Kickstarter

Only about 24 hours remaining, so I thought it worth posting a final update.

For those of you who don't follow me on Twitter, I should start by saying I almost ended the project early. Soon after posting my previous update I realized just how little actual support there would be for this effort. Crowdfunding product design is, in my opinion, too new an idea for most people to wrap their heads around. In fact, I've just received another designer Q&A-interview email with the question: "If this project is not going to be economically benificial, then what will drive the manufacturers to produce this toy?". Clearly someone completely misunderstands what this effort was all about and, by my own admission, I'm not sure I can make it much more clear.

In any event, here's what I posted to Twitter subsequent to that realization and after some reflection as to what I should do:

* Thinking I should end my 100K Stray Toasthed #Kickstarter effort. Funding is doubtful & I don't like tying up people's money. #IndDes
* "price based on the content wrapper" esp relevant to #IndustrialDesign: "Why Your Content is Worthless" - http://bit.ly/368lPI #IndDes
* #IndustrialDesign w/out a manufactured product is a virtual good, but unlike virtual goods, #IndDes is disconnected from virtuality.
* So while virtual goods is a booming business, #IndustrialDesign is more likely to repeat the experience of other "wrapper" goods. #IndDes
* Crowdfunding (virtual) #IndustrialDesign development w/out also offering "wrapper" rewards -selling tangible goods- seems unlikely. #IndDes
* I don't think it's the product as much as the market. CNC users are DIY to extreme. They'll design their own product.
* The open source people are, imo, mostly open source to the extreme; they want it free and free of IP.
* The Industrial Design community just isn't interested, from what I'm seeing/hearing.

After posting those messages a couple of contributors requested I not end the project early, and because I was curious to see how the Kickstarter site operated in this regard, I acquiesced and let it continue; but admittedly with little enthusiasm remaining.

In the meantime, I exchanged emails with Derek Elley of Ponoko. Included in the exchange were these comments I made which might be of interest to you and which mostly reflect the above Twitter posts:

Actually, the audience I was targeting was CNC users, but I don't think the current users believe they need help. I emailed some CNC admin types and site owners but never heard back. I sent a few messages to the guy behind CNCZone forum (not wanting to spam their forum). They are, after all, DIYers, so a lack of interest makes some sense. Should also mention that while there are plenty of 3D model collections, it's oddly difficult to find files prepped in some fashion for CNC machines. Even the ShopBot people retweeted my Twitter question regarding a central repository for such files; they don't have one. And Thingiverse has very few CNC-tagged files; a fair number being CNC files for the MakerBot. The only ones I found aggregated [online] were those being sold.

A second audience was the open source community. However, I now believe that for most active participants, anything with IP - even if it's to curb corporate abuse - is verbotten. They want free or not at all. I've seen this behavior before, so this too isn't a surprise.

The third audience was the industrial design community. While some designers privately messaged me with verbal support, there wasn't much monetary [or public] support. Mostly there was silence. Personally, I just don't believe that industrial designers in general have an interest at this point and suspect most just don't grok what I'm doing. They also probably don't like anything that moves product design to the internet. There's been a lot of hand wringing over crowdsourcing (which many have only recently discovered), so anything that smacks of "crowd" is probably not going to get much support in this economic environment.

Unfortunately, what the design community doesn't realize is that sitting on the sidelines is a bad move because it may set a poor precedent. In fact, the funding target was adjusted in part to meet current toy designer rates, even though I can easily undercut them. Future projects will not be similarly adjusted.

So, what happens now? Well, for one, another project I have in mind makes more sense to pursue, mostly because it would be intended for a different audience: niche product consumers. However, it comes with a different set of issues which I'd need to resolve, and that will take time. As for the Stray Toasthed toy, I'm unsure what will come of the sketches I've done and the new ideas I've generated. Maybe I'll just do things the old fashioned way and try to sell my work to a large toy manufacturer.

In the meantime, thanks to all of you who supported this effort. Hopefully you got something out of it.

Hello, and thank you for taking the time to visit this project page.

100K Stray Toasthed Pull Toys is less than a week old but the initial support has been pretty amazing. Thank you to those who have already backed this project; especially when I've not yet begun pre-launch work to show where this is going.

Some of you might have noticed I've made a couple of minor changes to the "About This Project" description. I'd gotten some initial feedback from the industrial design community which seemed to think I was collecting royalties from everyone, and so I thought I should clarify a few things.

