guest speakers said also showed up in the initial research. This clearly shows it works and is something that defiantly needs to be thought about in this project.
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Next Steps.
After researching into what it takes to run a successful business and talking to industry experts, the next stage is to plan out what steps needed to be done for this project. This is a broad overview of what is hopefully going to happen. Do market research into homeware. Create a business plan what the research has
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Create a business name, logo and style. Start to design products that could be made looking at USP, quality and continuity. Set up batch production style of making. Understand costings and make appropriate decisions based off them. Set up an online website to sell the products. Create global coverage though social media. Within these steps there will be many little ones but this gives the basic structure to the project.
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Purposed Market Area.
This project aims to design products for the homeware market, products within this area can also be known as dĂŠcor or furnishings. These are the items that are the cross over area between product design, interior design and furniture design. Together they create the products that are around the house like, mirrors, pencil pots and wall art. They are items that create that homely environment. Setting up a business that sell these kinds of products are brilliant to run alongside a furniture business or as a small startup business. This project is aimed to help learn about running a business and the things that need to be in place to make it work. The aim for this to have easy to make products that can be set up on a small-scale handmade batch production system. Do runs of products to keep the cost of each individual peace down, intern will allow for better profits. Then selling them online allows them to be sent out all over the world with great ease. The kind of items that could fit within the homeware category are things like: Boxes Watch Holders Candle Holder Ring Peg Pen Pot Mirror Slat & Pepper Shakers Key Pegs Wall Art
Shapes Coasters Board Games Wine Stopper Door Wedge Bottle Opener Clock Lights Calendar
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Plant Pots Cellotape Holder Pencil Sharpener Clothes Divider Radio Picture Frames Book Ends Notice Board Paper Weight
Int eri
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Furniture.
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Homeware.
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The Market.
The homeware market is a multi-billion-pound industry, and this graph shows it. The UK market value for homeware products is currently approximated at £13.6 billion (2018) with an expected to continued grow over the next two years. By 2020 the market is forecast to hit £14.1 billion (“UK Homewares market value 2010-2018 | Statistic”, 2018). This is a good area of the market to get into, there is clearly a desire for these products as supported by the figures. There are two types of market within the homeware category, mass and bespoke, and they both feed into the multi-billion-pound industry.
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UK Homewares market value 20102018 Statistic with predictions for 2020 shown In Billions.
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Mass Market.
Bespoke Market.
Looking at the mass market homeware items it is clear that there are a lot of wellestablished businesses. They all sell very similar items in many different materials and styles, something to fit everyone. They are all copies of one another, which is good for resale purposes but doesn’t give them any individuality or character. In the mass market it is more about buy and resell, rather than make and sell. This is great for filling a house with items, but most of the time all the items are different and don’t have any continuity between them. This means the items won’t have a link between each other.
The bespoke homeware market is mainly built up of individual small business, charging a premium for hand crafted work. Each piece is individual and is usually only made in small batches. This market relies on high quality making and finishes that arent found on mass market products. Most bespoke homeware manufactures run it alongside a furniture business however there are some that are standalone companies. These businesses then have a number of different options where to sell their products. On there own website, though an online creative market place like Etsy or through another company on a website or shop. Pros and cons of owning your own website vs putting them on a creative market place need to be addressed. This project aims to make products that are easy to send out in the post, that can be bought off a website. This is so delivery costs are kept down.
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Bespoke Homeware. Here you can see a selection of bespoke homeware items, they are predominately using wood, along with a variety of different techniques to achieve the finished look. The items are from a number of different websites ranging in price. The one thing that stands out straight away from these items is the level of quality you get. This is probably attributed to the fact that all these company’s also produce bespoke furniture. The skills and level of quality is passed over into the small items they make. However, this is also reflected in the price of some of the items, the more time they take to make the higher the price tends to be. This is the level of quality this project is aiming for however the implantation of batch production should help to keep the price slightly more affordable. The price of some of these items are quite high and only people with a disposable income might consider buying them.
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Mass Homeware. At the other end of the homeware market is the mass-produced items, these are made in large numbers most likely from china. They are then bought buy a number of different businesses and resold on their own website. This means a few different businesses could all have the same items, which could lead to competitive pricing. There are a wide range of materials that are used with the mass market items gives customers a wide range of options to choose from. Looking at the images you can already see the quality of design and finish aren’t as good as the bespoke items. They have been produced in a manner which keeps costs down, making them more affordable to the majority of people. The items are all from different big online websites, as well as doing homeware they also do fashion, furniture and jewellery. They have lots of different revenue incomes not just focusing on homeware / furniture like the bespoke market. The key is to find a balance between the two types of market, designing something that is easy to make but people perceive it to be high quality.
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Google Trends. Google trends is a website that analyses Google’s top search queries across the whole world. This can be done for just one specific country or globally. The results for the searched term are presented in graphs and statistics as seen below. The data presented below is for Homeware (left) and DÊcor (right). Over the past year both of the searches have fluctuated slightly with an average of around 75/80 % popularity. This figure is relative to the peak popularity of that searched result. Going back 5 years both of these searches have gradually been searched for more, with them hitting peak popularity in late 2018 for homeware and early 2019 for dÊcor.
(Google Trends, 2018)
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Looking at the UK chart you can see that the majority of the searches where from the middle / south of the country. This will help to see where the majority of the target market are from. When it comes to advertising this can be quite key as focusing on where the customers are from can help to get the most out of advertising.
(Google Trends, 2018)
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The related searches show the top searches that relate to the original searched term. The related topics will help be a good input for style trends that are big at the moment. While the related queries have shown where people are currently shopping for homeware and what rooms people are decorating. From the results it looks as if the majority of people are searching for homeware products at major supermarkets and fashion brands, such as Tesco and Next. This will be good to see what these company offer to help decide what homeware product this project is going to make.
UK Homeware. After the google trends related queries showed that people that were searching for homeware within Tesco and Next, it made sense to look into it more. Brands like this will have a big influence with the UK as they are one of the main shopping retailers. Next has a sub brand called Next Home and Tesco’s have Fox & Ivy. These brands sell similar items much like the mass market homeware on the previous page. However, with the products that Next home and fox & ivy sell will probably exclusive to them as their brand name will be on the products. They will have external manufactures that make them but with a contract to only sell to them. this will be done to avoid completive pricing and to make the product feel exclusive to that company.
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The products they sell are reasonably priced as they are mass produced homeware products. There isn’t a lot of wooden products on the site manly ceramics, glass and metal. To keep costs down the ‘wooden’ products are made from resin that is painted and textured to look like timber. This is isn’t an option for this project as it won’t fit the type of market that this will be aimed at. The cost of setting up resin moulds would also be quite high.
The products shown on the left page are all from the next home, these are there top 4 selling decorative accessories. Looking at them from a design background the design isn’t very impressive and don’t have much thought put into them. They are somewhat of a disposable homeware product that will go out of fashion fairly quickly. However, this has shown that mirrors might be a good avenue to explore with this project, as well as candle accessories.
Fox & Ivy focus on having continuity throughout their products linking one to another. This is something that will be key to keeping a house style within this project. This will hopefully get customer to buy other products to have a set.
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Target Market. Using the data from google trends it was clear that within the UK, the main target market was within the Midlands / South. Then using data from Statista (Statista, 2019), it showed that the within the furniture and homeware market the predominate number of buys where female, aged 25 to 34 and have a medium to high income. However, if you look at the graphs there isn’t a particularly big percentage difference between groups meaning it is quite un-gendered market. For this reason, the design doesn’t need to be solely focused on one very narrow persona. Instead it can be slightly broader covering a larger age range and both genders. The type of people that this project will be aimed at will have a good scene of design and will have a simple design style within their home. Their house / flat will be modern, fairly new or recently redecorated. They will live with a nice area possibly luxury flat, semi-detached or detected house. “Young professionals, Educated urbanites and Exclusive empty nesters” (CACI, 2013) to name just a few personas. These will be the type of people that wont mind paying a little bit more for high quality products.
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User By Age. In 2017 the highest percentage age group was 25 - 34 year olds at 28.6%
User By Gender.
In 2017 the highest percentage gender was female at 57.7%
User By Income. In 2017 the highest percentage income group was high income buys at 36.4%
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Decor Trends.
There are lots of different articles out there all thinking that they know what the next up and coming trends are going to be. There are a few trends that cross over from article to article and then there are some of their own ideas. As there are so many different influences and factors it means that there are lots of predictions for the rest of the year / next year. Here are some that tend to appear in different articles quite a bit: Muted warm colours Geometric and tribal patterns Curved furnishings Concreate Texture Mid-century Hygge Matte black Sustainable / natural looking fabric (DecorMAG, 2018) (Brouwer, 2019) (Warren-Smith, 2019) (Paley, 2018) (Duran, 2018) Within the world of design everything is changing constantly a trend can come and go very quickly. Trends tend to be to be fashionable for several years and have the potential to be long-term influencers on the market (Schneider, 2014). They are often an adaptation upon classics, and can become popular in a number of different ways. Nowadays the easiest way for this to happen is on social media, designers, celebrity’s and young people have a massive influence on this. Choosing a few of these trends and trying to incorporate them into a design which would become the linking feature / continuity between the products. These would then link to a number of different interior trends as well as creating a brand identity in a certain way.
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Design Styles. Using the information from the décor trend list another list was compiled, this linked the trends to different design styles. A number of the décor trends can be found within these design style, making it a good place to start laying out the basis of the projects consistent theme. Designing in the style of one of these approaches, with the addition of a few of the décor trends should help to make a solid well-designed product. The design styles that have been picked out are: Scandinavian Minimalist Rustic Asian Zen Mid-Century Modern These design styles all have aspects of the décor trends in the design of many of their products, furniture and interiors. Some more research into each of these design styles need to be done to fully assess which route this project is going to take. Once the has been chose it is then the case of seeing what décor trend would fit nicely together.
