design Archives - Page 3 of 5 - Design Bytes

July 14, 2021July 14, 2021

How much does it cost to ‘design’ a board game? ( Non manufacture )

This post has been put together to offer guidance on how much it will cost to mockup/prototype / “graphic design” a board or card game.

Answering “how much does it cost to design a board game” is a very broad question that I will endeavour to break down and answer in smaller bite-sized steps.

There are many factors that can influence the ‘design’ ( graphic design look and feel ) stage of the game.

It should be noted that the combined cost of prototyping and designing a game is not a small undertaking.

Jump to case examples

What to expect when creating a small card game
What to expect from your budget when creating a medium-sized board game
How much does it cost to design a board game for personal use?

“It depends on what is required to bring your board game to life! That will be what determines the budget.”

How much will it cost to have your board game ‘designed’? ( Graphic design )

It is difficult to answer without knowing the scope and size of a project.

For the services that I can offer, and it should be noted prices and tariffs are worked out on a case-by-case basis. This is a rough example of pricing.

– Projects scales can range between £5200 – £1200 spread out over the course of 4 or 5 months. This is a rough number and total budgets can influence the size and how a project is broken down.

If when you refer to ‘how much does it cost to design a board game?’ you are also referring to making and manufacture, this can push the budget well into to around the £10,000 mark. If not more.

It should be noted that I don’t manufacture games. But I do work with prototype makers.

Typically speaking if you are looking for a graphic designer to work on a large board game from scratch – depending on the designer skills, knowledge, and services you may be looking around the £5000+.

But this all depends on what is to be done. Written below are circumstances that will influence the cost of designing a board game.

Boardgame design prices

It should also be noted that these numbers are not formal quotations. They are a rough price guide on what to expect when undertaking to design a board game prototype.

You can read more about my board game design services for further information.

Factors that will influence the cost

The pricing mentioned above that a game ‘may’ cost £5200 to design is a simplification of what it is that affects the cost and ultimately the outcome of creating a board game prototype.

Factors that will influence the cost of the game:-

Has the look and the feel for the game already been established?
Is this a design from scratch?
Have you already created a very rough paper mock-up?
Has the content already been written?
Are there many different cards and desks?
Is there a rule book? Or is it just a sheet?
Does your board game come with a board and box or is a small card box?
Do you have a logo?
Are there characters in the board game?
Does the game require some interesting typography?
Will the game require illustrations or cover artwork?

Using some of the questions above may now give you an idea of how games can become costly to design by professional designers & artists.

Some cover illustrators alone can charge £1000’s for their services and that’s before using the graphic designer to put all the artwork together and create the visual look and feel of cards and boxes.

Developing the look and feel for your game

One of the main areas that I personally cover is the early design and concept design for the game’s look and feel. The concept and Creative Direction to be precise. This important and early stage if you have aspirations of making a retail-ready game.

This stage can require less attention if you making a game for private use. This design and development stage can occupy 70% of the project. And when you spread this across numerous components, cards, pages of a rule book it quickly becomes evident where the budget can be spent.

Vector character design for your game

A board game design project can encompass multiple disciplines into one. And character design and vector illustration are just one of those disciplines. Character design alone is a field in itself, that requires planning, research, and drawing to make the best characters possible for your board game.

My services cover both the early sketch and concept art to fully copyrighted and licensed game-ready character artwork!

You can read more on my character vector illustration services for more details.

Is it a card game or a board game?

Creating the visual look and feel for a card game vs creating a top and bottom box board game can have a large influence on design cost. More often than not, designing 2 or 3 decks of cards can be a smaller budget project than say designing a full board game with cards, rule books, leaflets, tokens, etc.

*It should be noted, if you have 1000’s or cards with 10 different faces, that may expand the “board game budget”. That’s a lot of cards!

Rulesheet vs Rulebook | How this can quietly affect the board game budget

I have come to find that a ‘rulesheet’ for a board game can often evolve into becoming a booklet.

And, designing a single A5 page compared to designing a small booklet for a board game requires more time, more focus, more work, and… typically – more editing and tweaking.

Why does this stage often expand to what was initially discussed?

When in the very early stages of the game project, a client may have written a rough set of rules to play from. This set of rules are often a basic first draft and is often ‘just enough to work with.

As they playtest their game, read and re-read their draft and have it proofread professionally, they find more space and time is required for the rules.

The rules are improved basically. ( Written rules often require the most editing throughout a project. )

It then becomes necessary to fit all of the text into a booklet, as a single a5 sheet of paper isn’t enough anymore to fit all of the text on.

In other words, the rules expand into something else because it has been given more time and attention.

Last minute changes – this can affect the cost to design your board game

The more content – specifically information and components is laid out from the outset, the easier it is to gauge a budget time for a project. If all of the information stays the same throughout the whole project, the more likely the budget will stay closer to the original estimate.

But, I will let you in on a little secret, information, components, and game plans rarely stay the same. More so for larger projects.

As a board project evolves and improvements move from the original seed of an idea. The more budget and resource and time is given to a project. Some board game projects aren’t small!

Rail Game Example — Example of a past project

How much do designers and artists charge for a board game?

Each artist, and designer is different. And ‘ design a board game’ eg create all the visuals for a game is a very broad area. It really does depend on some factors such as how many images or pieces of artwork there is to create.

As a very rough idea on how much do designers or artists charge to create the visuals for a board game. These can be influencing factors.

