Written by: Senior Design Lead, Sung wook Park
UMBRA'S BUDDY FIGURINE
I got the inspiration for Buddy Ring Holders from our President & Co-Founder, Les Mandelbaum.
While he was traveling, he got to see first-hand how Buddy was such a huge success internationally. He found that a lot of customers and people were telling him how much they liked our Buddy figurine, as well our animal-inspired ring holders, so I thought why not combine the two.
I started to think of a variety of designs, studying human positions/postures. I thought Yoga was fun and was perfect to integrate with our Buddy figurine.
One of the Buddy ring holders is actually Buddy down on one knee, proposing. I thought this would a great pose because of the functionality of the ring holder.
3-D SAMPLING & PROTOYPES
The tooling process is very helpful to see the scale. We always do 1:1 scale mock-up, to ensure the scale is accurate. We want to see that the perceived value of the product is there, not too small or too big. Another reason we do 3-D printing is to test functionality. This includes making sure it can hold rings, that it stands up properly on a table, balances with weight on it. Testing with our samples and prototypes is always a very important step, before we move forward with mass-production, to avoid any mistakes.
The cute factor of the Buddy figurine is both decorative and functional. I like how fun it is as a gift, and that it can be used practically as well.
To shop Buddy Ring Holders click here.