What is Color Material Finish?
What does color material finish refer to when it comes to product design? In this article we will be looking at the industrial designer’s role and how important CMF or color, material, finish is and when to introduce it in the new product development program.
We will also assume that the industrial designer is part of an external specialist organization or a separate department within a business.
Let’s have a look at color material finish (CMF) and how this interacts with the product design and gives limitations and constraints on the branding requirements.
Color
When it comes to branding, color can be one of the most important requirements that has to be delivered in the final design. These days, virtually any color can be created or matched and with the use of the Pantone Matching System, which is predominantly used throughout the USA or the RAL color system as used in most parts of Europe, matching specific colors for a manufacturing process can be achieved. However, the problem comes when a specific production method is incapable of achieving all the colors required.
How an incorrect material choice could cause problems with color (example)
Take stainless steel, for example, this is a very common type of steel that is used for its mechanical and anti-rust properties, as well as its bright shiny surface finish. However, if the branding requirements need a specific color on all external parts, the naturally shiny surface of stainless steel would cause an issue.
Stainless steel can be colored by a chemical dipping process or by heating processes but the colors are limited and cannot be colored matched to every Pantone color. Let’s say that stainless steel was selected as a production material by the product design team without any involvement from the industrial design team. This would limit which colors the product could be made in.
In this case, if the industrial design team had early involvement in the NPI process, the color requirement would be part of the initial specification and would be taken into consideration at the early stages. If the material had to be stainless steel for a particular reason, then the color would be determined through the manufacturing capability and agreed upon during a design review.
Material
The selection of material is often driven by the physical attributes the product has to withstand or the operation it has to perform, but this is generally at the component level of the design. For example, deciding which plastic to use for a device’s enclosure.
The industrial designer’s job is to work in conjunction with the product design team and consider both the physical and aesthetic attributes of material choice. Plastics are widely used in today’s products across all industries, but some industries have tighter controls over what can and cannot be used.
Take the food industry for example, where plastic has to be carefully controlled, tested and approved before it can be used to hold or contain food. This is the primary specification that drives material selection, after that, the form and function, along with color can be determined. In this case, the material would have to be FDA-approved and the industrial design team should be aware of the possible options before proposing a material.
Proposing a design that has limitations with material manufacturing processes will just result in delays and re-designs which could result in project slip and delayed launches.
Finish
The product’s finish is not just about aesthetics, this is also a functional attribute that needs to be considered. If we look at the finish as an overall term, we could be talking about how smooth or rough the surface of the product is, and we could also be talking about its color or how glossy or dull it is. In reality, the finish of a product is determined by functionality, useability, life expectancy, aesthetics and branding. Every one of these attributes needs to be considered when defining the finish required.
Selecting the right finish for the job (example)
A product may need to be used in a wet environment which requires the surface to be gripped and not slippery when wet.
Take a wet/dry electric shaver, for example, which has been designed to be used in the shower. It is important the shaver can be gripped firmly with wet hands so it is not dropped. Also, the product must remain waterproof as it contains electronics, and, as ever, the branding colors are also a major factor in the overall design. So the finish needs to be rough, may have a rubberized feel to it, and the color may be black and orange to match the product brand.
What to consider when designing a new product?
When designing a product there is a multitude of elements to consider, including weight, size, and functionality to name just a few, but these are mainly focused on the design meeting the functional aspects of the product design specification. Other aspects that are otherwise forgotten about or added at a later stage are the branding aspects of the product, which include the aesthetic side of the design and its color.
The product designers are more often than not concentrating on how something works, the input vs output of the physical design, which can drive the material selection and surface finishes. If there is a disconnect between the industrial design team, who are generally responsible for the branding and aesthetics of a product, and the product designers who are responsible for delivering a product that functions and meets design specifications, something like material choice can have huge repercussions as the product gets closer to production. Let’s expand on how this can happen.
We all know a product starts with an idea, a concept for a product to solve a problem or a product design iteration with improvements and more features. To get a concept into production there are progressive phases that the product needs to go through, this is the NPI process where each stage or phase has a set of deliverables.
If the NPI process does not bring in the industrial design aspects until the later phases of the program, there could be some limitations and constraints when it comes to being able to produce a product that meets all the branding requirements.
Conclusion: Color Material Finish
As you can see, each one of the Color Material Finish elements interacts with and have a determining factor on each other. This is why it is important for the industrial design team to understand materials as it is for the product designers. This is because the greater the understanding they have of material types, the better they will be able to understand the manufacturing processes and what the material limitations are. This will ultimately help them to provide better input from an industrial design point of view for color and finish.
Remember, keep within parameters of what is possible and, as best as possible, make the processes as efficient as possible when it comes to CMF input.