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Scandinavian Design. Originating from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland the focus of this design method is all about clean lines and functionality without losing aesthetic quality. They design focuses on the use neutral colour pallet and rely on the natural beauty of predominately light-coloured timbers like oak, ash and sycamore. Inspired by nature many of the patterns and shapes that are found within Scandinavian design show a resemblance to many natural forms. (Eyþórsdóttir, 2011)
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Rustic Design. Often with this design style it is all about bringing a bit of the outside in, natural, raw and unrefined characteristics are fed into the design. Some industrial features are sometimes added as this adds to the rustic styling as many of the materials are usually reclaimed. The rustic design products tend to not to follow predictable lines or patterns as this gives it its authentic feel. Raw materials make the product feel more natural and un machined giving the sense of comfortable homely feel to them. (Angeli, 2016)
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Minimalist Design. Starting in the 60s minimalist design can be linked to evolution of Bauhaus movement, stripping back anything that isn’t needed and only leaving the functional things. The design style is characterised by the use of basic shapes, anonymity of style and limited colour pallet. The key with this is to design on the basis that less is more using the barest essentials to form a design. Although it sounds easy making something looking visually appealing with very little is difficult. This is where the use of negative space and sublet features come into play. (Ivanoff, 2014)
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Asian Zen Design. Originating from Asia this style focuses on Japanese design, a mixture of blocky, clean and simple styling. Using a mixture of dark and light timbers with strong routes to tradition construction methods. Trying to achieve a zen like feeling with each piece with no clutter the use of draws, box etc. are used to keep things tidy. Many designs allow for organisation and tend to have very few components to the design.
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Mid-Century Modern Design. This design style is best known for its sleek lines, organic shapes and use of new materials (back in the 50s/60s). The uses of contrasting material and rounded legs on chairs & tables was also prevalent. The designs tended to be uncluttered and reimagined version of old designs with the use of new materials to bring them into the present market. The use of darker timber such as teak or stained timber where definitely some of the defining features of this style. (Brown, 2018)
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Assessment. Looking at all of the design styles its easy to see that many of them have very similar features and characteristics. The only one that stands out is the rustic design been somewhat on its own. The rest of the design however, all seam to point towards a similar styling. This isn’t bad thing as it might make it a bit easier to design homeware products for these environments as they are all quite similar. For this project to work, the best plan will be to focus on one of the design styles and implement / switch in a few of the dÊcor trends to end up with a house style. After doing all of the research the most common theme through these design styles is minimalistic simple design. For this reason and the fact that a simple clean designed product would fit into to most homes, a minimalist design style will be adopted for this project.
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Good design is as little design as possible. Dieter Rams
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Minimalist Features. When designing a minimalist product, the main principle is ‘less is more’, as you can see from the other page the beauty is in the simplicity. The products show a range of designs that all focus on being minimal but still performing their intended tasks. There are a number of different features that make up / are prevalent throughout the minimal design style. The subtle manipulation of basic shapes gives the design a nice smooth look, while keeping it simple. There aren’t many harsh corners or edges, however, if there are, they are eased into with a chamfer. The use of tapers adds a subtle feature to a basic shape changing the overall aesthetics of the piece. Parts that a usually hidden away or things that are class ugly are sometimes exposed and made into a focus point such as fixings. Sometimes the progression from one part to another look as if they merge into one another creates one solid piece instead of two components. There is always a relationship between the measurements which creates a coherent feeling to the product. All of these little different features turn a basic looking product into something minimalistic, it’s just got to be done in moderation. There are some key points to run through when trying to design a minimalist product which will help to focus on just the essentials. What is the function of it? What does it need to work? What doesn’t it need? Is it as simple design?
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Exploring Decor Trends. With the design style now chosen, the next decision was to work out what trends to use. The following pages show range of different textures, fabrics and timbers. These were based off the decor trends previously researched. The trends have to fit nicely with the minimalistic style for them to be used. One of the trending decor trends was the use of geometric and tribal patterns, however this doesn’t fit the minimalistic design style so was instantly ruled out. The use of concrete was also ruled out as it didn’t fit the high-quality aesthetics the brand was aiming for. Mid-century, curved furnishings and Hygge are all part of the design of the product. These could be implanted during the design however the main focus will be based on the minimalistic styling. The curved furnishings fit quite nicely with the minimalistic style due to not many sharp corners used in this design style. This then left the textures, matte black, sustainable / natural looking fabric and muted warm colours to explore. As you can see from the picture the only thing that wasn’t explored here was the use of muted warm colours as this would be explored later once the designs have been finalised. This way the colours can be seen on the designs. The use of one specific muted colour could also limit the range of potential customers, as that colour might not fit within their homes colour scheme. Using black will be a safe option as the standard base colour, the different colours could then be an optional extra on the website. This can add variation to the design and increase the potential customers.
The use of fabric would be nice to integrate into a product but the items that are being purposed might not fit use of fabric within the design. It’s good to see that those fabrics do work with the lighter colour timber that are suited to the minimalist design style. As similar styles might be present in customers’ homes. Having texture on parts of the products was also a consideration, but after making the sample tiles they looked messy. The textures felt like they would be better suited to the rustic design style and not particularly suited to the minimalistic design that this project wanted. The only texture that could be considered was the lines, but even then, getting the consistency right might be an issue. All of these textures would add additional time to the making process, meaning that the products would have to be sold at a higher price to make up for the time spent on production. The final decision was to use matte black and ash and integrate it into the minimalistic design. Ash was chosen as oak was slightly to dark and overused in many products. It is cheaper than sycamore and looked nicer than the maple. On page.47 you can see the two sample boards next to one another, this will hopefully give an indication into what many of the products will be like. The final picture on page.47 shows some of the lighter colour timbers being explored, these were ruled out as they didn’t fit the minimalist style that this brand aims to achieve.
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Final sample combination is using ash and matte black.
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Choosing Products. From the original 27 purposed ideas only 3 could be taken forward. The products had to have enough potential to be developed into a viable product that someone might buy. There’s only so much that can be done with a set of coasters or a door wedge! The products also needed to be varied in design, not to similar, such as a box and pen pot.
Clock. Mirror. Boxes. These were the three chosen items to take forward and design as a range. These seemed like the products that had the most potential. The watch box and light where also strong contenders but they felt like they would need a whole project to themselves to do them justice. From here a range of ideas will be sketched up. Designing all three products at the same time will take a little longer than usual, but should make for a set of designs that all link to one another.
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Clock Sketches.
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53. All of the clocks started off as range of different shapes, with the intention to slowly develop them into a minimalist version, alongside the mirrors and boxes. Quite quickly a circular form was adopted along with the use of analog mechanism instead of digital face. This felt more minimal stripping it back to the bear essentials. As many people on a daily basis read the clock the use of numbers isn’t necessary, as user will be able to distinguish the time from just the placement of hands / dots.
The use of dots becomes more prevalent on the third set of sketches trying to refine the minimalist style. This can also be seen used in the mirrors as a way of linking the products together. The three designs left at the end need to be tested on clock mechanisms to see if they would work as intended.
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Mirror Sketches.
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57. Over the course sketch’s you can see a development in the function of the mirror. At the start there was a few directions in which this could have gone. A nice designed mirror, integration of a light, addition of a shelf or key pegs. Having just a mirror felt like it didn’t have enough development to really go anywhere and the light was too complicated for the batch production system. The mirror / shelf combination has been done quite a bit compared to the mirror and key pegs design. This felt like it was the best route to go as it should hopefully stand out compared to other mirror designs.
At the end there was 3 potential designs that would need to be tested with models.
At the same time as doing these designs, the clock and box where also being designed. The circular shape of the mirror was influenced by the basic shape of the clock. The mirror and the clock face will be the same size to show the relationship between the designs. This is also where the small black dot has come from as this reflects the clocks diel.
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Box Sketches.
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The design for a box came much quicker than the others products as it felt like it fitted the design brief and style of the other products quite well. The simple design of using a sphere as a lid visually worked quite well. The cylinder would be hollow and would allow for objects to be placed inside, as well as locating the sphere on top.
The unconventional lid works nicely with the recurring dots / semi spheres, and gives the box a sense of mystery. Is it a game? An ornament? A box? This idea for the lid to be the sphere felt like an interesting concept, not many people had done.
The simple cylindrical design means it should be easy to produce either on the late or pre turned timber. The spheres will be pre turned and would just need to be sprayed black. This would hopefully make the production process fairly quick. Some MDF models will be made to look at heights / diameters of the cylinders, sphere sizes and how they interact with the storage hole.
Clock Development.
1
2
The first step for the clock development was to draw out the sketches that were highlighted on the previous pages. The sketches were roughly drawn out to a realistic size, giving a better sence of scale allowing for design changes to be made. Looking at all three of the designs it was clear that 2 were quite bulky and 1 / 3 seemed better suited to the minimalistic styling.
3 Design 1 placed the hands behind the face for a clean look and the second hand on the face of the clock. This would make for an interesting design as the circle and the grain would always be moving. This design suited the minimalistic style that the business is trying to achieve. It also works well with the other products that are being designed at the same time.
There was some concern to the feasibility of design 3 due to the size of the large black hour hand / arrow working with the clock mechanism. Many of the clock mechanisms that are sold online can’t support a lot of weight due to the mechanisms being weak. There was also a concern that the user would not be able to tell the time accurately due to the shape of the hands.
60.
300mm 250mm 200mm 150mm Size.
The size of the clock face was the next decision made, here you can see a 1:1 scale image of the different clock faces that where considered. 150mm and 200mm were ruled out straight away as they felt too small for a clock face. The 250mm and 300mm were both strong considerations however, the size of the face would determine the size of the mirror and vice versa. 300mm mirror looked slightly to big so the decision was made to use the 250mm circle for both the clock and mirror.
61.
Weight. Weight was a big issue for this design as the mechanism wasn’t very strong, this meant that the hands wouldn’t move or they would get to a certain position and stop. This meant that the design had to be altered slightly. The face / second dot was designed to sit on a small pin with drove the second hand. Due to the strength of the mechanism this wasn’t possible, as nothing would move if the second hand wasn’t being used. This also meant that changing the original idea of having the face in a fixed position wouldn’t work either. A compromise was made, meaning the face would move with the minute hand. This meant the black dot was removed making the design look more minimalistic and fitting the style. The original clock mechanism worked effectively for the cardboard test designs but developed problems when testing the full weight design. The final design would consist of a 3mm ash face and acrylic hands, which the test clock mechanism couldn’t handle.
Size.
The size of the hands were the next decision to make. The original hands where 18mm and 13mm thick, which was far to small for the face of the clock. The tests hands where increased by 2mm each time keeping the same relationship between the hands as the original. However, when they were placed behind the face it was fairly difficult to distinguish which hand was the hour and minute at a quick glance. For this reason, the size difference had to be changed. After testing a number of combinations, the final sizes ended up at 25mm for the hour hand and 15mm for the minute hand. The distance they proturde out from the face is relative to the mirrors the first key peg, keeping a coherence between the products. The minute hand protrudes out 50mm and the hour sitting half of that at 25mm.
A high toque mechanism was purchased to compensate for the added weight.
25 mm
15 mm
62.
