2 Months in and my designer drops the ball-- frustrated

[eqttrdr]

Hired a fashion designer with experience in making dog clothes to take our prototype design and make some adjustments. Our prototype needed some tweeks and adjustments. Seemed like she knew what she was doing.

Well long story short 2 months go by and we are still in the same position as we were when I sent her the prototype I made. Complete waste of freakin' time. At least I got my money back from Elance but now stuck because I cannot for the life of me find anyone else who knows what they heck the are doing.

We are trying to have made a completely new design dog harness. Different closures, different materials, different shape and one special feature on the harness. No matter where I search I cannot find anyone that can take our REALLY rough prototype and make it into something useable and sizable.

VERY frustrating.. I have no idea how you guys that make new designed physical products do it. Wonder what the heck you are supposed to do when you have an idea, know exactly what you want but cant find someone to create it from scratch or work out any bugs you have in your original design. I contacted manufacturers off Alibaba but they just want to take our rough proto which doesnt work for us and make 100,000 for us just like it. I dont need that..LOL

I need someone to figure out why our dog harness doesnt work, redesign as necessary, make a completed finished useable proto which then we can use to source manufacturers.

This really sucks... I hate to give up the idea but I am completely and thoroughly stuck. Even if I had a million dollars to throw at this I would have no idea what to do next. Everyone my business partner and I contacted cant help and has no clue what to do.

Sorry to vent but any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated!

thanks

 

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[ZCP]

Get to work searching parallel industries for your vendor. Find an awning or tent company and look to them for help. FIND A WAY!!!

 

[CreateLiving]

Hired a fashion designer with experience in making dog clothes to take our prototype design and make some adjustments. Our prototype needed some tweeks and adjustments. Seemed like she knew what she was doing.

Well long story short 2 months go by and we are still in the same position as we were when I sent her the prototype I made. Complete waste of freakin' time. At least I got my money back from Elance but now stuck because I cannot for the life of me find anyone else who knows what they heck the are doing.

We are trying to have made a completely new design dog harness. Different closures, different materials, different shape and one special feature on the harness. No matter where I search I cannot find anyone that can take our REALLY rough prototype and make it into something useable and sizable.

VERY frustrating.. I have no idea how you guys that make new designed physical products do it. Wonder what the heck you are supposed to do when you have an idea, know exactly what you want but cant find someone to create it from scratch or work out any bugs you have in your original design. I contacted manufacturers off Alibaba but they just want to take our rough proto which doesnt work for us and make 100,000 for us just like it. I dont need that..LOL

I need someone to figure out why our dog harness doesnt work, redesign as necessary, make a completed finished useable proto which then we can use to source manufacturers.

This really sucks... I hate to give up the idea but I am completely and thoroughly stuck. Even if I had a million dollars to throw at this I would have no idea what to do next. Everyone my business partner and I contacted cant help and has no clue what to do.

Sorry to vent but any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated!

thanks

I am actually in the same boat, it is very hard to find a proto-typer that specializes in dog harnesses. I made my first by hand and it took quite some time. Let me know if you find a good resource, even though i'm potential competition lol.

 

[Silverhawk851]

"The brick walls are not there to stop us. They are there for us to show how bad we really want it" -Robert Pausch

It's part of the game.
Keep searching, keeping making phone calls, keep going you'll find a way.

All the best

 

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[SteveO]

It seems like there must be a way to make this prototype yourselves. I don't know what you mean by special feature but there are many places that make many things. You could probably get an engineering company to mock something up for you.

 

[SteveO]

btw... It does not help you to blame others. It is possible that the designer that you hired put effort into this project but it was over her head. It is your design. Own it and make it work. This post comes across as if you are a victim of something.

 

[throttleforward]

I had a similar issue with my baby product - I had a rough first draft version that I made at home, but wanted some bells and whistles for the version I wanted to present to companies for licensing. I thought I could find an industrial designer, tell them the features I was looking for, and have them whip something up. No one could do it - either they didn't understand what I was trying to describe, or flat-out said they just couldn't do it. The one industrial designer that did create something was so totally off that I couldn't use any aspect of his design.

So, I sat down with some garbage cans, an exacto knife, springs from Home Depot, duct tape, a hot glue gun, and some beer. I had to plow through about 6 hours of cutting the garbage cans, attaching springs, etc. untill I finally got something that matched my vision (it worked, but look pretty ugly). I took pictures of it, sent it to a 3d artist, and volia! CAD and 3d drawings that I use today.

 

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[theag]

Why did it take you 2 months to realize that your designer sucks? If this were important to you, you would have kept tight reign over the process and fired her after a few days of non-production.

There are thousands of freelance 3d designers. Just pick another one.

 

[smarty]

Appreciate the Fact, it is already done. Nothing you can do about it.
Turn frustration into more Action.

