For today’s post, I turned to the artists and sign makers. After all, they are the experts. Here at Office Sign Company, we love to stay ahead of the curve with our products. We want to be in a place where we constantly wow our customers with what we have to offer and challenge our employees with new, exciting projects to tackle. The best way we can achieve this is by prototyping signs and other products. Prototyping allows us to stay on top of our game by being challenged creatively and ensuring our customers have an amazing experience from design to production to installation or delivery.
So what is a prototype? A prototype is defined as a first typical or preliminary model of something, from which other forms are developed or copied. In other words, just about every single product you see on our website goes through the prototyping process. This being said — we figured we should share a bit more about what this process looks like and why we do it.
A little bit more of the why. Not only does prototyping help us work out the kinks in the design and production process but it keeps thing fresh and as we mentioned earlier, acts as a creative outlet for our teams. It gives these teams an opportunity to work with a variety of materials that they may not have the chance to utilize on a day to day basis. The prototyping process ensures that we can deliver our customers a flawless product, because we’ve tested it and know that it is the best possible product out there.
So how does the prototyping process work? What does it look like? Let’s walk through it together…
Step one: The idea. All great ideas have to come from somewhere, right?! In most cases, our CEO, managers and in house artists begin the creative process with an idea that they want to see come to life. The project is then directed and assigned to the proper team to get the ball rolling.
Step two: The design. Once the idea is handed off to our art team or our in-house graphic designer, they get things moving by translating the idea into a set of designs or mock-ups if you will.
Step three: Refinement. The designs are then critiqued and refined by a set of individuals who can assess if the designs can tangibly be produced. The vision is clarified and the designs are refined.
Step four: Production. Following the completion of the design process, the designs are then sent to our production team where they are created, assembled and inspected. Any errors during the production process will typically result in what we call a “reproduce” where the team recreates the product before considering it final. In other words — we want to make sure we’re only putting out the best of the best. 
Step five: Photographs. Once the sign or product has been created and lives up to the OSC gold standard, it is sent to our main facility to be photographed for our web and marketing teams. This also allows our designers and artists a chance to see how their design come to life.
Step six: Marketing & Web Team. After the photographs of the product have been edited and sized, they are sent to the web and marketing teams. The web team creates a product listing for our website and then notifies the marketing team when the listing is live. The marketing team then has the opportunity to promote, share and market this new product as they choose. Account managers also have the opportunity to introduce this new product to their customers and customer service representatives have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with these new products to better serve our customers. 
Step seven: The order. This is where you come in… So, you’re searching for a new sign, you stumble on our website and find your perfect sign. Our customer service team walks you through the process and your order is in the queue. Our art team makes any adjustments needed to size, color, text and font and it’s off to production! Your order is created, assembled, inspected and either installed (if you’re a local!) or shipped out if you live elsewhere. You receive your product, love it (hopefully!) and spread the word.
And that folks, it how the OSC world keeps spinnin’ round. Betcha didn’t think that would all come out of prototyping, did ya? Well, as you can see — our success as a business hinges on prototyping. WIthout it, we wouldn’t be able to continue delivering the best of the best to you. So what are you waiting for?! Throw us a challenge! Send us your crazy ideas and we’ll show you what we can do.
Written by: Lilly Cristy
PR Specialist at Office Sign Company
Contact: lilly@officesigncompany.com
Follow: @LillyFromOSC
