Glimpse Device Center

Contract product designer for manufacturing industries

While media, industry and official agencies are promoting the merits of design as a means to upgrade the overall competitiveness of manufacturing in Taiwan, a handful of product designing companies on the island have been quietly helping to push many OEM (original equipment manufacturer) or subcontract manufacturers up the supply chain-helping and cultivating small and medium-sized manufacturers (SME) in different industries to fill orders as ODM (original design manufacturer). One such unsung hero-Glimpse Creative Devise Center-is similar to its peers in being low-key, aloof but remarkably inventive. Glimpse and other designers are serving a purpose perhaps even more important than helping to improve industrial design for SMEs: having successfully played a role to design easily-indentifiable Taiwan-made products sold worldwide.

Established some 16 years ago, Glimpse, headquartered in Taiwan's central county of Changhua, a hub of local manufacturing, is a seasoned product designer whose time-tested capability is recognized, trusted by clients from different sectors in Taiwan, including hand and gardening tools, kitchenware, stationery, bicycle, auto and motor parts, electronics etc.

Full Participation

Few Taiwan-based design firms can devote as much concentration to participate in R&D projects with clients better than Glimpse, which is often more useful than merely possessing know-how in industrial and engineering design. Glimpse exceeds its peers in terms of total participation, taking part in initial discussion, shop drawing, designing, prototyping to production for clients.

Bucking most conventional wisdom, Glimpse has been steered towards success so far not by a high-profile engineer formally trained in some top-ranking university, but by founder Craig Lin, who began as a production line worker in a factory. To round out his manufacturing background, Lin, also intensely interested in designs, started studying and traveling worldwide, becoming truly a self-taught industrial designer.

Pointing out a major fault in industrial design in Taiwan by tapping personal experience in the sector, Lin says that "mismatching know-how" or ignorance often ruin costly R&D projects. Specifically design firms are typically staffed by people more artistic than engineering-design savvy; while manufacturers are often ignorant of industrial design. So both sides encounter conflicts over design concepts for a host of reasons besides the above, not the least of which may be that industrial designers and manufacturers speak different languages. Ultimately both parties are more effective working independently than as a team.

Compared to its counterparts, Glimpse has excelled mainly for Lin's very practical approach to design: "A designer must be knowledgeable about not only shaping product exterior, but also molding, production, processing and even materials-all of which are key elements of engineering design." Lin says: "Clients know that Glimpse can deliver 'real-world products,' not fanciful ideals. This is why we have earned clients' trust for over 16 years."

Continual communication and discussion related to production methodologies with manufacturers throughout R&D are also imperative, Lin indicates, for only so can designers make sure that prototypes can be mass produced. "After all, we aim to design practical, marketable products, not only art objects."

Marketability is Key

Glimpse adamantly believes that marketability is the best gauge of the success of a new product. The design firm manages to develop highly marketable items by achieving balance between functionality and artistry.

For the above goal, Glimpse narrows down a target market by discussing with a client the positioning of a new product, and surveying culture, customs and competing products. Based on survey results, the company starts brainstorming ideas, sketching drafts, and designing functions. Equally important, Glimpse carefully avoids patent infringements to protect clients.

Also notable is that Glimpse, benefiting from Lin's manufacturing experience, participates in client's production meetings, offering practical suggestions on tooling, materials and processing, as well as repeatedly tweaking designs to enable mass production as efficiently as possible.

Market Adapted

"Speaking from real-world experience, we have seen many Taiwan manufacturers flop in exporting their proudest sellers when they fail to study particular markets to adapt, fine-tune products accordingly, a mistake we prudently avoid," Lin says. "To ensure marketability of a new product, tweaking to suit particular markets, despite high costs, is critical."

One example is Glimpse's miniature bits holder, four versions of which in various case size, functions, exterior design and content have been made for different markets, the key reason for its being a steady hot-seller. The designer helped its client study the European preference for compact, functional design to achieve such successful marketability. The firm also achieved innovation in building this project a small, lightweight and simple-to-use with one-finger operation, says Lin, who attributes its success to repeat market surveys and fine-tuning designs, adding, "we simply can't imagine going to the markets with such a product without first surveying its DIY or professional segment."

Glimpse can craft and design not only traditional industrial products, but also sophisticated, advanced electronics. The newly unveiled "Multifunctional Electronic Stick," for instance, is developed jointly by the design firm and Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), a Taiwanese government-funded R&D institute, and demonstrates the firm's many-sided expertise. Besides serving as a conventional stick, the newly developed electronic device also features a built-in radio and flashlight for amusement and secure lighting. Plus, in case of emergency, the innovative product can protect users from dangers with its alarm and ultrasonic dog repeller, very practical for the elderly.

