I Developed a 3D Customization and Printing Business in 30 Days
My name is Samuel Cohen and this is how I single-handedly designed, developed, and launched a website where you can customize a die and have it 3D printed in 30 days.
The finalized website is www.dicedesigner.com. Go check it out!
Below is my project landing page that highlights how I accomplished each step and went about creating a business in a month.
But first, let me introduce my project in this video.
Why Create A Dice Designer?
The original idea for this project came from the idea of custom 3D printed regional bar dice. These dice are used by people who are going out with their friends and want to determine which bar to go to. These can be sold by bars as marketing or promotional tools.
I had been working on the idea right out of high school, but I became involved in an early-stage startup called Pilleve and shelved the idea.
These dice have the logos of bars in downtown Winston-Salem NC.
There were issues with these dice, mainly that they are severely unbalanced.
In the next couple of years, my experience in 3D printing grew and I became familiar with a technique that allows you to print in more than one color with a single printer nozzle by printing a single layer of one color and then printing on top of the first color.
In addition to that, I found that you could create a color customizer on a web-page using ThreeJS. I was inspired by customizers by large companies like Microsoft in their Design Lab and Vans Shoe Customizer.
I noticed a potential opportunity in creating custom objects, and that I had the means to create a product around 3D printing. There are so many uses for dice, and my designer can be modified to add almost anything.
I didn’t know web design, but I figured I could learn it. In fact, the only thing I knew how to do at the start of this project was 3D printing and some Fusion 360.
I chose this project not because I knew what I was doing, but because I thought it was a good idea that could turn into a business.
Follow my progress from planning to the final product though these update posts.
Project Overview
I am going to split the technical and business aspects into sections. If you are interested in the technical side then you can delve into the section and its content, otherwise, you can skip it and move on.
Technical Overview
Technical Components
- Icons Designed in Adobe Illustrator
- Dice Model in Blender
- Color Customizer in Javascript/ThreeJS
- Website Design in WordPress
- Physical Model in Fusion 360
- 3D Printing
Tutorial Posts
- How to Create Die Face Icons in Adobe Illustrator
- How to Create a Properly Textured Die in Blender
- How to Create a Color Customizer in ThreeJS
- How to Create a Two-Color 3D Printable Die Model in Fusion 360
- How to 3D-Print a 2-Color Dice
Business Overview
Business Components
- Website Design with WordPress
- Creating a Company
- E-commerce through Woocommerce
- Business Banking Through Mercury
- Logo Creation in Adobe Illustrator
Tutorial Posts
Operations Posts
What I Accomplished
In the span of 30 days, I was able to create an MVP, or minimum viable product.
MVP: A minimum viable product (MVP) is a version of a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers and provide feedback for future product development.
The finalized website is www.dicedesigner.com. Go check it out!
Is this the most beautiful home page you've ever seen? No, but it works. In essence, I have created the basis for the product.
Specifically, I
- Formed an LLC
- Bought a Domain
- Setup an E-Commerce Website
- Coded a Color-Customizer Program
- Designed a Printable 2-Color Die Model
My process for completing each of these tasks are highlighted through my tutorial and rationale posts. One of the biggest time sinks that isn’t mentioned here is ensuring the components function together. For example, ensuring the designer worked on the website took me almost a week.
What I Learned
As mentioned previously I started this project without knowing most of the detailed elements. I started with knowledge of 3D modeling and printing, but not much else. So, what did I learn?
Hard Skills
Adobe Illustrator
I hadn’t planned on learning Adobe Illustrator, but it became vital to this project. I used Illustrator to create Icons for the website and templates for my 3D model.
I even did some work on a logo.
Blender
I created the die that gets imported into the color customizer in Blender. I used Blender because it is easy to unwrap the model textures. Once they are unwrapped, you can change the colors.
I found that Blender was different than the modeling software I’m used to. The program is more focused on animation, so dimensions and exact measurements aren’t as important.
Javascript(ThreeJS)
The color customizer is coded in Javascript using the ThreeJS library. The library makes it generally easy to import 3D models, but changing materials and colors can be a challenge.
I also had to find a way to save the colors, so that I could add the final design to the cart. I ended up assigning each color a number and then creating SKUs based on number combinations.
Fusion 360 and PrusaSlicer
Having previous experience with 3D modeling and printing I was already familiar with these tools. A couple of issues that I had to solve were finding a suitable way to connect the die faces and ensuring the dots stuck to the bed.
