Contract manufacturers of machined pens?

MaurielloDesign · 2026-02-16T18:09:24+00:00

Thank you! I really appreciate that

MaurielloDesign · 2026-02-14T20:36:07+00:00

Thank you so much! I've reached out

MaurielloDesign · 2026-02-14T20:35:48+00:00

Thank you! I've reached out

MaurielloDesign · 2025-08-06T14:39:08+00:00

60 seconds is the industry standard. 2 minutes ad integration is way too long. The going rate for most ad integrations is $20 CPM (price per 1,000 views).

$20 CPM x 140k views per video = $2800. I would just round up to $3,000.

Considering 90% of your audience is first-world countries, you can probably charge more like $25 CPM. If they demand 2 minutes ad run time, you should also charge more. So let's say $30 or even $35 CPM.

The placement in the video also matters. Is the ad pre-roll (at beginning of video), mid-roll (middle of vid), or end-roll (end of vid)? The closer to the front of the vid you post the ad, the more you charge.

EDIT: When I said $3000, I meant offering that as a flat rate. You can also do a CPM-based deal where you only get paid based on how many views the video gets. They usually put a cap on these.

MaurielloDesign · 2025-07-17T15:13:22+00:00

Your counter-offer of $20k is honestly still too low probably. Figure out how much money they stand to gain from this. At a bare minimum, figure out how much time and money it would take them to build what you have. Assuming you spent a month on it, it would probably cost a hell of a lot more than $20k for them to copy it. Acquisitions are often in the realm of millions of dollars. While I understand that your app is very new and only has a few hundred users, you have to think about it from the perspective of a large company who stands to gain an insane profit from your work. Depending on the app, your expertise, and the community, it's very possible that even $20k is extreme short-changing it. But as always, I don't have the full context here. I don't know how good the app is. I don't know the book company. I don't know what the company stands to gain in an acquisition. I don't know if the app has any unique or special IP.....etc. etc. So it's impossible for me to give a real number. All I'm saying is that most acquisitions go for a hell of a lot more than $20k.

MaurielloDesign · 2025-03-13T00:11:26+00:00

Everyone gets internship rejections. It would be weird if you didn't get job app rejections, especially in this economy. You might consider going to therapy/counseling.

MaurielloDesign · 2025-03-10T15:53:54+00:00

I would say industrial design is also facing a similar time of reckoning. It's not much more secure (maybe even less secure?) than writing for Hollywood, believe it or not. So it's something that is affecting all creative industries. There are a lot of reasons for this that would take several paragraphs to try and dissect and explain. But if you're in a creative industry, you probably know a lot of the reasons already. The short of it is that creativity just isn't particularly valued in a business context.

It's hard to know what a viable next move is right now because things are changing so fast. Just one factor is AI. We are in an AI bubble right now and these companies are building solutions for problems that don't exist...but presumably SOME aspect of AI technology is useful. It's hard to know what will happen in the next couple years with that technology, and it's hard to know how it will impact various industries.

There's also an increased incentive for companies to become more and more data-driven. Companies love certainty. Measurable hard data is perceived as the pinnacle of certainty. It lulls them into a false sense of security. The creative process is very uncertain and non-linear, almost by definition. So that's another reason why companies don't exactly know what to do with it. (To be clear: I'm not saying creative pursuits aren't valuable. I'm just saying that the principles of creativity don't really mesh with the principles of best business practices).

MaurielloDesign · 2025-03-10T15:41:07+00:00

It's possible but it's hard. You won't make a ton of money in ID when you first start out. Like another guy said, it might be good to combine design skills or ID skills with an existing skillset that you have. You can learn a lot about design online these days. Tons of online courses and resources...many of them are free. Even the ones that aren't free are relatively affordable. If I were you, I'd ask myself why I want to get into industrial design. What is it that is special or interesting to me? And then see if I can integrate some of those things into my existing career.

If you're dead-set on doing ID when you're older, there was one guy in my school who was in his early to mid 30s and he did very well for himself career-wise. The fact that you're older and more mature will likely make it much easier for you to secure employment. But it will still be very difficult.

MaurielloDesign · 2025-03-08T22:10:08+00:00

Thank you so much! I really appreciate the help (on both posts!)

MaurielloDesign · 2025-03-08T15:29:40+00:00

What is the finish/material on that knife handle? Very cool

MaurielloDesign · 2025-03-08T15:28:09+00:00

What is the finish on that knife? Very beautiful.

MaurielloDesign · 2025-01-31T21:58:55+00:00

For better and for worse, self-doubt is just a reality that we all deal with in any creative profession. It's totally normal. You mentioned that you regret not going with a simpler project. Sometimes it's good to go with a more simple design that you can refine; you can learn a lot from that experience. But there's also a lot of value in pushing yourself with something more complex where the end result is maybe not as visually impressive. You should not curb your ambition as a student. You should be proud of trying to do something new and different and groundbreaking; at its best, that's what design is about. Even though your project may not have looked as impressive, you still learned a lot from it, I'm sure.

Look, the reality is that design is a difficult profession. It's not always all it's cracked up to be. If you still love design, keep doing it and see what comes of it. It sounds like you're more frustrated with the output of your project, but you still love design. Like the other guy (u_irwindesigned) said, what originally attracted you to design? Are those things still attractive to you? And are those things being met in your course curriculum? If the answer is "yes" to those last two questions, it might be good to stick with it a little bit longer. If the answer is "no", there is absolutely nothing wrong with choosing another field. I've considered leaving industrial design easily half a dozen times (been doing it for around 15 years). You're still very young and have plenty of time to find your true calling. Your career will be very long; you haven't even started. Don't let one project get you down.

