Industrial Design Firm
Industrial Design Services Overview
About RKS
As a top industrial design firm, we focus on human-centered industrial design services and innovative industrial design solutions. We have practiced industrial design for over forty years and have established ourselves in the product design field and industry. We collaborate and engage with clients at all product lifecycle stages, from strategy to ideation to design and development.
Psycho-Aesthetics® is our advanced design thinking methodology, and we use it to create complex industrial design solutions. As one of the most established industrial design firms in Southern California, we offer unique experiences and expertise. Our designers, engineers, specialists, and researchers leverage their cross-disciplinary knowledge to imagine and design innovative product solutions.
Human-Centered Psycho-Aesthetics® (P/A) Methodology
Psycho-Aesthetics® is our human-centered methodology and compass that allows us to target the right combination of functionality and aspiration.
With decades spent developing and evolving P/A, it has progressed into a highly advanced design-thinking tool. It allows designers a unique skill set to find solutions around the shared objective, pragmatic, and insightful approaches to design. Our human-centered product design methodology has seven phases and starts with research.
In the research phase of industrial design projects, we perform customer research, benchmarking, and word bank creation. In the second phase, we synthesize the research into competitive maps, triggers, personas, and the opportunity zone. From those insights realized, we identify, define, and forecast specific needs that a product should address.
For every product, there are particular target audiences. In our next phase of product development, we identify key attractors to engage the target audience for the specific product. Each target audience has a defined “Moment of Truth.” This design process leads to product design that is ready for execution.
Research Capabilities
Ethnographic Research
Competitive Benchmarking
Auxiliary Research
User Interviews
Opportunity Zones
Human-Factors Testing
Research Kits
Industrial Design Services
Our process is thorough and drives innovation, ensures client success, and leads to improved quality of life. We have defined design principles and address project risk at every step of the process.
Our industrial Design process is a transformational creation, design, and innovation starting from an idea. In the design phase of our process, our designers transform Key Attractors into tangible elements.
Often elements of a new product pose unique technological, engineering, or design challenges. In those cases, we sometimes have to invent new technology or use existing technologies or materials in new ways. We overcome these challenges by focusing on those issues first. Once solved, these issues provide the foundation to design and engineer the rest of the product.
Concept Visualization
Aesthetics Refinement (CMF)
Human factors & ergonomics analysis
Functional invention and feature exploration
Physical model making & validation
Material and detail specification
Packaging design
Sustainable design
Integrated Design and Development
Emerging Technology Integration
Business Model Design
Experiential Prototyping
Design Research for Industrial Design Projects
Human-centered research, when applied to industrial design, is a collaborative and cross-functional process. We begin our industrial design engagements by understanding the target customer for our clients. In this stage, we primarily focus on primary and secondary user research for problem-solving. Though we often use our ethnographic research capabilities.
Visualization and Sketching
Our visual design team has years of experience in concept design. With the help of 3D modeling software (CAD – Computer-Aided Design), we develop computerized 3D models of the product. These 3D models help us identify any problematic areas of the product. They also allow us to focus on individual components that may require special focus.
Visualization and sketching enable our engineers to create a product that meets the user’s needs. They also take into account COGS constraints, manufacturing, and production timelines.
Human Factors Design
Human factors in industrial design are focusing on optimizing how people interact with products, systems, and environments. Integrating human factors ensure that products are safe, efficient, and user-friendly. It also ensures products meet the needs and capabilities of their intended users. Our human-centered design approach takes human factors into consideration at every step of the process.
Beta Prototyping
Beta Prototyping is a quick and effective way of bringing proof of concept to life. It allows potential consumers the opportunity to evaluate, test, and share their feedback on a product. We use this feedback to make improvements to the design and functionality of a product. Internally, beta prototyping helps our team form accurate estimates of production and manufacturing times.
We specialize in wireframing prototyping as well as physical prototyping. We use 3D printers, CNC Machines, and laser cutters to create prototypes in the studio. Having an in-studio prototyping lab allows our designers to quickly and efficiently bring sketches to life.
UX and UI Design
User experience design (UX) and user interface design (UI) are essential components of our holistic design process. Together they define user-centered design, the overview of how a user has a positive interaction with a product or service. Our interactive designers integrate UI and UX design to create products that are a perfect blend of form and function.
Intellectual Property Support
Patenting new device technology is critical in creating lasting value for our clients and end consumers. We routinely assist attorneys and agents with the technical muscle to support the patent applications and information architecture for our clients.
Our experts help patent professionals draft effective and comprehensive claims based on the invention and the characterization data. In addition to data, we provide clear technical support throughout the entire application. In the end, patents allow our customers to own outright the innovations we build together.
Execution
Our work spans nearly every sector. We use our experience to cross-pollinate ideas to create Moments of Truth and viral adoption.
Our designers create designs that enhance the lives of millions of people around the world. The products we have developed have created new opportunities for thousands of companies. We create successful products because of our experience in industrial design, consulting, advertising, and mechanical design. We help you optimize your budget and come up with a design that will be effective in the target market.
