Product Design Specialization: From Concept to Market Success

In this lesson you will learn that before starting any design project it is very important to have a good design brief or commission. And if you don't have a briefing, don't worry! We will see how to create a self-briefing. In addition, we will talk about what no one talks about: how to make a budget and charge a project.

Briefing and budget

Market study and mood board

Before starting a project it is important to become a small expert on the subject, so later you can summarize and visualize what will influence the design. Market research and mood boards are used for all this.

Drawing is the basis of product design, although you don't have to be an expert draftsman to be a good designer. In this lesson you will learn that the most important thing is knowing how to express your ideas.

Sketching 1

We continue to review the basic concepts to carry out the project sketching.

Sketching 2

Proportion, dimensions and plans

Some products, such as lamps, give us great freedom when choosing their dimensions; but others, such as chairs, have measures that must be respected. And in absolutely all of them there is something that should not fail: the proportion. In this lesson we will see how to provide a design, size it, and represent it on a drawing.

As we have seen in the previous lesson, sizing correctly is a fundamental part of the project. But no matter how clear we have the measurements of our design, we will not be sure if they are correct until we go from 2D of the plan to 3D of the model.

Add volume: the mockup

Materials, processes and color

Will you work with wood or metal? With glass or with plastic? What color suits your product? In this lesson we will see how the different materials with which we work at Goula / Figuera condition the design and how color can change everything.

10m

3D modeling and rendering

Although it is not essential, almost all product designers use computer modeling software to adjust the dimensions of their design and to render or print in 3D. I am going to show you briefly what software we use for it.

Whether you are working for a client or a self-project, the prototype is the culmination of the entire design process: it will not only help you to verify dimensions, materials and finishes, but it will also be the most effective tool to communicate your project.

The prototype

Product communication

In the world of design, it is not enough to have good ideas, you also have to know how to present them. Whether to show your work to a client, to your followers on the networks or to the press, it is very important to take care of the two key aspects in the communication of a product: storytelling and photography.

Production or self-production

We have now reached the end of the project: we have a prototype, a name for the product and a story to tell… now what? Whether your client is in charge of manufacturing your design or if you want to embark on the adventure of doing it yourself, in this lesson you will learn what aspects you should take into account.

Module 3

Step into the creative lab of Lex Pott, where raw materials meet playful experimentation. You'll explore how form, function, and color interact through wood, wax, polyester, and more — all with a hands-on approach. With Lex as your guide, build a personal materials library and discover how simple tools can spark bold, original product ideas.

14 lessons (3h 4m)

Defining the Relation of Color and Materials

Here we will start investigating the relationship between color and material. Oxide is key, besides tempering and soaking wood. This way we can see the behaviour and color relations. Another key experiment is physically mixing color with fimo or synthetic clay.

Material Properties

In this lesson we will focus on what happens when we heat, soak or bend materials. This will give us more information to master the experiment and to create new solutions for our designs.

Tonality, Color Blocking and Color Transitions

Mixing clay to create tonality and also soaking pigment into wood allows us to blend colors. Various hues and gradations of color can also be achieved by heating metals. The key materials are: synthetic clay, wood and steel.

Experiment 1: Clay and Color 1

First we need to collect our materials and tools. We will use various types of synthetic clay or fimo. You could buy these in many shops all over the place. The purpose of this lesson is to build a material library that will function as an archive to keep in your private collection or to translate them later into your own products. Another key element is of course color. I will explain the simple basics.

Experiment 1: Clay and Color 2

Now that we have the two colors, let's use the pasta machine to blend them together until we achieve the desired result.

Experiment 2: Metals and Color 1

The experiment based on metals is about natural colors and the relationship between color and material. Here we will focus on metal tempering and oxides.

Experiment 2: Metals and Color 2

In this second part of the lesson, we will start oxidizing the copper. Make sure the metal is clean and to follow all safety measures.

Experiment 3: Wood and Polyester 1

In this experiment we will focus on making color transitions and color gradients. We will also use hot water with synthetic rit dye to color the polyester sheet material. The process will create sky gradients and color mixing.

Experiment 3: Wood and Polyester 2

Now, let's use blue to dye our pieces of wood and polyester and see the results of our experiment.

I have saved the best for last. Now I will play with wax and bend it. This experiment focuses on the relationship between material, color, form and fun. The goals is to create a library of possibilities so that ultimately we can design a family in one typology and colors that strike as a composition.

Experiment 4: Wax

I will tell you how I see the library of materials and experiments and what I believe the object should be. This is the most important step to go from material towards a design. Sometimes this is a small step and sometimes much bigger and complicated. I will also contextualise what could be a gallery piece, an edition or even mass production or a product for a label. This process will teach us what and for who we want to design. I will also guide you through my own projects and for who it was designed and why.