This worked better, however the acrylic hands were too heavy and wouldn’t rotate all the way around. As you can see from the pictures the acrylic hands weighed 25g, this would have been acceptable if the hands pivot point was in the centre of the hand. Due to the pivot point being off centre, the power required to lift the hand is considerably more. This meant an alternative material was needed. A set of aluminium hands were created to replace the heavy acrylic, as you can see, they were 13g, which was 12g lighter than the acrylic. This made a massive difference and allowed the clock to function normally.
63.
64.
Material Choice. The face of the clock is made from ash, as are all the other products in the range. Reducing the weight of the face had to be limited to 3mm, any thicker and it risked the mechanism not working. Having a solid section of ash for the face was the initial thought. Thickening one solid section of ash down to 3mm would be extremely wasteful, and the wood would probably warp a considerable amount due to the unsupported grain structure. The alternative was to rip a length of timber into strips, glue them end to end, as shown in the first picture. This worked well, but didn’t look very aesthetically pleasing due to all of the lines produced by the grain variation. This made it very obvious that it was made from multiple sections, making it feel a cheap product. Having a full section of ash wasn’t a viable option, but using veneer to create the same effect was an alternative. Veneer is seen as a cheap alternative to solid timber, but the reduction in the quality of build materials would be made up by the aesthetic quality that would be achieved. The face, shown in the second picture (being used on the sanding jig) is made from 3mm plywood with two thin pieces of ash veneer either side. This gives the impression of solid timber but with the added advantage of being much more stable, due to the alternating grain on each layer.
65.
Mirror Development.
1
2
Like the clock development, the initial process started out by drawing the designs from the sketch page. The designs could then be visualised at full size to get a sense of proportion. The face of the mirror was drawn to similar sizes to the clock, giving a coherence between the designs. This would be finalised later in the development. One of the problems highlighted was in design 3. The placement of the key pegs might hit the mirror if they were long. The mirror needs to be placed at head height, reaching for the key pegs might also prove difficult.
3 Design 1 and 2 where both nice designs however the potential for adding more pegs to the rail on design 2 made it more desirable. Design 1 also seemed quite a heavy looking design due to the large base. Design 2 has a few layers overlapping reducing the visual heaviness of the design. The design needed refinement; it was decided to use the centre point of the mirror as the revolution point for the curves. This meant the visual aesthetics of the design would have a reference point and weren’t random. The next page shows how the design revolves around the centre point of the design. Black lines are the product and the red lines show the relationship to the centre point.
66.
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68.
Angles & Lengths. The next step was to work out the angles and lengths for the pegs. This is a key part to the mirror as with the wrong angles and length, keys could fall of easily. This would defeat the purpose of the product, so getting this correct was important. The images show the test samples for the key pegs, angles and lengths. The first step was to get the angle correct. The sample had four angles 0°, 15°, 30° and 45° which covered a good range of functional angles. The sample was tested by 14 individuals, who placed a set of keys on the pegs, then picking which they felt was the most practical, the results were:
30° was the most popular option, the keys sat safely and didn’t fall off while being used. The 45° peg worked, but due to the angle wouldn’t allow the keys to sit flat. Now that the angle was decide the next development of the mirror was to test the 30° with different length pegs. There were four pegs lengths, 15mm, 20mm, 25mm and 30mm giving a functional range to the test. The same 14 individuals where this time ask to place two sets of keys on the pegs. This was to simulate a household with multiple sets of keys. The results for this were:
0° - 0 15° - 2 30° - 8 45° - 4
15mm - 0 20mm - 1 25mm - 10 30mm - 2
30° was the most popular option as it felt safe that the keys wouldn’t fall off while being useable. The 45° peg worked safely but due to the angle wouldn’t allow the keys to sit flat.
And one person wanting bigger than 30mm. Many people said that the 15mm and 20mm were too short and not functional, feeling like the keys may fall off. The 25mm / 30mm both worked well, but the 25mm looked visually appealing while still providing the same security as the 30mm peg. The spacing for the pegs where based off a 50mm spacing which was the same size as the backing piece on the edge of the mirror. Linking it to the same length of the hands on the clock, creating a cohesive design. to the same lengths of the hands on the clock, creating a cohesive design.
69.
Box Development. The idea for the boxes was to buy in pre turned timber lengths (dowel) to reduce the time spent on making, by cutting out the turning process. This meant using the boxes dimension were defined by the manufacture of the dowel. The 4 largest sizes available were 95mm, 76.2mm, 60mm and 50.8mm. The diameters were then drawn out on MDF boards to test different sized Forstner bit against the size of the hole. This is crucial as it determines the wall thickness of the boxes as well as how the spheres (the lid) sits on top. The Forstner bit started at size 45mm and went up to 76mm with a total of 6 different sizes tested. As you can see from the picture snapshot, some of the bit sizes were too large for some of the holes. Originally, the thought was to have the same sized hole for every box, but throughout this testing it showed that it didn’t fit the aesthetics. The boxes looked nicer if the size of the hole was increased, while keeping the wall thickness the same for each box. After a test on a number of samples, the smallest dowel size was ruled out as the functionality of the box would be too small. This left three box sizes, using three different sized bits:
95mm - 76mm 76.2mm - 60mm 60mm - 45mm
70.
71.
Sizes & Edges. To test the heights and see what the rough shape of the final product might look like, a set of MDF disks were cut out with the holes accurate to the dowels. This test would show how the spheres (the lid) would sit in the boxes. As the boxes were made form layers of MDF it meant that the changing of height was quick and easy to test. A range of different heights were modelled, finally settling on an increase in height throughout the three boxes. The widest box would be the shortest and the narrow box would be the tallest. This created a nice variation within the design, making it more appealing to buy a set of three rather than one standalone box.
The outside and inside edges were tested with a ‘chamfer and fillet’, the inside edge worked better with a chamfer as it guided the sphere better into the hole, allowing it to sit slightly lower. The fillet did look slightly nicer but meant the sphere could fall out of the hole easier. So, for that reason the chamfer was chosen for the practicality aspect. On the outside base, the fillet worked much better, giving the box a more aesthetic look and proving more functionality. The fillet allowed for more of the surface area on the base, making it more stable. This also linked nicely with the sphere on the top creating a symmetry between the top and bottom.
76.2mm 60mm
95mm 76mm
60mm 45mm
72.
Alterations.
Throughout the development of the boxes there was a concern that they may be expensive to produce. Although there weren’t many parts to the boxes, the sphere on top was quite expensive, with the largest sphere costing £4.50. The spheres were a nice feature and a unique idea for a box, but they didn’t add any significant value to the product. The spheres also weren’t perfectly spherical meaning they didn’t always sit perfectly in the hole. For these reasons the design was changed and adapted to more of a traditional lid. The addition of the half spheres linked the boxes to the other products, as they have been used throughout the designs.
73.
74.
Development. As the design progressed, a test sample was made with the ash timber, which was going to be used for the final product. This helped to assess any issues with the process and design. When the design changed to a tradition lid, the idea was to have it flush with the base of the box creating a seamless joint. The addition of a gap was introduced as the design felt like it lacked visual stimulation and would hide any issues with the cut. This meant that if the cut was slightly off, the lid wouldn’t sit flat. Having the gap allows for discrepancies and reduced how noticeable they would appear.
The Forstner bit also left a small hole in the middle of the cut, as well as a rough surface on the bottom. This was overcome with the addition of a mirror at the bottom of the box to cover the surface. This links to the mirror product as well as making the box look deeper than it appears.
One of the issues that was made clear through testing was, when drilling with a Forstner bit it generates a lot of heat, leaving burn marks on the product. This then sparked an idea to spray the inside of the box, covering up the burn marks, this then linked the box to the other products. The boxes were tested with a painted rim and a clean rim. The final decision was to keep the black rim on the next set of boxes, as it looked a lot better painted.
75.
Small Scale Batch Production. Batch production is one of the many ways of increasing efficiency within a business. This method of processing products is quite common when a number of products need to be made exactly the same. Instead of producing just one item at a time or as a continuous cycle, the products are made in batches. These batches vary in size from runs of 10 to 200. Each step of the production is done at the same time, this means every component will be at the same stage. Only once the entire batch has completed that process will it move onto the next process. An example of this would be making chopping boards: 1. The timber planks (2m long) would planed to the same thickness (20mm) and width (200mm) 2. The timber would then be cut to the same length (400mm) 3. Resulting in 5 rough chopping boards all the same size per plank 4. Next step would be to chamfer on the edges with the router 5. Then sand smooth 6. Finally, oil
This is a good way to keep the costs of products down, as they are all being made at the same time the cost of manufacture is reduced. This will then lead to better profit margins as the cost of an individual item is reduced. Setting up and implementing batch production into the products this project is going to produce would be a wise idea. This does however mean that the processes and form may be influenced by the limitations of batch production. Lots of things have to be considered, is the form of the product going to affect the efficiency of the production. In doing that will those changes increase the value of the product vs the time it took to do it. Time is money. To set up a business that could produce items like chopping boards for example, an initial investment of tools, equipment and premises are required. This could be done as a new start up company, a partnership with somebody else or using an already established workshop.
The whole process could take anywhere from one day to three days depending on the amount that is being produced. Obviously having more people working on this one product would speed the manufacturing up. this would then be a bit of combination between batch and continuous production as each person will be on one of the processes.
1.
2.
3.
4.
76.
5.
6.
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Lean Manufacturing. Lean manufacturing is an organized way of minimizing waste within a manufacturing system, without hindering productivity. Waste is classed as any process that uses up time, assets, or space but doesn’t increase the value of the item or service. Reducing the time in which it takes to complete a task is one of the best ways to reduce waste and lower costs. Thus, increasing overall profit margins for the business, as the longer it takes to produce a product the more money it’s going to cost. An essential part of lean manufacturing is demand based manufacturing. The components / products are only sent through each part of the manufacturing when they are needed for a customer’s order. This is quite similar to JIT (just in time) manufacturing, and are commonly integrated together. Through using this manufacturing process, it will:
Lean manufacturing methods are definitely an efficient way of producing products, and some of the knowledge learnt here can be transferred into this project. However, parts of the process like JIT wouldn’t be efficient for many of the products in the project. Creating one product at a time when a customer orders it wouldn’t be very efficient. For example, making 1 box might take one hour or make twenty boxes taking 4 hours through batch production methods. This would reduce the time for making each box to 12 minuets each. Saving 16 hours if they where made one at a time.
Decreased product lead time Reduce inventory of materials and finished product Boost manufacturing productivity
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16.
15.
3. 3.
2. 6.
17.