First, I've tried to make it more clear that this is royalty-free for hobbyists and for small businesses. Only companies whose earnings exceed a dollar figure I'm hoping you can help me set run the risk of paying royalties or paying a settlement; most of which doesn't come to me, and that which does effectively goes toward hiring legal counsel, defraying other expenses and the like. Should I acquire some excess funds from such an arrangement, I hope people can trust I'd plow it right back into this kind of stuff. For anyone thinking I want to live large, please read an old blog post I wrote discussing my lifestyle - "Lifestyle Transgrades". One of the best things I've ever done is give away most of what I owned (much of it to a family from India). There's a lot of truth to the saying, "The things you own end up owning you."

Second, I also wanted to make clear that the model shown in the photograph is a starting point and not the final design. Part of the fun in doing this project is designing something better than what I did in a rush 16 years ago. I have some educational ideas I want to explore, and there are modularity issues and customization possibilities to sketch. And, of course, because I don't want something requiring paint to have personality, the final design will be somewhat sculptural. So while this design could be banged out relatively quickly using basic tools, the new design will take advantage of the kinds of things CNC's offer. For example, instead of a painted, toothy grin, imagine instead a sculpted mouth which wraps around the front. Still playful but not a simple graphic; and not done quickly or simply using basic workshop tools ... assuming the maker community even has the sculpting skills to pull it off (some will, of course, but plenty won't).

Something else I wanted to point out is that this isn't intended to be a simple, one-shot toy. This is intended to be more. Thus, instead of the photographed model, imagine not one set of side-caps (left/right) but two or three pairs from which a home CNC enthusiast can select; imagine different mouths with differently shaped teeth. Imagine a few sets of eyes. Noses. Wheels. Mix-n-match options.

Imagine a toy platform which can accommodate parts from other people. An "open API" open source toy, if you will.

That's the sort of thing I'm hoping to develop in this seemingly simple project.

In any event, I wanted to clarify those things and also share one of only two sketch pages used to generate the painted foam model shown (see below). Note the date. I've gotten a lot better since those days.

For those interested (and I hope that means everyone), the other sketch page is posted on the Develop3D site which has a nice article on this project, "Can community funded design and manufacture achieve reality?". Surf on over and give it a read. And while you're there, give some of the other entries a read as well ... and perhaps download a free PDF of the magazine to see what you get if you make the hard choice of grabbing a free subscription.

Tons of interesting things are covered by Develop3D. Al Dean, the driving force behind the magazine, is perhaps one of the most knowledgeable people on the planet when it comes to cutting edge manufacturing applications and processes. If you're into this stuff, bookmark that one.

Additionally, a couple of other web sites have also covered this crowdfunding effort and I'd like to point you to them as well.

The SolidSmack blog (run by a wonderfully enthusiastic Tulsan ... or is that Tulsanite? ... named Josh) was the first to jump on this and give it his glowing endorsement. Head over to "An Industrial Design Experiment In Open Source Awesomeness: The 100K Stray Toasthed Pull Toy" to read what he has to say. I think you'll find his infectious enthusiasm addictive.

Last but certainly not least, the Ponoko site - besides launching 100KGarages.com in partnership with Shopbot - has given this effort some exposure on their blog. Read "100K Stray Toasthed Pull Toys", and while you're there maybe learn a little about Ponoko and what they offer. It's a very, very cool business which is, in my not-so-humble opinion, showing everyone the way toward a smarter future.

So what's next?

Well, I've been debating where to post updates and have decided I'll use this "Project Update" section but also use my well-trafficked reBang weblog. There's no advertising on my own blog, so there's no effort to gain income by sending people to it. Mostly, I want to leverage my back catalog of increasingly popular posts (because what I wrote 2-3 years ago on topics such as the death of industrial design, augmented reality, and virtual world's for tangible product development are currently garnering some attention).

Also, while this update will be viewable to everyone who visits, other updates will be visible only to backers of the project. I'm unsure of the mix or how best to coordinate private updates with the newsletters I want to send out, but having another option to reward those who contribute is something I can't pass by.

Okay all. That's about it. Expect me to post a private update soon showing some initial sketch pages for the updated design. I'm not waiting for full funding. If you guys can pledge funds now, I can put some time in now.

Till then, all the best to you and yours,
Sven