Inspiration

​

Cheryl, the inventor of the rectangular cake stand enjoyed cooking, baking and also entertaining.  In fact one of her favorite things to do was bake was cakes.  While she had always seen round cake stands available for demonstrating cakes she had never seen a commonly available rectangular cake stand.  In fact she had on several occasions made displays using cardboard covered with foil.  This is how Cheryl's idea for a rectangular cake stand was born.  

​

Virtual Prototype & Demo Video

​

Cheryl employed DCP's digital media side to develop a virtual prototype, narrated video demo and promotional material that she used to introduce her new invention to companies in the housewares industry.  Although Cheryl submitted her product to numerous companies she found it difficult to gain the degree of interest or investment she was hoping for. Cheryl then decided to develop a physical prototype of her product.

​

Industrial Design / CAD Design

 

At this point our design team created CAD Drawings of her idea with the precise measurements necessary to build a physical sample.  Once the CAD design was completed and approved by Cheryl we then reviewed it with manufacturing.  After review and discussions it became apparent that manufacturing this item as one piece would be very difficult due to it's size and complexity.  We then discussed the option of producing her cake stand in two pieces.  This would reduce the tooling costs significantly as providing advantages for packaging, shipping and storage.  Cheryl discussed the new design with her family and they decided it best to move forward with the two piece modular design.

​

Physical Prototype Development

 

After approving the two piece modular design we then moved forward with the prototyping.  Cheryl was unsure what color(s) she preferred so we made two different prototypes, one clear and one white.  When Cheryl received the prototypes about a month later she almost fell over with excitement.  She loved them!  While the prototypes were near perfect she did ask for the connection to be slightly tighter.  

​​

Cheryl continued to marketing her product using her new prototypes and decided to go into production on her product.

​

​

Manufacturing Support

​

DCP coordinated and managed the tooling, setup and manufacturing project for Cheryl to get her first run of inventory.  Now Cheryl has inventory and is selling her product!

​

Testimonial

​

"Dear Dirt Cheap Prototypes,

 

I just wanted to thank you for all of the hard work you have committed to me and my product to help my dream become a reality.  To think that this started as an idea on paper when we first spoke and that we have worked together side by side to develop this into a real product.

 

The prototypes you made exceeded my expectations.  They are amazing.  In fact I was so pleased with the quality that I used them to create an infomercial product to test market it and plan on using them to introduce my product to distributors and retailers as well.  Win or lose, I know that I have done everything I can to make my product successful and done it the right way thanks to your help and guidance."

 

Cheryl L. - GA.