We’re back! If you’re familiar with some of my other projects or subscribe to my YouTube channel, you’ll notice two new videos. Those are the the first of an eight part video series on building product prototypes. The series captures the process of creating a working prototype for a solar charger power bank – The…

I was having a tough time finding my white car occasionally. I wanted to remedy that situation by having an antenna that was unique and stood out in a crowd. I settled on a Glow option as it would be a lighter color than other vehicles and “of course” glows in the dark! MATERIALS How…

I needed to build a very quiet, high-capacity compressor for making ID models and prototypes in my shop. The one I have is quite loud and doesn’t have the capacity I was comfortable with for urethane casting work. I sourced a 6-gallon air tank on eBay for $35, including shipping, from a fellow in Indiana.…

Vehicles concepts fall into a category all of their own. They are different than other products in the sense that they are, in general, 95% styling and about 1% design, with 4% common sense/luck, in my opinion. Toy vehicles are usually some sort of a generalization of what a designer thinks a vehicle is and…

Botzen Design Studio will have a 2-day, hands-on Model Making Workshop Saturday, June 25 – Sunday, June 26th. It all happens at the Botzen Design Studio in Southfield, Michigan (northwest Detroit).

In Part I, we kicked off this series discovering how to quickly create concepts of a sci-fi style vehicle through the use of Thumbnailing, Marker Rendering, and Underlay Construction. We’ll pick up from there and cover two more techniques you’ll want to add to your repertoire.

Rendering out new product design concepts with markers can be a pretty daunting task. In my new multi-part series I look at how to approach rendering adventure toy concepts, combining old school marker techniques with some modern day digital photo editing techniques.

In Part I we went through the steps of creating a silicone mold. Now we are ready to cast the actual part. Are your ready for this?

When you work with an Industrial Designer (or as one) and you’re developing a physical product you want to bring to market, at some point you will probably have to make a functional model or a working prototype. There are many levels of possible mock-ups. Usually, in the later design phases or pre-production stages, you…

I build a lot of mock-ups and prototypes of various consumer products that I design for my clients. I cast a lot of parts in silicone molds, but I don’t cast a lot of silicone parts, much less gaskets. So, this project will take an existing process and combine it with 3D printing in a new way to make…