Who will retain the copyright
Experience, knowledge and skill of designer or artist
How big – in terms of time, the project is
And generally how much content is there to create
Their geography
The designers or artist studio overheads ( expenses )

Written example typical project sizes ( budgets )

More often than not, when I see a board game assignment come through, they are of a larger scale. And larger scale projects require larger budgets for time.

This is not to say that I won’t work on a smaller game. It is often the case that I am involved in the game as a whole, but I am happy to work in varying capacities on a project.

Working on a board game with clients from concept to prototype is an exciting prospect that I love to dive into. I have more information on my Creative Direction and board game services than I have mentioned previously.

*It should be noted, that if you are a start-up thinking of embarking on creating a full board game with lots of components and cards – It is not a small project undertake. Especially if this is a game you have aspirations to take to the retail market.

Below is a rough table of how a project and budget ‘might’ work but each project is treated case by case scenario. If you would like to get a more accurate estimate, please get in touch.

**I am not a manufacturer, I am not able to itemise a lot of the design and journey into a checklist. Creating a retail-worthy game is rarely that straightforward – sorry!

How much does it cost to ‘design’ a board game? Potential cases

My personal commercial experience and skills are covered in the paragraphs written below. It essentially outlines some of my own skills when working on a board game project for a client to create a board game prototype or a core look and feel for the early game.

Initial Concept

Creating the core concept look and feel for a board game or card game. This is one of my main areas of focus. This covers the early ideas and the Creative Direction. Once some of the initial concepts have been established, this will move the project to the next step!

Adding a touch of character design to your board game

Using a trusty pencil and paper and Adobe Illustrator I can draw characters for your game. This is another service that is covered ‘under board game’ design. You can read more on vector illustration services to see how I may be able to help.

Creating the artwork for the box

Creating the box, which would technically come under ‘packaging’ often becomes the main part of a project. Especially if you want to sell your game!

Creating visuals for the inner literature

For example cards, rules, tokens, 2D miniatures. These can be a subject in themselves that require a lot of time and attention. Or if there is not too much inside the game box, not much at all!

Here are some examples of casess / scenerios that may give you more of the idea of project size and scope that will influence the cost and outcome.

Example of budgets and scope. This is not an itemised list but it will hopefully I’ve an idea of some past cases for budgets for a board game and projects.

Budget case table for design project (1) ( Small card game )

As an example. A card game as such with the items listed above would be a smaller budget than say a board game with a large box.

Case 1	Project Brief	Budget / Size	Other Information
Design a few characters	4 or 6 characters	Potentially smaller budget	Covers earlier sketches and vectors
Put together box artwork +	Look and feel already put together by another	Medium budget to create a retail ready ‘prototype’ box	Some content already supplied, design a nice box for the game
Create the look and feel for the game	Create the whole look and feel for the game	Largest part of project an important step in part of the design journey	Important also if you want a uniformly designed and styled game
Create an illustration	Create vector cover art	Depending on illustration complexity* – medium to large part of budget	An eye catching illustration for the box cover or cover design
Create a single leaflet for the rules	1 a5 page of text	Often smaller end f budget and time required	Might be a simple plain page with some text

A written example of potential project format

The table above should give you an idea of how some of the time may be allocated on a smaller card game project. But this can be varied. It all depends on the complexity of the game and what is really involved in bring all these individuals elements together!

Below is another case table for board game budgets. Both of these tables are hypothetical but are based on past experience.

Budget case table for design project (2) ( Medium-sized board game )

Something of the scale would be more expensive to create.

Case 2	Project Brief	Budget / Size	Other Information
Design 10 characters	10 + characters plus lots of ideas	Potentially larger budget	Covers earlier sketches and vectors
Put together box artwork +	Establish a look and feel for the box – from scratch	Medium budget to create a retail ready ‘prototype’ box	A board game vs a card game will be more expensive
Create the look and feel for the game	Create the whole look and feel for the game	Largest part of project but an important step in part of the design journey	Important also if you want a uniformly designed and styled game
Create 3 or 4 illustrations	Create multiple vector illustrations	Depending on illustration complexity* 3 or 4 = much larger time allocation	Creating illustrations can take a while to complete
Create an 8 page booklet	1x 8 page booklet	More content is needed for 8 faces for a rule book.	Nice cover graphic, diagrams, more text / editing / tweaking

A written example of potential project format

Hopefully, this second case scenario gives you an example and difference between the two levels of budget and my involvement. Typically, the more I need to create – the larger the budget and along with polishing and editing all of the design and illustration content.

Case 1 is a smaller budget because it is a smaller project that requires less. Case 2 is a bigger project that requires more.

The creative the journey | the ‘real thing’ that is billed

* It should be noted, that the items in the board game are not strictly the reason for the budget being smaller or larger. But, that being said, the more elements there are to your game. Eg cards that need artwork, box covers, etc the more likely it is that the budget will be more expensive.

It’s a longer road!

I myself cannot, and do not charge for the items themselves. For my design services, I charge for the journey and the money is the fuel to get the project where it needs to be. The items, just help to offer markers and waypoints for the project.

It depends on what is required to bring your board game to life! That will be what determines the budget.

Read more about my design services – link takes you design services page.

How much does it cost to ‘design’ a board game?

The conclusive answer of how much does it cost to design a board game, is sadly – it depends. It depends on the size of the project and what is really involved in creating the board and how much there is to design,

Many board game design projects can sit around the £4000 – £5000 mark but each budget is unique to each game brief.

