Here we go!
I still haven’t gotten my elevator pitch down but the gist of my topic is exploring the multitude of new and old ways that designers are enabled to make (shapeways, ponoko, spoonflower, hand craft, limited production runs etc.) and sell (shapeways, etsy, custom made, etc.) their creations.
I will do this by creating a brand, making several “things” as examples, and selling them. I hope to document this process in as much detail as possible, sharing my insights, successes and failures, in an e-book that will be a living document, continually being revised and edited as I go along.
I will also be extensively interviewing people successfully doing this type of work and adding their insights and knowledge to the document.
Based on my research and talking to people, two polarized groups of designers emerged:
- Those interested in getting into something like this but limited by time and/or money
- Those with a lot of passion and interest for doing this type of thing as a full time gig, but little faith that it can be profitable
Similarly in surveying the landscape of ways people are making things there was a similar polarized breakup:
- Shapeways/Ponoko/Spoonflower type outfits where the designer is only responsible for creation of the I.P. and marketing their “things” while the service handles everything else
- Individuals making things themselves, often with their own tow hands while also handling all the logistics that come along with running a business
Of course these are the two extremes of both areas, with lots of grey space in between, but I will be using these extremes to frame the space that I will be working within, moving from one extreme to the other and hopefully hitting several spaces in between.