3. 4.
9. 14.
11.
13.
3.
8.
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2. 10. 4.
3.
12. 5. 1.
80.
1. Office 2. Low Table 3. High Bench 4. Timber storage 5. Veneer storage 6. Storage 7. Planer / Thicknesser 8. Drum sander 9. Tablesaw 10. Bandsaw 11. Extraction 12. Press 13. Spindle moulder 14. Router table 15. Disk sander 16. Pillar drill 17. Lathe
Workshop Visit. To get a better understanding of how the production of a product would be made, a workshop visit was arranged. Nathan from Nathan Millar Furniture agree to show me his workshop, giving me an insight into how batch production would work with his layout of machines. His workshop is about 800 sq.ft so has a lot of room to work in, compared to some of the workshops that where advertised on gumtree. Starting in 2015, this is Nathans 3rd workshop, each time growing in size to accommodate for more machines due to the increase in work. This is workshop is very well accommodated and would be suite to create the products for this project. On the other page is a rough diagram of what the workshop layout looks likes. The lines are a flow diagram of the process that a peace of timber would go through to create the mirror. After chatting to Nathan we found this process to be the most efficient way to produce the mirror, using a batch production style method. Explained below This visit saw very useful and will feed into the production of these products. The main thing that was taken away from the visit was when making products in batches, you need stops, jigs and templets to get processes accurate, consistent and efficient.
4
Take wood
Route the parts using jigs
16
Drill holes in rail using jig
10 4.
Trim on bandsaw
Trim out shape on bandsaw
14
4. 2
7 10 .4
Assemble components
81.
Thickness and plane
Cut to length on table saw
9
Routing Jigs This is the simplest of the jigs, as it is used to create the same profile every time. Used on the router with a flush trim bit as the cutter. This uses a bearing to guide the cutter on the template creating an exact match of the template. The jig requires some set up in the form of cutting out the rough shape as the cutter can’t cut a lot of material all at once. The cutter Is more of a trimming bit that cleans the edges and gets the perfect profile. The jig is stuck to the timber with double sided tape, having enough strength to keep the timber in place while the cutter goes around the edge. When using this jig, you have to take grain direction into consideration, making sure it is supported as it is passed around the cutter. This may determine what side of the timber the template is stuck too. Making a few of these templates is good practice, as some templates may get damaged.
82.
Drilling Jig The basic principle of this jig is that it uses a 30° wedge to create the correct drilling angle for the holes that will be used for the key pegs. This jig comes in two sections, the support which holds the timber and the rail that guides the support. The support can slide up and down against the rail, keeping it square to the bed of the pillar drill. The timber that needs to be drilled is marked out and placed on the support which is kept in place with a small lip. The support jig and rail are then lined up with the drill bit, once set up it doesn’t need to be changed. The stop on the drill is then set, this then drills at a consistent depth each time.
83.
Drilling Jig #2
Probably the trickiest of the jigs to figure out. This was designed to drill a hole in the different sized boxes. This is basically a chuck / vice that holds the dowel in a fixed position while it gets drilled. Consisting of one fixed and one sliding chuck, allowing for different sized dowel to be placed inside. The chuck is guided by two rails either side keeping the dowels in the same position each time. Each time the dowel changes size the bed needs to be moved to allow for the additional size, otherwise the hole would be off centre. The Forstner bit is lined up with the centre of the rings on the base, (as seen in bottom right picture) which mark where the centre of the dowel will be. Small adjustments then have to be made to get the Forstner bit perfectly in the centre. The stop is then set 20mm from the base, giving enough room for the radius to be cut out for the bottom.
84.
Sanding Jig
This jig is the result of another jig that failed.The original design for cutting circles for the clock faces was to use a router jig like the ones shown on the previous page. However, because the grain was unsupported in sections it meant that parts broke off while trimming the circle to size. This can be seen in the bottom right picture, as a result of this a new way of creating circles was needed. The jig that was created uses the disk sander, as this wouldn’t cause any damage to the timber, instead of cutting the material away it instead gradually sands the edge. The jig uses the edge of the sander bed as a stop, the pivot point is then measured from the face of the sander. So, if you required a 250mm circle, the pivot point would need to be 125mm away from the face of the sander. The timber is then stuck to the pivot disk with double sided tape. Slowly rotating the timber till it becomes a circle.
85.
Batch Production.
Clock. This page describes the steps that where taken to create each product with the time it took to do each product. This will then feed into the pricing of these products. This will not involve the time taken to make the jigs, as this is to layout the steps of making the product in a batch production style.
Veneered panels: Using a press that is 1m x 1m The veneer is 30mm wide by 1m long Create Layons. Press onto a board 900mm x 900m 24 hours later. Cut veneer panel down to size on the table saw From the 900mm x 900mm board there is a potential to get 9 panels out at 300mm x 300mm trying to keep to the veneer glue lines. This means the grain will be consistent and not made up of two pieces.
Looking at the process that each product goes through a rough time scale was produced for each of the products. This was working on the basis of producing about 9 products, one batch production session (9 clocks, 9 mirrors and 3 sets of 3 boxes). As you can see from the times of these products, they are all fairly similar. In reality each of these products would probably take a day to make each. The time taken to produce the items could be reduced if there were two or more people working on the production line. There are areas that could be improved, such as having some components pre made for example, the dots pre sprayed, as they get used on every product. This can also be applied to the disks for the lids on the boxes, the clock hands and metal pegs. This would speed up the production time of the products as it would be one less thing to do. The veneered boards could also be pre bought saving on time, but the cost maybe slightly more than the individual components. However, the width of the veneers used, they may not be of suitable size, meaning joint lines on the clock face.
Trace 250mm circle onto panels using template, making sure to mark the centre. Trim to rough size on the band saw. Line up the centre of the panel with the sanding jig and sand off the excess. Sand smooth. Glue screw thread into the acrylic disk onto the back of the face for the clock mechanism. Varnish. Trace around temple for hour and minute hands on aluminium. Cut hands out using guillotine and tin snips. Drill hole for clock mechanism. Sand smooth. Prime and then spray clock hands and 12 o’clock dot black. Assemble.
8 Hours work, without dry time. 86.
Mirror.
Boxes.
Take ash trim and to manageable sizes on bandsaw.
Use table saw to cut timber dowel down to different sizes.
Thickness and plane to correct thickness.
Number each lid and base.
Cut plank down into sections just oversized (back curve and front rail).
Mark face and lid to distinguish which end to drill into.
Trace shapes onto sections.
Set up drilling jig with correct forstner for box size.
Trim on bandsaw. Stick router templates to sections.
Drill all boxes of that size then move to the next size.
Route flush to template.
Route radius on bottom of boxes.
Use template to mark positions for drilling. Use jigs to drill holes.
Sand outside and inside of boxes.
Cut metal pegs to length and round edges. Prime and spay back curve, metal pegs and mirror dot black.
Laser cut disks for lid. Laser cut mirror for inside of boxes. Glue disk layers together.
Insert threaded inserts into back of rail.
Mask boxes ready for spraying.
Sand and varnish front rail.
Prime and spray inside of boxes, disks for lid and dots for lid.
Mirror will be outsourced with the corresponding holes. Assemble.
Glue disks and dot to lid. Glue mirror to inside. Varnish.
7 Hours work, without dry time.
9 Hours work, without dry time. 87.
Clock.
Mirror.
Wood Clock face 250mm round.
Wood Rail 350mm x 50mm Back 165mm x 215mm
Production Costs.
Ash veneer 2700mm x 350mm = £11.35 x 2 = £22.70 3mm Birch plywood 1220mm x 2440mm = £25.95 / 2 = £12.98 This will allow for 9 clock faces veneered front and back. Making the veneer for each face £2.52 and the Plywood £1.44 = £3.96 Metal Hour hand 180mm x 25mm Minuet hand 205mm x 15mm 1.2mm Aluminium sheet 500mm x 500mm = £7.89 This will allow for 14 pairs of hands. Making a pair of hands 56p Hardware High torque clock mechanism. = £7.99 Acrylic sheet 300mm x 500mm = £2.50 This will allow for 144 screw thread housings. Making each one cost 2p Extra large half spheres are £1.20 each. SubTotal Clock face = £3.96 Clock hands = 56p Mechanism = £7.99 Acrylic housing = 2p Sphere = £1.20
Total £13.73
Ash planks at 180mm x 1000mm x 22mm = £9.42 x3 = £28.26 This will allow for 9 backs and 9 rails. Making the rails and backs £1.57 each. Mirror Mirror 250mm round. Mirrored acrylic 600mm x 300mm = £7 x5 = £35 This allows for 10 mirrors. Making each mirror £3.5 each. Hardware M8 Threaded wood inserts 13mm long. = £6.09 for 20 Making each insert 30p each. M8 countersunk hex head bolts 50mm long. = £5 for 20 Making each bolt 25p each. 4mm steel bar 1000mm long. = £2.95 x 2 = £5.90 This will allow for 56 pegs. Making each peg 10p Large half spheres are 90p each. SubTotal Back = £1.57 Rail = £1.57 Mirror = £3.50 Bolts = 50p Inserts = 60p Pegs = 40p Sphere = 90p
Total £9.04
88.
Large Box.
Medium Box.
Small Box.
Wood Large box 95mm x 80mm
Wood Medium box 76.2mm x 100mm
Wood Small Box 60mm x 120mm
Ash dowel 95mm x 350mm = £35.50
Ash dowel 76.2mm x 500mm = £21.04
Ash dowel 60mm x 1000mm = 27.66
This will allow for 3 large boxes Making them £11.83 each.
This will allow for 4 medium boxes Making them £5.26 each
Allowing for 6 small boxes. Making them £4.61 each.
Hardware Large lid locator 95mm x 3mm
Hardware Medium lid locator 76.2mm x 3mm
Hardware
Plywood 300mm x 500mm x 3mm = £2
Plywood 300mm x 500mm x 3mm = £2
Small lid locator 60mm x 3mm Plywood 300mm x 500mm x 3mm = £2
This will allow for 15 locators. Making each one 12p
This will allow for 18 locators. Making each one 10p
This will allow for 32 locators. Making each one 6p
Large lid spacer 95mm x 1.5mm
Medium lid spacer 76.2mm x 1.5mm
Small lid spacer 60mm x 1.5mm
Plywood 300mm x 500mm x 1.5mm = £1
Plywood 300mm x 500mm x 1.5mm = £1
Plywood 300mm x 500mm x 1.5mm = £1
This will allow for 15 spacers. Making each one 6p
This will allow for 18 spacers. Making each one 5p
This will allow for 32 spacers. Making each one 3p
Large mirror 95mm x 3mm
Medium mirror 76.2mm x 3mm
Small mirror 60mm x 3mm
Mirrored acrylic 300mm x 600mm = £7
Mirrored acrylic 300mm x 600mm = £7
Mirrored acrylic 300mm x 600mm = £7
This will allow for 18 mirrors. Making each one 38p
This will allow for 21 mirrors. Making each one 33p
This will allow for 36 mirrors. Making each one 19p
Large half spheres are 90p each.