Keep in mind that if you need a designer and illustrator for a game that you will also need to factor in manufacturing and potentially marketing your game.

* This s not an official estimate, for an official estimate please get in touch. Rates can also change!

How much does it cost to make a board game for Kickstarter?

Considering all of the above to design to create a photo-ready prototype you may be looking at the following figure.

( Game design budget ) + Prototype Manufacture £100 – £300 + Plus shipping ad set up (£40 ) approximately.

This should give you a photo-ready prototype for a Kickstarter campaign.

How much does it cost to ‘design’ a board game for personal use?

If you are thinking of creating a board game for personal use, the more of the game you can create yourself, the lower the budget you will need to design the game. This method won’t strictly make it a retail-ready game by going down the do-it-yourself route, but you never know!

Some people want to create a board game just to figure it out and get into the industry and for that, I commend you. You may find this article helpful – how to draw on a computer starter steps.

To answer how much does it cost to design a board game for personal use, or for yourself. It depends on how far you wish to take it.

If you want to get pen and paper and create a white paper box. This can be perfect for a prototype and playtest model. Or you can try to learn some digital drawing skills.

Or you may also be interested in reading some of the information on creating a fan game first before jumping in with both feet.

June 30, 2020June 30, 2020

how to make a STEM product to sell

How to make a STEM product to sell: I wanted to share this knowledge on how myself and my past colleagues went about designing and creating STEM products that were sold in retail stores across the UK and Europe and other countries across the world.

When considering how to make a STEM product to sell there are many factors to consider before you open up a CAD or design program.

You need to consider your audience, the budget, how to keep the cost down, and whether the product is actually good enough.

Those are the basic steps.

In order to make a STEM product to sell, you will also need to observe the competition, look at similar products, identify a demand, and the manufacture a product. You will also at this stage look at how to make a product as cost-effective as possible.

This post covers how to design cost-effective models, develop a product, and then prepare it for sale “make it retail-ready” if you are looking at ways to potentially monetise your idea for the future. Or “How to develop a product for under a £1”

The items shared in this post are actual products that were designed by myself whilst working at gadget and gifting company that sold 10,000s of units across the globe.

Most of this post is written from a design perspective but the all-important money stages have not been skimmed over.

Many of the products listed on this page are geared towards, science, tech, and learning all of which will help you when you to want to design your product.

How to make a STEM product to sell | preparation

In short, we created products that would both satisfy demand and be affordable in a retail environment.

In order to keep things affordable, having production costs low was never far from our minds.

We took into account the materials needed to be cheap and time was very precious, and we also wanted to avoid too much trail an error where possible.

The example here is called the “3D hologram”. After many hours trawling the internet, watching gadget videos and looking for cool products for smartphones we arrived at this.

A packaged 3D Hologram for your smartphone.

So the first stage is to check and research to see what the competition is doing and whether there is a demand for the product.

After this step, what can you can do differently and how could we carve a product out in a busy retail environment.

How did we know if it would sell?

In a few of words … we didn’t.

But we tried to do as much early research as possible to increase the possibilities that this product would stand a good chance, but there was no guarantee.

As mentioned before. Do your homework to test the waters. Try to make it more than a hunch!

If your product falls flat, even the How to develop a product for under a £1 motto won’t count for anything if there isn’t a want or demand.

When I was brainstorming with the team and sharing ideas on how to make a STEM product, we arrived at the conclusion that creating the 3D hologram would be a great item to go with.

It was educational, it was tech and the network of ready retailers was there.

We put hours and hours into the research stage.

Don’t rush the research stage and do not cut corners or “trim the fat”

These are some of the factors we used to grill the idea and see if it was a viable STEM / or learning product we could sell:-

STEM and learning products was a growing market
Many customers were asking for “learning” and build your own type of products
Researching various websites gave us statistics and the assurance that the product was likely to sell.

We didn’t want to leave to much to chance. But, even with all the research and careful consideration…

There is no guarantee that the product ‘would’ sell.

But doing so on all products if you are wanting to make money from your idea should be thoroughly researched.

Do your homework!

( for the record, this product did sell! Phew..! )

Grill your product idea | next step

Get an idea, love it a little bit, season it with joy, and a healthy dose of optimism. Then start taking it into reality.
Research to see if it is an existing product on the market, or whether there is a demand for your idea. If there isn’t a demand, eg there is nothing similar to your idea that doesn’t have an audience – don’t make it. (sorry you are not Steve jobs) end of the first mean hurdle.
See if people may want it. Scour the internet, see if there are communities, websites, shops, and products to see if there is a modern audience on the lookout for your offering.
Listen to what the retailers are saying and try to meet their demands as they will have good insight into what is a popular product. If you ignore them, the failure of your product increases.
Does it fit in with the rest of the products that you are trying to sell? If you are an established brand there will be certain expectations of you.

I call this a ‘grilling stage’ for a product or an idea.

This logical and critical approach to your idea is important, don’t scrimp on it.

Research your product!

These scrutinising stages of your product are arguably one of the most important and shouldn’t be passed over. That lack of critical thinking for your product may backfire later in their form of the general public writing bad reviews or nobody buying your product.

In order to make your product a success, you will need to make sure it will stand up to the competition. Create a viable product that can be sold.

In other words.…

Really think about what you are going to create and whether people will buy it.

It is better to come to this conclusion sooner rather than later. Coming to the realisation you can’t sell your product 9 months after creating it will be bad for your business and you will most likely have to pay to store products you can’t sell.