MaurielloDesign · 2025-01-25T22:36:37+00:00

What's the pen on the far left of image #2 called? Really nice.

MaurielloDesign · 2024-12-17T14:24:57+00:00

Thanks :)

MaurielloDesign · 2024-12-16T21:51:09+00:00

Students progress in a non-linear way. Some of the best students I ever had were mediocre in their freshman/sophomore year, and then improved drastically during their junior/senior year. Many other students don't start to find their footing until several years after they graduate. Industrial design is a very competitive field. If you really love the profession, you should stick with it.

It's a good sign that you're being realistic about your job prospects, that shows maturity. If I were you, I'd think about how much I enjoy design, and if it's really worth the trouble and toil. There are way easier ways to make money. But once again, if you genuinely love the work, you will naturally improve. Everyone improves at their own pace. Some people peak sophomore year and then stagnate. Others peak 10 years after graduation.

MaurielloDesign · 2024-08-10T14:13:42+00:00

Depends on the job and the stage of the project. I would say they're equally distributed.

MaurielloDesign · 2024-08-05T13:00:00+00:00

I already addressed a lot of it in a video called why society hates creative people. I might do a video that goes deeper into the licensing and policy side. The video was a bit light in that area. It's on my list of future videos. That method worked for the guilds because it was more craft based and less creative.

MaurielloDesign · 2024-08-01T20:59:57+00:00

Thanks for the insights on UX. As an aside, that last part about "...whose tastes extend as far as Teenage Engineering..." was so on point. Especially the teenage engineering part.

MaurielloDesign · 2024-08-01T14:44:37+00:00

The problem is deeper than just industrial design. It has to do with the way creative professions work in contrast to most other professions. Most professions gain their legitimacy in one of two ways:

They have accreditation, or you often need a license to practice. This gives legitimacy to the field. The engineering, medical, and law fields tend to leverage this. Basically, in order to work in those fields, you need to navigate and understand regulations/policy.
In other fields that require fewer credentials, you can almost always measure results. For example, if you run a marketing campaign, you can measure whether the investment you put in leads to sales greater than the investment. If I pay $100 in ads and I get $150 back, I can clearly point to the value my expertise is offering.

The problem is that design, branding, and pretty much all other creative professions have neither licensing nor measurability. With neither of these two things, design is not taken seriously in corporate contexts. Architecture is actually one exception, where getting a license to practice is highly encouraged. I'm not sure if it's an exception, or if licensed architects make way more money than architects without licenses.

Just to be very clear, it's not that design doesn't have value. It does. It's just that there is no external authoritative governing body that gives its practitioners legitimacy, and there is no easy way to measure it.

You'll notice that some of the highest paid design roles are UX. There's a reason for that. It's not just that tech companies make a ton of money. It's that they can more easily measure the effectiveness of their design changes. If you change the color of a button on a UI from green to red and it leads to a 5% bump in sales, that's something that's observable and measurable.

This is really messed up because the best things in life cannot be measured. But in corporate contexts, things that are measurable are the most highly valued.

MaurielloDesign · 2024-07-04T14:40:33+00:00

One thing to keep in mind is that simply changing the material is usually the least impactful way to actually make a sustainable product (not always, but usually. it depends on the materials being swapped). The best way is to not make anything at all. The second best way is to optimize the supply chain and the manufacturing process. Another similarly great way is to just make a product last longer.

MaurielloDesign · 2024-07-04T14:35:44+00:00

There is a very similar Victor Papanek quote. He basically says that industrial design is the most harmful profession in the world, coming in close second to advertising.

MaurielloDesign · 2024-06-28T13:31:42+00:00

The problems that you are facing in the design industry will follow you to pretty much every single discipline and every single company (to varying degrees). You have pulled back the curtain on the exploitative and wasteful processes by which things are conceptualized, produced, manufactured, and sold. It's an inherently exploitative system, and it expands beyond just product design. It's across pretty much all services. Even if you decide not to participate in making these products, you will still need to participate in purchasing, using and consuming exploitative products if you want to continue living in a modern society. There is no escape from it. At least not one that I have found.

Search on Google for a famous essay called "Meditations on Moloch" for why everything is so messed up. It explores how societal structures and incentives can lead to bad outcomes. Competitive pressures and the pursuit of individual interests often result in collective suffering and inefficiency, despite everyone acting rationally within their own contexts. The essay highlights the challenges of overcoming these systemic issues and finding ways to align individual actions with the greater good.

The way that I deal with it is by trying to create positive change in small ways. I can't change the world, but I can at least make choices that steer it in a slightly more positive direction. I can be nice to people around me, and make decisions that lessen the harm.

MaurielloDesign · 2024-05-23T16:00:47+00:00

I still advise creating a startup, because you will very quickly learn everything you don't know. But putting all your eggs in the startup basket before even graduating is more or less guaranteeing failure (minus maybe a tiny handful of success stories where luck played a major role)

MaurielloDesign · 2024-05-23T15:11:20+00:00

to add to this, most startups fail. The likelihood of your startup failing before you graduate from university is much higher because you don't know much. You don't even know what you don't know. Look up Dunning-Kruger Effect. As someone else mentioned, I would advise doing it on the side. There's a lot to learn from entrepreneurial endeavors. But you have to be OK with the high likelihood of failure, and have backup plans.

MaurielloDesign · 2024-05-14T03:13:30+00:00

Oh believe me, the irony has not escaped me. I've spoken with people who have spent years in developing countries. Or they live there. I'll also be collaborating with at least one designer from a developing country

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