Abstract

This article is of an interdisciplinary character at the crossroads of industrial design, technology, and entrepreneurship and it is developed on two planes. On the one hand, a case is scrutinized, based on a design project by the first author, from the point of view of the restrictions imposed by the foreseen production process on the design of the product. On the other hand, the implications on the product configuration of the changes in the means of financing the project are discussed together with the implications in terms of achievable production processes and consequences in the product’s configuration. In general terms, disconnected from the case study, the economic, design, and market perspectives are brought together to explore the ways in which alternative configurations of the tri-axial model of financing, production, and marketing may suggest changes in the product’s generalized life cycle. The article discusses the initial design for a terrace chair, in order to manufacture it in large-scale by thermoplastic injection, with a model of designer income from business financing in the form of authorial rights. An alternative configuration in order to meet the rules imposed by a chair design contest is also introduced (including restricting to the use of metallic materials), whose award would consist of placing the project in a catalog for manufacture to order from the end customer. The possibilities for productive development and subsequent placement on the market from alternative funding and investment models are also explored, including crowdfunding, for an adapted version of the concept. Conceptually, the prospects of various interested groups in the product and the production process are articulated, based on various academic specialties that are typically involved (marketing, design, technological process). In this plan, the classical, technical, and economic curve of a product’s generalized life cycle is contrasted with a proposal for its reconfiguration drawn up in light of the analysis to the alternatives for improving the feasibility of the initial conceptual design.