Digital Design for a Granite Memorial Bench from Start To Finish

A month ago I had watched Chase Jarvis and Ramit Sethi talk about freelance work and the mentality required to do acquire work like a pro.  The main take away I got was to consider all the work I was doing (day job, other projects, new projects) and consider them like a juggler.  It requires a lot of work to keep several different projects going, but over time the goal is to be juggling the right project.

I browsed through http://www.reddit.com/r/Jobs4Bitcoins occasionally, but the moderator set up a little recipie with IFTTT.com where I get an email everytime someone posts a new job.  I ignore most jobs since they are either outside my skill set or not interesting to me, but one job caught my eye.  The gentleman had recently lost his wife and needed a digital illustration for a granite memorial bench.  I had never done work like this before, so I cleaned up my portfolio and sent him a bid for the work.

He said yes.  I was slightly beside myself with excitement!  

I called him up and then reality hit.  He just lost his wife and he has a young daughter. Yikes!

I thought about what would happen if my wife passed on in a similar way and the emotional heaviness of this work set in.  He had already purchased the memorial bench, but the engravers were difficult to reach.  And on top of that even dealing with anything related to his wife was challenging.

I knew this was slightly outside my expertise, but I also agreed to communicate with the engravers and make sure I could get in touch with the actual engraver -- the client always had to be patched through someone else, if they were around -- and get them early samples of the design to make sure it would engrave well.

After a few calls, I got the name of the engraver and started working on drafts.  The client wanted a quaint bridge in the center, and I started drawing out different bridges.  

I didn't one every bridge to be based on something I'd found on the Internet, so I branched out and used magazines, books, and my imagination as sources for various briges.  I presented my initial draft to my client and awaited his feedback.

He said he liked the middle bridge on the first row.  He and his wife were pretty conservative and the bridge matched their aesthetic.

I did a few more to try to pull in concepts he wanted to see with people acting as a bridge.  In the end he still preferred his first choice and like seeing additional material textures added to the bridge.

I was pretty happy with the results, then he emailed me this image.

He wanted to incorporate the border work into the piece.  I will admit, my initial reaction was jaw drop that nearly bruised my chin.  Then I zoomed in and got lost with all the details of the pattern.  It seemed it was repeated, but I had no freaking clue how to consistently isolate a base pattern since the corners joined in a complex way with the vertical and horizontal patterns.

I waited a few days, and when he asked about how things were going, I kicked my design mojo into overdrive and just did it.  I drew out each line, and copied and pasted where I could.  

Eventually I banged out one panel, and was able to give him a draft.  The main issue was the white space on either side of the first and last panel.  The empty parts where due to a dimension mismatch.  The border pattern he wanted was not as wide as the bench width. 

He used Photoshop and emailed me a way the sides could be expanded.  I really wish I could have used the same method to stretch out the first and last panels, but I was using a vector based program which is essentially based on dots and lines.  It would be pretty obvious if something wasn't lined up.

I redrew the sides and took a portion of the border pattern to repeat the wider pattern until the first and last panel were much wider.

My client also requested there be a little more life in the center panel.  I added more trees a couple more birds, and the river took me 3 tries, but I eventually had something I was happy with.

Here's the center panel by itself.

I had sent out a test file to the engraver and an early draft to make sure I wasn't breaking any design limits since I had never designed for stone.  But he sent back images using a similar stone and the results came out pretty good.  

I spoke to a friend about this project and how each phase of it required different approaches and different energies very similar to the beginning, middle, and end game of chess. 

The client is now awaiting photographs of the final engravings and I've requested copies so I can share them here as well.

The Illusion of being powerless

No one person has full control over their environment.  But being in an environment with very little control can fool one to thinking that narrow sliver of control is all that's available outside the controlling environment.  The limits in the controlling environment aren't absolute and the moment the controlling environment is shed, the truth of new freedoms, like a gust of sea air, hits your lungs and you feel reborn.

The key is to move into more freeing environments as time passes and help others do the same.  Freedom equals love in many ways and doing things your love along with being with people you love helps you feel that freedom.  This environment is crucial for germination of ideas and personal development to grow into our better selves.

Just as putting aside your desires to love others shows love, putting aside your freedom so others can be free shows your love of freedom + love for the one you sacrifice for. 