Medium half spheres are 70p each.
Small half spheres are 50p each.
Sub total Box = £11.83 Locator = 12p Spacer = 6p Mirror = 38p Sphere = 90p
Sub total Box = £5.26 Locator = 10p Spacer = 5p Mirror = 33p Sphere = 70p
Total £13.29
Total £6.44
Sub total Box = £4.61 Locator = 6p Spacer = 3p Mirror = 19p Sphere = 50p
Total £5.39
89.
Cost to make
Hours taken
Labour
Made in hours taken
Price per unit
£13.73
8
x £10 = £80
/ 9 = £8.88
= £22.61
Mirror.
£9.04
7
x £10 = £70
/ 9 = £7.77
= £16.81
Large Box.
£13.29
3
x £10 = £30
/ 3 = £10
= £23.29
Medium Box.
£6.44
3
x £10 = £30
/ 4 = £7.50
= £13.94
Small Box.
£5.39
3
x £10 = £30
/ 6 = £5
= £10.39
Profit
Revenue
Profit
= £22.61
= £32.30
= £9.96
= £37.68
= £15.07
Mirror.
= £16.81
= £24.01
= £7.20
= £28.02
= £11.21
Large Box.
= £23.29
= £33.27
= £9.98
= £38.82
= £15.53
Medium Box.
= £13.94
= £19.91
= £5.97
= £23.23
= £9.29
Small Box.
= £10.39
= £14.84
= £4.45
= £17.32
= £6.93
Revenue
Profit
Revenue
Profit
60%
50%
Revenue
Clock.
Product
Price per unit
40%
30%
Product Clock.
= £45.22
= £22.61
= £56.53
= £33.92
= £33.62
= £16.81
= £42.03
= £25.22
= £46.58
= £23.29
= £58.23
= £34.94
= £27.88
= £13.94
= £34.85
= £20.91
= £20.78
= £10.39
= £25.98
= £15.59
90.
Profit. By using the batch production timings and the productions cost the margins for each product where calculated. This gave a very real perspective to the project showing what products where financially viable and which products might need redesigning to reduce costs. The clock and mirror are good products that could sell with a 60% margin, making a decent profit on each sale. However, the boxes wouldnt be feasible to sell with a 60% margin, as a set of three would be priced at £119.06. To sell the set of three boxes at this price would be ridiculous and customers wouldn’t buy them. The large box is the main reason for this high price, due to the large production costs. This product may have to be re-designed to be manufactured in a cheaper way or completely scrapped if the production cost is still too high. Realistically prices for products would be as follow:
Clock = £55 Margins at 58% £32.39 profit Mirror = £75 Margin at 77% £58.19 profit 3 Boxes = £65 Margins at 26% £17.38 profit 91.
1:5 CAD. The general assembly drawings that are presented on the next few pages are a 1:5 scale drawings of the products. This would be used in industry to help explain assembly’s, show the different parts and reference measurements from. If these where used in a workshop the drawings would have much more detail and be full 1:1 scale. These can still be used to take measurements from as they are 1:5 scale, but are usually used at this size to demonstrate what the different parts there are.
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Product Evaluation. The original brief for this project (in short) “was to create homeware products with a linking theme in a batch production style”. Looking at the products that have been created I would say that this has been achieved. However, there are a few complications along the way. When cutting the hole for the medium box, the forstner struggled and caused a lot of smoke. This caused some warping of the ash due to the heat, but returned to its normal shape after a few days. This might be due to a blunt forstner bit. The biggest problem was with the large box, as the forstner bit wouldn’t cut properly. This was due to large amounts of material that the forstner bit was trying to take away in one cut. This, added with the fact that it was end grain (very hard, dense grain structure) made it impossible to cut on the pillar drill. This resorted in cutting the hole out on the lathe. This wouldn’t be a viable option to continue to do as it took too long to complete. For this reason and that the cost of making the large box is quite high, I would have to say it isn’t a viable product for this project. If an alternative method can be found that would reduce time and cost, the product would be more viable. Other than this, there weren’t any other problems. My only concern is how long will the clock mechanism work for, as there is a lot of weight on the movement. This could possibly wear out the parts quicker than normal.
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Colour Variation. When searching for decor trends one of the articles talked about warm muted colours being in fashion currently. This wasn’t explored any further as it would be better to see it next to the product to have more context. On the other page you can see a selection of muted colours, these where taken from the ‘Grand Canyon’ colour pallet on Pantones website. This seamed to best suit the “warm muted colours” that the article was describing. Within that set was a muted blue colour, which worked nicely with the other colours so was added for a bit of variety. All of the colours seemed to work quite well with the designs however, colours such as ‘bone brown’ and ‘copper’ may blend in too much with the colour of the timber. Personally the ‘canyon clay’ and (although not a warm colour) the ‘lead’ look the nicest. They both would work nicely with the colour of the timber and the designs. The addition of colours could be an added extra for the designs, but using black as the standard base colour. Black is a colour that could fit into almost every home making it very versatile. But the addition of these colours might bring in more customer, making it a good option to include.
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Business Plan.
All of the research up to now has said to do a business plan of some sort, however, a full business plan can take months to properly write. Instead of doing that, a small condense version in the form of a lean canvas model will help to communicate the vison for this project / business. This will help to lay out the ideas for this project, hopefully creating a visual guide. The lean business plan will look at customer problems all the way through to what unfair advantage this business will have over other companies. Looking at different aspects of the purposed business will highlight problems or challenges that may occur in the future. The responses to each of the areas will be based off the research and the industry incite that was gained over my year on placement. 1. Problem What are the problems that need solving within the industry or is there a gap in the market? 2. Solution How is the business going to take advantage of that and create a solution for the problem? 3. Channels What is the best way to get your product seen, especially to the market segment that the business is focusing on? 4. Revenue Streams Is this going to be the only way money comes into the business or is there room to expand the business once it is set up. 5. Customer Segments Who is this product going to be aimed at, this will then influence things such as price, style and marketing. 6. Cost Structure What is going to cost the business money? 7. Key Metrics How is the business going to monitor performance? 8. Unique Value Proposition What’s the reason someone should buy from you and be repeat customers. 9. Unfair Advantage What can the business do that others don’t or cant do, essentially the USP (Mullen, 2016)
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Problem To Solve. High quality products Matching house style Good design that can fit in most current trending houses
Solution.
Channels.
Create products that the target market will like and in a batch style product to keep costs down style consistent and the quality high.
Instagram Website Emails when new products are created
Revenue Streams. Sales through the website Commissioned batch one offs Bespoke furniture business Selling other furniture
Customer Segment. 25-35-year-old females with high incomes
Unfair Advantage. Cost Structure.
Key Metrics.
Initial set up cost for tools Premises / Bills Raw martials Website upkeep Delivery / postage
Profit and sale (money statistics) Growth statistics Customer Loyalty and Retention Monthly Website Traffic Met and Overdue Milestones
Unique Value Proposition. Consistent high quality Locally sourced materials that are sustainable The other products they buy will match the rest of the products
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Copyright designs Design continuity
Workshop Costs. When it comes to setting up a business the true extent to what its costs might not be clear. There are a lot of factors to consider such as, rent of premises, insurance and the initial set up of the equipment. Looking at number of different properties on Gumtree it showed that the average workshop within the UK was 700 sq.ft for £75 per week. City’s such as London obviously demand a higher price. Depending on what size of product / furniture the business intends to make, the 700 sq.ft might be a bit small. However big premises usually mean’s higher rent, it all comes down to what will be most advantageous and financially viable for the business. On the other hand, working alongside someone might be more beneficial. Some workshops such as this one in Liverpool wanted £110 - £175 per month (Gumtree, 2019) to share an already established workshop, with access to all the machines. This might be a more viable option when starting out, it will lower the initial set up costs, while still been able to gain experience and build a name for the business. To set up a small / medium sized workshop to create furniture the total cost of all the equipment can get quite high. It slowly starts to build up when you start realising what you might need. This was defiantly very true when the research into the cost of machinery started. The list that has been complied is a hypothetical collection of equipment, that will probably be needed for a workshop to produce furniture.
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The list is made up of a number of different manufactures, they are all new (VAT incl.) machines as buying second hand the prices can fluctuate quite a bit. £6792 - Tablesaw - Felder - K500 Professional £4428 - Thickness / Planer - Hammer - A3-41 £1047 - Bandsaw - Hammer - N3700 £659 - Charwood - Spindle / Router - W040 £559 - Floor Pillar Drill - Axminster £5000 - Powertools - Festool £1050 - Wall Mounted Extraction - Felder - AF22W £200 - Extraction Pipes £600 - Clamps £600 - Timber Rack & Timber Low Bench £20,935 £1000 - Timber £2000 - Advertising / Website £23,935
£25,000
This is to allow for fluctuation within prices and unseen costs. This is quite a lot of money, however, the potential to create a partnership business would ease the start-up costs. Another option would be to find a facility already equipped with the necessary machines and rent that. It depends on how much capital you have, how much of risk you want to take and where you seeing the business going in the future.
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Brand Identity.
Its all well and good having a product to sell but without a brand there’s no way of getting your product out to the public. A brand name, logo and house style are all things that will influence what other parts of the business will look like. For example, the website and business cards, will all need to be thought out so they can work together to portray your message. The minimal style has already been adopted for the products so the theme needs to follow suit and have a linking style. This will build the brand identity so when a customer sees one part of the business, they know it’s all part of the same brand.
A good example of a strong brand identity, that gets across to the customer what they are about is ‘30 Park Place’. This is a brand built for private luxury apartments owned by the chain Four Seasons. The design of this brand was done by Mother Design an American design studio. They have worked with big company’s and people such as the BBC, Debenhams and Zaha Hadid.
A brand needs: Name. Logo. Website. Business Cards. Social Media.
The brand right away shouts luxury, sophistication and authority just from the use of gold foil highlights on everything. This even transfers to the brochures for the apartments, giving the impression that money is no object. The logo is elegant, modern and simple. Its memorable, once you’ve seen it in context you know what the brand is portraying. The minimal styling once again passed over to the layout of the brochures, keeping that continuity between the brand. This is somthing that is quite key to a good brand and needs to be implemented into this project. The consistent theme throughout the products needs to be transferred into the brands other parts.
