Quirky

A quick quirky tip!

Hey All -

Hope you’ve enjoyed the new site and redesign.

Just wanted to call attention an awesome, new, information-rich portion of the site: the “LEARN” tab.

I’m not trying to give anyone reading homework or anything, but if you haven’t checked it out yet, the info in there may be worth a quick read. Specifically, check out the “best practices” section for advice on the best way to submit your product ideas, vote, connect with other users, use social sales, and earn overall influence.

And now, I thought I would share my favorite tip for those of you who are thinking of submitting your own idea:

Don’t Name Your Own Product:

You’ll get a chance to do this later. The community loves to name products. In the earlier stages of development, keep your titles descriptive and illustrative of the purposes and advantages to selecting your idea.

Of course, if you have any questions about any of this, hit up your community ambassadors at questions@quirky.com !

Ads: The Reason I Watch The Superbowl

This may not have been the quirkiest Superbowl ad, but it was certainly my favorite.

So simple, so topical, so brilliant. What were your favorites?

Product Afterlife?

When I was just a wee little lad, I loved to take my toys apart, much to my Mother’s dismay. Back then it was about being curious, now as an adult the ability (or accessibility) to disassemble something for reasons of repair, customization, or investigation becomes another aspect I find myself considering when buying a product. This notion is anything but new, but taking into account certain ecological and economic predicaments we find ourselves in now, isn’t it a necessity? A recent article on Core77 by Alex Diner, Afterlife: An Essential Guide To Design For Disassembly, looks at DFD or Design For Disassembly as both a business and design strategy. Diner walks us through a detailed roadmap that outlines a method of DfD, as well as shares examples of products that employ a similar tactic.

Field Trip To The Left Coast

Today, I woke up where tech startups are “supposed” to be HQ’d. We’ll see about that.

Outside of pretty frequent visits to the Apple Mothership in Cupertino, I’ve spent very little time meeting with start-ups out here.

Let it be known, I love New York (hence the B.I.G.), and I think it provides an amazingly perfect environment for quirky. I’m excited to see us grow in a place where design, business, and media all converge. It’s the concrete jungle where dreams are made of, after all.

As for the schedule… today and tomorrow, Mitch and I have action-packed days of meetings with all types of people… investors, partners, and friends. I’m excited to see what the business/start-up culture is like out here first hand. I’ve just heard the myths/legends.

If I had to guess, I’d bet everything is pretty much the same, besides the bagels.

Tuesday night, I’m heading down to Long Beach to meet up with Mike Lacy & Jason Port for a mind blowing second half of the week. We’ll be attending the TED conference, rubbing elbows with people with much larger brains and trophy closets.

Look for more from me during TED. I look forward to sharing some of the inspiration that gets sprung upon us with you.

Do Not Delete

We’re working on the design for our new weekly e-mail newsletter, which will hopefully start arriving in your inboxes next week. I wanted to throw this question out there: what makes the difference between a newsletter that you delete instantly, before even opening, and a newsletter that you’re excited to open and read? We want to make sure we’re not sending out Junk Mail.

A Product With A Kindred Design Spirit

Hello there, Quirks.

Despite my techie background, I’m a blog virgin, so be gentle on me.

Working on Pen Zen reminds me of my knife block, which is awesome for those of us still in the phase of life where nothing comes in sets: www.kapoosh.com.

Meet Gui

Gui Weinmann is one of the latest additions to the Quirky team, working with our development team to ensure the best user experience on Quirky.com. Make him feel welcome!

Gui is a technologist who likes to build good things. Before joining the Quirky team, he built the virology database at Princeton University, a secure online solution for a popular liquor shop, and a sales management platform for eBay, but he insists that none of these experiences was as cool as the time he worked for P. Diddy. Gui graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and has never been to Asia, the Middle East, or Antarctica — yet! He speaks three spoken and innumerable programming languages. He loves his wife, all his nieces and nephews, and cycling. He thinks the best ideas are the quirky ones.

Product 0030: Let Your Imagination Go Wild!

Here’s a little somethin’ to inspire you to get involved in the Product Research phase of Product 0030: a funky, fresh, and functional Apple iPad Case.

No, not THAT kind of case.

The Trouble With Social Media Is That We Are All Way Too Awesome

Since this week is New York’s Social Media Week, I’ve decided to weigh in on something troubling me: I’ve yet to encounter anyone that can fully grasp the significance of social media. This might be due in some part to the only people I speak to on a regular basis being Facebook stalkers or randoms so taken with my 140 character missives that they must track me down via Foursquare/Latitude… but at the end of the day these should be the very people exposing its fundamentals rather than waxing poetic about their last awkward lunch date.  I say this because social media has exposed us all for what we really are: geniuses. We are all Brian Wilson, but a Brian Wilson that went to bed before making Pet Sounds. That is to say: we create mighty inescapable works, (suffer a nervous breakdown), and the world moves on with our endeavors forgotten or relegated to a heap of Web 2.0 ephemera. I suspect this is why I’m fascinated with Quirky. It is such a refreshing break from the typical collective blathering. We can finally make the products of late night ramblings, cafe frustrations, or cubical quandaries into physical bits rather than strictly electronic bits. Or failing that we can scrape up the remnants of last decade’s snark and so eloquently crush the hopes and dreams of those more talented and successful than ourselves.

Does Your Desk Look Like This?

Community member Richard Penepacker sent us this photo, literally begging us to help him rid his desk of clutter by enabling him to order the Space Bar online. We took one look and got right on it.

Richard’s already committed to purchasing a Space Bar; isn’t it time you do too? We’re only 86 pre-sales away from threshold. Help us kick it up a notch — BAM! — by putting in your pre-sale commitment now. Who knows? If we can drum up enough momentum, we might get this thing into production by tomorrow! Then we’d have a double whammy — two products in two days — which would make ideator Michael Cavada and the Quirky staff very, very happy.

The Space Bar is a simple, elegantly designed desk accessory that functions to minimize clutter while also providing additional USB ports for your computer.

When you are done typing for the day, simply slide your keyboard into the designated space below the shelf. Use the shelf to store any desk items you like – keys, digital camera, Split Stick, picture frames, Cable Caps, sticky notes and more. Coming back to work in the morning is always easier when returning to a clean desk!

In addition to the storage and tidy-ness benefits, The Space Bar also has 6 USB ports conveniently located in the front of the design. No need to conserve your ports – Now you can have your camera, ipod, Split Stick, and more hooked in all at once!

The Space Bar is constructed of aluminum with durable hard plastic accents. It can stow a keyboard up to 18″ long by 1.5″ high.