Interruption versus Invitation

My son had the strange pleasure of being invited to a girls birthday party after a string of action-themed birthday parties.  Take months of transformers and action hero themed decor, cakes, and goody bags and place them next to a party with every utensil, napkin, inch of frosting a bright pink.  It was quite a shock for him and he quickly slipped into the zone.  The sort of zone where people let him continue to play musical chairs after he has lost in previous rounds.  He was able to find solace in a toy he found from another room. It was a pink Hello Kitty remote controlled car.

Among all the girly vibe, he was a lost little boy who clung on to one thing reminding him of what he found fun and adventurous.

Contrast his pink experience of interruption to the event that happened this morning.  It has actually happened many mornings, and it all started with a seed.

At the beginning of the year, I was laying out different seeds for this years garden.  It is a common practice after 5 years of gardening, but this year I decided to include my son and daughter in the early stages of the process.  They looked at my seed inventory and both agreed they'd love to grow corn, and to be specific, corn intended to become popcorn.

I had grown corn for popcorn for a couple years, but they were new to every stage of the process from seed to sprout.  They often daily asked, "Is it done yet?", just after the corn seeds were planted.  A gardeners work is really never done and they watched the plant disappear to shoot out of the dirt and spring up with it's slender and long green leaves.  Each week it added inches to it's stature and my son and daughter made sure the plants were well watered.

In time, we took the best of the indoor corn plants and set them out in a row on the side of garden near the middle of the yard.  They soon learned to see how the outdoor corn plants were doing by daily walking through the garden.  Each new day if I decided to do a walk, I would always extend an invitation to my kids, and they would accept most invitations.

My son would toss on his sandals and see how the corn plants grew from being as high as his knees to a height beyond his reach even while on his tippy toes.  Then his visits revealed the plant could grow even taller than me, which was about the time the corn plants flowered.  He watched bees comb through the flowers with the yellow powdery sacks on their legs and soon he saw the fruits of pollination.  The corn grew from in between the stalk and leaf.  Once the silky tops progressed from a faint green to a rusty brown, he could take ear of corn indoors.  We set the corn on a window sill to harden in the sun and we are currently waiting for our first seed-to-seed bowl of popcorn.

I've experienced the interruption versus invitation contrast several times when working on creative projects. There are times where I fall into circles with people who are more experienced and have more resources than I do.  Some are more graceful about it.  Others use their track record to remind me of the distance between us.  My presence, to them, is more of an interruption.

I am reminded to put those experiences in context with the other experiences where I'm handed a blank canvas, blank check, a new opportunity, or new relationship.  The newness of the experience demands my presence and is even made better by it with some effort.  It is an open invitation to not be afraid of the future and to work, love and enjoy life.  These are the experience we write stories of and live for.

 

Garden Habits + The Growth of Corn

A common habit I have when gardening is to identify a plant by it's smell.  I never bend down and sniff, but rubbing the leaves between my thumb and index finger gathers enough scent to aid my guesses.

Another habit is to take small harvests of my sage plant every time I walk about the garden.  I love having my mouth full of a fresh sage leaves - which tastes more like furry medicine than anything.

This is the first year our corn crop was selected by our kids.  They both love popcorn and, sometime in the spring, decided to throw way too many seeds into a tiny blue pot once used by my wife for oregano and other herbs.

In a magical world or highly advanced society, the corn plants would appear a foot tall the next day. Unfortunately, time is not on our side and lends us glimpses of growth only for the most patient of souls.  My kids would ask me each day, "Can I see how the corn plant is doing?", and I'd let them see.  Their faces showed some disappointment, especially compared to the speedy growth of a coffee plant.

Soon the time came where the frosts of winter retreated, and I placed a few corn plants down each week.  In New England planting early has almost always killed all of my former indoor plants due to surprise frosts, or pests like the Japanese beetle.  After a few months in the ground, 2 corn plants grew up to be taller than my son and very close to my height.  When they flowered, they were around 5.5 feet.  The corn plants that were installed into the garden after the early planted crop didn't grow anywhere near as tall.

My son witnessed all this growth and now instead of a stalk that was as big as his arm, he sees the stalk waving in the sun at heights he doesn't yet know.  Within his reach he can graze the hairy tops of the corn husks on the way.

Postage Stamp Holder

Any snail mail die hards will apprieciate this postage stamp holder by Mr Nib.