That is the end of the big critical thinking stage of how to make a STEM product to sell. Leave nothing to chance, research the market, and always check cost prices of manufacture.

How to create your product for under a £1

Now that you have stress-tested your ideas, you need to consider ways to manufacture your product for as cheap as is necessary without forgoing the quality of your product, and I can’t stress this enough…

The quality of your product matters, be this high-end STEM or learning product or an entry-level gadget.

People care about what they are spending, even if it is only £5.

Make it the best it can be for however much you can afford, and if it falls short of being anywhere near the best it can be, wait. Or perhaps consider doing a Kickstarter.

In the past, and on current projects, I take practical steps in order to make a minimum viable product that I feel is worthy of being to be sold. I take pride in what I do, and so should you!

When creating a product, you should always be considerate of the consumer’s wallet, keep your product affordable if you want to move high volumes.

But in order to consider how much your customer can spend, you need to consider how you can keep the production costs lower.

More of this is mentioned below.

Product Development Opinion

This is a personal opinion but none the less one I would advise you should take heed of as a business of 2020+.

Don’t make rubbish! Don’t make a product that offers very little to consumers, makes the world a worse place, or is generally complete landfill!

A product that fails after a couple of uses is a product that is arguably a waste of resources, a bad experience for the customer, harmful to the brand, and terrible for the environment.

Be considerate of what you are making, both at the start, middle, and end of the product’s life.

No amount of clever packaging or marketing should disguise a bad product, even if it was developed for under £1!

I like to believe the products shown here were fun and beneficial and that the customers and their children may enjoy them – perhaps even learned something from them.

The next stage of this article offers the steps and details of creating your product to sell or “how to make a STEM product to sell”

Checklist on how to make a STEM product to sell

1) Identify whether your product has an active market. Check that you have channels or retail spaces where you can sell the product. Such as a high-street retailer or online store.

2) Develop your idea, rough-out drawings – try to come up with something that is different but also easy to understand to the lay person. This will make it easier to market and sell your product with packaging or online.

3) After you have established the core product and drafted up a few different concepts, look for ways in which ‘features’ can be reduced. In order to reduce the cost and make your product lower in production costs, you now need to trim the fat. (create a minimum viable product)

4 ) Reduce expensive materials and unnecessary parts. Consider what the product actually needs and what will be of benefit the user. Does it really need gold foiling and spot UV on the packaging? If not then you should consider removing it.

5) Consider your materials: you can reduce the cost of your product by considering what materials you are using. Can you use something cheaper to save costs but still offer a complete item? Different plastics, reduce the size. Look at the compounds that make your product. Or consider using a card?

6 ) Get a prototype built. I would highly recommend creating a mock-up of your product. DO not gamble £1000’s on a product just because you want to save a few £100. Going with the ‘just ship it’ to retailers can seriously backfire and I have seen it happen! Your brand, reputation, and business will be on the line if you do and you fail this gamble. I would advise strongly – to get a prototype.

7 ) Reduce costs on the packaging. There are a few ways to reduce costs for a product and one area is certainly packaging! In the vein of how to develop a product for under a £1 so you can get a bigger margin, you can still create ‘well designed’ but cost-effective packaging.

The list above gives you an answer and guide on how to develop a product for under a £1, and how to make a STEM product to sell for your product line.

Do your research and study the market. And look at ways or reducing material costs.

Reducing costs on product materials

In order to follow the guidelines and create a product for under a £1 or a dollar. You will need to look for ways to lower the production cost without harming the quality, one of the surest ways of doing this looking at the materials.

In other words, creating a product that is as awesome as it can be … and stripping it right back to what is needed.

And maintaining some of the ‘awesomeness’ of the product. ( Awesome is overused, but that is the level you should be aiming for!)

These are some real questions I have asked myself In the past when working on a product.

Questions to ask when reducing the cost of your product

Does it need foil and spot UV on the packaging? Maybe remove it.
Can I reduce the thickness of the cardboard on the box? A good idea if it doesn’t compromise the structure of the box or product.
Can you reduce the size?
If possible, can you take any surplus of fluff features of the product?

In the example shown of the VR cardboard, which was created as an introductory gadget into virtual reality and as a learning/exploring product was created with the mindset of keeping the production cost low.

Below is a breakdown of the contents list for the VR cardboard, outlining the core components.

STEM Product Example (reduce cost)

STEM product cutting list: items that were considered in order to lower the cost of the product.

1 Silk coated card sleeve. This needed to be good enough to show the punchy colour and sell the product! Nothing else! I took the opportunity to use the area on the cover and turned it into a space theme.
1 fluted VR Cardboard (the product). The body of the product is made from white-coated fluted cardboard. Cheap enough to make and structurally strong enough to support the product on its own.
Velcro adhesive – in order to close the front guard and to secure the smartphone in place ( and assemble the product) velcro was attached to various flaps and arms.

* The plastic poly wrap – This may not be compulsory but some retailers may require this to sell in their store. The poly wrap can be good for securing the product and showing that the product is factory new and untampered with.

How to develop a product for under a £1 - diagram / illustration

The ‘real’ cost of developing a STEM product to sell – from scratch!

In order to create a product that you actually sell and make a profit from, you need to make sure that production and running costs are kept low.

But there is much more to creating a product just the cost of materials and production.

Other expenses need to be considered such are the time, creation, design, planning, human effort, storage, packaging the physical size of the product to name a few.

