If so, how would you prefer the design communication to be like?
My day-to-day is ‘building to print’.
A good way to launch a job is getting a print to quote, review the print, quote the job including any exceptions to the print, and then receive a purchase order from the customer for the job based on the quote.
-All dimensions specified with a plus/minus tolerance (length, width, thickness, rocker, convave, fins), preferably as an engineering print in addition to a CAD database.
-material specifications (foam, cloth, resin, fin system, fins)
-storyboard with similar examples that please the designer (assuming designer is a ‘visual’ type person with not a ton of surfboard design experience)
-detailed pictures of any required graphics and colors specified with Pantone or other color system
All that said, a job can be started on a handshake and a napkin sketch but it gets sticky if one or more parties forget the details along the way.
PS Also, back to communications, there might be a couple ‘sign-offs’ or ‘show and tells’ during the project, like after design, after shaping, after graphics so as to get approval before going past a point of no return.
NO!
JRandy has it pretty well nailed down. Good tight process.
When I was doing high end home building, a developer I worked with would hire an arist to do a storyboard to show all phases of the project and what the job would look like. This worked very well to communicate expectations and realities. Of course it is for deep pocket jobs. Expensive to do.
I have made about five or six boards for interior designers for decorative purposes all to their specs. I did however insist upon all the boards to be capable of actually being ridden. Designers took care of the graphics. It turned into an unreasonably difficult colaboration with a couple of them. So there are some fairly nice rides (to toot my own horn) in several hodads’ homes that will never taste seawater. Makes me feel dirty admitting that.
get the customer to leave their pet prize nubian goat as a deposit
on the condition if the moment occurs that the plan needs to be renegotiated
the goat will be prepared as the meal over whihc the renegotions will be settled.
…ambrose…
a dog or chicken or cat will do.
no ferrets mongoose or martins.