The Inventor's Mind

Independence Day, traditionally is a historic day that is celebrated every year on July 4 as the day we declared independence from Britain and became our own country.  Here in Columbus Ohio we celebrate not only independence day but also Independent’s Day.Independents Day in Columbus celebrates local entrepreneurs,small businesses, handcrafted items , and local art and music.  Trident has been involved with Independent’s day for two years now in some form or fashion, but this year we decided to create a interactive booth to encourage creativity amongst the local community and create greater inventor awareness in the community .  Our booth was a mixture of fun inventive games, creative people, creative products and useful information.  People responded very well, many people shared their ideas and interests in bringing products to market. The kids intentness playing the games was really a pleasure to watch. Its amazing how inventive kids can be.  Thanks to Chris Brown, one of our designers, this will now be a yearly occasion for us, you can expect to see us with a new and inventive booth each year. Checkout our facebook page of the event to see photos of our booth and pictures of the wonderful inventions.

The Arch

It’s been a bit since I put my fingers to the keys and gave you all a good look into the life of Trident, but I am back in action and promise to keep you better informed.  I spent last month in South America and while I was cruising through the jungle and climbing in the Andes, Chris, Abe, and the whole Trident team were hard at work bringing new ideas to life and getting products out on the market.  I’m not sure if you saw this feed on our new facebook page but Trident Design, LLC recently presented some very cool Russian robotic toy technology to two of the largest toy companies in the world.  If either of the two or both move forward with this new technology this could be a huge breakthrough in the world of toys, mark my words.

We have also seen one of our licensed products, the Quickview dog nail trimmer, sold into Petco stores nationwide. We recently received new samples of our Pitzo, a redesigned pizza cutter, from Rosle, our German licensee and manufacturing partner. This product is very exciting. It should be making its appearance in stores very soon. Chris also just got back from a 3 day trip to St. Louis for a brainstorming session with our VP of Sales, Andy Welty, on new strategies and angles for the licensing portion of our business.  Keep your eyes open for cool new inventions and ideas from Trident,lots of cool products are on the horizon.

Business First

This totally slipped my mind and fell into the cracks but i think its important enough to mention even at this late date.  It is a really cool article titled “Follow the fun” about Chris.  The Columbus edition of Business First the premier periodical covering local,national, and international business and businesses has used one of Chris’s cool and innovative jobs as one of their front page stories.  The interview took place about two months ago and was set up by the hardest working marketing assistant in the world (me).  They followed up a few weeks ago to snap a couple of photos of Chris sporting some Onion Goggles, and the rest is history.  The issue printed on the 15TH of April, which was also my birthday and is likely located in a store near you .  The article is great, it focuses on the importance of fun in the creative process. We slowly we are building awareness of Trident Design and what we are all about.  So if your interested grab a copy and  read up on us, or you can get a sneak peek at their website Follow The Fun article

-Nile

It’s getting to be beautiful outside, the sun is shining, there is a nice breeze, and the trees and flowers are starting to bloom.  Besides a grateful feeling that we are out of winter the one thing that’s on my mind is FLIMSEE!!!  First of all Flimsee is a great grass roots game that was created and branded here in Columbus, Ohio by independent inventor named John Mally.  It revolves around two Frisbees and two goals consisting of sticks with cups on them.  The object is to throw the Frisbees through your opponents sticks or knock off the cups for points, if they catch the cup that’s been knocked off then you lose a point.  It can be played at an intense pace or leisurely, with cup in hand, or multiple players.  You can play by the rules or make up your own, everything about the game is flimsy hence the name flimsee.  Trident is involved with John Mally in this business from the creative and manufacturing side.  Together we are hoping to lift this grass roots game into your lawn and many lawns around you, you can take a closer look at www.flimsee.com.  Check it out, give us some feedback or even buy a set.

