Anyone need any assistance with Product Design

JamesParkin

New Member
Hello people

I've just joined!

I have been around design all my life... Grandad and Engineer... Dad an Architect and I studied Product Design at Uni gaining a 1st but after spending 2 years dedicated to getting that first break it just didn't happen and I had to bite the bullet and get a normal job to pay the bills.

Long story short I need to use the other 90% of my brain that my job doesn't use so thought I could help some of you people out on here.....

Anything to do with Product Design.... My main strength is original ideas... I may not have been employed as a Product Designer but believe me 10 of my ideas have been ripped off and are on the market.

Cheers

James
 
Hey James.

Welcome to the forum.
You got me thinking now.

What kind of designs were they that got ripped off?
 
Hi Scotty

Various really....

Mobile: PA for mobile phone devices... Original idea over 15 years ago and then obviously Apple have Siri and the rest follow on....

Tents: inflatable tent.... Mine was based on a geodesic dome.... Original idea again 15 years ago. They simplified and they have been available to market for at least 5 years.

Phone Watch: Part of my Degree thinking.... Original idea 15 years ago. Apples is due next year other already released.

Colour in tyres: Tyre company missed the point of idea... Idea 15 years ago or so.... Idea was to put minimum tread wear strips or colour in tyres.... They got idea and decided coloured tyres... Like blue or red or I believe even Union Jack!!!!!!!!

These were for specific companies but I won't name names ;)

I can go on......

Cheers

James
 
OMG! You're like Mr Dyson. ;)

Must be a nightmare in your line for people ripping your ideas off.
Companies must do it all the time when someone presents them an original idea and they just expand on it themselves and leave the originator high and dry.

When I was six I thought of putting a wedge on top of lorry cabs to increase aerodynamics whilst driving to the coast for a holiday.
No one listens to a six year old. o_O
 
JamesParkin said:
Hi Scotty Various really.... Mobile: PA for mobile phone devices... Original idea over 15 years ago and then obviously Apple have Siri and the rest follow on.... Tents: inflatable tent.... Mine was based on a geodesic dome.... Original idea again 15 years ago. They simplified and they have been available to market for at least 5 years. Phone Watch: Part of my Degree thinking.... Original idea 15 years ago. Apples is due next year other already released. Colour in tyres: Tyre company missed the point of idea... Idea 15 years ago or so.... Idea was to put minimum tread wear strips or colour in tyres.... They got idea and decided coloured tyres... Like blue or red or I believe even Union Jack!!!!!!!! These were for specific companies but I won't name names ;) I can go on...... Cheers James
Pretty much everything you've mentioned isn't a new idea, it's at best a refinement of one, even 15 years ago.

phone watch, been in various iterations since the 1940's if not earlier, the obvious one being Dick Tracy
pa for mobile phones... there was stuff like it for my old p900i (about 15 years) and my old windows pda (was in high school with that so thats 20+ years back) so it's not exactly a new idea, the reason it took so long to 'be made' is more down to required hardware/technology to catch up with the idea.. it's like the roll up mobile phone everyone designed in high school etc, we still haven't got one because tech hasn't caught up.
Inflatable tents aren't that new either, they've been used for de-contamination units for decades
I had coloured minimum wear strips on my car tyres (aftermarket rims/tyres admittedly) nearly 20 years ago. There's also a reason we haven't got coloured tyres... the colours made them less grippy/hard wearing iirc

One of the first thing you learn in product design (well any design area really) is that lots of people come up with the same idea/concept, even those without qualifications, the only difference is some people take it further than others. Coming up with something truly original is hard these days. Even companies like Apple that are paraded as these innovative designers of tech aren't designing anything new in most cases, they're repackaging and refining ideas/products then adding in a huge dollop of marketing.

You could in theory put multiple people in different rooms with the same brief/requirements and get the same fundamental concept(s), especially if they were taught at the same school/uni etc. At the end of the day an idea doesn't require a degree, it just requires a creative mind, all the degree does is help us put it down on paper or give it to the engineer :).
 
Scotty: Yes it's a catch 22 situation you want to get your stuff out there but can't afford to patent or protect (other than recorded delivery packages unopened)....

Levi: Granted some of my ideas aren't original but as you say how many are.... The bits that I discussed with people in these fields weren't necacerily the original idea. In some cases it was possibilities for actually making it work..... Material, processes.... The use of other existing technologies in different ways..... As you know the role of a designer is to think outside of that unit of space. As I'm sure you know Dysons vacuum cleaner is just a miniaturised industrial cyclone.
 
I think a lot of the thinking is to take a concept or technology used and developed for a certain field (eg. industrial, military) and adapting it for use in another area.
Duct Tape and Velcro are just a couple of examples.

I always thought it must drive you a bit mad working in product design.
Constantly looking around for things that could be improved, adapted and invented.
 
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