 

Thoughts from the start of July

Garden

I do my best to sneak out to the garden before I begin the day job.  It is my little sanctuary.  A reminder that despite the tornadoes, the heat, humidity, and selfish scavengers plants are determined to grow.  From the chewed leaves on the sunflowers to the weeds encroaching all plants from every side, plants still rise above it all.  This ascending not only makes sure the plant continues to get sun, but it ensures it's fruit isn't lost.

Another thing I learn from the garden is to embrace the unexpected.  My wife was adamant about bringing black raspberries, golden raspberries, and blackberries into our back yard.  We've enjoyed their presence, but a couple of years ago, wild blackberries grew through the gaps of our berries and now produce more berries than all our plants combined.  They are thorny and often grow in hard to reach areas, which means my hands and dress shirt get several pokes for each handful of blackberries.  The upside is wild blackberries are ready to harvest earlier than the other berries.  We get a thorny preview of what's to come.

I am careful to not shove my love for gardening down my kids throat, and watch them to see what interests them the most about this life shooting up from the ground.  My son has taken up my habit of tasting fresh sage leaves upon each trip to the garden.  My daughter loves picking blackberries, and makes it clear that her power extends to any berries I've picked.

Design Project #1

My client and fellow Quirky.com community member and I worked on this project for a few weeks.  I struggled coming up with an appropriate render, but drawing it out by hand seemed to work.  It is a concept/product pitch for an animal track maker.  I envision more animals going extinct, but I don't want their memory to be forgotten.  This product would serve as a nice way to remember those animals that aren't around anymore, and remind us to care for those that are almost extinct.

Design Project #2

Being at the end game phase, where a prototype will be ordered feels good.  Since the design I'm working on requires color, I'll be using tinkercad to add certain hues to the design.  Colored tinkercad designs make it perfectly into Shapeways.com and can be ordered in multicolor sandstone.

Design Project #3

Oh you!  Target of my procrastination!  This project will most likely be several games, but my hope is to
have something ready for a conference I'll be attending in New York.  My primitive tests so far have been successful.

(Esc) - reset
(Up,Down,Left,Right Arrows) - Move the stick figure.

Technique my brother taught me (draw and trace)

I had a rough time figuring out how I would render a giraffe.  I'm sure it's possible, but I wanted to get my results done fast.  My client already paid, and I have 2 other projects that need attention.

So I started with a pencil sketch.  It's pretty simple and fits with how I have been presenting ideas on quirky.com.   The title on top and the meat of the idea filling most of the page.

From there, I took a picture of this with my iPhone and used inkscape to trace the outlines and color in the rest.  

I figure I will do more animals based on the quirky communities recommendations and requests, so this is the main image I used for the idea submission.

One step closer

In Central Massachusetts the rain comes at a time where I'm dealing with a cold as the summer approaches and bracing myself for another Monday morning.  While I do feel like I have a fever, my daughter assured me my temperature was only 22.  

The rain acts as a natural soother.  All the diligent leaves that can be seen shine with a green glow.  Even with these perceived forces before me, I look for a pick me up to help start my day with a high.
This pick me up comes in the form of two poems.
I definitely see this world, as resources continue to grow, polarizing our population.  People are going to be more free to do work that makes them stand out.  That highlights their strengths and helps them find others during their success.  For me, I find that the quiet poets that share their minds on reddit.com/r/poetry act as the perfect remedy and are a consistent source of inspiration.  Not all poetry there does the trick.  I tend to favor shorter poems with potent the metaphors.  


I thought about poets and realized that hip hop artists fall in this category.  They often have the fortune of being backed by a beat and tons of promotion.  The poets I read have very little promotion, and I find my favorites after passing by 20 or so other poems that aren't right for me.  The ones that stand out are backed by the world I bring to them.  The noise in my lab and my blur of a commute...  The happiness I feel when my 2 year old daughter can successfully crack eggs and wash her hands to stir the eggs as they cook...  The isolation that can happen in the suburbs... Finding out a new neighbor has a garden... All this... every ounce of it is the background for the poems I found.  

My Final Poem for my Creative Writing class by reddit user Darmuh 

When a fire starts to burn
And the smoke hugs the flames,
It becomes my concern,
How they know me by name.
They creep at night,
Stalk in the day,
They creep at night,
When you walk their way.
You may never know
Or be able to grasp,
Where these creatures grow,
In a land so vast.
They travel in pairs,
Whilst hunting for you,
And to your despair,
They never lose.
They creep at night,
When the fire starts to burn,
They creep at night,
And for you they yearn.
Memory distortion,
A sense of Déjà vu,
Memory distortion,
Have I met you?
A man starts a fire,
The smoke hugs the flame,
And sure as hellfire,
They call for his name,
For he shall expire as a
casualty in their reign.
They creep at night,
They never lose,
They creep at night,
Whilst hunting for you.
And now they’re here.