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Name & Logo. The name and logo of a company usually go hand in hand, with one referencing or being influenced by the other. The logo of a brand commonly represents the name of the business. There are a few ways in which this can be done, through text, initials, symbols or a combination of both. This can be seen in the Apple logo, where a symbol is used separate from the name. Another example could be Google or Coca-Cola where their name is the logo (text), they both work really well, it’s just down to personal preference. There’s nothing to say you can’t have both, many companies have condensed their logos, like google to just G for small use icons. These icons / logos get used on things like phones, apps and social media. The name of a company doesn’t have to explain exactly what you do, such as “CB. Furniture”. Many companies make up names such as IKEA or merge to words together like Pinterest to get a brand name. The name of the business is just there to give something an identity, a place from where a product or service came from. Although the company name doesn’t have to link to the industry in which you are entering, I think there would be a missed opportunity. My last name is Birch and will be going into the furniture market eventually. This project aims to set up a foundation to then build upon once leaving university. Having a business name that can be used in the future, while having a link to the industry and my last name would be a nice feature.
Both TureBirch and SilverBark where both strong contenders for the business name, based purely on how they sounded. They also both link to my name and the industry in which this project is entering. TureBirch has my surname creating quite a strong link between the owner and business. Whereas SilverBark is slightly less obvious, the link coming from the sliver birch tree and its bark. Some of the other name ideas sounds quite generic and to plain, such as Birch Designs. Both names where looked into to see if any other companies already owned that name / had a website. TureBirch came up clear with no websites or company under that name. However, SilverBark came up with a web result unfortunately owned by another company. Alterations to the website name would have to be made, such as SliverBark Furniture or SilverBark Studios, if it were to be taken forward. If one day the business grows into the furniture market the name TrueBirch might confuse people. Internet users might think they all the products out of birch wood, which might cause them not to click on the website. Whereas SilverBark is slightly less descript and unobvious. For this reason and personal preference, it makes sense to name the business SilverBark.
Some business name ideas: CB Furniture Birch Furniture Designs Birch Designs Bespoke Birch Birch Studios TureBirch Birch Works SilverBark Birch’s Birch & Bark
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Minimal Logo. A logo is a powerful tool when you get it right. Lots of famous brand logos are so identifiable, if you use just the basic shapes and colours people would still recognize them. The more features that are added to a logo, the hard it becomes to remember as there are so many details. Less is more. Overdesigning a logo can make it harder to recognize, this defeats the point of a logo, as you want people to know what brand / business it belongs to. Flat 2D logos (like the ones here) are popular within the graphic design industry currently. This is because 2D graphics are easy to scale in size without pixilation. This is something to take into consideration when design a logo for this project. Simple black lines will also be cheaper for printing, although this is a very small factor, this could save some money over time. As the minimal design style was adopted for the products, it should also be reflected in the design of the logo. The uses of simplicity and space is key for a minimalist design, which can be seen in the examples on the other page. All of these logos would fit this projects theme and will be used as inspiration for the designs.
Minimalistic. Flat 2D design. Fit the business name. Black and white.
Many of the logos make use simple lines and complementing fonts to create a stylish sophisticated design. Although there isn’t much to some of the designs they still stand out and make an impact. The use of colour is present in two of the designs, however it is used in a way that isn’t to bold. It gives the logo a nice detail that sets them apart from the others. After the research into logos, a rough specification for this projects design was compiled. The logo must be:
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Logo Design. Designing a logo for the business was fairly straight forward, as the brand and type of company where based around timber. The name Silverbark links to Birch tree and the furniture / homeware industry. Due to these connections it made the focus for the logo design quite easy.
There were a number of different contenders for the logo design which you can see highlighted. These where all minimal design that portrayed the business name, were flat 2D designs, and where black and white. Fitting the brief set on the previous page. The designs were drawn up in illustrator however two of them didn’t look correct. This was probably due to trying to recreate a natural pattern in a structured manor. The natural markings of the bark don’t fit the minimal structured theme.
As you can see from the sketches the logos are all based around trees or timber. The sketches started off with a number of different ideas which were then developed and refined. The sketches in the middle started off slightly more complex, but were gradually stripped back to be more fitting of the minimal style. The arrows show where the designs influences came from and how they changed throughout the design process.
The design that was chosen can be seen here, with a few design variations that were tested to see what they would look like. As you can see the changes where only slight alteration. The increase in line thickness real helped it to stand out more and was kept for the final design. The orange circle was just a way of introducing colour into the design without it being to bold. This was inspired by the minimal logos on the previous page. However, the brief that was set stated that there wasn’t to be any colour. In the end there was a slight alteration to the original design on the sketches page. The split of the circles gives the design that extra feature that it needs to stand out better. The simple tree design was a nice design but lacked that little something.
The circular profile of the logo was quite a strong influencer for the design as it is very versatile, especially of the internet. Many social networking sites use a circle frames for their user’s profile pictures. This means pictures often get cropped to fit within the boundaries of the circle’s perimeters. Having a logo which is already circular means it will work better and utilise the space more effectively. Having a logo icon rather than a stylised name was another factor that was taken into consideration. Having an icon means it can be used by itself without a name next to it. This makes the logo more vertical and usable. Icon logos are good for social networking sites, watermarks on invoices or even stickers. The logo over time it will be something that customers can associate with the brand without seeing the name.
Overall the design meets the brief that was set and looks good. The design could possible be improved with the help of a graphic designer. The logo that was designed will help to grow the business and be implemented into other products such as business card, website and social media.
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Business Cards. The business card still plays an important role within any business, even with modern day technologies. They communicate to customers and other businesses the tone for your business, and are often the first impression of your brand. In some ways they are a small insight into what you and your brand are about. The main purpose of a business card is to share contact information easily and efficiently. Who you are, what you do and how to find / contact you. All of this information shown on one card, allowing for easy distribution. There are a number of other attractions that come with using business cards. Firstly, they are a traditional method of business communication, a throwback to a time before the internet. They help to reach customers that may not use the internet or mobile phone. This way instantly increasing your potential market. The traditional aspect of a business card might also help when it comes to impressing potential clients, especially when it comes from a younger person. This can instantly show they are a young, serious professional. are professional and serious for your age.
The use of a business card creates a sense of legitimacy to a brand, reassuring the customer that the business is real. This also shows that you are willing to invest time / money into the business. With so much information on the internet people might be sceptical to whether a business is real or not. Using a business card can help to reassure potential customers. Every time a business card is given out it helps to build brand awareness and a network. Having your logo present on the business cards will help to create a stronger link and associate with the brand. When a customer goes to the website it should be a reflected style of the information printed on the business card. The same goes for social media, the combination of everything looking the same will create a house style. (Fan, 2017)
Taking in everything from this page it’s clear that the business card needs key features:
Logo. Minimal styling. Clean layout. Relevant contact information. 115.
Design. The design of the business card spans over two pages, showing a range of ideas and development. The previous page looked into the purpose of having a business card, and helped to compile a general specification for the cards content. Having the logo already completed, meant the process of designing a business card was easier. Without the logo, the style of the cards could have taken any route, as there was nothing that gave the business card focus. The design started off with the bare essentials logo, brand name, name, industry, phone number and e-mail. This was really everything that was needed. The process of designing the business card was mainly driven by small changes to layout, colour and sizes. The overall design didn’t change much over the course of these twenty designs but instead became more refined. The with This not
The orientation of the logo was explored but the landscape logo and portrait information combination looked too messy. Flipping the colour scheme gave a more dramatic eye-catching feature to the design. The general opinion given from people when asked, was they liked the black design more than the white. The next addition was the QR code which when scanned took the user to my LinkedIn account. This was a way of filling the empty space in a practical way. After the main design of the business card was completed, just some minor changes were needed. The position of the line, the position of the text, and the size of the QR code. Although these small changes may seem insignificant, they needed to be done to create the completed design.
design started off simple, plain a thin line weight to the logo. was quickly changed due to it being visible when it was printed.
Overall, I think the design suits the brands minimal design style and makes good used of the space that is given without overfilling it. One of the concerns about this design is the QR code and not being able to change where the link takes you once printed. Another addition that might need to be made is a website address once a domain name has been bought. Another idea would be to change the QR code to take you to the website, if the business cards haven’t been printed.
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Website. A company without a website in this generation is going to struggle to get work and will be limiting their revenue sources. “Studies show that between 70-80% of people research a company online BEFORE visiting the small business or making a purchase with them”. (McLeod, 2018). This is a massive percentage and would be putting the business at a considerable disadvantage to other competitors. Potential customers want to see a portfolio of work that has already been produced before purchasing products. This is especially the case for products that customers may want commissioned, the style has to fit them as well as the maker.
https://unsplash.com/photos/ xrVDYZRGdw4
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With a website you are open 365 days a year, never closing which wouldn’t be viable if it was a physical shop. You are worldwide business not just restricted to the local area. Having a website opens up a lot of business opportunities. A key part of this project is based around websites and how they are used within businesses. “With the main focus being on designing products that could be sold on a website and sent out easily to customers” this is a quote from the project brief.
There are a number of different options when it comes to creating and hosting a website and it all gets very complicated. The basics needed for a website are a domain name and host provider. The domain name essentially turns a series of numbers into a rememberable name, for example 157.138.6.1.1 into Google. A domain name and host provider can be bought separately or many companies host the domain name for you. Wix, Squarespace and GoDaddy are all examples of companies that do this. (Shivar, 2019)
These websites also allow the user to create and design their own website which is ideal for this project. This means the products, logo, business cards can all link together creating a house style that is cohesive throughout the brand. To help inspire ideas for the website design a selection of websites with similar styles to this projects brand will be explored. Doing this should help to develop an insight into what makes a good website and elements that can be implemented into the business.
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Existing Websites. There are many factors that make up a good website, design, layout and ease of use are the most important from an aesthetic perspective. This is especially important on the homepage of a website as this is what the customer sees first. The screen shots on the other page show the home pages of four websites. Each business is a different type of industry selling something different, but all have a common minimal design style link. This is the style that will best fit this project, as everything needs a consistent style to create a solid brand. The websites that have been chosen due to their appearance as they best fit the project, however this doesn’t mean that their user interface works smoothly. The navigation from page to page is something that key and needs work correctly. The only one that caused a minor problem was the NUA Bikes (second picture) as they don’t have individual pages. The homepage is their whole website, as you scroll down it jumps to the next section like a continuous page. This is a nice aspect to the website as it’s not a common feature seen on many sites. However, it sometimes jumps to half of page ruining the flow of the page as text starts to overlap one another. The other websites use a standard page system, meaning when a heading is clicked it take you to a new page on the site. This is a simple method that doesn’t have much to go wrong apart from if it was linked up wrong.
