Industrial-strength solutions

So analog!

Our buddy Nate at Squid Kids Ink asked us if we’d be up for a custom for his So Analog custom exhibition at DesignerCon this weekend in Pasadena. Its not something we do that often, but we were both pretty excited about a chance to do some 3d work, especially for someone we like and respect.

I came up with a concept early and even thought I had a fair amount of the stuff hanging around in the studio and shop.  My big idea was to turn the 10-Doh fig into a working Lite Brite.

Cuponk? Ka-Ching!!!

Who doesn’t have a guilty love for beer pong (or at least the pong part of it)? We got the chance to work with Hasbro’s game group last year on this item, starting from raw concept, and helping them to bring it to life via concept sketches, prototyping and final control art.

Xevoz-liscious!

Its time to come clean with a basic fact about the Dynamo team. We miss Xevoz.

Circa 2002, Ben Hitmar and I began working with the Stikfas team in Singapore. What an amazing group of people.  It was a collaboration that had a huge impact on me, both professionally and personally.

Repurposing the three R's

So, I’m sitting at a stoplight the other day and notice a Reduce – Reuse – Recycle bumper sticker. The mantra makes complete sense, but I sat wondering if its still relevant.  Seems like a check list, a tool for people to follow along, but not necessarily a tool to lead.  At the risk of being preachy, I figured I’d take my own shot.

Dynamo Keds Designs

Wow!!! Earlier this month, we did some custom shoe concepts for a new product launch at Artsprojekt. We had a ton of fun putting them together and the amount of customization made for some fun hours of ‘fiddling’ with the details.

WWTD?

Over the past two years I’ve referenced Threadless as a great example of what engaging your audience can do for a brand. With their opt in voting and member art submissions they do a great job of bringing their audience/consumer so deep into their process that the purchase dynamic is a no brainer.

Construction- Category on the build

Last month, I spotted an article about toy assembly and specifically, the construction category. It noted some major growth- 21% increase from Aug 2008- Aug 2009. Amazing numbers considering that the mega-hyped action category was only up 14%.

Dynamo Studio Shop

You gotta love Zazzle. The idea of putting your work out there- easy, peasy, Japanesey- no inventory, no tracking sales tax, no hassle- just post your images, set up a small store to show your work and go to town.

GI Joe- The Pit Mobile Headquarters Playset

Sometimes you happen onto something that strikes you funny. I was searching for cool images of The Pit playset (Tuck did the final design and control art), hoping to post some package shots and compare them against our final layouts (it looks smaller and some of the features seem different). I found this video review and had to throw it up here. Its not short, but its an amusing romp through the features.

Dynamo is…Go!

Finally! Here it is, the long-awaited launch of our web site. Its a chance to showcase some of the work we’ve done over the past few years. Over the development of the site, I’ve gained a new appreciation for the spectacular work that Rian Hughes, www.devicefonts.co.uk did on our logo and some of our other assets- see the Sparkellite above.