And this next poem pushes my levels of inspiration even further.  

Fatescissor by Fancypan7z0 

The womb was warm,
Her embrace was firstly cold.
Clotho made form,
As the pink mass wailed.
As a fine tyke you were raised,
By father’s grin and mother’s kiss.
Under the watchful gaze,
Of keen Lady Lachesis.
You conquered the world,
By paintbrush and TV screen,
Your fabric slowly unfurled,
Through the hands of three blind queens.
Your aged body grazing fate,
You know what you shall face.
Now you patiently await,
Utropos’ scissored embrace.

At this point, I was totally in the moment.  I started to get some perspective on the past weekend and the wonderful things that had happened.  In this moment I formed a poem out of appreciation for my morning trips to the garden (often spurred lovely conversations with my wife) and the simulation ride at the Museum of Science in Boston with my two kids.  The simulation was of underwater craft travelling to the Burmuda Triangle looking for wreckage of lost planes and ships.  Both kids sat on my lap as we were guided with narration into the depths of the Atlantic.  My morning garden walks are to see how my plants are doing, and prune + pinch when necessary.  I always am surprised with plant growth, which recently was fueled by three 90 degree days.  The poem I crafted was a fusion of the garden world with the underwater world.  I go by bitcoinbash on reddit.

Passing Phase by bitcoinbash

This was the rain
unkempt knot twirls
stroking garden plains
combing strands under. 

Airy roots discovered
sea floor vessels
what my eye would measure
was time scarred with wonder.

 For the first 2 poems I had the opportunity to tip them in a new and trendy online currency called bitcoins.  Someone else had tipped me and I passed on the favor.  What I didn't expect was the warm feeling associated with quickly tipping someone who inspired me.  It gave me the virtual equivalent of dropping change into the hat of a generous musician busking on a busy street.  

Good Week

I say good week for a couple reasons, but after my first week back from vaca, I wish I could take another one. The trip would definitely be to a country I've never travelled to. 1) My poetry was published at the San Francisco Peace and Hope Poetry Journal. Yeah!! The night I decided to send my poetry to them for consideration was a week where I scanned 100s of craigslist entries for quick design jobs. I sent several emails and the entry for SF's peace hope journal seemed kinda out of my league, but I had been writing poetry for several years and sitting on it. I figured sending the latest three to them wouldn't hurt. They accepted two and published them here. And if you don't feel like clicking that link, here are the poems.

Hopefuls

Up
and out of this dim alley
my bones ache and are pulled
I take steps towards the sliver of light
careening from fruit and window sills.

To the left, whizzing one ways
cars speed as those destination deficient ones.
To my right a wise woman's hands
busy weaving her clothes on.

Migration of migrations,
those who are free to speak and step
gather their pace on the sidewalk
in slow dreary form this congregation stops.

Watching the sun rise from over there
to inside our eyes like a distant surprise unwrapped.
Glowing light bounces from cheek to cheek
and all who are grown are born again.

Ruben Brito

Face

Escaped words
float up
side scroll
to go beyond.
Disbelief rolls away
when your face
engulfs faith.
All suffering as an arrow shot skyward
departing like a cloaked rider.
The land's bullseye is a pearly entry
releasing this vague memory. 

Ruben Brito 

The beauty of the internet shows I can submit a poem as a Hispanic in my 30s and not get beat up for it.  It can rest quietly with the works of other more talented beings and look up and around.

2) My design for quirky's Butter Boss won a design round.  It was merged with 2 other design suggestions and this means my name will be written on a patent.  FOR THE FIRST TIME!! Woo!  This one really makes me feel good, because there's been no other opportunity I've had to have the thousands of dollars to patent a design.  Quirky's open process makes it much more accessible.

3) I got my first paying rendering client!  She is a great person to work with.  Here's one of the renders she paid for and the link to the idea submission.

http://www.quirky.com/ideations/507011

I'm really not into celebrating my own wins, but I've grown to see the value of sharing anything accomplished, created, or completed and how it acts as a reset button.  Taking life's events out... externalizing them through writing, singing, dancing, or painting helps you see who you really are.  I get to see that despite my fatal fetish for being creative, my creations don't define me.  I am who I am.  Approaching this reality and appreciating others just for who they are is truly worth celebrating.