Analyse and Reflect

16m

Developing Products: Craft vs. Design

After working on ideas for the design, it's time to choose. Will you aim for craft and self-produced work or only a prototype to communicate and ultimately aim for a label or producer to take your design in their collection?

17m

How to Go Further and Make your Designs Come To Life

It's now time to start making and see if what you have in mind and learned is actually working in reality. You can cheat with a prototype, but if you aim for production you can ask yourself the question of how to solve this problem and if the solution will affect your design. Then prototype and make models. Even think about packaging and ways of making the pieces. Keep it simple and try to think of what you can do instead of what is not possible.

How to Communicate Your Work

Once we finish the pieces, both the final design and, of course, the library, it's about communication. I will show you how I usually make images and descriptions for showing the work. This is a crucial step since you will present your work to the world. I always prepare all my images before posting. In this lesson I will also tell you my personal experience that relates to presenting in different ways. It can be a fair or an exhibition. Even an online presentation that shows you work on Instagram.

10m

Module 4

Francisco Jaramillo invites you to design with intention, shaping objects that tell stories and connect on a deeper level. Through his creative vision at Fango, you’ll discover how to give soul to your work — using form, space, and detail to express values, emotions, and meaning. It’s time to let your designs speak for you.

10 lessons (1h 58m)

The importance of stories

Telling stories captivates all kinds of viewers, from the smallest to the largest. In this lesson we will see the importance of stories when it comes to capturing attention and even making a purchase decision.

The narrative object

To begin to understand the narrative object, I would like us to take a tour of pieces, designers and companies that are pioneers in this type of design. All this with the aim of identifying certain important characteristics when translating the story into the final piece.

Next, I want to share with you a methodology that I have carried out during my projects. Creative leisure makes you emphasize your identity and at the same time helps you find a good story to capture in your pieces.

Creative leisure

17m

Mental maps

Once you understand how to execute the creative leisure technique, it's time to find a main word to make mental maps that will guide you to find the story.

Mood boards and selection of the type of object

In this lesson, we will begin to collect images that speak of the history found in the mental maps to understand the project in a global way.

16m

Materiality and color

Next, we will find, from a mood board, the materials and colors that our final piece should have.

We already have history, typology, materiality and color. It's time for us to start sketching, conceptualizing the final shape that our object will have.

Sketches

The final idea is ready, now we will have to go from the sketch idea to make our object more real. This is why it is important that we make decisions about dimensions, materials, finishes and other details.

Dimensions and finishes

Layout and materialization

Once our decisions or design parameters have been made, we will take all this to a model made in the material that you use or consider relevant.

Communication

One of the most important parts of telling the story is in its communication. The same photography or use of illustrations and referent images will help you to be assertive and reach the final consumer more easily.

Module 5

Follow Reid Schlegel as he shares his powerful 5D approach to product design — combining sketches, digital renders, and hands-on prototypes to bring your concepts to life. With a focus on clarity and communication, you'll learn how to present your ideas in a way that resonates, using tools and techniques that blend creativity with precision.

15 lessons (4h 3m)

Materials and Tool Collection

The world is your oyster! Learn to see the value in free and purchased materials alike in order to create quick and scrappy design prototypes that allow you to really validate your ideas.

Now you will learn about the digital tools and software that I use to bring my creations to life in realistic digital renders.

Digital Tools

Design Process

Catch a glimpse behind the scene of my tried and tested design process that I began developing in undergrad and have continued to hone over the past ten years.

To begin, I will show you my ideation process. You will also see how to think with planes in order to learn how to fundamentally break an object down in planes.

Thinking with Planes

Prototyping with Cardboard and Foamcore 1

Next, you will see how to get scrappy and prototype on the cheap with minimal tools. Even quick and dirty sketch models can really inform your design decisions and final design.

21m

Prototyping with Cardboard and Foamcore 2

I will continue showing you how to work on the prototype.

Prototyping with White Foam 1

Here, I will show you how to quickly create medium-fidelity prototypes out of low-density white foam. Using this method, you can generate a ton of models, allowing you to test and validate your concepts rapidly.

Prototyping with White Foam 2

During this second part, you will learn to smooth out and add small details to your prototype.

Frankenstein Prototypes 1

It is always best to work smart, not hard when designing. The more work you can crank out, the further you can explore and refine your ideas. Learn simple methods to combine found objects, add to existing prototypes, and quickly hack together your ideas to use as underlays in digital sketching.

Frankenstein Prototypes 2

In this lesson, you will continue learning how to add combined cardboard, foam core, and or foam to your final model.

Photograph Underlays

Using your rough prototypes as underlays, you will begin to create your page composition, focusing on which views are necessary in order to tell the complete story of the concept.

