Note: Grainger carries a water-based contact cement. It's alot less toxic and it seems to work just as well. The only catch is that it takes 1/2 hour to set up.

We are learning more and more everyday that you don't simply develop the product, you must develop it's packaging simultaneously. This realization hit us over the head again when we tried to roll up the largest mat only to find that it doesn't exactly roll easily. Good to know now.

(Insert background, for those of you who want to know...)

A briefing of who, what, why and how TRUCK is on July 25th, 2001.

TRUCK consists of Jennifer Carpenter (see bio) and her trusty assistant (namely me). Jennifer had been an architect at Rogers Marvel Architects for about a year and a half when in early 2000 the partners of the firm, Rob Rogers and Jonathan Marvel, approached her with the opportunity to spearhead a new product and furniture design company. They have been itching to start this project for years but their thriving architecture practice already consumes more than the 24 hours in a day. The deal decided upon is that Rogers Marvel provides the working space and covers some of the initial overhead expenses. A supportive client is providing $100,000.00 to be used for the first year's production costs. After which time it will be sink or swim!

Jennifer was to provide the sweat equity: devise the business plan, design and develop the first line of products, coordinate the production and get the products to market. She had been waiting for this chance and jumped to work. Over the next four months she boldly ploughed through the daunting decisions: developing a graphic identity, structuring the mission of the company and it's goals, defining the target market, and above all developing the products themselves.

Since I began assisting in April we've been knee-deep in manufacturing research and each day is a heavy dose of reality. We have a line of about 13 products for the table (each season we will be introducing products for a new surface in the home: table, wall, ceiling, floor etc.) and now we have to get them into production. This means alot of number crunching and alot of compromises.

Though we are not participating in the New York International Gift Show at the end of August (there is a two year waiting list for the section we are interested in), we want to begin showing our products as soon as possible. This means convincing manufacturers to make a few samples for us (with promises of larger orders later) and this is not easy. Basically, we have decided not to hold any inventory since the risk of not selling everything and losing that money is too high. This causes several problems:

1. We want to be honest with manufacturers and establish solid relationships for the future. But since we won't actually be placing any orders until we recieve them, it's hard to make commitments and convince people to set up their machinery to make us 5 production samples.

2. Many of our pieces involve blown or molded glass and this needs a mold. In these cases, rather than sink thousands into the mold cost, we are forced to have our samples produced as one-offs at a higher cost.

However, I found a man in Minnesota (they are so friendly out there and have the cutest accent) who might be a savior! He not only works with glass, but he can cut and finish metal too. He doesn't balk at our crazy designs and has actually given us alot of insightful ideas from a manufacturing point of view. His quotes are competitive and he seems eager to work with us. I think this is the most exciting part of production; finding people who really know the processes and are willing to push it to achieve a new result. When the production process and the design have a reciprocal relationship new forms and techniques can arise.

Ron is making us some glass prototypes and we have high hopes.

posted by Kristen Aronsson on 7/25/2001 05:41:02 PM