Father's Day

With all the father's day hub bub I look at myself and take a deep dive to see what can be done better. You see the truth is cartoons are great, but they polarize a simple truth residing in each individual. We all have the capacity to do good and bad to ourselves and others.

We all are the good guy and bad guy inside and in the world. A He-man and a Skeletor all in one package. So the true question is, how are we doing in this fight? To be less bad and more good? I assume in this sort of struggle we are all in the same boat and agree that being more good is better for the world. It is also easy to continue doing the same amount of good as I did last year.

But doing more good is the true goal. As a dad I need to lay myself on the surgery table and see what makes me tick. What am I excited about? Am I excited about the things my kids get excited about? How often do I play with them versus do my own thing? Can I share my passions with my kids + wife? Is my job sending me back home a happy dad or an angry dad?

That last point really hits home, because my son new we were done with our last vacation from looking at my face the first day coming back from work.

He said I stopped smiling.

I do have an obligation to work and pay the bills. And I have the good fortune to have clients lining up for design jobs, and rendering work for side income, but me coming home with a frown means whatever time I do have, lunch time, time before I go to work, needs to be hacked so my mind isn't dwelling on the worst events from the day. I know father's day is holiday to celebrate dads, but for me it is more of a call to be a better dad. To give my kids a life experience boosting them out to be determined flourish.

The me that comes home from work is nowhere near there and this Father's day, like a late New Years Resolution, is a quiet and strong reminder that I need to continue finding environments where I thrive and teaching my kids to do the same.

The Gardens

Just as the sun was rising I ran out to check on my plants.  Over the weekend I tossed Swiss chard, romaine lettuce, and broccoli into the ground from Gillis Landscaping, our local garden work supply shop.

To the left of these well established plants, were the 4 corn shoots I brought out early.  One one has survived due to this Monday's temperatures slipping into the low 30s.  I rounded the garden to the back where 3 of the 9 tomato plants where  tucked into the ground.  There's something magical about tending your garden in the early morning hours.  There is a special light and silence that makes everything look new born.  Bird calls stand out against the resting car engines.

I have been walking during lunch, but I wanted to incorporate exercise a bit more challenging.  I grabbed my bike, pumped up the tires, and rolled off down my street.  Before my ride, I set my timer to 15 minutes.  I figured I'd bike 15 minutes and give myself the same time to return.

It had been months since I biked and the simple aspects of rolling along a road at a fraction of a car's width became entertaining.  I rolled up a few streets, enjoyed a hand full of hills, and found myself passing a large well organized garden.  There was a sign casually placed on the ground, but I figured I'd check it out on my way back.

I rolled up to a river and saw someone had beat me to this spot.  Someone sat in there car immersed in the tranquility of the moment.  There was a low and slow fog adorning this river and several avian creatures soaking in the silence.  The river went beyond this person's car and scurried off to go under a bridge.  I crossed the bridge on my bike and I started hearing my timer.

I turned around and went back over the bridge.  Sped past the hushed driver, and stopped by the large garden.  One of the gate doors was unlocked.  I pushed it open and peered in to see everything neatly organized and in boxes.  Chives, tomatoes, beans, and more spring friendly plants thriving in their environment.  Certain boxes were completely empty.  I kept walking and seeing row after row of gardens all tucked into little spaces.  I worked my way back to the front to see the barely noticeable sign and it appears this well kept space is my town's community garden.

What wants to live forever?

A friend of mine on facebook asked if I knew of a company perfect for mailing away her products that contained mercury like CFL bulbs.  I didn't have an answer and threw out the first thing I remembered about mercury from a visit my wife and I made to Barcelona.

We were soaking in the splendor of Spain.  We basking in Gaudi's striking architecture seen in the Segrada Familia and random homes and apartments.  We lamented that the chocolate museum was closed due to a local holiday.  The one museum we made a point to see was the Miro Foundation gallery on the hill of Montjuic.

We entered and saw Miro's signature awkward, colorful, and visually challenging paintings and sculptures.  These all weren't that large, but the carpet dangling from the ceiling appeared to be 40 or 50 feet long.

