Nice to Hear.........................

We work with lots of different clients from lots of different countries and try to give the best service we can.  We after all a service company, we want to make our clients comfortable and make sure we reach their individual expectations.  I think we do a good job and certainly have not had any major complaints, but I am obviously biased, so it was nice to hear from someone else.

We don't expect great shows of gratitude but it is nice to get a thank you.  When we received this from a client the other day the team and I all glowed with a bit of pride in a job well done.

I have copied it as it was sent to us.


"I was recruited on a business accelerator programme in Belfast Northern Ireland in February 2015.  Having run a very successful business in the services sector and spotting a gap in the market I had a great idea on a product to provide to my customers.  So there I was with customers and a great business idea with no clue on how to develop the product into reality.  This is when Hachi Design came into my business life! Ian Hadlow and his team came highly recommended by a business colleague here in Ireland and from his introduction I made contact.  With a list of pre-conditions and tight deadlines to meet I had very high expectations from this design team.  

From the outset communications lines were established through Skype meetings and emails, deadlines were set and development of my prototype began.  Drawings and patterns of product were excellent – allowing me choice! From here I understood the professionalism and attention to detail taken by this company and in all honesty really enjoyed the process of seeing my dream product come to fruition.  Marta was a very pleasant and extremely talented designer and had a clear view of what I wanted in my product.  As a novice to the process of designing and product manufacturing Hachi Design have held my hand throughout the journey and I would not be in the position in which I find myself – ready to launch a truly innovative product with established manufacturing supply chain throughout the UK.  Exciting times ahead with more idea’s that I need developed in the near future. I have no doubt that I will use Hachi Design again and again! Thank you to all the team, who work extremely hard to meet all of their clients needs – no matter how crazy they may seem at the time!"

 

 

Lee-Anne Daly

CEO and Founder of Orby Ltd & AquababesNI Ltd.

The Team and I would like to also thank Lee-anne for being a great client, who took on board our suggestions and allowed us to do what she needed, with always a positive attitude which was infectious.

 

We wish you luck with the New Product.  Hopefully in the not too distant future we can tell everyone more about the product.

 

In the meantime please head over to Aquababes Facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/groups/297012032330/ to see what she is doing.

 

 

Help with developing ideas………….

I wanted to write an article and maybe start a discussion about a trend we at Hachi Design have noticed and are wondering if it’s the same for others. 

When I first started on my career as a designer, the first two companies I worked for had fully staffed in-house model shops.  Both employed a model maker who had studied model making at university and then gone on to work in film and design model making.  As a designer it made a great difference as model making helped us to develop ideas and then help to prove the design to the client and helped to inform the design team of any potential problems.  The model makers helped input from a practical and assembly point of view into the design.

The model shops were fully equipped with CNC milling, vacuum casting, machine tools and paint booth, and thus we could re-produce any of our ideas within reason. So great resources to have at your disposal but highly expensive to run and maintain. 

When I joined my third company they had a different model that was starting to emerge which was getting rapid prototyping done by the factory in China who was going to supply the final goods. This way seemed to make sense, you are getting real world input from the manufacturer and they can really help shape the final design to reduce the production costs and stop the traditional designer issue of getting what’s in your head made in a sensible cost effective way for mass production.  This model of working also helped our clients as the cost of the development work could be amortized across the products production run and built into the final unit price.  The supplier also would help with the tooling cost upfront in a similar way.  Great for small companies who have the idea but just don’t have the big money needed to develop and get the product made.

This was about six years ago when I first started working in China, and it was really easy to find suppliers eager to help.  They were more than happy to get involved as soon as we had something sketched, but I personally think this attitude has changed, and again I would like to say this is obviously a statement based on my own experiences and is not a broad stroke comment.  Of course we have still suppliers who want to be a development partner, but we are finding that attitude harder to find.

I think this is for several reasons, first I think some of the suppliers here have had a bad experience with designers and the process they use.  They may have been blown away by an idea, invested fortunes only for them to end up with something that does not work very well or even sell very well so they struggle to get the return on their investment, so why would you take the risk now?

I think some factories just find the whole innovation route too unpredictable, too much trouble with all the problems that have to be solved along the way.  They just want to manufacture and get the profits from that, why have all the problems in the beginning, that’s the designer’s job.

Some suppliers have decided to concentrate on their own domestic market and the reverse engineering route as it’s just as profitable for them without having to put up with the people with crazy ideas. 

So now when we get a new project unless we have a good existing relationship with a required supplier it is a challenge getting the advice and help that the factories used to give.  That’s if you can get them to even look at it.  Sometimes we used to ask for quotations for parts and tooling at a basic block model stage to gauge if we could get what we wanted product wise, at the costs that are commercially acceptable.  This is becoming almost impossible as the suppliers don’t want to waste time on writing quotations on something that is most likely going to change, which I can understand on a pure commercial level, put you never know what it might become.

We are finding now that suppliers will only talk to you once you have a complete set of drawings preferably with a working prototype, which they can then use to really understand the design and know exactly what it will cost.  Basically the final as you want it made design without them having to really think about it.  Meaning they also don’t need a large engineering team of their own so saving money for them.

The other side of it is though that now they don’t really want to help develop other people’s products they do want to do their own, so they have now moved from being partners to the client.

So for me it has come full circle, we are now again looking to use the growing number of rapid prototype / model making companies that have started to open in China and handling everything in-house getting the client to sign off the design, and then go find somebody to make it.