Execution Capabilities
Design and Development
Emerging Technology Integration
Business Model Design
Experimental Prototyping
Qualitative Resonance Testing
Pilot Design and Testing
Rollout Support
Commercial Products
Over our long history, we’ve designed and consulted some of the most well-known industrial products around the world. We work in the background to help companies reimagine industries, products, and the processes around them. Commercial product design projects are often incredibly demanding: low tolerances, high precision, and longevity.
Medical Devices
Industrial product design for medical devices is the process of turning a medical device design into a commercially viable solution. Medical device development allows us to use emotional resonance to save lives and help people at their most vulnerable. We’ve worked in complex stakeholder environments to engineer mobile ventilators that help people breathe. We’ve designed DNA sequencers to help technicians work with doctors to diagnose genetic diseases.
Open Innovation
Some solution categories go beyond or blend traditional market categories. The problem they seek to solve has no solution yet. In some cases, the solution has not yet found a designer to solve it.
Our designers thrive in environments of uncertainty and bold ideas. The best design can come from a problem where just testing solutions are at the forefront of technology or industry. Our cross-collaborative environment is perfectly suited for generating and confronting bold ideas. We solve problems by finding the best innovation design solutions.
Digital
Emotionally connected digital experiences are more important than ever. We create digital experiences by using our P/A framework. Psycho-Aesthetics® helps us solve deep and important needs for users worldwide. We utilize it in our digital product design projects.
We’ve created digital experiences for medical, consumer, and industrial devices. These solutions increase efficiency and decrease the risk of error. In each case, we’ve combined our cross-functional expertise with the latest technologies to deliver engaging and relevant digital experiences.
Consumer Products
We have more than forty years under our belt spent solving complex consumer product design challenges. RKS has led the design of hundreds of consumer products, many well-known in their industries. We specialize in logo, branding, and packaging design for consumer products.
RKS designed Gamevice, which allows mobile gamers to turn their devices into ergonomic controllers. We lead FloWater in leading the reduction of plastic bottles in workplaces, gyms, and competitive sports worldwide. Our team draws upon this experience as we create entirely new products and product categories.
FAQ's
What is industrial design?
Industrial design is a field that involves the design and development of a wide range of products used in everyday life. It is concerned with the creation of products that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also functional, efficient, and user-friendly.
Industrial design encompasses a broad range of industries, including furniture design, product design, automotive design, packaging design, and many more. The ultimate goal of industrial design is to improve the overall user experience by creating products that are both attractive and functional.
Industrial designers work closely with engineers, manufacturers, and marketers to create products that meet the needs of the user while also being economically viable to produce. They typically use a range of tools, including sketches, computer-aided design (CAD) software, 3D modeling, and prototyping to develop and test their designs.
What does an industrial design firm do?
An industrial design firm is a company that specializes in designing and developing a wide range of products for various industries. The primary focus of an industrial design firm is to create products that are functional, aesthetically pleasing, and user-friendly.
Industrial design firms typically have a team of experts who have expertise in various areas, such as engineering, product design, material science, user research, and marketing. They work together to create products that are not only visually appealing but also meet the needs and desires of customers.
Industrial design firms typically engage in the following activities:
Product research and development: They research and develop new products, starting from ideation to the creation of the final product.
User research and testing: They conduct user research and usability testing to identify user needs and improve the user experience.
Concept design: They create sketches and mock-ups to visualize product concepts and develop product specifications.
3D modeling and prototyping: They use 3D modeling software to create product prototypes and test them for functionality and durability.
Manufacturing and production: They work with manufacturers to produce products at scale and ensure that the products meet the required quality standards.
What is the difference between industrial design and product engineering?
Industrial design often happens in conjunction with product engineering. Industrial design is the process of defining the requirements of a new product and then turning those requirements into a visual, tactile, or digital product. Product engineering determines what and how technologies can be used to fulfill the design requirements. Often there are many iterations of a product at various stages of completion to allow key stakeholders to make decisions. There can be multiple phases of design, including an ideation phase, a sketch phase, a CAD phase, and multiple prototyping phases. Product engineering should happen in conjunction with design to ensure that decisions can be manufactured while maintaining a viable price point for market acceptance. Product engineering is the process of combining or creating technologies and materials to implement the designs.
What are the types of industrial design?
There are three main types of design: experience design, interface design, and product design. Experience design usually encompasses the second type of design because it refers to the holistic experience of a product. Interface design, also known as user interface design, is often for digital products and refers to the way users interact with digital elements on a screen. In the world of XR, interface design can also refer to pseudo-real elements. Industrial design is a type of product design referring to physical products which may or may not be used for industrial purposes.
What are the industrial design processes at RKS?
How do you become an industrial designer?
One of the best ways to become a industrial designer is by designing! Formal education can help you build a portfolio, which is critical in attaining a position at a design firm or on a design team. If you don’t have a formal design education, then you should create some side projects that show your design ability. If you already have a portfolio you can apply to a designer role at a design firm like RKS: RKS Careers
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