New Client Karl Dose on First 3D Rendering and How to Make Ships Shine
Felix Beuß from Karl Dose GmbH shares his experience on how they used 3D rendering for marketing for the first time.
RenderThat X Karl Dose. Or:
"3D-Power" meets "Power for Ships"
The traditional Hamburg-based company, operating under the motto "Power for Ships," has been supplying ships with electricity and light on the high seas worldwide for over 100 years.
A company that has managed to stay afloat for so long has experienced many upheavals.
Now, the Hamburg-based manufacturer has also taken new approaches to market a new product.
Felix Beuß, Marketing & Sales Manager at Karl Dose, reports on his experiences as project manager in an interview with us.
Which product did you have visualized with the help of RenderThat?
Felix Beuß, Sales & Marketing Manager at Karl Dose GmbH: So, the Phoenix spotlight is a new product. A product that will be launched later this year. Due to its design and brightness, it is very well suited for anything that needs a lot of light and little space.
What importance do visuals have for you?
Felix Beuß: Indeed, images are very, very important for us, at least in marketing. And in recent months and years, we have actually tried to work with photographers who would then come into the company and set up equipment.
And all of that takes time. And the customer, of course, also wants to see beforehand: "What does my product look like, what have I actually bought?"
That's why we actually came up with the idea of simply trying the whole thing as a rendering, so that you don't have to have a photographer come for a single product.
What requirements did you have for RenderThat?
Felix Beuß: In principle, we actually only needed reference images for our newsletter at first, but we also looked at our online shop and our homepage at the same time to get a 3D model so that the customer can finally look at it themselves. What does the Phoenix look like? What are the dimensions? So that the customer can deduce this themselves.
What concerns did you have beforehand?
Felix Beuß: The only concern we had was that the product would look too digital, that you could tell from the image that it wasn't a real product. But fortunately, that didn't happen. So the product on the image really looked as if it were in our production. And that surprised us a lot.
So what is really possible with technology nowadays surprised us a lot, that it can be implemented so well based on CAD data and reference images, that you can say, "Okay, this product could now be in stock here."
How has Karl Dose used visuals so far?
Felix Beuß: So far, we have only used visuals for catalogs. And our homepage. But that wasn't very much, because it was always very time-consuming to create images and recreate different scenes.
And of course, with rendering, we can now avoid that much more easily and can say, "Hey, we need that image again from this and that perspective," and then it's ready within 24 to 48 hours.
How did it work with the digital twin?
Felix Beuß: The creation of the digital twin took about one to a maximum of three days. However, our challenge beforehand was that we had to adapt the CAD files, as we wanted to remove the complete internal structure for safety reasons. This was to prevent anyone who might get or see this file from being able to independently rebuild the entire thing.
When did you receive the first image?
Felix Beuß: The digital twin was then visible in the HUB, and we looked at it internally again. Of course, we also have to consult the various departments, including our technical department, to see if the Phoenix really looks as it is depicted there. And then there were one or two changes, and then the first image was ready for production within 48 hours, so we could say: "That looks 100% like what we build!"
How did the collaboration work for you?
Felix Beuß: The communication and how you dealt with any changes from our side, how we communicated overall, it was really very straightforward. Simply by email or by phone, or that we sent you a screenshot of a perspective and asked: "Could you please change this to this and that color?"
So we really liked the entire communication, and that we could view it online on any computer. It was also really cool that our CEO, who is often on the go with his mobile phone, could also easily view the images and the 3D model in the HUB while on the move.
What else does Karl Dose produce?
Felix Beuß: Karl Dose mainly deals with the production of lighting for the maritime market for ships. And there we have many special offers and products.
We are also active in the field of electrical installation materials, for example, we have container sockets in our range. So, in principle, everything you need on the high seas to safely transport goods from A to B.
What does Karl Dose do particularly well?
Felix Beuß: What really sets us apart is that we have such high demands on products, where some competitors simply drop out because it might no longer be as lucrative for them, as it only involves smaller quantities.
And we also bring expertise, as many of our colleagues come from the shipping industry.
They have sailed the seas themselves and they actually know what the maritime market demands and what requirements arise there.
This has shaped us, and we have been on the market for over 100 years.
What did you learn from the project with RenderThat?
Felix Beuß: So we actually learned a lot, especially for our purposes, that it is much, much faster if you can digitize larger products that we don't want to move quickly from A to B, simply by rendering them, and that way we can also get our images much more easily.
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