Source of Inspiration

Lin also cannot underestimate the importance of taking part in global trade shows and occasional overseas trips to discover new ideas, finding inspiration for innovation.

To keep Glimpse's R&D engine humming, Lin always personally travels abroad to broaden his horizon, and, chiefly, to study different design concepts that are locally-friendly. "I just want to keep enriching my background to make sure we can design quality items and minimize error," he says. "In fact, I often invite clients along on overseas trips to help reinforce working relations and facilitate mutual communication for future R&D projects."

Lin reveals that Glimpse has been developing a new auto mirror featuring a "radical" design for sale in Europe. "I traveled to Europe to study the market and came up with the design aiming to shatter the stereotypical image of auto mirrors," he says.

Armed with the client's reliance on Glimpse's expertise, Lin finally persuaded the client to build the radically-designed mirror. To be launched next year, the new mirror will hopefully help the client go upmarket to hold off its emerging market rivals, Lin emphasizes.

Beyond ODM Services

Not content with its current achievement, Glimpse is gearing up to offer foreign buyers access to Taiwan's manufacturers-bridging the gap between buyers and manufacturers. But Lin defines the go-between as "R&D Solution Provider," a role which the self-taught designer's boldness will help to fulfill.

Lin aims to offer services one step beyond an ODM (original design manufacturer), which Glimpse is ready to do by integrating its abundant OEM (original equipment manufacturer) resources culled from different industries in Taiwan and its proven R&D capability. The founder stresses that the total R&D solutions to be provided are formulated with combinations of intellectual and technical expertise-giving customers products fully designed, crafted by Taiwanese companies that are virtually guaranteed to be successful and meet consumer demand. In essence, Glimpse will help customers-offering design, manufacturing and sourcing services-turn ideas into fully marketable, quality products.

Realizing that markets have been barraged with advertisements pitching products of me-too designs and sugarcoated, impractical features-the main cause Lin believes for eventually forcing merchants to win by underselling that ultimately slashes profit margins for both merchants and makers-so Lin was inspired to provide integrated R&D solutions for clients to raise value of new products as an effective means to cope with no-holds-barred global competition.

"Oversupply of unwanted products is due to longtime neglect of real consumer demand by merchants and makers, because volume to a degree assures profitability," Lin emphasizes. "However such strategy backfires during downturns as it has today. I believe any good design has to satisfy consumers' basic need for a truly practical, quality, reasonably-priced product, which I intend to help realize for clients to differ from rivals."

Wide-ranging Expertise

Certainly more than offering hype as many do, Glimpse in fact possesses wide- ranging real-world experience, including circuit design, NC (numerical control) processing, plastic injection and mold development, surface treatment and package designs. The firm has also designed and developed traditional tools, as well as high-tech safety and security products as RFID readers, finger sensors, and remote controllers. In other words, Glimpse is ready to offer "packaged solution" for R&D projects.

Specifically Glimpse manages the coordination of a framework for R&D projects, discussing promotional strategies and market information with foreign buyers as well as production methodologies with manufacturers. Boasting 16-year experience, Glimpse can precisely turn buyers' needs into feasible designs that are consumer-sensitive and market-adapted. Lin says that such solutions are based on "leveraging," allowing clients to economically spend half as much on R&D, leaving Glimpse and downstream makers to do the other half.

Time to Hit the Gas

From an altruistic vantage, Lin adds, Glimpse is also trying to put Taiwanese manufacturers on supplier lists of globally-leading brands. "For many reasons, Taiwanese manufacturers are recognized globally and I am confident that my years of cooperation with local manufacturers will enable me to make Taiwan-made products more impressive, sought-after."

In the midst of the current global economic recession, Lin stresses, "Some one must stand up to tap the bountiful energy of Taiwanese OEMs to achieve sustainable business." Despite acknowledging the risky nature of being an R&D solution provider, Lin says that encouraging signs exist: quite a few Taiwanese makers and several Japanese and North American buyers have opted to work with Glimpse. "It is time to hit the gas, not to brake," he states, "Especially when Taiwanese makers have to find ways to keep at bay emerging rivals."

Glimpse's longtime dedication to R&D and role as designer position itself ideally to be a groundbreaking provider of "packaged R&D solutions," which would generate more business opportunities for former clients, Taiwanese manufacturers, and avail foreign buyers to more competitive prices and broader product ranges. Lin even sees Glimpse as a symphony conductor that coordinates foreign buyers and manufacturers-directing each to timely play their parts in R&D projects.