Meet Bernadette Marshall | NBG Drafting and Design

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bernadette Marshall a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Bernadette, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I never would have guessed I would end up running a business specializing in the creation of patent drawings. In South Africa I attended the Johannesburg High School for Art, Ballet & Music. I studied sculpture, figure drawing, oil and watercolor painting, stage design and photography. I went on to specialize in graphic design, honing my creativity in design studios and advertising agencies, including the Johannesburg office of Young & Rubicam. I came to the USA in 1989 and started a design studio. At the time I had a fuzzy idea of what a patent is but no idea of how the process works. I came in contact with a patent lawyer who was struggling to find someone to do patent drawings and I thought we should have a go. Since then, my company, NBG Drafting & Design grew into preparing technical illustrations almost exclusively. We now specialize in preparing complex drafting, including high-tech electronic schematics, mechanical and chemical drawings. These are used for design and utility patent applications.

Bernadette, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

The pandemic drove our biotech related drawings to an all-time high. Increased rush patent applications in novel technologies kept us very busy. But also, ordinary people, with passion, cleverness and determination, whose lives changed overnight came up with pandemic-driven inventions. These innovations came to us in the form of rough sketches, crude prototypes and sometimes nothing more than an idea. Our starting point is to come up with preliminary drawings. We create a 3D model of the invention to establish the shape, how it works, what connects it, what it’s made of, what are its unique features, what components are used. All the details are worked out in the preliminary design stage. From the 3D model we create patent drawings, files for prototyping and drawings for manufacturing. It’s very rewarding and humbling to see a product go from idea to marketplace and know that you were a part of that process.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

My business started in a one-bedroom apartment in Norcross. I was terrified of getting into debt, so I used the small amount of savings I had to purchase mostly secondhand equipment. At the time a large retail store called Builders Square went out of business. I purchased a load of stuff at their going out of business sale, items that I’m still using today.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Within the first year of my arrival in the USA my father passed away. It was tough not been able to get back to see him and at the time I wasn’t sure if my business would succeed. I know that he would be proud of me now.

Contact Info:

Website: https://nbgdrafting.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nbgdrafting_design/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nbgdrafting/wall/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nb-graphics-&-associates-inc.
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/patentdrawings

Image Credits

All artwork produced by NBG Drafting & Design.

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