 

Recomendations from the studio 3.

1.  Music - The Stanton Warriors Podcast - http://stantonwarriors.com/podcast/

2. Website - http://designtaxi.com/news/378505/For-Designers-This-Website-Helps-You-Identify-The-Color-Palettes-Of-Pok-mon/ - for those of you who grew up trying to catch them all!

3. Website - http://makerbook.net/ - Great free resource book for creatives.

4. Film - http://designtaxi.com/news/377022/Watch-Gordon-Ramsay-Shows-How-To-Cook-The-Perfect-Steak/ - Love him or hate him, he can cook a steak without saying "pukka" like the other one.

5. Music - https://soundcloud.com/djnumark/nu-crack-city - cool mix recommended by Mr. Pick.

6. Magazine / Website - http://www.autodesignmagazine.com/

7. Website - http://www.fashiontrendsetter.com/content/color_trends.html - great for colour trend information.

8. Design - http://www.autoconception.com/volvo-designers-reveal-new-child-seat-concept/

9. Recipe - http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/pitabread - Helped make a good kebab!!!

10. Website - http://all-silhouettes.com/ - Downloadable Vector Graphics.

Tea………….Very Civilized.

So one of the things I wanted to do with the blog is tell people about some of the delicacies of doing business here in China, the differences to other areas of the world I have worked in and my thoughts and opinions (and please remember that they are just that) on them.

So one of if not the biggest thing I noticed when I first started out here is how important Tea is, not just in business but in general.  Now I knew the Chinese loved tea, and this is not new to me, I am an English man and we have a cup of tea every five minutes, to think about things, to celebrate things, to commiserate things and well just because a cup of tea solves most things. But it is almost informal in England (unless it’s with the posh china when your mum was trying to impress somebody), normally in chipped mis-matched mugs, with no real ceremony in the making apart from the question of milk and sugar!!  It doesn’t really matter what tea it is everyone loves it, we are not generally connoisseurs and normally it’s served stewed to death, “proper builder’s tea” as my father called it.

Now in China it’s different, Tea is treated with a reverence and respect I would expect with fine wines, there are shops and boutiques dedicated to it and costs range from sensible to eye-watering depending on where it’s grown etc.  It’s given as gifts and I have even been to a tea drinking club with a client and friend that was like a cross between a private gentleman’s club and educational center for tea.

Now this comes into almost every business meeting I have here in China. It may be at the beginning before we talk work as is traditional or after the meeting but at some point in the meeting we will sit round and all drink tea.  Now it has a very formal process that all seem to observe where everything is cleaned and then the tea is brewed and served in little saucers, where it is slurped to enjoy the taste, the addition of air to improve the taste.  All very similar to wine tasting except the spitting.  Now it’s not as formal as what I imagine the Japanese tea ceremony but still everything has an order that all seem to adhere to. 

When you enter most main offices there will  be a tea table or service.  They come in all sizes from a small tray to half a tree, ornately carved into a beautiful work of art and everything in between.

 

Over tea it seems bad form to talk about work but is an opportunity to discuss everything else.  Often it’s about the tea itself, as there are many types, Green, Black and even White.  I have had Kung Fu tea that is supposed to make you strong, to tea with Jasmine, ginseng and even Ginger.  I have been asked about my family, my opinions on world affairs, what football team is likely to win the Premiership, even my politics, I was once asked how as an Englishman I felt about our best and strongest leader being a woman………………….I did not have much of an answer but it was fun teaching them the song “Margaret Thatcher – Milk Snatcher”. 

The whole thing about having tea before the meeting I have been told is traditionally to find out if the two parties can get on as friends first before they talk business.  This fits in with a general rule here. In China traditionally business is done between friends, there has to be a trust and a getting to know each other period before any work will commence.  I have had some projects where it has taken three meetings (all with Tea and dinner) before a contract was signed so they could get to know the person they are dealing with. 

 In Europe I have witnessed several different drink cultures within an office setting, from shared coffee time in Germany to the Friday lunchtime beer in the UK, they are all more internal company things designed to build team spirit, we don’t really do anything for the customer other than to offer them a drink before the start of meeting, maybe it is a lost opportunity to get to know your client first.

 I know it’s something we are very conscious of now and make sure the beginning of any new meeting is special and effort is made so our customers know they are as important to us as the work.

 

Do you have any special little ceremonies you use because the area where you work has that tradition, or because you find it works well?

 

Recomendations from the studio 2.

1.  Music - The Nextmen Podcast - http://thenextmen.com/podcast

2. Trailer - Deadpool - http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2015/08/04/the-official-deadpool-movie-trailer-hd-is-finally-here-video/

3. Film Clip - https://vimeo.com/135218475 - DC SHOES: ROBBIE MADDISON'S "PIPE DREAM"

4. Website - http://www.instructables.com/ - A webpage to share what you make

5. Book - David Thorne - "Look Evelyn Duck Dynasty Wiper Blades, We Should Get Them"

6. Website - David Thorne's website, very funny -  http://27bslash6.com/index.html

7. Recipe - http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9801/cheese-and-potato-pie

8. Music - The Roots - "And Then You Shoot Your Cousin"

9. Holiday Destination - http://www.ghmhotels.com/en/nam-hai/ - Beautiful Hotel

10. Golf - Night Golf at Mission Hills - http://missionhillschina.com/en-US/