21m

Sketch Foundations

I will teach you how to apply linework to your photo underlay in order to build a solid foundation for color, material and finish the CMF application.

Realism is what really makes a sketch pop! In this lesson, you will learn how to apply value, materiality, and my special tricks to bring the concept to life.

Adding Reality 1

Here, I will continue showing you my signature approach to adding highlights in order to make the final sketch really pop.

Adding Reality 2

Next, you will see how by using your sketch layers you can add final design updates including new features, CMF changes, and minor form improvements.

CMF Exploration

A value chain describes all the stages in the launch of a product, what activities happen in each one, and what actors appear in each one. You as an entrepreneur of a creative industry will surely be present in many stages, but you will play different roles. You will learn in detail what are the appropriate criteria to evaluate each stage.

Module 6

Turning creativity into a viable product takes more than great design — it takes smart strategy. Emiliano Godoy walks you through essential tools to manage production costs, set pricing, and assess profitability. Gain the clarity you need to bring your work to market with confidence, and make sure your ideas don’t just inspire — they thrive.

13 lessons (2h 7m)

Value chain

Most of the products are part of a larger collection or family of objects. These families or groups are organized in a matrix that describes the products according to their use or sales category, and explains in which categories there are more than one design option, as well as different options for each one, as they may be different. colors or materials. In other words, it is a matrix that has three axes: category, diversity and depth.

Product Matrix

An important point when designing a product is to know at what price we intend to sell it, and how this compares to existing products on the market in the same category and for the same segment. For this, a useful tool is comparative evaluation, or benchmarking. You will see how to do a simple comparative evaluation of products similar to the one you designed in order to determine the sale price at which you should offer it.

Benchmarking products

New product development schedule

Each segment has its own seasonality, or rhythm, for new product development. A fashion brand, for example, may have a launch and a new collection each season, with the expectation of replacing it almost entirely each season. The calendar for the development and launch of new products is different for each segment, and it is important to define what pace your brand will follow, since this determines investment amounts, amortization per product, etc. While it is common for a new brand to have a different pace than the industry at the start, it will eventually adjust, in most cases, to the seasonality of its segment.

Expense categories

When money leaves a company it is important to define the reason why it leaves in order to be able to categorize it correctly. You will learn how to make a very simple division of only four categories to be able to relate it to the costing of your product.

Investment

The investment is everything that you spend to operate and that is related to the business as a whole and not to a specific product. This investment has an expiration date and contrary to what is normally assumed, it is not money that goes back to the business. I will explain how to account for this investment and determine an amount that you should consider for future investments. In addition, you will learn some criteria that will help you understand if the expenses you are making are investment, or if they actually belong to another category of expense.

Operating expenses

Operating expenses, sometimes called overhead or overhead expenses, are those you will pay to operate your business regardless of whether you are selling or not. These expenses, such as a rent, a salary or an equal, must be covered by specific periodicities and for this reason they are sometimes called fixed expenses. In this lesson you will see how you can make an accounting of these expenses, as well as a projection of how they will be in the future and when there may be important changes or fluctuations.

Development costs

Your product development costs include everything you spent to have the ability to manufacture your product, but before actually starting production. These costs include, for example, design costs, prototyping and testing, molds or templates, laboratory studies, etc. You will learn how to use a simple spreadsheet to keep track of these costs, as well as to establish a number of products between which you must divide this cost for recovery.

For the manufacture of an object it is important that you know which is the ideal manufacturing batch, that is, the number of products that should be manufactured at the same time. In some cases as one-off or custom-made pieces, this lot will be one piece. I will show you several examples that will allow you to understand the basic criteria to determine the most appropriate number of products in a batch, as well as the percentage of waste that should be integrated into your calculation.

Production batches

Manufacturing costs

Manufacturing costs are those that you have to cover when manufacturing a product. That is, they are those that you only do if you are producing. I'll explain how to use a simple spreadsheet that feeds on these costs. In this spreadsheet you will put the batch that you defined earlier.

10m

Selling Scenarios

Sales scenarios are the schemes through which you sell your product, from a direct sale in which the end customer buys your product directly from you, to more complex scenarios where there is a distributor or a store, and where the payment is made. it is done by means of a credit card. In this lesson you will understand how to calculate the profitability of the sale in each scenario and in which scenarios it is worth offering your product and in which it is not.

You will see how the expenses and income that you have studied in all the lessons are related, with the help of a very simple diagram that will help you understand when each of the stages happens and what the flow of money is like in the company.

Money flow

Price list and conditions of sale

I will explain to you how to analyze a sales document, a price list and how to know if it has everything to include. This document should give the client the assurance that he is talking to someone who knows what he is doing, who has calculated his costs, times, risks and guarantees and who will be able to respond professionally. You will see what are the important points that this document should have so that your client is clear about how you work.