IDESIO

Join history in the making! To submit a design, please create an account here (http://designer.idesio.com/user/login) by entering the following registration/invite code when asked: 2hb7y2 

During our private beta phase, the gallery will only be viewable by designers who have submitted an approved design. Once we have received enough designs, we will open the gallery to the broader design community and launch our first contest.

Please see the forum for more informaton on submission guidelines, our product brief, and any questions you might have.

Hurry and become a launch partner...the first 30 designers to submit an approved design will automatically become launch partners. Launch partners receive:

* Early access to the gallery

* A 12% royalty vs the standard 8% (A 50% premium!)

* Our eternal gratitude :)

* Greater chance of your product being selected since there will be less competition at launch!

Thank you!

Kickstarter made some policy changes today that impact product projects. Further validation that the world needs a platform dedicated to designers and products. Smart move for Kickstarter since they have no way to guarantee or even improve the odds that backers will ever see the product they think they're buying.

Nice NYT article on the resurgent interest in physical products.

“You can come up with a new concept or idea and you can really efficiently figure out if it’s a viable product,” Mr. Rahman said. “Now you can test a lot of ideas for a lot less capital and intensity.” But, he warned, “the scaling and supply chain, marketing and distribution is still quite hard.”

…investors need to be aware of the limitations of using Kickstarter as a retail store. Pledging money down doesn’t necessarily mean that users are guaranteed to get a product.

“My concern is they’re buying something that doesn’t exist yet,” Strickler said. “It’s not like the Pebble guy has a warehouse in Ohio. He has to make these things.”

A brilliant approach to assessing the emotional aspects of a product and attempting to quantify the potential demand.

I have two central parameters. One is called SMI. It means sensation, memory, and imagination, and tries to explore what people mean when they say, "Oh, what a beautiful object!" Beauty alone no longer expresses properly the relations of people with an object. You cannot use beauty when you describe a Starck project, for example. The second parameter is called CL, which means communication language. It measures the ability of a product to communicate something like status or values. A gold Rolex watch, for example, conveys wealth, while a Richard Sapper teakettle indicates cultural sensitivity. Each product can be scored 1 to 5 on each parameter. But we still had several products with the same scores, yet with very unequal lives. So I was obliged to add two more parameters: function and price.

Just a snippet from a wonderful, albeit old, interview with Alessi.

A great, albeit old, article on common mistakes and myths related to bringing products to market. A must read for any product designer with aspirations for a consumer product.  Our favorites quotes:

The best defense against competition is getting your product widely distributed before others can respond. When they come to market with a copy you’ll be far along on your next model.

and

Don’t overly rely on patents. Patents only give you the right to sue, and rarely prevent others from selling a product that’s just like yours. Remember that patents can take a few years to issue, while many products will have come and gone in that time. Even if you have an issued patent, it can take millions to defend it, money better spent on your next product.

But companies like Kickstarter, and soon idesio, will make them take another look.  There is a renaissance happening with physical products that can't be contained.  It's rife for innovation. Access to manufacturing, marketing and distribution has been limited to a small number of large brands for too long. We're going to help change that.

After watching our friends at Riveli struggle for over 3 years to get traction with their beautiful product, it's exciting to see them mentioned on the Today Show.  Their trials & tribulations inspired idesio.  It shouldn't be this hard to bring a beautiful product to market.  We're going to make it a whole lot easier.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/47188588/vp/47188650#47188650