Company profile
nickel
atomic number: 28
relative atomic mass: 58.693
usual percentage in alloy: 80%
chromium
atomic number: 24
relative atomic mass: 51.996
usual percentage in alloy: 20%
In french, there is an expression: “C’est nickel-chrome”, which means: “This is super great”, like the nickel-chrome alloy is so much better than steel. By choosing nickel-chrome as our company name, we made a commitment to provide an outstanding quality of service to our clients.
As our company name is based on the combination of 2 natural elements found on the periodic table of elements, we based our company logo’s design on it. We combined the 2 elements and got rid of the atomic mass as it would make too much numbers on the logo. We only show the atomic numbers and the usual percentage in alloys made of nickel & chrome.
Our design philosophy
This is entirely true, especially as we speak of good design, rather than nice design. Think about it, it is not because a design is nice to look at that it will sell well and be really appreciated by users.
At Nickel‑Chrome, we will leave you the choice at all steps, but we know for sure that good design is always a clear winner every time, on every market, for any brand and users. Therefore, we will always advocate for good design in our projects. The choice will remain yours, of course, but we are pretty sure you will side too with good design.
Cheap design
We refer here to the action of reducing the design investment to its minimum. The design team have little experience and/or the minimum of time to work on the design. Plus, the target price is the cheapest possible.
Pros of cheap design
- Fast and very easy to achieve.
- Design cost is low.
Cons of cheap design
- Very low margins, as it has to be sold cheap.
- Little to no real differentiation from competitors.
- Usually short product lifecycle.
- The engineering, prototyping and manufacturing very often cost much more money than they should, as they need to solve a lot of problems that could be avoided with a better thought design.
- Brand image remains low or, even worse, get damaged (if it was good before).
- Very risky.
%
Visitors who voted for cheap design
Nice design
Pros of nice design
- Strong differentiation.
- Very strong first impression about the product.
- The first year of sales is good, due to the wow effect.
Cons of nice design
- Pragmatic people will stay away, as they understand that the product is not ergonomic or practical, as aesthetics was clearly the main or only concern.
- Blurs or damages the brand image/positioning, as many times it does not match it consistently.
- The product lifecycle is greatly reduced, as it is more like a short fashion, boosted only by aesthetics, but then hurt by bad reviews.
- Production costs are often high.
%
Visitors who voted for nice design
Good design
Pros of good design
- Strong differentiation.
- Good first impression on products.
- First year and successive years good reviews and sales.
- Matching brand image and positioning.
- Good to high product margins.
- Long product lifecycle.
- Production costs are reasonable.
- Easy & stress-free engineering and manufacturing.
Cons of good design
- Takes more time to think & achieve.
- Requires an experienced and professional design team.
%
Visitors who voted for good design
Who are we?
An international team of professional industrial designers and engineers.
For any product to be profitable, it needs to be designed by professionals who know the European market really well, but also truly master all the complexity of technical & costs constraints. To achieve this, our international design team studied in Europe and lived in Europe. Our designers also worked for European customers for 30 years, from China, and in constant proximity and synergy with manufacturers.
Nickel‑Chrome is much more than a design or engineering agency. That is why we can handle projects from their initial idea to their manufacturing, certification, quality control & shipping. That is why we are not a factory or a Swiss army knife.
Our teams of design, engineering and quality control experts work for you, with your Chinese suppliers in China. That way, we always leverage on the existing engineering level of your company and suppliers. We design your product so they can match your existing manufacturing capabilities. All of this without any loss of time or uncertainty in establishing a new supply chain.
Where do we come from?
Nickel‑Chrome was built on the successes of 2 teams with strong experience in industrial design, engineering and manufacturing. We worked for prestigious and international brands from offices in Hong Kong, France and China. We convinced our clients to keep working with us through an even better structure based in China: Nickel‑Chrome.
Being very close to factories is so deep in the DNA of Nickel‑Chrome that we have one temporary project office in all our client’s factories + a permanent office near Guangzhou, in a factory hub. That way, we are convenient to work on all our projects and benefit from the latest engineering and manufacturing processes around us. Plus, our location is ideally placed, as we are not far from Shenzhen (147 km), Dongguan (45 km), Zhongshan (65 km), Foshan (35 km)…
Our founders
Nicolas MÉLAN
Co-founder + Head of European design team
Nicolas MÉLAN is a French industrial designer with 18 years of experience in design and project management. He is a lecturer about design & strategy in Hong Kong and China since 2010. He lives in Guangdong (China) since 2006.
Nicolas is a value creator who combines the expertise of an in-house designer and a senior consultant designer. He is calm, curious, as enthusiastic as demanding, and from turn to turn methodical and intuitive, but always pragmatic. He has a very strong know-how of the technical & operational execution process from the first idea to its manufacturing, but also the strategic & analytic mind of a design consultant.
Nicolas establishes the design directions and manages all projects at Nickel‑Chrome, including the supervision of follow-up with factories. He is also in charge of the communication with all European clients and/or for projects which are intended for the European market.
Maggie LI
Co-founder + Chief Operating Officer
Maggie LI, is a Chinese entrepreneur with 16 years of experience in R&D, project management and manufacturing. She is a lecturer in innovation & project management since 2010 at the university of business school for entrepreneurs.
Maggie LI leads the research and development of 100 products every year and has a deep understanding and a strong experience in project management. In R&D phase, she put a great emphasis on risk assessment, and in order to meet the needs of consumers, she always looks for the perfect combination of technologies and market needs.
Maggie has a strong experience of the whole product operation system. She is experienced in FMEA, SOP, BOM, APQP, PPAP and ECN management to provide high-quality products to our customers. She has cooperated with strategic clients such as Ikea, Philips, Aldi, B&Q, Marset, Tchibo… and most of the clients who have cooperated with Maggie have maintained a partnership with her for more than 10 years.
Company values
Immutable principles that reflect our vision and everyday practice.
Rigour
Remain demanding of ourselves, seek excellence in our respective fields to meet or exceed our clients’ expectations and objectives is our second nature.
Cohesion
Multidisciplinarity, team spirit and continuous experience sharing are crucial to advancing together in a healthy and effective way for all our projects.
Objectivity
Personal taste and feelings are not to be neglected or diminished, but rational arguments and pure objectivity should always come first.
Enthusiasm
Even armed with rigour, objectivity and cohesion, all work in the long term must be done in conviviality. Because yes, the pleasure of working together is essential.