Textual Creations and Nature's Sleep

Donald (Don) B. Cheke - Textual Creations

Textual Creations is a multi-faceted design and illustration business that has seen significant expansion over the last few years. Textual Creations was originally established as a TurboCAD tutorial provider (hence 'Textual'). My intent was to create many comprehensive works that would lead new users through entire projects, thus easing the learning curve that is part of any complex software package. This includes setting up the drawings, creating 2D and 3D models, establishing lighting, render scene environments and luminance, as well as saving rendered images in high resolution format. Many of the tutorials also include elements to explain the creation of blue prints or shop drawings as well as graphic illustrations. New tutorials are still one of the major focuses for Textual Creations and this will continue to be the case. I enjoy the processes involved in their creation and I find much pleasure in the positive responses that I receive from satisfied customers.

Over the last few years my personal TurboCAD galleries have expanded and this expansion has attracted quite a number of visitors for one reason or another. Currently I have, on average, roughly six thousand unique visitors per month. Of these numerous visitors, a number make contact via email or telephone - to relay compliments, to request help, images and services or to purchase tutorials. Many gallery images have been requested for use in advertisements or other graphic creations, for use on book covers or as illustrations within books - plus a host of other applications, some of which are quite intriguing. I do charge usage fees for most of these ventures as these 'ready-made' works have taken time and effort to produce over the years. I believe that Google, with its image search function, has brought many visitors and prospective customers to my virtual front door. As a result of these requests the scope of Textual Creations was broadened to include a full service design and illustration component, specializing in 3D visualization. TurboCAD, along with Paint Shop Pro, are my tools of choice when it comes to 3D design and illustration. I use them both on a full time basis as part of my design and illustration business and I find that they easily accommodate most of my needs – one complimenting the other quite nicely.

Near the beginning of 2007 I received a telephone call from Marc L. Werner, the Founder and CEO of Nature's Sleep, LLC. Marc had just purchased TurboCAD with the intention of drawing new furnishings which he was planning to introduce into his already successful business. Marc, like many others, began his introduction to TurboCAD with an internet search for tutorial material that would help ease the apparent learning curve. In his search Marc came across Textual Creations and decided that perhaps he would be better served having someone already familiar with the software create the required drawings for him. He was already very busy most hours of the day and this would eliminate the need for him to spend time learning something new. He could keep his focus on the other areas of business that continually require his attention. After visiting my web site Marc decided to call me and see if I might be available to help him out in this regard. That phone call began a wonderful business arrangement that has proved to be very beneficial to both of us.

Nature's Sleep, LLC creates, develops, designs, manufactures, markets and distributes products in the following markets: bedding, sleep sets, platform bed frames, pillow products, and top-of-bed products, with its head office in Plantation, Florida USA. Operations are geared mainly toward large scale production and distribution to sleep set and furniture retailers and the hotel industry. With its expanded focus, products are now available to the consumer market through their web site at www.naturessleep.com. New products include a stylized mattress platform in three sizes (King, Queen and Full) and a newly designed foundation in six sizes (King, Queen, Full, Full XL, Twin and Twin XL). A unique aspect to all these new products is that they are all designed as Knock Down (KD), or as others may know them - RTA (ready to assemble). This allows for large quantities to be shipped while minimizing distribution and storage costs.

In my role I have had the privilege of being part of Marc's team through the early design stages on paper to full scale prototypes. I have provided hundreds of drawings over numerous phases and revisions and these drawings have been made available to factories in the USA and China, both for tendering purposes and prototype construction. I have prepared parts and assembly manuals and I have developed packing schemes. Along with these drawings, I have supplied a rendered image of each product, which has become part of a presentation package that is given to prospective investors.

The drawings that have been created for Nature's Sleep are proprietary in nature at this point (patent pending) so they cannot be presented as part of this case study. I have, however, created a Night Stand as a substitute that can be shown in its entirety. It does illustrate the type of work I have done with TurboCAD and in the style with which it was delivered to Nature's Sleep, LLC. The Night Stand is a fairly straight forward furnishing but it encompasses enough of the flavour of work to make the point. That which is, to illustrate how well TurboCAD has performed as the tool it was designed to be.

When I asked Marc if he would mind that I used our work together as part of a case study he was quick to reply with his approval. In his email he said, "I would suggest that part of the message indicate how quickly we’ve been able to jointly develop what we’ve done, the ease of changing designs, and the overall ability of a true team approach without anyone on the team needing to meet face-to-face." I couldn't agree more. The number of drawings, due to varied models and revisions of the products, which were created throughout the process, was quite staggering – but TurboCAD handled it all in stride. I must say that I am very pleased with TurboCAD's performance and I will continue to place my faith in it.

Please review the three PDF files that are provided on the left. Print them out and note the quality of drawings that can be achieved with TurboCAD.

If you are interested in learning how to create 3D works and related drawings with TurboCAD then I would suggest that you stop by the Textual Creation Shopping Page and check out some of the tutorials. The furniture based tutorial TurboCAD V12.1 Pro - 7 Drawer Highboy Chest and the mechanical based tutorial TurboCAD V14 Pro - Industrial Shock Absorber – Drafting in Paper Space make a nice combination which illustrates how drawings of the night stand nature can be achieved.