I recently spoke with someone about design. We discussed the fine line between functional and high fashion design. The person I spoke with seemed to feel that stylish design either falls short of offering appropriate functionality to consumers or it’s designed out of the realm of cost effective, standard manufacturing. I had to agree.

It’s unfortunate that we see these high concept projects made and then not see them on store shelves anywhere. Why? Because the consumers can’t afford it. Because the project doesn’t communicate its function. Because the project is aesthetic in nature and is not considered useful to the consumer who simply can’t afford to budget for pretty things.

In some cases the fashion will confuse consumers as to the purpose of the product. That’s something we’ve fought with as designers and something you’ll fight with as an inventor.

In InventionLand our design team’s main purpose is to isolate the problem a product is supposed to solve and work up from there. Once we see the function it serves we can design a better product and worry about high fashion on the tail end. That’s more of the fun and games aspect of the project.

Here are a few things to think about when trying to make a project more stylish or sexy:

Does it confuse the consumer?

Does it compete with current product style trends?

Will its purpose be compromised for the sake of a “cooler” look?

Who is the target audience?

Does the design leave the product with a high price tag?

Can it be made efficiently with standard manufacturing capabilities?

Answer these basic questions and you’ll be on your way. But don’t limit yourself. Be creative.

With the holiday season upon us, a lot of us are looking to take some well-earned time away from work. I’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving with my family, as is tradition for me. It’s a great opportunity to escape from work and projects to unload and relax. Well, if it’s possible to leave work at work. Some people, me included, have the habit of taking their work with them everywhere.

Thinking of taking a break gave me an idea for a subject to discuss, and that’s time management. Not time management in the traditional sense that you’ll hear from a motivational speaker, I mean in the sense of when to take time off. At Davison Design and Development, our teams work on a lot of projects. And as any inventor will discover, putting a lot of work into a project can cause your brain to tighten up. I think of it as an open hand and a closed fist.

When your hand is open, this represents the times when ideas flow freely from your mind and you can work on a project with relative ease. However, there will come a time when problems and various issues arise. Some of these issues are related to the project and some are the issues we bring from the outside world and carry on our shoulders. (I say outside world, InventionLand is where we work to avoid the negativity of the day-to-day hustle and bustle). As these issues compile, the open hand begins to close. Eventually it will close and ideas just don’t flow. You’ve hit a wall. If you keep working, you’re going to get nowhere and the fist will close tighter, making your knuckles white. It’s time to step back.

Walk away. It’s that easy. Do something else, but do not keep pounding on that project, because you’re going to go nowhere. This is something we discovered with our team of Inventionmen. We want to make sure that this talented group of men and women understand themselves enough to know when to step back.

In fact, we operate under a four day work week. I know it sounds strange, right? We do 200 product samples a month and the team works only four days a week. They work four days a week, because the three day weekend allows them to recharge and completely eliminate the thought of work so they are completely refreshed come Monday.

So, as an inventor, you’re going to have a lot of moments when you become that tight, unlockable fist. Know when to step away, take time off and come back fresh. It’s when you step away and come back that the best ideas hit you in some of the strangest places.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Some things never change. There are just some things that hit me the same way almost every time. Take yesterday for example. I was in Home Depot and I found three of our new products on the shelf. I was kind of taken back. I mean, I knew they were going to be there, but I didn’t know when they got there or even how long they’d been there. But just like the first time I saw a product on the shelf, I felt a sense of accomplishment. To tell the truth, it made my heart race. To me, for some reason, it always feels like the first time you kiss someone or that first glimpse of gifts under the Christmas tree. Your heart starts to race, a few capillaries burst in your cheeks and you tilt your head to the side, smile and enjoy it.

Once the excitement settled, I realized that it was something deeper. It wasn’t just seeing these products on the shelf. What was really exciting was seeing the system bringing the products to the shelf. In InventionLand we use a process to get our products out in front of corporations for potential licensing.

We understand that getting a product licensed is risky and often times very difficult, but seeing those walls come down is what is important. We produce as many resources around a product for potential licensing as we can. It’s not a drawing on a piece of paper with a clump of wax that we give our clients. It’s an idea broken down to its core. It goes like this:

What is the problem this idea is supposed to solve? Does it solve that problem? If so, is there another product on the shelf that already services it? If so, can this idea become the product that picks up the shortfalls with added incentives? Then it’s designed. Then it’s engineered and rendered into a 3D model. Then the packaging is put together. How will it look on the shelf? Why should it look this way? Why should it be this way? How do we communicate this concept’s core functionality to the consumer? Is it being communicated in both its design and packaging?

In the end, the goal is to have the physical product prototyped with the engineering (to show that it can be actually manufactured and not some drawing that ignores the basic rules of math and manufacturing) with packaging and details about what the problem is, how it solves that problem and why it has more value in comparison to a similar product, if such exists.

Now, knowing that I have that all in place and that it happens in InventionLand in our design environment, on our build line, in our metal shops and wood shops, I get excited. So, yeah, I guess some things do change, but that feeling in the end remains the same – at least for me.