Functional Softgoods Design.
Industrial Design, Development and Sourcing for softgoods and all things cut and sew.
We design functional products out of textiles.
Backpacks for hiking, Duffels and Rollers for traveling, tents, awnings, or protective cases for your electronics. Our products offer more function than a typical fashion accessory, but are more intimate than molded or hard items (but we do that too).
If your product involves fabrics and carries, protects, floats, flies or otherwise has a job to do, that’s our specialty.
Design Process for Consistent Innovation
Consistent, award-winning industrial design isn’t about talent or tapping into some ethereal source of creativity…
It’s about applying process and sweating the details.
It’s about listening.
It’s about failing and learning and repeating until its right.
It’s a simple methodology that can unlock space for innovation and bring market leading finish to your product development pipeline…
Maybe the most overlooked step in the Industrial Design process— Whether you have an internal team or want to design with us, let us help craft your early design process with thorough design briefs and methodologies to consistently build world-class product.
WELL DEFINED OBJECTIVES
CREATIVE HORSEPOWER
Know where you want to start? Great.
Our rigorous brainstorming and filtering methodology gets you thinking of new ideas, faster. The result is a broad exploration of solutions that lead to unique and ‘just-right’ functionality. This is the magic people like to call “design thinking.”
Proof Of Concept
Validate everything. Keep the process efficient. Fail Fast and Fail Early.
DESIGN FOR MANUFACTURING, DEVELOPMENT and SOURCING
Full-Support to ensure costing is met, and manufacturability is smooth, and the design vision is lives and breathes in your commercial product.
What makes textiles different?
A premium cut and sew product shows mastery across disciplines: from in-depth materials knowledge for just the right texture, sheen and drape, to understanding trim materials and how they’re applied, to balancing complexity of features and layers of material. Resolution of all of these components takes experience and skill. Black Thread brings this to the table.
Just a like a tailored suit or the right pair of jeans, a premium sewn product also needs nuanced pattern making, top notch detailing and a crisp level of finish. Black Thread Creative can work internally or with your manufacturing partners to achieve that just-right look.
In most cases, a bag must be built inside out, and often exposed edges are edgebound and the bag is ‘turned’ for it’s final presentation. These final steps can take a beautiful product back to average. Attention to detail and understanding manufacturing even to the final stage is critical to a premium level of finish.
Who is BLACK THREAD CREATIVE?
Black Thread Creative was born as my consulting and creative outlet, and has become my full-time work and passion. My name is Mark Thibadeau, and I am the principal and owner of Black Thread Creative.
What is BLACK THREAD CREATIVE?
Function First Design
Black Thread Creative brings a performance and function-first approach to textile-based product design by merging a rigorous creative process, prototyping and validation with modern cut-and-sew manufacturing techniques. This industrial design process is rooted in thorough exploration, iteration, prototyping and validation.
Fail Fast. Iterate, repeat… until it’s perfect.
Why the name?
Black is the thread color generally used in sample rooms and prototype labs all over the world, and I believe heavily in the power of the prototype. Soft goods are often a victim to the sketch-and-ship mentality too prevalent in the design industry today. We believe the quicker you can have something in your hands to look at, pull on, and evaluate, the faster you can narrow in on functionality, form, and spark even more creativity.
Why BLACK THREAD?
An Extension of your team:
Having spent my career as a designer and design leader “in-house,” I know that great design is nothing without an executable path from marketing and story-telling to streamlined production. Maintaining this through-line can lead to a bottle-neck of information when working with an outside design resource. The decision to outsource design isn’t easy, and often comes with more management than expected.
With Black Thread Creative, you can count on clear collaboration and communication with stakeholders in your organization.
You can count on us to maintain design intent and vision through rounds of costing and adjustments
You can count on our input, our honest feedback, and our integrity.
We’re here to take work off of your plate, not create more of it. Schedule a call to start creating product solutions that win awards and drive sales.
