Quirky

Move-it!

I just came across this product concept called “Move-it” designed by David Graham. After recently going through the pains of moving myself, I could relate to the designer’s motivation. “Move-it” certainly has its limits (like a rainy day for example) but I still thought it has great potential. It’s inexpensive, light-weight, portable construction makes it an ideal utility product for the college student or urban dweller.  Here’s Graham explaining where his inspiration came from:

The inspiration for Move-it came from watching members of the public struggling to carry packages. I was struck by the paradox of modern life; promising everything ever quicker, easier and more convenient, and the reality of what I saw: that there are a million-and-one reasons it doesn’t work out for people.

Check out the video below for a demonstration.

Welcome, Mariana!

Mariana is the newest gal to join Quirky’s talented set of design interns, coming to us from Israel’s leading school for art and design. Her solid sketching and Solidworks abilities will make her a huge asset to the QDS… plus we’re intrigued by her prototyping skills (see favorite products). We’re excited to welcome her to the team!

Name: Mariana Folberg

Hometown: Jerusalem

School: Bezalel Academy of Art & Design

Design inspiration: Ron Arad, Ross Lovegrove.

Favorite product I own: Dremel, heat gun.

What makes her quirky: Fun follows function.

You’ve Got Questions, Ben’s Got Answers

Crazy stuff went down during today’s live Q&A…

- Sneak peeks of the new site redesign.

- Shots of the Tape Stamp prototype in action.

- Ben impressively balancing a Space Bar prototype on his head.

… plus, all of the questions you’ve been dying to hear answered.

If you missed it, don’t despair! No secrets in this house.

Splash Stacks Logo Inspiration

For Splash Stacks we decided to go with 4 images to help inspire the logo creation process. The images below represent some basic design elements we are currently investigating. Each one tells its own story.

Image 1 is about gesture

Image 2 color juxtaposition

Image 3 simple geometry

Image 4 material layering

Remember try not to take these product images too literally when designing your logos. Instead, use them as loose starting points or abstract references for your creative process.

Good luck!

Join Us Tomorrow @ 5PM: Live Quirky Q&A!

Questions? Concerns? Just wanna talk?

Lucky you! Tomorrow, Ben will be holding a live Q&A sesh. Deets below:

Chat w/ Ben

Tuesday, August 10

5-5:30pm EST

Live on uStream

We’ll post a link and embed the stream here when we go live.

Oh, and if you’re unable to attend our lil’ party, post your questions to the forum and we’ll try to get to them if time allows.

Also, mark your calendars: Quirky Town Meeting (Numero Tres) is August 26. We’ve got some big news to share — you’re not gonna want to miss this!

Quirk Of The Week: Tyrel Hatfield

Tyrel Hatfield has made our week! Actually, he’s been helping to make our week for quite some time now with consistently high quality designs that push the creativity level of our logo phases to greater heights. You don’t even need to read his profile to know that he is sharing the benefits of his graphic design and advertising experience with the community.

On top of all that, Tyrel’s quirkiest hidden talent, which garnered him the win for yesterday’s Twitter contest, made us all do double-takes in the office. It’s only fitting that Tyrel is a double-winner this week. Whistle while you work, baby!

Wow, Those Are Some Quirky Hobbies

Hiya Quirks! Whew, what a week it’s been. TGIF! By the chance that you don’t already have thrilling plans for the weekend, why not take a hobby cue from the Quirky staff?

Who knew that  patient and smiley Shirley had an artistic streak? She often makes mobiles for new mom friends and dipped into paper basket-weaving for a short time this spring.

Working for a social product development sure is inspiring, but it’s not enough to make Garret follow through with his shoemaking obsession. Instead, he spends his free time scouring shoe design books and sites.

Our favorite Brit, Gaz, was a gentle musician last year… a cellist, to be exact. In the past few months, he’s picked up a more aggressive hobby — knocking down walls in his Jersey City house.

And if you still find yourself bored with some time on your hands, look toward Nikki‘s favorite things to do outside of the office: eating ice cream or frozen yogurt every single day and enjoying a mixture of two cereals most days a week (but never the same cereals on consecutive days… she keeps at least eight boxes in her apartment at all times). Or, there’s always building up a hotel key card collection from around the world… Nikki loves decorating her walls with ‘em.

Yep, there’s a reason this bunch works here. Have a quirky weekend, everyone!

Click N Cook: The Essential (Now More Compact) Utensil

In an effort to make the Click n Cook the best essential utensil money can buy, our designers recently set about redesigning the base of the product to make it more compact and space-saving. Behold the results!

Some of our team members are now in China finalizing the production schedule for this and other Quirky products. A design timeline will be posted soon!

UPDATE: 08/06

Some Quirks expressed concerns about the ability to clean the Click n Cook base. Don’t worry — our designers thought of everything! Just pop off the top of the base and remove the inner slot structure (internally dubbed the “Sydney Opera House” — QDS’s design inspiration!) to quickly and easily clean the product. Photos below:

To give you a peek into the design process, check out these dimension drawings, too!

Welcome, Eugene

With summer slipping away, the time has come for a new wave of interns. Today, we’re pumped to welcome Eugene to our design team. With a fashion designer mom and a computer tech dad, Eugene was destined for industrial design greatness. And he snowboards! We can’t wait to see what his creative mind brings to Quirky.

Name: Eugene Dennison Kim

Hometown: I was born in LA, raised in Seoul, now in New York.

School: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Design Inspiration: Marc Newson, Naoto Fukasawa, Olafur Eliasson

Fave product you own: MacBook Pro, Android Incredible

What makes you quirky? I am more energetic and productive during winter. I hibernate during summer.

Be My Boss. CFO Needed.

We are hiring someone to head up the finance and operations department. You will be directing Nikki and I, and oh what a handful we are. Actually, I’m kidding. We are not a handful. We are very independent and know exactly where we need support. We like to have a good time, but we work really hard.

You won’t have to think up creative motivational techniques. We are incredibly motivated to make this company work. We’re passionate about Quirky.

You won’t need to create team-building exercises or improve communications. Ropes course? Gag. We already like each other and work together well.

You won’t have to create a training program for us. But if you have a good book recommendation, that’s cool. Generally you can just throw is in and ask us to come back with results. We may ask some questions.

You won’t have to do fancy shmancy evaluations and issue gold stars. Just give us a quick thumbs up or thumbs down when we request it. We like immediate feedback, mostly we just want to know if we need to adjust or fix something.

You won’t have to come up with projects to keep us busy. We know what needs to be done, and when we see a gap we naturally jump in to fill it. We work hard and are fast.

So, with so little time needed to manage us, what will you do with your free time? Oh, lots. You’ll roll up your sleeves and get deeply involved. We already have a to-do list for you.

Want to be our CFO / COO? Learn more here and apply today: http://www.quirky.com/about/#careers

P.S. We are still looking for an Inventory Manager / Analyst, a Global Logistics / Sales Support person and a great intern for our department.  All these positions are on the careers page.