How Ice Skates Are Made
Just a really cool video on how high-end speed skates are made. Thanks Boris!
4139Design is an industrial design and development consultancy focused on small to medium, consumer product brands. Everyday, I strive to enable my clients’ success by creating innovative, client-driven solutions to problems in all aspects of design, development and project management. I make your products more salable, so you have the freedom to concentrate on your strengths (sales, marketing, or whatever else is needed). Contact me to discuss your next project.
My goals are innovative solutions and to make all of my customers repeat clients, through results that match the client’s true needs.
4139Design offers consulting services in consumer product, packaging and POP design, development, sourcing, production, IP navigation and marketing.
Projects
4139Design is me, Rob Nathan.
I am an award-winning, Art Center-trained, freelance industrial designer with a diverse education, wide skill set and varied experience. I have been in the design field since 1997. About Rob
Most of my clients are small to medium, consumer product brands. They know where their strengths are, and they hire me to help in other areas, like design and development. Contact Me
4139Design is me, Rob Nathan. I am an award-winning, freelance industrial designer with a diverse education (Art Center and Middlebury College), wide skill set and varied experience. I have been in the design field since 1997, including studying industrial design at Art Center, and have worked as an in-house and freelance designer and developer in the US and Canada. I have been instrumental in bringing numerous products from concept to retail, with projects ranging from footwear to high tech and trade show booths. Originally from the States, I settled in Vancouver, BC in 2003 and was the Product Director and head of industrial design at SOLE for nine years before launching 4139Design.
I decided to start a freelance design consultancy because I crave diversity and appreciate freedom, both in what I work on and with my time. Smaller businesses may not need a full-time designer, but may need help with technical and aesthetic design, development, finding vendors, navigating Intellectual Property laws, marketing their products, and deciding how to expand their product line. This type of diversity and opportunities to increase, and show, my competence and expertise are what drive me in industrial design. Working with different clients gives me more variety than I would get working as an in-house designer or manager with a particular brand.
When not working on a design project, you can find me spending time with my kids, skiing, reading, mtn. biking, hiking, surfing, traveling, or shooting landscape and wildlife photography.
Save time and money, and mitigate risk by making use of my knowledge, gleaned over years of working in the field.
Get a competitive edge and differentiate your products.
Not just design & development, but also Intellectual Property navigation, sustainable material choices, vendor management, copy writing for marketing and technical material, etc.
Develop innovative and cost-effective solutions, sometimes before the problem even arises.
Improve ease of use and functionality.
Mitigate risks of product innovation and reduce manufacturing costs by making sure the final design is perfect for you and your target market.
The seasoned experience of a freelance industrial designer without the overhead of a full-time employee.
Add to a product line to increase market share or penetrate a new market
Add a designer’s skill set to what your employees already bring to the table.
Competitive advantage for your products, combined with doing the right thing.
Produce on time and on budget, with vendors who work well with your company.
Able to meet your timelines and schedules.
Just a really cool video on how high-end speed skates are made. Thanks Boris!
For anyone interested in sustainable textiles, this is pretty awesome. The North Face has released a beanie…
A very interesting article on the actual costs of major-brand running shoes, by solereview.com. This goes through production costs,…
New shoes come out all the time, but sometimes they aren’t just new aesthetics on the same…
There are LOTS of materials used in shoes these days. Some are things everyone has heard of…
After our successful show last year at the Museum of Vancouver (the video is from last year’s event), we…
North Vancouver, BC, Canada
+1 (604) 322-0840
4139design.com
rob@4139design.com
robnathan