April Newsletter | It All Started On a Napkin

When was the last time you had a great idea outside the office?

One evening over dinner, Rollin King drew three dots on a napkin, making a simple triangle. Each dot represented a major airport in Texas, illustrating the business model for what was to become Southwest Airlines.

The award-winning design for the Audi TT literally started as a Freeman Thomas sketch on a cocktail napkin. He claims that sketching helps him to think, experiment and explain, focusing on the shape and not the details.

In 1876, one of the greatest inventions of our time was born when a man jotted down a very rough sketch on a napkin. This was the conception of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell.
Alexander Graham Bell's "Telephone" Courtesy of the Library of Congress

The Most Absorbent Ideas

Costing as little as .018 cents each, napkins are the ideal place to express the next million dollar idea. But why are they so effective? First of all, there's always one around! Most importantly, limited space requires concise and simple visual solutions that communicate more complex concepts. This is often very effective when demonstrating the feasibility of a business or product when meeting with a friend or pitching to a potential investor.Spontaneity also plays a role in the napkin's history for spawning great ideas. When sitting down to a relaxed environment with dinner and drinks, inspiring conversations can lead to innovations. Thinking outside of the box often finds itself within the borders of a simple napkin.

A Complete Guide to Product Development

Bring Your Napkin to the Table:

Taking Your Product Idea to Market

Our current economic adventure calls for innovative ideas that enhance the lives of others, but these ideas need development to be realized into great products. Ensuring a good return on your investment requires an understanding of the necessary steps to producing a successful product.

ID-ONE has recently published a white paper on the complete product development life cycle from idea to market, offering inside knowledge on the necessary steps, including some that are often overlooked, for product success. To view the complete article, click here.

Quotes to design by:

“The absence of design is a hazardous kind of design. Not to design is to suffer
the costly consequences of design by default.”

- From the ten principles of Design Necessity of the 1st Federal Design Assembly, 1973

Got a Great Idea? Consider the 3 Ables

Let's face it, not all ideas are good ones and they can't all be the very best. Will your idea be the next “must have?” With a little forethought anything is possible!

Top money making ideas usually have three things in common. Check your product idea against the following "able" factors:

Profit-able Is there money to be made?

• Taking into account manufacturing costs and the demand in the market place, is the price of the product enough to cover costs and profit? Treat profit as a fixed cost.

Protect-able Is your idea unique and is it something that you can call your own?

• Securing a claim to your IP (intellectual property) adds more value to your product. Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, and Trade Secrets protect the function of your product as well as the form and associated artwork.

Scale-able Scalability is your product's potential to economically grow your business model when given additional resources.

• To scale vertically, a product expands the business by growing into additional markets and adding channels of distribution. Scaling horizontally involves the growth of the business model and profits through the development of additional products and services based on the original product.

For a silly video about Napkins that we just thought was funny. Click here.

ID-ONE's "Wink" to Product Design

The Slinky was "discovered" in 1943 by a naval engineer, Richard James, when a spring fell to the ground while developing a meter to monitor the horsepower on battleships. After two years of perfecting the design, the Slinky was born and has now sold over a quarter billion worldwide.

ID-ONE presents:

Understanding Industrial Design and Prototyping

Sponsor: The Austin Inventors and Entrepreneur's Association (AIEA) When: April 1, 2009

Recent Events

4/3 - 4/4
Thinking Creatively Design Conference An Out of the Box Event Union, NJ

4/7
Tailgate Tech Happy Hour Austin Technology Council Austin, TX

4/14
Technology for a Smarter PlanetAustin Women in Technology Austin, TX

4/25
SEEing Green ConferenceMoving Beyond the Green Los Angeles, CA

5/6
Texchans CIO Panel ForumTechnology Executives Network Austin, TX


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