If you do not keep the production cost low in early stages, this may have a knock effect when it comes to selling your product in retail or online, if it sells at all if it is too expensive for it’s perceived value.

In order to help you keep track of the money, reference the illustration below.

What is often overlooked, is that actual creation cost for ‘entire process’ and the buying of a single unit.

In all of these products in this post, salaries were involved, logistics, where to store your product marketing for the sales team to promote the product.

The list below shows a more candid look at the entirety to creating a product, something you should consider when trying to create your product whether for £1, $1, or £5.

Process cost for entire product creation

How to develop a product for under a ‘£1’ the whole process to selling your STEM product.

Scenario 1 – Actual single unit cost and stages:

Research and analysis
Hours spent designing and developing the product
Paying for a prototype or developing a prototype in-house
Making mistakes, the design journey, getting a complete idea.
Revising and polishing the design
Testing the product
Getting the card artwork ready for print and manufacture
The packaging for the product
Writing any manuals and conformity if needed
Creating marketing collateral for the product to help it sell
Taking product photo’s to promote it
Designing a webpage/website
Creating an email marketing campaign ( you can read tips here on designing an e-mail campaign)

These are part of the reality of creating a product if this is your first attempt.

From a pure design perspective, (myself being a designer) many of the stages above would generally be missed out. But being in involved in the whole process from concept to completion, I feel this is something you should know now.

The number of hours it takes to create the product. The testing of the product, the development. Marketing – There is a lot of work with many hands involved.

It would vain of me to say that the sole monetary success of a product hinges around the design alone. Don’t get me wrong, and I bound to say this. But design is still important for many products.

How to develop a product for under a £1 - how to make a STEM product to sell

If this has helped you to take stock and evaluate whether you want to make a STEM product to sell, I hope it has so far given you some positive advice.

Before going onto the next section and showing you some of the STEM and learning gadgets I have created, I wanted to share some pointers to summerise.

Do your homework and see if the market would like your product offering.
Create a mock-up (even a low tech one)
Keep the cost of the materials down to prevent this inflating the RRP too much or reducing your profit.
Consider all processes
And consider who will be involved.
Prepare to invest

This is especially applicable if you are a small team and not just an individual making a product. An individual going about setting up their own product or doing this as a hobby won’t need to worry about staff on logistics etc.

At least not for the immediate future.

Whether you are a team or one day you would like to be part of, or have your own team. These points are an important thing to consider when you wanting to know how to design a STEM product to sell and how to develop a product for under £1.

In other words, how to create a low-cost minimum viable STEM product.

You may find some of the following articles also useful for developing a product.

STEM & Tech product examples

Below are STEM, Science, and general learning products that I have designed and co-designed using the steps, principles, and methods as mentioned throughout this post.

The mindset of “How to develop a product for under a £1” was used when creating these.

VR Cardboard “Virtual Goggles” – Smartphone Virtual Reality

This product tapped into a growing tech trend. A simple concept that turns your smartphone into a budget VR headset for under £5 for RRP.

With this pack, you had to assemble your VR cardboard from scratch! It was added as a learning and tech product.

And you may be pleased to know that cardboard engineering wasn’t as complicated as you might think.

The die cut was sourced from a factory and the artwork was illustrated by myself. The great thing about this product was you didn’t need to spend time to create the product from scratch!

So saved on time.

Learning + tech. So time was saved on the trial and error of creating prototypes as the dieline was supplied.

The product is made only from cardboard too! As the name would give away.

VR Cardboard Frontier

Following on in the same vein, this product was another low-cost tech product. Only that this one was pre-assembled and it retailed for £5 RRP.

This budget VR headset is another entry into smartphone VR. The blank diecut and sleeve were supplied from by a Chinese factory on request and I created the vector artwork and space theme in Adobe Illustrator.

I played with the idea of “frontier” with VR being the next stage of exploration.

For children, it was created to inspire a sense of awe and fun whilst learning when using the headset. And if they chose to, simply play a game.

It was created to appeal to children and be sold in places such as the science museum. You can read more about my vector drawing service on the design.

Freelance vector illustration & design.

3D Hologram – Mostly made from Cardboard and PET

At one stage, this product went on to sell in museums, learning centres and general retailers across the globe and I was pleased to find out that this was a success. (Thanks all!)

With this product, I was involved in the design and research spending many hours on how to make holograms and numerous Youtube video’s on how to construct them.

Have you heard of Peppers Ghost? If you are curious to know about Pepper’s ghost I would advise have a read of it on Wikipedia.

As this topic is based around how to design a STEM product to sell and how to reduce the production costs of your product I wanted to mention a few key points about this product in particular.

Example of “How to develop a product for under a £1”

The actual product is made from clear PET which is folded flat inserted into the card sleeve packaging. The production cost for this was very low!
The packaging is simply a sleeve which contains 2 PET holograms and A4 information manual.
Retail packaging is small and flat so more units can be placed on a EURO hook
The main market for the product was STEM, learning, smartphone tech, and gadgets!

In terms of components, there were very few parts involved. The biggest challenge was developing the product to a standard that it could be sold in retail.

Build your own telescope

Now there are a few things you may notice with this product. It’s similar in nature to the hologram which is a STEM/learning product and that has a similar-sized box to the 3D hologram.

This project was a collaboration piece between myself, another designer and how could I miss… the far east team! (Thanks Ann) to bring the product to life.

