Tough tools for a tough job
The BBC made a series a while back following three young Brits as they left their homes to pursue the world’s toughest jobs. These included Canadian Forestry, Cattle Ranching and Skyscraper Window Cleaning. There is no doubt these are a hard way to make a living but there's one more we would add to the list following a project we recently completed – being a UK Border Force officer. It’s a tough job because of the environments they have to work in and the politically charged atmosphere tha...
September 5, 2017In the spotlight at Innovate 2017
Innovate UK's flagship event, Innovate 2017, highlights The Imagination Factory as 'one to watch'. Following the launch of our SwimAR project at last year's show, the response to SwimAR, from interested visitor, enabled spin off projects like this heads-up display for a real-life Iron Man and the development of the first SwimAR prototype for testing in a pool. Surpassing our wildest expectations, Innovate 2016 was the perfect environment to share our idea, standing alongside so...
September 4, 2017A more real Virtual Reality
A marketing agency that specialises in creating Virtual Reality experiences approached us recently with a challenge that we found fascinating. A project they were working on needed people to be supported in a particular position and moved around smoothly to enhance the digital immersive experience. To provide a truly engaging piece of virtual reality it seemed that a bit of genuine reality needed to be injected back in! ...
July 4, 2017Open Design
Love them or hate them most businesses have a tag line of some description or another. When we set up The imagination Factory we did our best to avoid having one. But people kept asking what single phrase summed up what we are about. So in the end we relented and spent some time figuring that out. We decided to set ourselves the challenge of expressing our essence not just in a single phrase, but in just two words. It made us think hard about all the things we could be: pioneers, innovator...
May 16, 2017Sign of the times
Yesterday I was visiting a relative in hospital when I came across one of those doors that is locked by a magnetic latch. So, as usual I looked to the wall expecting to find a push button that would release the door and came across the scene above. Visiting someone in hospital is never an easy thing but when it's a stroke rehabilitation ward it's particularly stressful and your mind is full of all sorts of questions. So, the last thing you need is to be confronted with something as confusing as ...
February 20, 2017How to avoid looking like a plonkAR
Dave Lee, the BBC's North America technology reporter pronounced 3DTV as finally dead this week. This followed reports from LG and Sony who have stopped making 3D TVs hot on the heels of Samsung who made the move last year. What's interesting about the report is the analysis that one of the key drivers for the failure of 3D TV, was that wearing the glasses makes you look…well…a bit silly really. No surprises there, then! It's a great example of why Human-Centred Design has to be integral ...
February 1, 2017Fuelling the Circular Economy
In this article we hand over the keyboard to our good friends at Cradle to Cradle Marketplace who have become a vital partner in our quest to embed cradle to cradle principles in our work as designers. Brendon Rowen shares his thoughts with us about how to make the circular economy work....
January 30, 2017Why we Love to Hate Innovation
Innovation is one of those divisive buzz-words that you either love, hate or love to hate. You can't get far nowadays without some mention of innovation whether it's on an advert on the side of a bus or used in the headline for a conference. Businesses, governments & entrepreneurs are all convinced of the need for innovation and a recent study claims that 93% of executives are looking to it to drive growth (source: PwC). The big four GAFA companies (Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon) ar...
January 27, 2017A Better Way to Innovate
In another article, we looked at why innovation can be a dirty word for businesses. Doing something new involves high levels of risk and the impact is not always easy to measure. But most people accept that to succeed they need to embrace innovation technology in one way or another. So how do you manage the risks associated with product design innovation, services, policies, spaces, infrastructure and so on? There is a growing understanding that an approach called Human-Centred Design (HCD)...
January 27, 2017Grow Your Business Cost Effectively
If everyone is telling you that you've got a great product or service, but you are not seeing that enthusiasm mirrored in sales, then expanding your audience might be the answer. Generally speaking, audience growth is a tough, painful, expensive and time consuming. Often delivering little in return for your efforts. Innovate UK has put together a great video and shared some tips that we've shared below. Innovate UK works with people and companies, to find and drive science and technology innov...
January 4, 2017The Imagination Factory - As seen on TV!
Every commuter fears hearing the tannoy announcement that their train journey will be delayed. And the fact that this is often attributed to 'leaves on the line' seems incomprehensible. How could leaves possibly cause a problem for a massive passenger train? Can't the rail companies just sweep them away with a leaf blower or something like that? This piece on ITV News featuring co-founders of The Imagination Factory, Mark and Julian, explains what the real problem is, why it's difficult to solv...
