How 3D Printing is Revolutionizing the Design World
Right now, there’s a profound level of disruption going on in the business world. Much of it is around rapidly advancing technology — and one of the biggest ones is three-dimensional design and representation. To be fair, there’s also the evolution of the smartphone, the rapid emergence of cloud models, and the Internet of things. But 3-D design has a unique role to play in changing how people present products and services to customers.
Making Brand New Products with 3-D Printing
3-D printing is all the rage — but what can you actually do with these newfangled machines? Many of the top uses of 3-D printing involve creating physical prototypes for products. For example, just look at the range of designs that jewelry makers can accomplish using today’s 3-D printers. In this industry article, companies explain how printing a 3-D version of a piece helps customers visualize what they want, and helps to make orders production-ready. Of course, there are a lot of choices to be made in 3-D printing — this article from iMaterialise presents a collection of printed toys and assorted small items that show what’s possible with the 3-D printing, and talks about the need to selectively choose materials, software, and equipment.
Giving Customers a Sneak Preview with 3-D Drawings
Another great choice for many service companies is to create a 3-D rendering that will show some project outcome. For example, landscaping designers and construction companies can input all of the relevant data to come up with comprehensive three-dimensional drawings that really show off what the finished result is going to look like. (For one example, see how Davel Construction, an Ontario firm, gives every customer one of these visual plans)
People who are designing a patio, ordering trees or shrubs, or putting a facelift on a building used to rely mainly on words to agree on the scope and final outcome of the project. Now that’s not necessary anymore — because of the precision that 3-D sketches can deliver.
Going Beyond the Internet: Virtual and Augmented Reality
Going beyond these presentations, virtual and augmented reality devices actually provide a fully dimensional visual experience. This article from MakeUseOf shows how people strap on the Oculus Rift, which was once derided as a “gimmick”, for all sorts of reasons — to step into a virtual room or space for training, tourism, education, or therapeutic purposes. You can also see how Oculus Rift is used for projection of architecture and modeling results. And, last but not least, companies can use these sorts of virtual reality machines for all kinds of compelling product demos.
The Takeaway: A New 3-D Business World is Coming to Future Markets
In all kinds of fields and industries, marketers and business leaders are going beyond the printed page to deliver a much fuller picture of what they can provide to customer bases. This next-generation form of business is bound to lead to big changes in how we order nearly any kind of product or service in the future. It gives us more of a “visual” idea of what companies make and do, and what’s possible in any given field. And that’s a valuable part of future markets.
