Product Design with Devèze Design
Devèze Design is an engineering and graphical design agency with specialism in transport and industrial design, establised
in 2003 in St-Priest-en-Jarez, France. Devèze Design’s founder, Alain Devèze, chose PowerSHAPE for creating models and
maquettes for industrial products because PowerSHAPE allows them to present exact 3D views and photo-realistic images to
their customers, as well as generating files for use by the Design Office or as rapid prototyping data.
What do a baby’s bottle and an electric bicycle have in common? Answer: the innovation
and realisation of an Alain Devèze Design. Alain Devèze has been involved in innovative
design for many years, attending a world-class automobile design school in 1990. After
gaining design competence and technical vision during the course, he started his career
at Tram Design before moving to Salomon. In 2000 he started a small business followed
by Devèze Design founded in 2003 with his wife, all whilst teaching at Valenciennes ISD
(Institut Superieur de Design). Accolades include being twice winners in the Lépine
contest: in 2003 for a one-seater concept vehicle with four wheels set in a lozenge, and
in 2005 with the Man-TX and Xtrium, as well as fifth prize for an anti-pinch hinge system
in 2008. Following these successes, Alain Devèze has set up another buisness - Devios dedicated purely to innovation.
A Career Path Marked by Creation and Innovation
Ciseaux Sporfun Taberley tableware
Concept drawing
Since then, Alain Devèze has been enormously sought-after for his creative approach,
both by his ex-employer Salomon, and other companies including Mavic, part of the
Salomon Group. Specialist areas are the transport sector - automobile, vehicle parts,
and other mobility-related products - and children’s products such as Tigex. To manage
these projects well requires a powerful and adaptable design tool that is able to give
a complete and precise image of the product, both as aesthetic and photo-realistic
impressions, with files that can be used by the CAD office.
“I start by drawing on a sheet with a black pencil, then add definition with coloured
pencils. It’s a creative searching phase used to generate a “book of ideas”. The next more
detailed phase is produced with felt pens”, says Alain Devèze. Only after that does he
move onto sketching and modelling with CAD. Using different techniques during these
phases is very important. “The customer can see his project evolving and becoming
more refined”, recounts the designer.
Refined 2D drawing in Illustrator
From the beginning Devèze Design’s choice of software was key. “I first used Alias Studio
v10 but I found that it was an ageing product and complicated to use, so I looked at
different tools on the market”, remembers Alain Devèze.
“In 2007 Fikret, my neighbour, who is a designer and works at Delcam, showed me
PowerSHAPE, Delcam’s design software. I was immediately taken with this tool so Delcam
loaned me the software so I could evaluate it, and even before attending a training course,
I could design models and publish reports. Without knowing the software, I was working
as fast as I did with Alias”. Devèze Design subsequently purchased a full software licence
at the end of 2007.
PowerSHAPE 3D model
D e lc a m plc, AM S D i v i s i o n
e ma il: ma r k e t i n g @ de l c am. com
w w w.powershape.com
w w w.de lcam-ams.co m
w w w.de lcam.t v