Three of the pages use a top banner for the page selection whereas the NUA Bike (second picture) page uses a side banner section that update as you scroll down the page. Personally, I think the banner system works the best, this is because it’s a common feature on many website meaning customers should feel familiar navigating the page. Brook studios (top picture) has a fixed banner at the top of the page that disappears as you scroll down and requires you to go back to the top to access it again. Polestars websites (third picture) has a similar system were the banner disappears as you scroll down but reappears when you start to scroll up. This is a better system as it doesn’t mean going all the way back to the top to access the other pages. All about vintage (last picture) uses a scrolling banner, which means it moves with the page so it is always visible. This is the most practical but isn’t very aesthetically pleasing. Most of the pages were set out in clear structured setting that allowed for easy use. The only issues that were found was the inconsistency of size of photos or placement of them on some pages. This is an issue to look out for when the SilverBark website is designed. Polestar used full width images on many of their pages which works effectively. To do this all of the pictures have to have a large enough image which can sometimes be difficult to achieve if the product is small. This might be a good for an opening image and then move on to smaller square images to show different angles.
There are a lot of elements to think about when it comes to designing the website. The best way to explore them is to use a website like Wix. They allow you to design your website for free then add a domain name and ecommerce option later, turning it into a fully functional website. There are a few elements from these websites that would be nice to implement into SilverBarks website. Such as the banner that disappears and reappears, as well as scroll jumping functionality on pictures like that of the NUA Bike site.
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Website Concept. After looking into existing minimalist websites, a website mock-up was made for SilverBark. As you can see the design of the website is simple, clear to use and reflects the businesses styling. The logo is present on each page reminding the user of the brands identity and trying to associate the product to the brand. The three designs show: 1. Main page 2. The products page 3. The drop-down menu page These would be the most frequently visited pages that a customer would use, with the most interaction being with the products page. The products page (2.) gives a quick snapshot of the products that are for sale as well as the name of the product, the price is then shown when the user hovers over or clicks on the product.
The aim of the website would be to sell the products that have been produced and creating an online portfolio of work. This website would be linked to social media sites and business cards, as this would be the main hub for income. Having a website would incur a monthly cost and would have to be taken into consideration, other options could be selling on Etsy, ArtFire and Uncommongoods which would be a lower monthly cost. However, you can’t create your own styled pages and you are competing against other companies that may have similar products.
The main page (1.) shows the logo and the selection menu below, when the user clicks on the selection menu the logo will disappear and a list of different pages will appear. This would be slightly different on the desktop version with all of the options being listed at the top of the page. Finally, the drop-down menu (3.) will appear when the selection menu is clicked in the top right of the screen. This will show the list of different pages that can be accessed.
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SilverBark.
SilverBark.
SilverBark.
Products. Products. £60
Portfolio. About. Contact.
Wall Wall Clock Clock
FAQ’S.
Mirror Mirror
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Social Media. Social media is a massive part of this generation and is ever growing among all age groups. (Perrin, 2015) Many business are turning to social media for advertising and brand awareness. Just having an online presence will boost the legitimacy of a business, building trust with customers. The use of Instagram within the creative industry is very high and is a brilliant platform for sharing content. As Instagram is a primarily visual app it allows for a good communication of creative arts. This will be good for this business as it will be a way of showing work that is being created. This will then hopefully create an increase in traffic to the website resulting in more sales. Other apps such as Facebook and Twitter are better suited to bloggers and news-based content. There are many advantages to advertising / marketing on social media: Reaching a wider audience Connecting with your customers Being able to specifically target user groups Brand awareness Increase in website traffic Develop market incite Its cost effective compared to conventional methods However, at the same time problems can still arise: Competitors can see what products you are producing. People can easily leave negative feedback Takes up a lot of time (Webfx, 2019)
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On the other page you can see an example of the social media account made for SilverBark. The pictures are of a high quality, showing the detail in every picture. The consistent theme of every picture is something that is important to the brand as it creates that bespoke luxury style. Having an Instagram account like this will help to promote products that would be sold on the website.
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Evaluation. Overall this was a project that covered a lot of different aspects to a business and really shows the amount of time / effort it would take to run a full-time business. This is what I want to do in the future and though doing this project it has given me a glimpse into what it would be like to run a business for myself. The final outcome of the products look nice and I am personally very happy with the design. However, I may invest in a glass mirror, as this will make it more professional and better refined. The project covers all the aspects that was mention in the initial brief. One thing that I would do differently next time would be too actually make a batch, rather than just creating the jigs for use in a batch production setting. This way it would give a better insight into what it is like in industry. However due to time restrictions this wasn’t possible. Special thanks to: John Bairstow Dean Stanford Nathan Millar Furniture
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Renders.
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Image Ref. Contents Page. https://unsplash.com/photos/r56oO1V5oms Design Brief. https://unsplash.com/photos/mk7D-4UCfmg Creative Enterprise. https://unsplash.com/photos/AJCNM8JrzT8 Setting Up A Business. https://unsplash.com/photos/-01v72yYhWU Business Failure. https://unsplash.com/photos/AsRAyHIkOHk Industry Talk. https://1e8gqjsvt7q3wx65md75tag1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/The-Level-Collective-Logo-2018.jpg https://gallery.mailchimp.com/db219cf12049247c7aa17e3d7/images/aa4ad2d0-97bd-4216-a889-26ec9bd12983.png https://thelevelcollective.com/journal/level-collective-pop-up-shop/ https://unsplash.com/photos/KwT8fAZq6fI Next Steps. https://unsplash.com/photos/O0JUa8rpAps Purposed Market Area. https://unsplash.com/photos/tOVmshavtoo The Market. https://unsplash.com/photos/GrnuD65xLwQ Bespoke Homeware. http://www.sebastiancox.co.uk/furniture/large-offcut-dish-3pzz6 https://www.hopeinthewoods.com/shop/walnut-server-and-spoon http://www.byronandgomez.co.uk/new-products/oak-dipped-bowl-2-bkagn http://www.brook-studio.co.uk/shaker-box/medium-shaker-box-bark https://www.hughmillerfurniture.co.uk/works/the-coffee-ceremony/ https://www.domenicfiorello.com/store/p17/Homestead_Hook.html http://www.onticdesign.co/store/juno-pendant http://www.onticdesign.co/store/pinch-pots Mass Homeware. https://www.oliverbonas.com/homeware/green-gold-foiled-base-plant-pot-extra-small-239021 https://www.oliverbonas.com/homeware/hanging-wall-mirror-with-green-velvet-tray-74699 https://www.anthropologie.com/en-gb/shop/fele-hanging-basket2?category=new-home&color=018&type=REGULAR https://www.notonthehighstreet.com/mijmoj/product/personalised-bedside-caddy-in-solid-oak https://www.oliverbonas.com/homeware/bamboo-tree-jewellery-stand-74914 https://www.anthropologie.com/en-gb/shop/fele-hanging-basket2?category=new-home&color=018&type=REGULAR https://www.anthropologie.com/en-gb/shop/kayla-jewellery-rack?category=new-home&color=004&type=REGULAR https://www.lisavalentinehome.co.uk/shop/lkpwbxte3z0rvvh7t966obzigdxl7v Google Trends. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/NeSFEj3z0DetU_zrMM1HhXUJsKhSj_15r7ZwlM1PTzUS3lTqQQhak6aj6g0VDGJ07i LPFjM6zYWq-usPwLoIZ-fCE-gqDGA8jC0wWKq8QNvGRPd3oRUZVsDglZjAXJGKvrM8Ai70DkpEbIb6GPQcGocQOWSAT NZdS_8=s400-p
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UK Homeware. https://xcdn.next.co.uk/Common/Items/Default/Default/ItemImages/AltItemShot/315x472/502955.jpg https://xcdn.next.co.uk/Common/Items/Default/Default/ItemImages/AltItemShot/315x472/598185.jpg https://xcdn.next.co.uk/Common/Items/Default/Default/ItemImages/AltItemShot/315x472/155302s.jpg https://xcdn.next.co.uk/common/Items/Default/Default/Publications/G62/shotview-315x472/29/927-595s.jpg https://i2.wp.com/lovetohome.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/teal-gold-photo-frame.jpg?resize=420%2C420&ssl=1 https://i0.wp.com/lovetohome.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/gold-lantern.jpg?resize=420%2C420&ssl=1 https://i2.wp.com/lovetohome.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/geo-cushion.jpg?resize=420%2C420&ssl=1 https://i1.wp.com/lovetohome.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/soho-table-lamp.jpg?resize=420%2C420&ssl=1 Target Market. https://unsplash.com/photos/1LYTR3hkc4g Decor Trends. https://unsplash.com/photos/2cwqJgtQ3D0 Scandinavian Design. https://cdn.homedit.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/simple-organic-scandinavian-decor.jpg http://princegeorges.org/i/2018/01/scandinavian-interior-design-ideas-with-nice-minimalist-wooden-table-chairs.jpg https://storage-cube.quebecormedia.com/v1/sah_prod/style_at_home/7a7a04f0a5adda9870f2a36e011fba596d7b0f6a/stylishscandi-decor-5.jpg https://i2.wp.com/thatscandinavianfeeling.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/jotun_LADY_Pure_Colour_12083_Devine_2019. jpg?resize=640%2C960 Rustic Design. https://www.decorilla.com/online-decorating/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Rustic-dining-table-weathered-materials.jpg http://essentialhome.eu/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Rustic-Interior-Design-Meets-Luxury-in-this-Gastrobar-in-Spain_1.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a8/72/3b/a8723b2ffcae9da503a364f2e98d5237.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f7/ae/e4/f7aee4bfcc581a083d069c358c1542cf.jpg Minimalist Design. https://estliving.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/est_living_allen_key_house_architect_prineas_3.jpg https://www.smalldesignideas.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/minimalist_interior_019-min.jpg https://freshome.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/minimalism-freshome-1.png http://cdn.home-designing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/floating-lights-minimalist-living-space.jpg https://www.caandesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/minimalist-interior-design-cube-apartment-designed-arjaan-de-feytercaandesign-03.jpg Asian Zen Design. http://www.hemlinginteriors.