Hi all,
I have a question to seek your expertise.
I have a design that needs to make it much much thinner & flat & sleek looking. This is because the components that I MUST use, are rather thick.
Therefore I am looking at ways & means to make the design slimmer & sleek looking. Looking flat & thin is actually requests from our Salesmen.
Do share with me if you have cool ways to achieve it. 
here are your options:
get the hardware/engineering and or manufacturing people to use smaller components. And, do a better job at the components layout, so things are tighter packed or reconfigure the form factor
or:
use racing stripes
paint it black
add a key chain to it
tell your salesman to market it as thin and sleek, with a name like, ârazorâ, or âpaperâ, or âvery thin and sleek thingyâ
Take a look at Televisions. They are doing some interesting form and detailing to make the conventional CRT and LSD projection designs look like flat panels from certain angles.
Chamfer the edges. Thickness is much more apparent on the edge of a surface than it is in the middle.
What is it that you are trying to make thinner, sleeker and flatter?
That might help narrow down the options a bit.
Actually, I have a very thick depth. Something like 30cm-40cm?
Then I need to make it looks thinner & less bulky.
At the same time, I am worried if by making look too slim, it lose its powerful & robust feel.
Cross road.
In the past, products I have worked on have managed to save footprint/overall dimensional space by shifting the power supply/module to an external brick. The trade is an extra component for the user to deal with but the upside is that a great deal of heat, and heat related components (fans, ducting, heatsinks, etc.) are usually no longer required or at least minimized.
.02c
PS - Would help if the type of product were noted.
What are the other two dimensions? Is it rectangular, or does it have some curves?
I recently did a project on my own with the same criteria, although itâs a far different project than your own problem.
My TV doesnât have any chamfers, but what it does have is a front section that is about 5 inches thick. Then, the other components are held off the back in a smaller square. When viewed from about 120 degrees in front, you only see the 5 inch thick front part.
I used the same technique to emphasize the thinness of this light. I created a thin âsheetâ in the front, than hung my components off the back. From the front, it gives a very slim look.
Color helps too of course. Many TVs have a silver finish on the front enclosure, a dark grey on the back. This way the back disappears into the shadows, hopefully.
Whatever the situation, try to let us in on your final design! Good luck!
As Raymond said, use different colours (black on the rear part tends to make it dissappear.
For that âtrickâ and the chamfers look at this product.
http://www.garmin.com/products/forerunner205/#
Also the âpowerâ can be achieved through materials (which Iâm guessing youâre stuck with as well) and surface finishing/texturing (something like brushed aluminum). And shape detailing: fillets vs. chamfers, button shapes, button feel (hard to press/powerfull feedback) visible speaker grill (emphasised)⌠etcâŚ
but let us know how it works out.
Now, thereâs an idea for television technology. Youâd save a lot on electronics costs, Iâll bet, but the downside is that the programming would be pretty unpredictable.
I find that fine detailing tends to make an object appear lighter and more delicate, if not necessarily smaller. Notice, for example, cars â ones with sharper little details, edgier grilles, et cetera, appear lighter and sleeker than ones with large flat surfaces and bulgy transitions between surfaces.
have you considered any consider post-possessing techniques