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 first used 3D rendering for marketing.
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 for over 100 years – worldwide.
A company that has managed to stay afloat for so long has experienced many upheavals.
Now, the Hamburg manufacturer has also taken new paths for the marketing of 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 requires a lot of light and little space.
How important are visuals 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 this repeatedly, with the help of photographers who would then come to the company and set up equipment.
And all of that takes time. And the customer, of course, 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 get the photographer to 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 to get a 3D model so that the customer could ultimately view it themselves. What does the Phoenix look like? What are the dimensions? So that the customer can derive that themselves.
What concerns did you have beforehand?
Felix Beuß: The only concern we had was that the product would look too digital, that one 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 facility. And that surprised us very much.
So what is really possible today with technology surprised us very much, that it can be implemented so well based on CAD data and reference images, that one says: okay, this product could now be standing here in the warehouse.
How has Karl Dose used visuals so far?
Felix Beuß: So far, we have only used visuals for catalogs and our homepage. But it wasn't very much, because it was always very time-consuming to create images and recreate different scenes.
And now, of course, we can circumvent that much more easily through rendering and can say, “Hey, we need that image in this and that perspective again,” and then it's ready within 24 to 48 hours.
How did it work with the digital twin?
Felix Beuß: So, 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 entire interior for safety reasons. Just so that if someone ever gets or sees this file, they don't have the opportunity to rebuild the whole thing on their own.
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 had to consult the different departments, including our technical department, about whether the Phoenix really looked as it was depicted there. And then there were one or two changes, and then the first image was production-ready 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, that was really straightforward. Simply by email or by phone, or that we sent you a screenshot of a perspective and asked: "Could you please change this briefly to this and that color?"
So we really liked the whole communication and that we could view it online on any computer. It was also really cool that it was also possible for our CEO, who is often on the go with his mobile phone, to simply view the images and the 3D model in the HUB while on the road.
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 areas 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.
That 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 goes much, much faster if you can digitize larger products, which we don't want to move quickly from A to B, simply by rendering, and in this way, we can also get our image material much more easily.
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