September 21, 201610 Tips for Having Great Ideas - #10 Turn on the tap
Someone recently asked us how the design team at The Imagination Factory approaches repeatable idea generation in the projects we work on. It made us stop and think and we ended up with a list of 10 top tips for having great ideas which we thought might be useful to share....
September 7, 201610 Tips for Having Great Ideas - #9 Let go...
Someone recently asked us how the design team at The Imagination Factory approaches repeatable idea generation in the projects we work on. It made us stop and think and we ended up with a list of 10 top tips for having great ideas which we thought might be useful to share....
September 6, 201610 Tips for Having Great Ideas - #8 Imitate Nature
Someone recently asked us how the design team at The Imagination Factory approaches repeatable idea generation in the projects we work on. It made us stop and think and we ended up with a list of 10 top tips for having great ideas which we thought might be useful to share....
September 6, 201610 Tips for Having Great Ideas - #7 Deal with the Saboteur
Someone recently asked us how the design team at The Imagination Factory approaches repeatable idea generation in the projects we work on. It made us stop and think and we ended up with a list of 10 top tips for having great ideas which we thought might be useful to share....
September 6, 201610 Tips for Having Great Ideas - #6 Get Physical
Someone recently asked us how the design team at The Imagination Factory approaches repeatable idea generation in the projects we work on. It made us stop and think and we ended up with a list of 10 top tips for having great ideas which we thought might be useful to share....
September 6, 201610 Tips for Having Great Ideas - #5 The Adjacent Possible
Someone recently asked us how the design team at The Imagination Factory approaches repeatable idea generation in the projects we work on. It made us stop and think and we ended up with a list of 10 top tips for having great ideas which we thought might be useful to share....
September 6, 201610 Tips for Having Great Ideas - #4 Think Visually
Someone recently asked us how the design team at The Imagination Factory approaches repeatable idea generation in the projects we work on. It made us stop and think and we ended up with a list of 10 top tips for having great ideas which we thought might be useful to share....
September 6, 201610 Tips for Having Great Ideas - #3 What's actually going on inside your head?
Someone recently asked us how the design team at The Imagination Factory approaches repeatable idea generation in the projects we work on. It made us stop and think and we ended up with a list of 10 top tips for having great ideas which we thought might be useful to share....
September 6, 201610 Tips for Having Great Ideas - #2 Nurturing the Tortoise
John Cleese has a fantastic way of describing his own comedic creativity by likening it to a tortoise that nervously pokes its head out from its shell to see if it is safe to come out....
September 6, 2016The Imagination Factory wins place at UK’s largest innovation show
The Imagination Factory has won a place in an exhibition of the most cutting edge innovations from businesses across the country at the UK's largest innovation show in November. We were one of 100 companies nationwide to be selected to showcase our innovation to over 2,500 attendees at Innovate 2016 on November 2nd and 3 rd in Manchester. The Imagination Factory is a product design engineering agency with experience developing successful products for a range of clients across a variety of in...
September 6, 201610 Tips for Having Great Ideas - #1 Framing the Problem
Someone recently asked us how the design team at The Imagination Factory approaches repeatable idea generation in the projects we work on. It made us stop and think and we ended up with a list of 10 top tips for having great ideas which we thought might be useful to share. ...
September 6, 2016Tools of the Trade #2
In this series of blogs we look at some of the tools we use at The Imagination Factory. This post describes how we evaluate the usability of products we are designing to try and avoid user frustration....
February 2, 2016Top Picks from CES 2016
We watched the coverage of the International Consumer Electronics Show this year with interest. There have been so many predictions about the trends in technology and consumer behaviour we were curious to see how this would play out in the products that were on display....
January 19, 2016Tools of the Trade #1
In this series of blogs we look at some of the tools we use at The Imagination Factory. The landscape of software and hardware available to today's design studios has changed dramatically in recent years. With a little bit of effort to discover and learn these tools designers of all backgrounds can create professional work in a range of areas including electronics, Apps, 3D designs, prototypes and even virtual reality. Many of the newer tools are open source or have a low cost compared with tr...
January 18, 2016 Posts 26-50 of 51 | Page prev next