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/elegant-contemporary-bedroom-decorating-ideas-coolcontemporary-bedroom-decorating-ideas-on-bedroom-with.jpg https://freshome.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/zen-room-design-3.jpg http://cdn.home-designing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/22-Asian-style-platform-bed.jpeg https://www.ultimatechristoph.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/awesome-japanese-interior-design-with-wood-flooring-andwindow-screen-and-armless-chairs-and-large-japanese-paper-hanging-lamp.jpg http://cdn.home-designing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/image.jpg https://3thh4j36wgdy48ob571icjs7-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/furniture_hero-2377x1280.jpg Mid-Century Modern Design. https://mr3.homeflow.co.uk/files/site_asset/image/3450/6663/House_Calls_Portland_Nathan_Papazian_living.jpg?1513331702 https://www.thisispressplay.com/midcentury-modern-home-design-for-small-spaces/as-seen-on-a-sussex-directories-inc-site/ https://www.article.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/article_sep_2016-5892_gh.jpg https://www.thisispressplay.com/midcentury-modern-home-design-for-small-spaces/contemporary-modern-interior-design/ Assessment. https://unsplash.com/photos/76EOO-b_Esw Minimalist Features. https://minimalissimo.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/RiseShineLowres-1.jpg https://minimalissimo.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/OTHR_CandleSnuffer_2-copy-1600x1181.jpg https://morewithlessdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/stamp-pendant-more-with-less-design-magazine-product-01700x504.png https://morewithlessdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/cloth-more-with-less-design-magazine-online-product-04-700x517. jpg
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Choosing Products. https://unsplash.com/photos/T6fDN60bMWY Small Scale Batch Production. https://unsplash.com/photos/gXEHv32dcPc Lean Manufacturing. https://unsplash.com/photos/Wiu3w-99tNg Workshop Visit. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/544fdc93e4b0bcaa7c12a711/t/5975c83acd39c316492c0afb/1500891199345/?format=50 0w https://static1.squarespace.com/static/544fdc93e4b0bcaa7c12a711/t/5975cb9ecd0f689adba71172/1500892066447/?format=50 0w Profit. https://unsplash.com/photos/lvWw_G8tKsk Colour Variation. https://www.pantone.com/color-intelligence/color-of-the-year/color-of-the-year-2017 Business Plan. https://unsplash.com/photos/ck0i9Dnjtj0 Workshop Costs. https://unsplash.com/photos/xoU52jUVUXA Brand Identity. https://en3yksrguy-flywheel.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/07-30-Park-Place-Print-by-Mother-Design-on-BPO.jpg https://en3yksrguy-flywheel.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/12-30-Park-Place-Insiders-Guide-Print-Golid-Foil-by-MotherDesign-on-BPO.jpg https://en3yksrguy-flywheel.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/01-30-Park-Place-Stationery-by-Mother-Design-on-BPO.jpg Name & Logo. https://unsplash.com/photos/qd-dvtbS45Q Minimal Logo. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/558024210050294758 https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/384143043212421846 https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/830421618760602687 https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/789748484625675700 https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/561261172310755698 https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/530228556129217304 https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/546202261055155769 Existing Websites. https://www.brook-studio.co.uk/ https://www.nuabikes.com/#/home https://www.polestar.com/uk/ https://eu.aboutvintage.com/ Website Concept. https://cdn.dribbble.com/users/2158148/screenshots/5577505/mobile_2x.jpg Social Media. https://unsplash.com/photos/Ai9_QJaZfMc
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Text Ref. Creative industry Grande, C. (2019). Infographics. Retrieved from http://www.thecreativeindustries.co.uk/resources/infographics Setting up a business Small Business Statistics. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.fsb.org.uk/media-centre/small-business-statistics Ovsyannykov, I. (2016). How to Start Your Own Design Business: 10 Crucial Success Tactics. Retrieved from https://creativemarket. com/blog/how-to-start-your-own-design-business-10-crucial-success-tactics Barrow, C. (2018). 10 steps to starting a business | Advice from Startups.co.uk. Retrieved from https://startups.co.uk/10-steps-tostarting-a-business/ Tracy, B. (2005). Seven Keys to Growing Your Business. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/81128 Business failure Sutton, G. (2017). Small Business Association - Home. Retrieved from http://www.sbauk.org/ Silver, C. (2016). Top 6 Reasons New Businesses Fail. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/slide-show/top-6-reasons-newbusinesses-fail/ The Market UK Homewares market value 2010-2018 | Statistic. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/501761/homewaresmarket-value-united-kingdom-uk/ Google Trends Google Trends. (2018). Explore. Retrieved from https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=GB&q=Decor Google Trends. (2018). Explore. Retrieved from https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=GB&q=Homeware Interior / homeware trends “have the potential to be long-term influencers on the market” Schneider, M. (2014). Fad, Trend or Classic: What’s the Difference? | Mark Schneider Design. Retrieved from https://www. markschneiderdesign.com/jewelry-article/fad-trend-or-classic-what%E2%80%99s-difference DecorMAG. (2018). 2019 Interior Design Trends: 10 Ideas To Give A Go | Décor Aid. Retrieved from https://www.decoraid.com/ blog/2019-interior-design-trends/ Brouwer, L. (2019). The Biggest Interior Trends 2018 / 2019. Retrieved from https://www.livingetc.com/whats-news/the-biggest-1819-interior-trends-195539 Warren-Smith, S. (2019). 11 of the hottest home and interior design trends for Spring Summer 2019. Retrieved from https://www. housebeautiful.com/uk/decorate/looks/a26128747/spring-summer-home-interior-design-trends/ Paley, L. (2018). 10 INSPIRING INTERIOR DESIGN TRENDS FOR 2019 THAT WILL TRANSFORM YOUR HOME. Retrieved from https://interiorsonline.com.au/blogs/inspiration/10-inspiring-interior-trends-for-2019-that-will-transform-your-home Duran, K. (2018). 2019 Interior Design Trends I’m Really Excited About - Swoon Worthy. Retrieved from https://www.swoonworthy. co.uk/2018/11/2019-interior-design-trends.html/ Design styles Eyþórsdóttir, K. (2011). The Story Of Scandinavian Design: Combining Function and Aesthetics — Smashing Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/06/the-story-of-scandinavian-design-combining-function-and-aesthetics/ Ivanoff, A. (2014). Design Minimalism: What, Why & How. — SitePoint. Retrieved from https://www.sitepoint.com/what-isminimalism/ Angeli, A. (2016). The Principles Of Rustic Design. Retrieved from https://medium.com/interior-design-collection/the-principles-ofrustic-design-40d80951a093 Home Designing. (2016). Zen Inspired Interior Design. Retrieved from http://www.home-designing.com/2014/06/zen-inspiredinterior-design Brown, H. (2018). Everything You Need To Know About Mid-Century Modern Design. Retrieved from https://www.housebeautiful. com/design-inspiration/a22877276/mid-century-modern-design-explained/ Target Market Statista. (2019). Furniture & Homeware - United Kingdom | Statista Market Forecast. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/ outlook/255/156/furniture-homeware/united-kingdom?currency=gbp CACI. (2013). The household acorn user guide [PDF] (p.8). Retrieved from https://www.caci.co.uk/sites/default/files/resources/ Household_Acorn_UG.pdf
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Business plan Mullen, S. (2016). An Introduction to Lean Canvas. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@steve_mullen/an-introduction-to-leancanvas-5c17c469d3e0 Workshop costs Gumtree. (2019). Woodworking workshop space available. Retrieved from https://www.gumtree.com/p/commercial-property-to-rent/ woodworking-workshop-space-available/1336649015 Felder Group. (2019). Sliding Table Saws - FELDER GROUP. Retrieved from https://www.felder-group.com/fg-en/products/slidingtable-saws/sliding-table-panel-saw-k-500-professional.html Felder Group. (2019). Woodworking machines - FELDER GROUP. Retrieved from https://www.felder-group.com/gb-en/products/ planer-thicknessers-planersthicknessers/planer-thicknesser-a3-41.html Felder Group. (2019). Bandsaws - FELDER GROUP. Retrieved from https://www.felder-group.com/fg-en/products/bandsaws/ bandsaw-n4400.html Poolewood. (2019). Charnwood W040 Spindle Moulder - W040 | Poolewood. Retrieved from https://www.poolewood.co.uk/product/ charnwood-w040-spindle-moulder-w040/ Axminster. (2019). Axminster Trade AT700PD Floor Pillar Drill. Retrieved from https://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-trade-seriesatdp17f-floor-pillar-drill-102554 Festool. (2019). Festool Products. Retrieved from https://www.festool.co.uk/ Bessey. (2019). Bessey Woodworking Clamps | Besseytools.co.uk. Retrieved from https://www.besseytools.co.uk/catalog/category/ view/s/woodworking-clamps/id/1055/ Ductstore. (2019). Dust Extraction Hose Clear PU | Dust & Fume Extraction | Buy Online. Retrieved from http://www.ductstore. co.uk/acatalog/PU_Clear_Dust_Extraction_Hose.html Business cards Fan, H. (2017). Purpose of Business Cards: 7 Reasons Why Business Cards Still Matter. Retrieved from https://blog.4colorprint.com/ purpose-of-business-cards Websites “Studies show that between 70-80% of people research a company online BEFORE visiting the small business or making a purchase with them” McLeod, B. (2018). 29 Game-Changing Small Business Digital Marketing Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.bluecorona.com/ blog/29-small-business-digital-marketing-statistics Shivar, N. (2019). Web Hosting vs. Domain Registration Explained. Retrieved from https://www.shivarweb.com/12970/web-hostingvs-domain-registration/ Social media Perrin, A. (2015). Social Media Usage: 2005-2015. Retrieved from https://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/08/social-networkingusage-2005-2015/ Webfx. (2019). Top 13 Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media. Retrieved from https://www.webfx.com/internet-marketing/ social-media-marketing-advantages-and-disadvantages.html
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Christopher Birch Product Design & Furniture Creative Enterprise The design brief for this project was to look into how to set up a creative enterprise. This would cover things such as commercial awareness, basic management skills, and several others topics relating to the creative design industry. The aim for this project is to create a batch production style of manufacturing, having a consistent quality and design relationship throughout a range of products. These will fit into the cross over section between product design and furniture design (Homeware). With the main focus being on designing products that could be sold on a website and sent out easily to customers. Hopefully preparing me for the future. The inspiration for this project came from my year in industry, working within a bespoke furniture business. I wanted to see what it took to start a business and all the different processes that go into running it. The project is much more than just the three products produced at the end. It consists of the building blocks of a successful business.
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