In the age of Amazon brands, Aliexpress and Wish, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to succeed with generic private label products. Creating unique, custom designed, products is the only way forward for smaller E-commerce businesses that can’t compete on price alone.
Yet, while many E-commerce businesses have great ideas for custom designed products they want to bring to market, they lack the in-house design expertise, or budget, to turn their visions into practical 3D design files and technical drawings.
But, as I explain in this article, the creation of a custom-designed product is not nearly as complex or difficult as you might think.
Keep reading, and learn how our customers have used Upwork.com to find amazing freelancers, turning their concepts into technical drawings and CAD files for as little as $100.
1. Prepare a ‘Design Concept’ PDF
Product designers are not psychics with mind reading abilities. They need clear instructions in order to turn your product and design ideas into drawings that make sense to a manufacturer.
As such, the first step of the process is to define those ideas the form of text and basic drawings.
If I want to create a wristwatch design, for example, I should prepare the following material in a PDF file:
- Watch case sketch (various angles)
- Indexing sketch
- Crown sketch
- Hands sketch
- Strap sketch
In addition, I’d also specify the following:
There’s no right or wrong when it comes to communicating your ‘design vision’ to a freelancer, as long as it’s done in a way that they can easily understand. Use photos of similar brands edited in photoshop, or a rough napkin drawing – what matters is that you don’t leave the designer guessing what you want.
Finally, you must also set a clear deliverable for your future freelancer. If we stick to the wristwatch example, I’d request the following:
- Watch case design (AutoCAD)
- Strap design
- Logo file
- Backplate engraving file
The more specific you are, the faster your designer can turn the project around. Continue Reading →
