make products.
build designers.
What We Offer
Design is messy. We specialize in the hard parts: DFM, technical workshops, and career-defining mentorship. If you don't see a specific package that fits, we'll build one that does.
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Our designers have helped clients launch over 100 successful products over the years across dozens of industries. This extensive experience combined with a deep understanding of manufacturing and materials ensures that your product will be a delight for your users and a breeze for your manufacturers.
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Curious how a competitor hits better margins on an equivalent product? Wondering if you’re leaving manufacturing efficiencies on the table? It’s time for an objective, technical perspective. Our engineers deconstruct your product (or a competitor’s) to provide a granular analysis of potential material, manufacturing, and assembly improvements. Our team’s diverse background and fresh eyes can spot overlooked opportunities and identify specific design improvements that reduce overhead while enhancing the end-user experience.
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Have you fallen in love with a design that has turned out to be un-manufacturable? Our DFM experts can translate your existing concept into a design that can be produced at scale without sacrificing your design intent.
product design
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This is a scalable workshop (half day to 2 days) that will provide an understanding of the injection molding process and equip students to design plastic parts with competent DFM baked in. They will learn the logistical, aesthetic, and cost implications of their design decisions, and they will enter the workforce with the ability to ensure their full design intent reaches their users. The longer versions of this workshop will challenge and guide students to create a fully detailed product that can provide realism and depth to their portfolio. The content is aimed at 3rd and 4th year undergraduate ID students, but no manufacturing knowledge is required.
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Aimed at engineering students and early-career professionals, this seminar provides a peek over the fence into the world of industrial design. Learn the most translatable skills from the ID toolbox including user-centered principles, prototyping, ergonomics, and CMF. Participants will learn how to leverage their engineering strengths in design and walk away with a strategy to hit the ground running on any product development team.
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This 2-3 hour intensive session is for CAD users who need to move beyond the extrude tool and want to deliver plastic part designs that are ready for the IM press. The two-pronged syllabus covers the best practices for plastic part design (draft, parting lines, undercuts, etc.) and the nuts and bolts of surface modeling techniques that keep your part fluid and editable. The course is conducted in Solidworks, but principals apply to all parametric modeling software.
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Suitable for physical and digital products alike, this 1-3 hour workshop introduces the Clear Product Definition (CPD) process and guides participants in a series of exercises that will clarify project scope, bring all stakeholders on the same page, and expedite decision-making across the board. The material also introduces concrete, flexible tools that help design teams evaluate concepts and settle disputes.
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This 2-hour course is meant to introduce non-designers to ergonomics and the product design process as a whole. The hands-on curriculum guides participants through the research, concept development, and iterative refinement processes in which they develop their own ergonomically optimized sample product.
Technical Workshops
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This seminar is aimed at Industrial Design undergraduate students at all levels. The content provides the perspectives of industry veterans, hiring managers, and experienced mentors who have coached dozens of young designers and sat on the other side of the table in over 150 interviews with job candidates. The goal is to guide students in early career decisions and equip them to identity and capitalize on entry-level design opportunities. Beyond career and job-hunting advice, a large portion of the material focuses on optimizing a candidate’s portfolio. Pairs well with individual portfolio reviews.
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This seminar is divided into two sections:1) a deep dive into the best strategies for organizing and presenting your portfolio in a way that is intuitive, compelling, and communicates your value; and 2) live demonstrations where instructors walk through example portfolios (anonymous samples or participants’ current work) as if they were reviewing candidates for a job. Pairs well with individual portfolio reviews
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Toolmark designers will review your industrial design portfolio and provide feedback informed by evaluating over 600 portfolios and conducting over 150 interviews over the past decade. Schedule a 2-3 hour block of 20-minute rapid review sessions for a group or in-depth 30-60 minute sessions for individuals.