The nature of the product is that you can create your own product (build your own) by following the instructions. By the end of the process, you should have a Miniature Telescope

The product is used the same process as mentioned before, basically, try to keep the material and production cost low as possible.

To keep the STEM product cost as low as possible some of the following techniques and shortcuts were used.

An existing packaging dieline, (Hologram)
The flat pack get as many units on packaging
Card packaging
An instruction manual

Build your own boxing robot

For any budding engineers in the family, this product is a must – all the more if they like boxing.

My involvement in this STEM product was to create retail packaging.

I strove to make the box as appealing as possible with the boxing ring added as an additional feature that would make this awesome product even more appealing.

The artwork was created in a mixture of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. The Photoshopping of the robot supplied by a colleague.

The factory-supplied the existing dielines so no extra time was required to figure out how to make the box work. If time is against you this can be a brilliant time and money-saving measure.

*Assuming that the box is actually any good.

Technically, this STEM product would have cost more than £1 to create.

but due to it being from the STEM selection and carrying many of the principles I wanted to convey in this post I wanted to include it.

These principles are listed below in helping you to lower the cost of making your product.

Cost saving measure example

The product was sourced, requiring significantly less time and money to develop a complete product. Fewer growing pains!
An existing dieline was used for the packaging, another way at looking at how to develop a product for under £1 and keep the cost low. as no time would have been needed on the cardboard engineering and working out the sizes etc. A blank box was supplied, the artwork was created by myself.
We had looked at the market to see if there was a potential demand. Due to the nature of similar products, of the build your own. We felt this STEM product may have done well also.

Although the actual single unit cost of this product would have exceeded the £1 or $1 dollar mark. The product was so quick and relevant to our market at the time we grabbed it with both hands and made it our own.

In terms of reducing cost, as so much was ready to use straight out of the pack so to speak, it would have saved weeks of time and money and reduced the burden on collective salaries.

This is the end of my samples for of STEM and learning products. These products are copyright Satzuma LTD.

If feel that this post has helped you on how to develop a product for under a £1 or if you are looking how to make a STEM product to sell ( or both) feel free to share on social media or on your blog!

Enjoy creating your STEM product!

If you would like help on creating your STEM product or creating the flat artwork to go onto the packaging, manual or box feel free to get in touch. Freelance product/packaging design.

how to create a product for under a £1 | quick summary answer

In order to create a product for under £1, you need to look at reducing the cost of production, materials and also just as every bit as important, time.

Time can very costly for a business and looking for cost-saving measures is always important such as looking for some existing solutions which can be tailored or ways you can reduce trial and error.

Looking at uses low-cost materials such as cardboard and paper instead of plastics that require tooling will also reduce of making a product and help to keep below the £1 line.

Other tips for creating a STEM or low-cost product

External links

– About STEM

– Teaching products

Designs Bytes | how to make a STEM product to sell and How to develop a product for under a £1. All products are Copyright Satzuma LTD ( Cheers all back at Satzuma HQ!)

September 11, 2019

How I designed a novelty flash drive

novelty flash drive ….

Hello, this post covers the steps, thoughts, and processes that went into creating a novelty flash drive. These flash drives have graced the shelves of Boots, Tesco’s and other international high-street retailers and to think, it all started as a happy accident (almost).

Stage 1 – The product concept

The initial drawings and images weren’t created to be flash drives – they were going to be characters as part of a marketing theme that would feature on email signatures, brochures, trade stands, and other collateral – not flash drives.

These darker characters were created to be the opposite of the Satzuma Man which was a glowing orange character which looks like a happy marshmallow. He was the ‘goody’ so to speak.

As time evolved, so did the roles and priorities of the characters. It was discussed that these characters should be turned into something else, why not a product?

Not the first attempt at creating a product

This wasn’t the first time at making a novelty product – I should be ashamed to say that the first ever character to be created was the Satzuma Man… as Elvis. He looked more like Carlton Banks from the Fresh Prince and he was a pretty terrible version at that. I’m happy to say that this design is lost to eternity, never to grace your screens.

The Original Character Art – Pre-Production

The Flash drive models were based on my designs and illustrations. Although, if I was to be brutally honest… I was never keen on the stuck-on googly-eyes. It added a bit of humour but made the product feel a cheap-looking in my opinion.

Notice the early “Rufus” was a bit more moronic looking and mean? This was because he was supposed to be a villain to the Satzuma Man, you weren’t supposed to like the gormless rodent that meddled with the products and machines in the gadget factory! As time went on, more love was given to Rufus both commercially and conceptually and he became the “goody” with this, his features softened and he became cute – for a factory rodent.

Melvin Mutt — Hello Melvin – Product Concept

Stage 2) 3D Modelling

Once I created the 2d designs of the characters, the brief and reference images were sent to a factory to start creating the prototype. The rat and the dog was made up in a 3D program which was then sent back to us for approval. After this, the factory got down to creating the tooling.

Stage 3 ) The Product

It’s alive! Once the factory had made and completed the prototypes based on my specifications. The product was then produced in bulk, packaged and shipped out to the large high-street retailers. Melvin, Rufus and the flash housing are all copyright Satzuma LTD.

If you have any questions with regards to the project or any other project feel free to get in touch. If you are looking at creating a model, miniature or a product I may be able to offer assistance.

