The Imagination Factory are a strategic design and creative engineering agency. The company was founded by a group of friends who stumbled across a Team GB design competition while in the pub. They submitted a few ideas and won the competition from there; The Imagination Factory was born.
“We do a lot more than just the design and engineering... we also help clients to understand the human-centred side of design." - Mark Hester, Co-Founder of The Imagination Factory.
Solid Solutions have been helping the Imagination Factory to design, develop and deliver innovative products and projects using SOLIDWORKS. In addition to this, Solid Solutions have implemented SOLIDWORKS PDM to ensure version control and robust CAD Data Management, allowing them to store project data securely.
COMBINING CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGY WITH HUMAN USE
When it comes to the Imagination Factory, no project is too unusual or complex. From Kinetic Art Installations to AR Glasses designed to support people with Parkinson's, the team at the Imagination Factory are up for it!
“That kind of project really gets us out of bed in the morning where we were combining modern cutting-edge technology with something that needs to work with people and especially where it has an opportunity to improve their life. - Mark Hester explains.
To bring these projects to life, the team use the full SOLIDWORKS suite, as Mark Explains…
"We use SOLIDWORKS and Simulation all the time so that we can run through lots and lots of versions before we commit to making something."
COMMUNICATING IDEAS AND CONCEPTS THROUGH SOLIDWORKS VISUALIZE
"A key part of being a designer is being able to communicate the things that you're designing and the ideas that you have... we can create things within SOLIDWORKS, and use Visualize to create photo-realistic renderings."
- Explains Mark.
Through creating realistic renders, The Imagination Factory has been helping clients raise investment for their product ideas through crowdfunding, allowing companies to validate their market before spending money on further development and manufacturing.
MAINTAINING CONFIDENTIALITY AND DATA INTEGRITY THROUGH ROBUST CAD MANAGEMENT
When working with multiple clients at any one time, some of which are looking to be the first to market in their respective sector, and others who are looking to release new, innovative upgrades to existing solutions, confidentiality and data security are key. Because of this, the Imagination Factory opted to implement our SOLIDWORKS PDM system.
“In particular with the CAD data, we don't want that to get out into the world, where it be until the time is ready. The [SOLIDWORKS] PDM system, gives us a really good, strong vault that helps us to keep everything secure.” – Mark.
As well as providing a secure data vault for their project data, using SOLIDWORKS PDM has allowed the Imagination Factory to enforce strict version control, and file structures to keep all project data up-to-date and easily accessible by their team.
SET FOR SUCCESS WITH SOLID SOLUTIONS
At Solid Solutions, we’re more than a software provider, we pride ourselves in offering the best-in-class training and support to help you, and your teams make the most of their software investment, meet deadlines and deliver innovative projects with ease.
We took the opportunity to speak to Mark about his experience working with our team, as a customer we have been supporting since 2014.
“Since 2014, we've been able to access the support and training that Solid Solutions provide. We’ve been investing in the training passports for our staff, which means they get access to a whole load of training courses. They can also just get on the phone whenever they need some help, because invariably you come up against something that you've not done before. And a project might require some specific bit of knowledge, and the SOLIDWORKS packages so complete and in-depth that, you often need that person on the end of the phone, just to guide you in the right direction.”