How HH Global Streamlines Retail Display Design with SOLIDWORKS

Founded in 1991, HH Global has grown from a print business into a global leader in brand execution and retail display solutions. Today, the company supports some of the world’s biggest names, including Coca-Cola, Google, LEGO, Samsung, Amazon, Garmin and Meta, with more than 4,500 employees operating across 61 countries.

Delivering retail display on a global scale

Working within the fast-moving retail display sector means speed, flexibility and collaboration are critical. Clients expect rapid turnaround times across multiple campaigns, product launches and in-store activations, placing pressure on design and engineering teams to deliver high-quality concepts quickly and efficiently.

To support this pace of development, HH Global relies on SOLIDWORKS Premium and SOLIDWORKS PDM, alongside Visiativ’s myCADtools and myPDMtools solutions, to streamline retail display product development and improve collaboration across global design teams.

Accelerating speed to market for retail display projects

For Simon Kingston, Design & Engineering Director at HH Global, choosing SOLIDWORKS was a straightforward decision.

“Our industry, retail display, is fast-paced. Clients want things yesterday. So, we have to turn things around quickly, working on multiple projects at the same time. SOLIDWORKS gives us that speed to market.”

Having previously worked with CAD systems that were significantly more expensive and more complex, Kingston believes SOLIDWORKS provides the ideal balance of capability, accessibility and efficiency for retail display engineering.

“In my career, I’ve used other CAD software which has probably been four times the price and more complicated. SOLIDWORKS is a better package.”

The team uses SOLIDWORKS Premium for retail display design and product development, while SOLIDWORKS PDM provides secure and efficient management of engineering data across the organisation’s global operations.

As display concepts and manufacturing data are shared between international studios, PDM has become essential in maintaining consistency and enabling seamless collaboration between teams.

“We’ve needed to switch designs between our studios globally and PDM has been instrumental in that.”

Flexible design workflows for retail display manufacture

HH Global uses SOLIDWORKS throughout the entire retail display development process, from early-stage concept modelling through to production-ready manufacturing drawings.

Senior Design Engineer Rhys Wyman, highlighted the value of SOLIDWORKS configurations in enabling rapid product changes and scalable workflows for retail display systems.

“If there’s a family of parts or units, we can quickly adapt those. It means we can reduce sizes and make changes very quickly without rebuilding models from scratch.”

The company also benefits from SOLIDWORKS’ extensive sheet metal and manufacturing toolsets, which support a wide range of production methods and materials commonly used in the retail display industry.

“We work in sheet material quite often, so the sheet metal functionality is fantastic,” explained Kingston. “That can be applied to sheet plastic, injection moulding and vacuum forming as well.”

For Senior Design Engineer, Leo Cannatella, SOLIDWORKS surfacing tools have also proved invaluable on projects involving more organic geometry and branded display elements.

One recent project involved recreating an enlarged LEGO minifigure, where advanced surfacing functionality enabled the team to accurately capture the product’s distinctive shapes and contours.

“Surfacing in SOLIDWORKS gives you the opportunity to create a more organic feel rather than standard extrudes.”

Improving manufacturing and supplier collaboration

Beyond CAD modelling, HH Global has implemented Visiativ-exclusive software packages, myCADtools and myPDMtools. These tools automate repetitive engineering processes and improve efficiency across departments.

The business uses myCADtools to automate serial numbering, configuration management and BOM creation. This reduces manual administration and helps standardise workflows across retail display projects.

Meanwhile, myPDMtools enables the team to export data efficiently. It also automates file duplication and property allocation processes.

“It just speeds up that process of going through and reallocating properties,” said Cannatella.

The team also makes extensive use of SOLIDWORKS’ ‘Pack and Go’ functionality. This helps simplify communication with suppliers and manufacturing partners across global production networks. Wyman said:

“Pack and Go means we can quickly tidy up all the drawings and models and send them over to suppliers”

Ongoing SOLIDWORKS support and training from Visiativ

HH Global credits Visiativ’s training and technical support teams with helping maximise the value of its SOLIDWORKS investment.

The company have undertaken both on-site and online training sessions with Visiativ. These official and bespoke courses help users discover new techniques and improve their use of PDM and workflow automation tools.

“The team at Visiativ did a fantastic job in getting the design team here up to speed,” said Kingston.

Wyman also praised the responsiveness and expertise of Visiativ’s technical support team:

“Visiativ are always there at the end of the phone to go through any challenge we may have. They also suggest shortcuts and better ways of working that we may not have considered.”

A scalable CAD solution for retail display design

Today, SOLIDWORKS helps HH Global deliver retail display and brand activation projects quickly. For Kingston, the software’s versatility and manufacturing capabilities make it ideal for retail display and POS engineering teams:

“It’s versatile. It’s got loads of features that help you work in multiple materials and manufacturing methods. It’s a great tool.”

Watch: HH Global’s SOLIDWORKS story

See how HH Global uses SOLIDWORKS and Visiativ software solutions to accelerate retail display product development.

Watch the full video case study here:

Considering SOLIDWORKS for your retail display and POS designs?

If you design retail displays or POS systems, the right CAD tools can improve speed, collaboration and manufacturing efficiency.

Discover how SOLIDWORKS and Visiativ solutions can help your engineering teams streamline workflows, accelerate product development and improve global collaboration.

Speak to our team today to find out how SOLIDWORKS can support your retail display and POS design projects.

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