You may be interested in reading :
– How to make a successful game
– My creative journey
– How we to design a killer kickstarter page

September 9, 2019March 14, 2024

How to make a product for your business

Developing a product for your business isn’t a small undertaking… but it can be very rewarding if you do it right! This post has been written to share useful experiences for creating a product. In order to create a product, you should consider certain key aspects of its design.

So, how to make a product for your business :

Who is the product for?
Is there a market for your product?
Does the market need your product?
Would the market want your product? can you find out?
How much will it cost to create the product?
How will you market the product?
Where will you make your product?
Timeframe for product design

The questions above cover a couple strong questions when creating or launching a product.

Tips for creating or designing a product

Also, this post will cover what you shouldn’t do when developing a awesome new product. Enjoy!

My experience in creating physical products

In the early stages of my career I would never have imagined that I would have been involved in designing and launching physical products, it has been a journey that has both been challenging and exciting!

Speaking creatively, designing a product opens up a whole new road for innovative exploration – you just need to remember to put the breaks on every once in a while and assess why and what you are making.

My experience mostly covers designing products that are made from card and PET. I have also been involved in creating physical card/board games, developing learning products (STEM) and Flash Memory (injection moulding) and last but not least, the retail packaging that houses products.

Who is the product for? (It’s not you)

When you create a product, it shouldn’t be a product for you. This may sound counter intuitive but you need go beyond a gut-feeling if you really want to push the success of a product. One mistake I have often found is assuming that everybody else is a bit like me to a lesser and greater extent – this couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Not everyone is like you.

Do you represent a demographic that would buy your product?

It can be a good start if this is the case but try to get some idea who would buy your product through looking at information online with trends, forums, statistics and if you have the money and resources, surveys and product testing. These early stages will help to decipher whether there is viability in your product.

Don’t leave it to chance.

Make your product about your customer, make it something they would love, solve a problem, entertain. It will be them that buys the product in the end – not you. ( you may find this interesting, making a board game prototype )

How to make a product for your business | Product Validation

A very good way for a business to get a product validation is by testing the waters on a crowdfunding platform such as Kickstarter or IndieGogo. If you are going to do a Kickstarter, make sure you have a crowd and an audience ready on the launch day.

This is not a mandatory way to validate a product, but it does show if there could be a demand for your product.

If you would like help with your Kickstarter design you can read more on this post.

Is there a market for your product?

Assuming that you may or may not have gone down the crowdfunding root for your trailblazing new gadget or product do you have any evidence that the world ‘needs’ or would like your gadget or product?

A good way to check is to see whether other companies are selling something similar – I know, I know – you want to create something SO unique that you would have made Tesla shed a solitary tear but creating something without knowing if there will be demand can be a huge financial risk, and you could end up selling something that the world does not want or need.

It is a crushing feeling

if your product can’t get off the starter blocks when you have invested so much time and money into your passion. Make sure you do your homework first and maybe consider the – paragraph above “Product validation”.

Who knows, perhaps after creating your first few products you will be in place to show the world what you offer is better than what they want.

In time…

Show the world what you have to offer... — Show the world what you have to offer…

Great women inventors

**Keep the cost down to create your product (*MVP)**

If you are a creative or a student reading this post, you are probably going to hate this point. For your product to be commercially successful, somebody will need to be able to buy it! I know, who would have imagined!

Unless you are creating a product for wealthy people with large disposable incomes you will need to consider if the man or the woman on the street can afford what you are trying to sell them.

That will generally come back to keeping that initial manufacturing cost down.

Creating a Product As a business owner or Start-Up

This may sound like familiar territory to you. The lower the setup cost, the better the margin or the cheaper you can sell your product and it have a wider market appeal. A lower RRP will make your product more accessible to a larger buying market with shallower pockets.

The type of product, brand or business you want to be is down to you. It will come down to you how much you believe the customer is willing to pay for your product and be brutally honest with the prices.

This may influence whether you do mass production, batch or stay with smaller scale cottage industry production. The choice is yours – based on your research and expertise.

How much does it cost to make a product?

It can cost anything from 10p a unit to £1000’s of pounds for a large mass produced run, it comes down to the materials, where you have your product made, speed and many other smaller factors.

Costing and pricing is a crucial stage for the success of your product. Below are a few factors which you should take into consideration when pricing the development of your product:-

How many units will you make
Generally, the more units you manufacture, the lower the unit cost is in larger quantities.
Where it is manufactured
It is common to find products that are manufactured overseas. This is a common practice in manufacturing as it is generally cheaper to manufacture products in place such as China.
Packaging
Depending on the level and complexity of packaging this can affect the cost of your product per unit. Having too much packaging could be costly and frowned upon by a modern and more eco conscious market. – You can read more on packaging here >
Transport and unit weight and size
The weight and size of your product will affect the unit cost of your product.
Other languages
If you are intending on creating a product that will be sold globally, you may wish to consider having translations added to the retail box. It can be inexpensive for translations to be created and worth considering as it will open up a much larger audience to your product.
Barcodes
If you are intending to sell your product to high-street retailers you will need a product Barcode. I wasn’t involved in the process of creating product barcodes in the past, but as far as I am aware it is relatively cheap.
Instructions
Large retailers will expect instructions as a basic requirement for your product if it something like a piece of electrical equipment, a gadget, a game, a tool and items with moving parts. Instructions can be made cheaply, but they need to be made ‘properly’.
Other Admin and legal areas
Your product may need testing for chemicals and toxic substances to meet with trading standards. These requirements differ from country to country and isn’t something I can advise on. I can only mention that you should be aware of it is best to seek professional advise.