Hardware Show

Trident Design goes to Vegas! well really just Chris, Andy, and I, but we will be representing the whole office.  Besides some small time gambling, mingling and checking out cirque du soleil, we will be attending the worlds largest annual Hardware and Garden show. Buyers from nearly every large bigbox retailer will also be attending the show to make purchases for the upcoming year.The Powersquid will be front and center represented by the world famous Stanley brand. Under the new brand and with an attractive price point we are confident that the squid will perform in a big way this year.  In addition there are quite a few products from independant inventors that we will be privately debuting to our favorite buyers. We are expecting some great things from the show!  When I return I promise to bring my best and worst of the show, and give you some insiders info on what trends to look for from the hardware industry in the upcoming year.

-Nile

Thing-o-Matic

There has been tremendous progress and movement within the inventing and design process over the past few years.  Changes in the programs we use, materials and plastics, machinery and moldings, etc.  The prototyping phase of the design process, where you make a real world model of what you’ve been digitally mapping, has grown especially dramatically with the rise of 3D printing.  These very expensive industrial machines (often generically called SLA machines) have been becoming more and more affordable, but still cost tens of thousands of dollars. But now there is a much smaller but still effective machine that the “common man” can afford and understand.  The machine I am referring to is the MakerBot Thing-o-Matic.  Basically, it is a very small rapid prototyping machine that can produce a quite precise and sturdy prototype. It is actually billed as a personal factory rather than a prototype maker, and can produce objects you create in 3D or download from their online library. The cool thing is, you build the Thing-o-Matic yourself from a kit. It’s like a giant LEGO set. Trident has recently purchased a kit ($1250) and Chris is in the process of assembling with our IT guy, Ryan, from GridStorm, LLC. We’ll come back to you with a review once we have it up and running. Wish us luck!

-Nile

A worm, one of the most resilient forms of life on the planet, can have half of its body severed and still survive and thrive enough to grow it back.  The point being that although I like to think of Trident as a much cleaner organism, metaphorically speaking it is quite similar to the worm.  It has been a little over a week with Chris on vacation but that has not stopped the roll and the flow of things around here.  The design team is still hitting their marks, Lisa is still bringing in the business, and Rachael is still making sure everything is on track.  With signs of spring peeking over the horizon, the few nice days we have gotten have been reason enough to break out of the hibernation and start working hard, and that’s exactly what we are doing.   What are we working on these days you might be wondering?  I will say this, there’s never a shortage of kitchen gadgets, but we are venturing into a few new realms and one of our products will be on live display atSXSW this year courtesy of Sonos.  The Powersquid is thriving in its three new habitats, and there are some fun finger puppets in the mix.  We are not named Trident for no reason, we are hard working and serious designers ready to take on any job and prove our abilities.

-Nile

Another winter week in the northern hemisphere and Columbus, Ohio, down in the books. With no shortage of freezing rain, light and heavy snow, and my favorite, black ice. I would not have a problem curling up on my couch and hibernating for the next 2 months, sometimes I wish I was a bear. One person, who is not a bear and definitely doesn’t afford the luxury of hibernation, is Chris Hawker. He was however fortunate enough to skip out on the cold for a few days and jet down to Orlando, Florida in the sunshine state. Why you might ask? Because of the PGA trade show. The trip began with a U.I.A. (United Inventors Association) board of directors meeting. This is their annual strategizing session and planning their approach for the year to come. A few of the members (Chris included) from the board also judged a group of up and coming inventors. These aspiring inventors all designed products pertaining to golf in some form or fashion and were competing for the inventor’s spotlight, a few awards, and prestige. Amongst other things Chris gave a speech at the invention education seminar to a group of 50 aspiring inventors on his early days of inventing and the lessons learned, hopefully he didn’t scare to many people off. A little closer to home our designers are whipping out some whisks, CPAP masks, and some new baby potty designs. Now that Chris is back he’s taking care of his To-do list which includes sending off the last of the Christmas presents, “better late than never.” In case you already forgot my name is Nile Woodson, and I will be back here next week for another exciting report on trident Design.

-Nile