Mercury fountain at the Miro Foundation in Barcelona, Spain

There was also the egg sculpture or I should say the negative egg sculpture, because there was an egg shaped hole perfect for a tourist to take a photo.

The most memorable and most scary exhibit was the preserved mercury fountain.  The minute you see what appears to be liquid metal constantly flowing with the consistency of water, it seems like magic.  And it is magic for all intensive purposes because the fountain has been flowing for nearly 80 years behind sealed glass.  Normally it takes thousands of degrees to make any metal move like fluid.  It would never retain it's original color, but be  glowing orange and white.  But this fountain was naturally doing what seemed impossible.

My childlike excitement wore off recently when I read that mercury can act as a neurotoxin.  To recap, this mercury fountain hasn't evaporated in over 80 years and is a neurotoxin.  Humans engage in the deadliest pastimes!!  And they still do.  I have several "energy efficient bulbs" and one thermostat with mercury which again stays around for a long time.

Yesterday I took my son and daughter out for a walk on our local rail trail.  My son asked if the Rail Trail was a good guy or a bad guy.  He also asked if the Woods were a good guy or bad guy.  He gets this polarization from the latest cartoons he fancies like Batman (Bold and Brave) and Dino Squad.  I told him neither were bad or good.  It was up to the person passing through to know what was bad for them.  If they know what poison ivy looks like, they will be wise to avoid it to save their skin.  If they don't know, they will learn the hard way.

When it comes to mercury, I don't want any of us to learn the hard way.  Please do your homework and avoid buying products with mercury.  Take appropriate steps to remove those items from your home as well.  When I say remove, I don't mean trash the stuff, but see if the company taking your trash will accept your CFL bulbs, batteries, and mercury laden thermostats.  I use Waste Management for trash removal, and they have a mail in program.

On this fine Earth Day, try to make decisions that don't let toxic problems linger for those young ones to come.  For me, relearning and a breaking of habits to make wise decisions can be cumbersome, but it's still worth while exercise.

Wild Wild West

During breakfast this morning I got the motivation to hang up my son's latest art pieces.  The titles "Snake Shooting Pine Cones" and "Dog Going To The Weights" give a hint of his creations.  The paintings themselves kind of hit at the titles.  But when the titles are combined with the images it is a sign of his genius.

Now I have a right to be biased -- I am his Dad after all -- but I don't want him to ever stop creating.  To ever stop thinking out of the box, in the box, or making new boxes.  When he asked me about the wild wild west this morning I was very careful with my words.  Mind you, I did no research to craft my answer, and most of the historical info (if any) is wrong.  But I spoke more out of observation and experience.

I explained how people eventually got bored with the East Coast... with the rules, structures, and tired of being starved of opportunity.  Eventually they set out to the West for gold or just for a new start.  They were walking on Indian ground to get to the West and needed to be careful, because the land wasn't theirs.  Some of these people were mean to Indians and some Indians retaliated.  Whoever survived eventually made it to the West Coast and are the forefathers of the cities and towns there today.

I paused for a minute to gather my thoughts then regrouped with this "moral of the story" close.  I said, "Sometimes you have a desire to do something different than everyone else.  You'll have to deal with friendly and hostile people, who have been hurt in the past.  The goal is to fulfill your desire in a peaceful way".

We are all children, really, when we see how as adults our knowledge is dwarfed as more knowledge is acquired.  Those who are close minded whether in their living room or board room, will be surpassed by those who are bold and open minded.  But in the end everyone under the sun will be inspired to do something and try something new in a big or small way.  It could be moving to a different country, or changing your style of clothes.  The goal for us all is to never be afraid to step out and fulfill our inner desires.  This challenge and burden of new desires should always be satisfied.  It is the only way we will grow.  Our mirrors should reveal different a different "us" every month, every season, and every year.

My product idea is being discussed live tonight.

I've been a part of quirky.com for about 3 years and this will be the first time one of my ideas has made it to the final evaluation.  Quirky is a community driven consumer product development company.  Every aspect of the product from the name, to design, tagline, and price is voted on by the community.  

The first step though is to get into a live evaluation and my idea for a expanding cookware hanger was selected.




These evaluations are broadcast live at http://www.quirky.com/live and there's a running chat along side the video where the community discusses the current idea.

I encourage you to check it out.  It starts at 6pm tonight and it's a great way to see a new method of how products go from an idea to a shelf and eventually into a home.