 

[eqttrdr]

so a 3d model is better than an actual physical product? I thought the physical product would be better than a graphical representation as the item would have to be appropriately sized as well.

Because of the sizing issue that takes experience and knowledge of dogs, not me guessing based on a crude proto that I made myself. That takes a fashion designer's skill, not a 3d graphic artist.

 

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[ZCP]

Quit now. It is just too hard.

 

[throttleforward]

so a 3d model is better than an actual physical product? I thought the physical product would be better than a graphical representation as the item would have to be appropriately sized as well.

Because of the sizing issue that takes experience and knowledge of dogs, not me guessing based on a crude proto that I made myself. That takes a fashion designer's skill, not a 3d graphic artist.

What are you trying to do? Manufacture yourself or license out?

 

[CreateLiving]

I basically have a great functional protoype for this dog harness I designed. I need to find a company who can jazz it up and make it marketable to investors. It works great, now I need it to look great so I can make a pitch video.

 

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[Ronsard]

Hired a fashion designer with experience in making dog clothes to take our prototype design and make some adjustments. Our prototype needed some tweeks and adjustments. Seemed like she knew what she was doing.

Well long story short 2 months go by and we are still in the same position as we were when I sent her the prototype I made. Complete waste of freakin' time. At least I got my money back from Elance but now stuck because I cannot for the life of me find anyone else who knows what they heck the are doing.

We are trying to have made a completely new design dog harness. Different closures, different materials, different shape and one special feature on the harness. No matter where I search I cannot find anyone that can take our REALLY rough prototype and make it into something useable and sizable.

VERY frustrating.. I have no idea how you guys that make new designed physical products do it. Wonder what the heck you are supposed to do when you have an idea, know exactly what you want but cant find someone to create it from scratch or work out any bugs you have in your original design. I contacted manufacturers off Alibaba but they just want to take our rough proto which doesnt work for us and make 100,000 for us just like it. I dont need that..LOL

I need someone to figure out why our dog harness doesnt work, redesign as necessary, make a completed finished useable proto which then we can use to source manufacturers.

This really sucks... I hate to give up the idea but I am completely and thoroughly stuck. Even if I had a million dollars to throw at this I would have no idea what to do next. Everyone my business partner and I contacted cant help and has no clue what to do.

Sorry to vent but any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated!

thanks

I agree with someone else here. If you want to make a success of this you need to know dog collars better than Cesar Milan " the dog whisperer ". You can not give a third party space of mind over your design, this will bring a possibly great product down to average because you are allowing average people to help with your design. If you are still uncertain about something then get to knowing dogs and their collars a lot better. Give it all you've got it is what it will take.

 

[eqttrdr]

Quit now. It is just too hard.

wow... very helpful response. I appreciate the assistance in helping a forum member be directed to a great resource where I could further look for someone to help with the design.

very much appreciated response... I never thought of that.. I should try that and see if it works

REP++

 

[DeletedUser12]

Have you looked at places like Strapworks? https://www.strapworks.com/Articles.asp?ID=109

 

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[ZCP]

Get to work searching parallel industries for your vendor. Find an awning or tent company and look to them for help. FIND A WAY!!!

Am I to assume you already completed this step / followed this suggestion? My consulting company deals with similar inventors often. The suggestion wasn't one made without the knowledge that it would work. I know of one in town that has been helping with lifts for dolphins. Set / scenery design people will also do similar.

Your posts here give the impression of defeat-ism. You know that isn't going to fly here. Get to work and overcome this obstacle!

 

[Ronsard]

Its

Am I to assume you already completed this step / followed this suggestion? My consulting company deals with similar inventors often. The suggestion wasn't one made without the knowledge that it would work. I know of one in town that has been helping with lifts for dolphins. Set / scenery design people will also do similar.

Your posts here give the impression of defeat-ism. You know that isn't going to fly here. Get to work and overcome this obstacle!

It's bedtime here in South Africa, but I don't think you should be so harsh. Remember that helping is in spite of and not because of. I understand your frustration.

 

[FastNAwesome]

I have no idea how you guys that make new designed physical products do it. Wonder what the heck you are supposed to do when you have an idea, know exactly what you want but cant find someone to create it from scratch or work out any bugs you have in your original design.

I need to find a company who can jazz it up and make it marketable to investors.

Guys, maybe I'm naive, but just trying to help... Since you're creating something original, plus it seems you don't need much quantity, just for presentation...

Maybe you should just assemble it yourselves. I don't know what are the components of your products, but for example - if one component is belt. You can sure find someone who manufactures awesome belts, has great choice of leather, can imprint anything on it etc. Then if another component is some metal part, you find people who deal with that, and have them produce what you want...then you take the components and assemble them into a product.

 

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