CNCROi.com V5: Think it, Build it, Sell it! ~ Book Cover Explained

I’ve figured-out most of the CNCROi.com V5: Think it, Build it, Sell it! book cover now and thought I’d take advantage of the design aspect of CNCKing.com to explain a bit about it. This is a draft cover, it will have a few changes done to it yet, the rendering and layout is still being worked on (by me) but its got all the elements there.

I taught myself 3D animation and modeling with design coming much later, but this cover took one hour to render, the final one rendering right now that is “almost” identical but with far higher resolution etc. will take 30x longer.

Now that we have that out-of-the-way, let me explain why I put in what I did.

Big Wooden Wheels: Originally I was going to put the Eiffel Tower but as I move into more complex mechanical type designs, I thought this model of 250+ pieces showed more the direction that I’m taking things with CNCKing.com. I know I haven’t gone on a design binge in quite a while here but don’t worry, it’s the calm before the storm! This is also the biggest model I’ve ever designed, the heaviest and considering I’ve built it physically twice, once for CNC router and the other for my CNC laser, a pretty good expression at how agnostic my design process is across materials and CNC types. I got lots of press because of this model too, including a full-page in Make Magazine! I thought I’d feature it yet again.

Pedestal with gold lines: I wanted to show that designing is only the START of the process, you got to sell it after if you want to make a living and like a race, it’s push push push! Your hopes are to sell thousands of units (hence the hold on the lower run of the pedestal) but most designs will be a dud, you learn, and design again based on those lessons! There are 3 levels to the pedestal as generally, your FINAL design that works perfectly will need another 1-2 “fixes” to be working as envisioned.

The reason I have only one model on the cover in an otherwise empty studio was that I wanted to show how much of the design process is actually unknown from a consumer standpoint. They see the final design, the designer on the other hand, works in the equivalent of solitary confinement to come-up with something that he or she wants to showcase to the world.

Where’s CNCKing.com?

This book spans over 500 pages, and a last-minute decision was taken by me to use CNCROi.com instead of CNCKing.com on the cover. The reason is this book is focused on design and approaches like the previous volumes but with the extra RETURN ON INVESTMENT aspect of the design process.

CNCKing.com is pure design, whether it makes money directly or indirectly, to me anyways, is of no baring on how I design things for the site while CNCROi.com has that front and foremost.CNCKing.com gives me the freedom to design without constraints while CNCROi.com I’m making designs to hit specific price points, materials and production processes to put it all together efficiently and as economically as possible.

This cover has been a long time coming, I’ve been playing with different ideas for quite a while, the most difficult part of any book is the cover and I’m very happy with this one!

Having trouble sleeping because you can’t wait to get your hands on this book? Get my last one, by the time you are finished that, this one will be out!As for release date, I’m still looking at end of July or August. Will be great to finally get it out of my hands and into those of both practiced and dreamy designers around the world.