Product design + engineering — Porto / Rotterdam

We makethings thatrefuseto break.

JIG & RIG is a 14-person studio of industrial designers, mechanical engineers and mischief-makers. We disassemble your assumptions, prototype in days, then drag ideas through the real world until they survive it.

Start a teardown See scarred proof ↓

Currently booking: Q1 builds · 2 slots left · No pitch decks

Overhead view of a disassembled orange power tool spread in a neat grid on a dark workbench, screws and gears visible

SPEC 001 — Impact driver, 47 parts. We broke 9 versions to keep 1 alive.

01 — Manifesto

Pretty is easy. Alive is hard.

Break it first

Every project starts with a teardown. We crush, soak, drop and overheat the thing you have — so the next thing earns its shape.

Prototype ugly

Foam, plywood, zip-ties. If you’re not embarrassed on day three, you’re polishing too early. Function before finish.

Design for repair

Screws, not glue. Spare parts, not landfill. A product that can be opened can be loved for a decade.

✷ Chaos dial — you control this page’s manners: Order Chaos Tilt 1.0

02 — The lab

Not a showroom. A crime scene.

Engineer hands in gloves testing a battered grey prototype enclosure clamped to a vibration rig in a workshop — Rig 04 — vibrationDay 212

Wall of rough cardboard and 3D-printed models of kettle handles and housings pinned with red string and notes — Wall of 63 handlesAll ugly, one winner

03 — Method in 4 bruises

Our process leaves marks.

Week 0–1

Tear down

Dissect reality

We interview users in their kitchens, vans and workshops, x-ray competitors, and write a failure wishlist. You get a wall of truths, not personas.

Week 2–4

Make ugly

50 ways fast

Parallel prototyping: CAD in the morning, sawdust by lunch. You touch things weekly. Decisions are physical.

Week 5–8

Abuse

Field torture

Rain chambers, courier vans, rental kitchens. We film everything. If it rattles, leaks or confuses, it dies here — cheaply.

Week 9+

Harden

Engineer for 10 years

DFM, tooling, repair manuals and spare-part logic with factories. We stay until first production run ships.

04 — Scarred proof

One kettle, 63 handles.

Illustrative example

Fictional brief: a rental-proof electric kettle for holiday cottages. Calcium, drops, lost lids. Our answer: a cork-wrapped steel body, one die-cast hinge, zero hidden screws. Guests can’t kill it; hosts can fix it with a coin.

Scope: research → looks-like / works-like → tooling support
What we’d show here: drop films, repair time, service manual.

Steal this thinking for your product

Scuffed stainless steel kettle with cork handle sitting on a wet outdoor camp table in morning light, mountains blurred behind — Field unit 19 — after coast tripStill boils

05 — Work order

File a break request.

J&R FORM 07-B

Tell us what keeps breaking, jamming, leaking or embarrassing you.

We reply within 3 working days with blunt questions and a teardown plan. No retainers, no theatre.

studio@jig-rig.example
+31 (0)10 555 0146
Keileweg 14, Rotterdam