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We translate complex engineering principles into hands-on, age-appropriate challenges. These custom workshops move beyond basic "kits" to show students how real products are conceived and built, encouraging the next generation of designers to start thinking like makers early.
mentorship & talent growth
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We act as the liaison between businesses looking for fresh perspectives and our network of dozens of undergraduate Industrial Design programs seeking real-world sponsors. Toolmark manages the entire engagement—aligning the company’s strategic goals with the academic curriculum to ensure a high-value output for the sponsor and a transformative experience for the students. A true win-win-win.
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Toolmark leaders have managed dozens of internships over the years, honing a process that transforms a potential distraction into a high-value asset. We can support in any and all phases of the process: from defining high-impact projects and drafting training plans to recruiting candidates through our extensive university network. We can even support housing logistics and team-building outings, ensuring your interns are engaged, productive, and truly contributing to your bottom line from day one.
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Looking to upgrade a team training course at your company? We transform standard corporate training into immersive, narrative events that boosts engagement and ensures the knowledge actually sticks. By wrapping technical training in a game-ified, objective-driven scenario, we create opportunities for participants to learn and apply new skills in real time, and have fun in the process.
STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
Success Snapshots
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Connecting Industry to Academia
Toolmark led 27 Georgia Tech seniors through a rigorous material-exploration and design cycle. The studio pushed the boundaries of the sponsor's core material, moving beyond sketches to physical material testing and functional prototypes. This engagement provided the partner with valuable proof-of-concept models that demonstrated immediate feasibility for new market categories.
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Career Workshops
Toolmark design veterans hosted career workshops at institutes including Cargnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, and University of Wisconsin Stout. These sessions provide industrial design students with a strategic framework for identifying and leveraging their unique value and a roadmap for launching and flourishing in a long-term career in design.
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Ergonomics Workshops
Our ergonomics experts led sales and marketing teams through a hands-on ergonomics crash course, using real-world case studies and physical sculpting to solve human-factor challenges. Using these tactile exercises as a springboard to explore the professional product development process, we provided the teams with data-driven, tangible insights into the strategic value of industrial design.
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portfolio reviews
Toolmark designers have conducted more than 60 individual portfolio reviews across 7 top-tier Industrial Design programs (and counting). These sessions provide students with valuable insight from veteran designers and hiring managers, often bringing together 2–3 design professionals simultaneously to offer a diverse, industry-ready perspective.
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![Hitch It UP]()
Hitch It UP
Toolmark designers led a 6-week industrial design sprint at Virginia Tech, connecting a corporate sponsor with a student studio. The result was over 30 unique product applications that pushed the boundaries of the partner's existing technology and provided a roadmap for future development.
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Team Training Reimagined
A corporate partner was struggling with engagement and retention of a particular training course. Toolmark designers reinvented the training as a competitive card and dice game where mastery of the material directly influenced the outcome. This immersive approach more than tripled the training conversion rate and transformed a dry requirement into a fun, memorable event.
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Countdown to Launch
Toolmark led the "Countdown to Launch" workshop at St. Louis ProductCamp, guiding groups of entrepreneurs through the Clear Product Definition process. These sessions focused on stripping away ambiguity to establish a concrete target for success and a flexible framework that keeps all stakeholders aligned on a common vision.
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Quantum Design Competition
Toolmark veterans established and led the Quantum design competition, a multi-year program that paired industrial design interns with professional mentors for an intensive summer sprint. Each participant developed a unique product concept from a specialized brief, culminating in a final presentation to a panel of industry judges and an audience of 20+ professionals. This program created a high-stakes, real-world environment that challenged emerging designers to defend their work and deliver market-ready innovation.
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Gear Up
Building on the success of the previous year’s engagement, Toolmark returned to Virginia Tech ID to lead a specialized cohort of 14 seniors. We led a deep-dive exploration into outdoor product applications for our corporate sponsor’s material. Each student developed a unique, full developed product concept, providing the partner with a diverse portfolio of market-ready innovation and a inspiration for future product lines.
