Urbanid: Giving ideas a virtual reality

Originally from Hungary, Urbanid company founder Zoltán Fodor first came to Finland in 2009 as an exchange student. After this, he worked in the Kemi-Tornio region for a couple of years before establishing his own business in 2011.

Bringing ideas to life in the digital world

The benefits of 3D visualisation are many. It provides an innovative, visual way to present ideas to potential customers, such as new products or architectural projects. It gives ideas as close to a physical presence possible before they are developed in reality.

Working with a diverse range of clients across Finland, as well as projects of large and small scale, Urbanid’s services are tailored to customer needs, such as stand-alone 3D visualisations or as a package of images, animations and interactive models.  Zoltan explains: “My services apply to a wide area. So one kind of customer can be architect or another…companies producing their own products, say industrial companies making tools or equipment”.

Expanding networks and horizons

As Urbanid has developed, Zoltán has participated in a number of projects aiming to support entrepreneurship.  These included the NoCry2 project supporting youth entrepreneurship in northern European regions. Participating in projects like this have helped the company develop new skills and networks, as well as exposure to new perspectives and ideas. Zoltán also developed a video pitch for the business using a creative momentum project’s Video Pitching Toolkit.

A bright future

URBANID’s location in the Kemi-Tornio region of Lapland also has advantages for the company. A key part of the local economy are heavy manufacturing industries. 3D visualisation services have many uses in this sector. Zoltan also sees potential new opportunities emerging from Lapland’s growing tourism market.

Zoltán also teaches at Lapland University of Applied Sciences.  He’d like to expand his activities in the education sector and plans to develop training courses through Urbanid on 3D modelling software. Zoltan tells us:  “I really would like to focus more on this, to offer training courses throughout Finland…say on Blender…this is a free, open source software…it is really good for people who want to learn 3D modelling”.