Journal
Why your pre-order page should launch before your prototype does
Hardware teams wait for samples to start marketing. The ones that win start the day the CAD freezes.
Mira Haldorsen
6 min
Most hardware teams treat marketing as the last mile: tooling, samples, photography, then a launch. That order made sense when product photos needed a product. It no longer does.
The CAD freeze is your real launch date
Once the industrial design is locked, everything a buyer needs to see already exists in the file. Rendering from CAD lets you open pre-orders, test pricing and build a waitlist while the factory is still sampling.
What changes when you start early
Demand data arrives before you commit to a production quantity. Investors see a product, not a deck. And your launch day becomes a shipping announcement rather than a reveal.
The best launches we have worked on were sold out before the first unit was assembled.
Start with three assets: a hero still, a ten-second loop and a colourway grid. Everything else can follow.
Launch strategy
Why your pre-order page should launch before your prototype does
Hardware teams wait for samples to start marketing. The ones that win start the day the CAD freezes.
6 min
Production
The CMF swatch is your most important render reference
Colour, material and finish decide whether a render reads as real. Here is how we brief them.
5 min
Studio
Inside a 30-day launch: from STEP file to hero film
A week-by-week look at how a Tesel launch film is planned, approved and rendered.
8 min