* it should also be noted that Brexit ‘may’ have an effect on goods being imported and exported in and out the EU.

Marketing Your Product – A very important step

This step should not be scrimped on but is often is. It is a waste of time and money putting all of your efforts into creating a product that the world cannot see. Don’t rely on blind faith and hope that consumers looking to buy a product will stumble of yours. You will need to be proactive and there are actions you can take with a short or non-existent budget.

Invest your time, energy and planning into some good marketing and if you cant invest money, research low-cost or free marketing ideas.

But remember, free is rarely free. Time is still a cost also and if you can avoid doing it all yourself I would advise looking for help.

https://www.shopify.co.uk/blog/how-to-market-a-product

The marketing of your product can cover a large area; from the branding to the packaging to the website. 1 idea for marketing your product could be to consider crowdfunding – if this fits your business model.

A method for getting your product out there

a) Make a good product
b) Create awesome packaging
c) Present the whole package.

Show your cool packaging to a buyer and let the large retailer do the heavy promotional lifting and display your product. I have seen this method work time and time again but you need to master your pitch.

Other Notes on creating your product

There isn’t a guarantee your product will succeed the first time.

I feel this should be added, not every single product you develop or make will rip it into success. Although, I hope that this article may guide you and help you steer clear of any pitfalls in the early stages.

I think many inventors make many products and prototypes before they blow it out of the water. Eventually, they find that eureka! And so will you if you if you have the right skills, knowledge, and attitude. I have written about the success of this party game >

IF you found this article helpful free to link to, share or show friend.

‘Do Not’ for developing a product.

– Don’t rely solely on your gut when creating a product. Try to do some research and understand your target demographic

– Developing products for the tech market can be volatile – especially if you are making products which are accessories for a model of (whichever product) Creating something for the latest release lasts as long as that model does. You either have to move quickly or end up with a warehouse full of products you cant sell.

– Don t assume that customers only look at pictures on the packaging, they do read the details on the back of the packaging, and if something is a little bit off – they will email you to let you know.

* Minimum Viable Product Quick Answer : What does it mean?

If your manager or boss has just mentioned the term MVP this stands for ‘minimum viable product’. A minimum viable product is just that, a product that is still worthy of being sold but is stripped back to the bare essentials.

E.g a car with 5 wheels, bike rack, a rearview camera, fine leather interior, sky television etc

MVP version = 4 wheels, plastic interior, simple functional car (Save money in other words)
That is the end of the post for How to make a product for your business. I have tried to share some of my past experiences and how they can be useful for you.

I hope this post was useful to you and give you insights on how to make a product for your business. This is all based on past experience which I have shared. if you feel that this was helpful please share!

Thank you for reading “How to make a product for your business”

Maybe you’d like to read: How to create a game in steps >
Or Develop packaging or how to design a gaming app

If you have any questions feel free to (opens in a new tab)”>contact me through my website >

August 19, 2019

Packaging Projects | high street retail ready design

It has been while since posting a project update, as many of the other posts have covered industry insights and experiences.

One of core project that appears to get a lot of attention is the post on how we created a successful game project. A post that is packed full of information on our design approach and what we did.

This Design Post

This post covers a range of packaging designs that were used and are still actively being used in the retail market – a phrase that was used often when creating the packing was “retail ready”.

These designs range from Tech Girl, Satzuma Gifting, Stem and a whole range of projects and pre-production artwork. These products have graced the shelves of Boots, Tesco’s TK Maxx, Robert Dyas, Menkind, Staples and stores across the globe.

Unicorn Power Bank

Idesign for Smartphones, retail — Packaging and branding design for a ‘build your own Smartphone cover’ product

You can read more on the project on the portfolio website. It covers the branding, the packaging, the marketing and the digital design.

Proof Of Concept Packaging

The proof of concept packaging was used for design approval, used in product pitches to large retailers and also used to ‘visualise’ the package for print factories.

Early Beard Bib Packaging, This was put together very quickly to get a feel for the concept.

Packaging design — Packaging illustration

Packaging design for game — Boogie Pong Game Box Mock Up

Packaging design - mock up — Another Tech Girl Mock Up – Typography would be ‘Rose Gold’

Jeantech Power Supply — Mock up / Render of a power supply box

Flash Memory Top - FSDU — Flash Memory Top – FSDU – Final Proof

Neon Packaging concept — Neon Packaging – Product – Testing look and feel

Packaging Nets

The images below show the flat nets of the packaging. This is the print ready or near print ready artwork that is generally sent of production after approval.

Early Joystick Design — Early Joystick design – Packaging – Card + PET – Concept (shelved)

Flat net of am expansion pack — Card box net for packaging an expansion pack.

This is one part of a larger gaming project, if you would like to read more this product please feel free. Or if you would help with you card or game design feel have a look.

Net for a VR Google Card — Google Card Design

Final Products & ‘In Situ’ Shots

These are the completed products based on the designs I supplied.

Counter Display for Product – VR Goggles

Packaging design - neon sign — Make your own Neon Sign

Flash Drives 8 GB - in store photo! — POS design inside a retail store.

That’s all on this packaging post!

Retail Read Packaging

If you would like any assistance in your latest packaging design be it the concept or putting together a punchy, relevant and cost effective solution feel free to get in touch or have a look at projects on the brochure website.

Retail Ready Packaging Projects – Perhaps you’d like to read :

The Design Journey
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