Achieving low cost, high quality results quickly and easily
Starting your own line of products can be a challenge, particularly if you’re competing against companies with established backgrounds in manufacturing. By using the Ponoko Personal Factory, you can achieve a refined, professional result with surprising ease.
The following tutorial walks through the process of adding a laser cut logo to a series of products, from the initial napkin scribbles all the way to a final outcome that can stand proud amongst all the other shiny products in the front window of a store.
The project we are looking at is a logo for a custom line of amplifiers. The client requested a finish that would match the mid-century styling of the product casing, keeping things looking modern while retaining a connection to the classic rocker feel of the product line.
The first step was to take the client’s rough sketch, and work out a few initial ideas in Adobe Illustrator. You can see that the rough sketch really doesn’t have to be anything fancy! All you need is something that has enough clarity for the general idea to be communicated, and then the details can be tweaked and refined in the design software.
The Adobe Illustrator drawings were used to make first-round prototypes in acrylic that helped get an idea of how the design looks and feels in the physical world. This is an interesting stage, because you get to see how certain design elements translate differently than when they are on paper (or on screen). Note the points of the crescent shapes, where too much material has been removed from the white acrylic inserts.
Upon client feedback, an adjustment was made for tighter allowance of the kerf (the amount that the laser burns away) before final designs were prototyped in acrylic and wood. In this example, the kerf was adjusted by using an ‘offset path’ at 0.2mm. Note the difference in how the parts are fitting together in the wood version.
Happy with this outcome, the next step was to optimise the layout for laser cutting in higher volumes. This involved positioning individual logos so that they are grouped as closely together as possible, with many sharing cutting lines to further reduce cost. Because of the size of each logo, the Ponoko P2 template was used to set a layout for 10 logos to be laser cut in the first run.
A short time later, the client received a package of custom laser cut logos for their amplifier range. You can see that there are only a few steps required to go from initial sketch to a final laser cut product. Even with a relatively simple design, it is recommended to do a test cut before proceeding with higher volumes. With this laser cut logo, the adjustments made after the test cut was done resulted in a precision fit that really helps to achieve the professional outcome the client was looking for.
Have you had a similar experience making a laser cut logo? Tell us about how you achieved a high quality outcome in the comments below.