The model I created still needs some work, and I may have to redesign the connection pieces. It works for now, though.
WordPress
I had originally intended to focus on creating my store in Squarespace or Shopify, but their limited customization options made me switch. I simply couldn’t have my program function properly on a website created with those services.
In the end, I am happy with the choice to go with WordPress. I was able to use the WooCommerce plugin to run the store and have as many customization options as I need.
WooCommerce
For the E-commerce element of my website, I chose to use WooCommerce. WooCommerce is the most popular commerce plugin for WordPress sites.
I used the variations feature to create different products for each die color customization and added them to the shop. In the future, I can use their advanced product functionality.
Soft Skills
Project Planning
I spent the first week of the project not knowing if I was going to be able to create the color customizer. Once I actually created the customizer, I moved on to planning the rest of the project. I chose to use Trello and Google Calendar to manage all of my tasks.
Trello proved to be exceptionally helpful in task prioritization. Since I had a plethora of updates and blog posts to write along with the rest of my project I had to ensure that I was organized.
Copywriting
I wrote a total of fifteen blog posts for this project. In total, there are five updates, five technical, four business, and one landing page post. I chose to frame most of the posts as tutorials because I am most comfortable with those types of posts.
Through writing these posts I was able to understand and improve my thought process. Since I was splitting my work into sections I figured out exactly how much work went into different components. This experience will be helpful in the future for explaining my work and mindset.
Problems I Ran Into
I ran into problems at every step of this project. Since my initial knowledge of web-development was poor, I experienced many unexpected issues. I am going to split problems into technical and general.
Technical
CSS
By far the biggest issues that I encountered were dealing with CSS. CSS handles the formatting for web-pages and dictates how different elements interact with each other. Being unfamiliar with its function I mostly fit applications to the whole screen. This works fine when the program runs standalone, but it makes website integration very difficult. I ended up solving fixing these issues with WordPress plugins that removed all website formatting.
E-Commerce Limitations
Going into the project I planned to use Squarespace to design my website. However, once I tried to integrate my program into their store module I realized there would be problems. Squarespace doesn’t like major changes to the look of their templates. I was totally unable to integrate my program into their store. I had a similar issue with Shopify. I ended up solving this by creating my store in WordPress using Woocommerce, where I could code in custom integrations.
General
Time Management
I struggled with something called feature creep throughout my project. Feature creep is when you continue adding features past the original plan until it becomes an issue. I had to stop myself at multiple points because I was tempted to continue adding features to my program instead of working on things like documentation. This is a work in progress as it is always important to keep track of your work.
Perfectionism
I tend to be a perfectionist. Working on this project I felt like I needed to do more and more work until I overwhelmed myself. I was able to counter this by reminding myself that I could always come back to certain elements later and that finishing the project was more important than a singular feature.
What I Would Do Differently
Plan Ahead More
During this project, I found that I planned ahead about a week at a time. While this is better than no planning, I will spend more time on planning in the future. Planning a week ahead of time put me in a generally good place until then end of the project when I was left with everything that I wasn’t able to complete in the first three weeks. I enjoyed using Trello and plan to use it for future projects.
Ask More Questions
I had advisors and peers give me advice and feedback throughout this process. However, I didn’t ask for help or feedback much in the first two weeks because I didn’t think my work was good to show at that point. Looking back on the feedback and help I received in weeks three and four, I should have asked for more feedback.
In the same vein, I could have saved some time asking technical questions. I spent a good amount of time looking through programming forums and channels while working on this project but didn’t ask for much help. Even though people were phenomenally helpful when I did ask questions. This is a habit that I need to get over for the future.
Split Up Work Time
During this project, I regularly spent 10 hours coding or designing my website at a time. While this is good for productivity for about 6 hours, I eventually start to make mistakes. Instead of stressing myself out and not completing my best work, I should limit my work time. The hours that I spend recharging will ensure that the next 6 hours are spent being as productive as possible.
Plan for the Future
Let me show you the website and the process of designing the dice.
With a functional website and business after 30 days, I plan to continue development and officially launch the service soon. I think that the base that I built is a fantastic proof of concept and I have so many ideas of what I could add next.
Check the website out for yourself at www.dicedesigner.com. If you want to keep up with my progress you can signup for my email list here. You can also find me on LinkedIn here.
