Formlabs Applcation Project
Showcase your skills to integrate human factors and carry user experience into final design execution, and your ability to communicate your ideas clearly and fast.
Duration:
2 Hours
Date:
Spring 2025
Tools:
Scenario
Your task is to design an all-in-one toolkit for designers and model makers, specifically for finishing and detailing their 3D-printed models and mockups. The toolkit should be compact, officeable, catering to users at a retail price of $500.
The toolkit will be used by professionals who regularly create and refine 3D-printed models. These users work with delicate and intricate details and require tools that combine precision, durability, and ease of use. Your design should streamline the post-processing workflow, while maintaining portability and aesthetic appeal.
The product is sold at a premium price point of $500, so it must reflect exceptional quality, innovative functionality, and professional aesthetics.
Feel free to use whatever methods you communicate ideas best in.
Intended Steps:
Market Research
Discover necessary tools, average pricing for quality, and successful products adjacent to the intended product
Image Curation
Curate a collection of images, both directly from Formlabs and ones that emulate the design language. Use these images to develop more specialized photos in MidJourney to get a better idea and application of the design language on this new product
Sketch Ideation
Rapidly develop sketches—chicken scratch—to get as many ideas out as I can
Sketch Render - Deliverable
Use Procreate to sketch render final product shots
Market Research / Image Curation - 30 Minutes
There are little to no 3D-printing toolkits that have a fleshed-out design. Start to look for adjacent products that may be similar. HOTO is dominating in the design-centric toolkit category.
Basic Products cost between $20 - $40. Formlabs native product costs $299. Assuming that the tools are high-quality, the majority of this project should be directed towards housing.
The Formlabs design language has similarities to retro-futuristic products like Teenage Engineering’s audio line or Mayku.
Formlabs has a cellular design-approach, dividing the interaction zones in half or thirds.
Midjourney Design Concepts
Ideation - 5 Pages ~20 Minutes
Sketch Renders - 1 Hour 15 Minutes
Retractable handle fits flush with the rest of the case
Clear outer shell to see which side needs to be opened
Front and inner access to tools on both sides
Inner area swivels to access both sides
Statement:
The intention of designing a product like this is to not only showcase what is accessible to the user, but to make it easy for the user to want to interact with the product willingly and purposefully rather than see it as a means to an end. This product creates satisfying user interactions by utilising high-quality mechanisms for the handle and hinges placed throughout the product. I also wanted to give the user access to only one side at a time to make it easier to quickly access a tool, as one often doesn’t need more than one or two tools at a time. While the average consumer can buy and be satisfied with this product, it is certainly directed towards more industrial work with stamped-aluminum casing.
Manufacturing:
The inner guts of the product would be vacuum molded with the tools--or mold of the tools--to create an efficient layout. I would then have aluminum stamped onto the outside of the casing. In more intense areas such as the curve under the handle, it would be easiest to weld and then sand off any imperfections. This choice was decided based on the $500 price tag, The handle would be injection molded and then electroplated to match the aluminum look.
