Concept design is part of the overall design process, which can take you through from brainstorming ideas to manufacture. As with all parts of the wider process, concept design is integral in shaping the finished product and allowing designers to communicate their ideas with customers or investors. It allows a new product’s potential to be fully considered.

Many people would consider concept design to be one of the most creative parts of the process. It involves establishing the new product’s purpose by working out the problems that the product will solve. Often, this part of the process is highly collaborative and will involve making mind maps and putting together lots of notes and ideas before proceeding.

Once an initial concept has been decided upon, it’s time to come up with something more concrete. The next step of concept design will involve fully rendered images that are complete and ready to be showcased to the customer/ investor. These will look at the product from many different angles and consider its full functionality.

To conclude, concept design is essentially the widest view. It is coming up with ideas, and beginning the process of making them into a reality.

All good designs start with a good strategy. It’s the first stage of producing an excellent product that has everything it needs behind it to succeed. If you don’t plan properly from the very beginning, you can run into all kinds of problems with legalities and copyright as well as with the design itself.

The first stage of a design strategy is to evaluate the design plans. This is vital to the overall success of your product. This is the stage at which you will be able to investigate similar products and carry out your market research. This will show you how unique and innovative your product is and will give you a good idea of whether or not it could succeed in the current environment.

Following this, the next stage is essentially about coming up with initial concepts and ideas. It’s like a brainstorming process – it will give you the opportunity to formulate ideas and to begin to form some more in-depth plans. Do remember that nothing is set in stone and it can always be changed. However, it’s important to have plenty of ideas to fall back on and to have clear strategies underpinning all of your plans.

Even if you know your products and individual market inside out, it’s important to call on a professional design agency when initially planning out any designs. They will be able to help you formulate a strategy that has everything it needs to succeed. They can provide professional advice regarding your initial ideas and concepts from a strategic point of view.

Design engineering forms the basis of all engineering disciplines. In fact, it is considered to be a more practical solution to all common problems. Its steps are seen throughout the product design phase, system engineering phase, development phase as well as in the manufacturing phase. Collectively, these steps serve as a guarantee for a smooth transition from a mere concept through to actual production and eventual launch of the item, equipment or system designed previously into the market.

Taking into consideration the definitive nature of design engineering, the whole process is characteristic of a very straight forward procedure which encompasses the steps highlighted below.

Identification of the problem

As strange as it may sound, in the absence of a problem, engineering of a design can never proceed. In the terms of product design, a “problem” usually addresses a particular customer or market requirement. For instance, within an industry, there may be urgent need to make improvements onto some equipments etc. regardless of the problem, whoever raises it or the person who needs it, it just has to be solved.

Take note, prior to the commencement of any actual engineering works, an in-depth research is carried out in a bid to establish the most potential solutions for the user. In addition to this, existing products and all possible solutions are also carefully examined. All of this collectively assists in defining all the requirements of a particular product or system.
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