Prototyping has gone from a buzzword to an actual part of the process in agencies and creative studios. We started our own digital studio over a year ago with the idea to create prototypes for every project. During this year we have worked with various brands like Electrolux, Hilliards, Sony and helped renowned agencies such as Your Majesty, B-Reel and Snask to create physical prototypes.

So how did it go, what did we learn? We decided to sum up our learnings and share it with you.

1. Invest in having fun to earn money

When we mentioned the idea to create prototypes for every project, one of the most common questions was; “How will you guys make money out of this?”. Of course we got a bit anxious, we are not traditional business people who think about ROI and revenue, we are passionated makers who wanted to change the way we work. In the beginning we didn’t make any profit from it at all, we made prototypes because it was fun to create and was driven by passion but after a while we realized it also was a great sales tool. But that was not enough, we believe that brands should pay for creative services and it is important for our industry. So we started to insist to always have a prototype-phase and get payed for it. As time passed our clients have realized that we discover so much during this phase and find future road bumps that we can prevent, so now prototyping a natural part of the budget and time plan in all projects. …