Introducing the informal CMF Database
From the moment you unbox a new product and hold it in your hands, before you ever fire it up and see how it works, you invariably notice how it looks and feels. Is the color what you envisioned? How do you feel about the material choice? Does it feel smooth or rough? Heavy or just right? All of these variables add up to determine how much we love this thing.
Behind the scenes, on the design and manufacturing end, so much thought goes into the color, material, and finish of every product, otherwise known as CMF. Each one of these specifications has to be conveyed in a very particular and specific manner. For example, “matte black plastic” says nothing about the level of matte, the unique shade of black, or the exact weight and composition of the plastic.
We understand these challenges, as well as how the wrong choices can affect the success of your product and ultimately your bottom line. Our informal cofounder Sam Holland is a skilled product design engineer and he wrote a detailed post titled “The complexities of color, material, and finish (CMF)” that breaks down how CMF is determined, what impacts these decisions, and how to ensure that choices made now aren’t detrimental during the lifetime of a product. He even highlights how each of the three variables affects the other two. If you haven’t checked it out, it’s definitely worth a read (and share).
Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a central database where you could see the CMF specs of a whole array of different readily available products? That way, if there’s a specific color or finish, for instance, that you or your client wants to achieve, you could use an existing product to align around, and incorporate the specifics into the product you’re designing. That would be so useful, right?!
Well, we have an exciting new offering for the community. Drumroll, please: Introducing the informal CMF Database! We soft-launched our database internally a couple of weeks ago, and we’re thrilled to open it up to the broader hardware community and beyond. The CMF Database, or CMF-DB for short, features a growing number of products you can browse, click on, and view the CMF specs of, all for free. Not only that, but you can also contribute products to the database to help make it even more useful.
For example, here’s a screenshot of the entry for a specific CamelBak water bottle:
Sam explains: “The goal behind the CMF-DB is to provide low-cost samples of products that match your CMF requirements. Typically, expensive texture plaques and color chips need to be purchased to review these CMF options in person. I’ve been identifying items on Amazon that convey these CMF specs for around $10–$20 each, so that you can easily purchase a physical sample to review, before making a production level decision for your own new product. I also added some pretty cool search features so you can find ‘grey’ parts or ‘Pantone Cool Grey 11C,’ allowing you to search generally or specifically.”
Check out our informal CMF-DB, browse, add a product or two, and let us know what you think! We’re just getting started and think this could be an invaluable resource for the community. We look forward to your feedback! Reach out at hello@informal.cc.
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