A few people know that I’m a web developer during the day, and create poly art whenever I can squeeze it in. What many won’t know is that I’m a tinkerer/maker and have been working on the development of my own product idea.
I can’t tell you what it’s about just yet, as I’m in the process of trying to get the idea/item protected, but what I thought would be important would be to share my experiences and show a gradual update as to where I’m getting with it as I look to get it patent protected and then into a manufacturing process.

As a basic overview, the item I’ve developed would be small enough to be mass produced in a manufacturing process and is designed to make a certain aspect of home DIY easier and to some extent arty through the way it is used.

Life is hectic, and it can be difficult to have the courage and conviction to put yourself and your ideas ‘out there’, especially when there’s already plenty going on. Making time for anything extra is difficult so progress for this process isn’t going to be lightning fast. It’s almost easier to impart the advice for someone else to use than taking it myself, which I guess is how this blog has come about.

Before I rattle through the process, I think it’s a good idea to explain a bit about me and where I’m coming from.

My background is in print and web design, but that doesn’t mean my ideas are exclusive to those fields. I have ideas about games, apps, trans-media experiments, artwork, film concepts and much more on a fairly frequent basis. There are half written stories and sketches for other prototypes littering my house which I know will never come to fruition, but I write them down as if to acknowledge their existence and to remove them from my thoughts. Tinkering with objects has always been a part of me. Building my own PC’s was to some extent an extension of dismantling and rebuilding toys and even repairing them as a child. I’ve always been a more practical person and revel in a DIY project or two.
I’m sure my wife would point out that I should try finishing a few projects before starting new ones, but that’s how my mind works. I get excited about an idea, so I then have to gather all the information that I can about it and work through it with sketches and prototypes until I’ve made some sort of tangible progress. Some things get shelved, contributing to my ‘mess’, and other things get completed, contributing to a slightly tidier mess.

It’s because of this ‘excitement’ that I’ve ended up owning a 3D printer and why I’ve also bought a lot of electronics equipment and components that include Raspberry Pi’s, Arduino Uno’s and much more. There’s a reason for each of the gadgets, gizmos and motors that have been acquired as they each fit a particular purpose. Sadly, each one requires time to understand and learn the full extent of what each item is capable of which is a problem in itself. If these components and information had been so readily available when I was half my age, then there’s a good chance I’d be in a different profession… and possibly rich! Okay, maybe not.

Over the next few blog articles I’m going to explain a little bit about my project, but more about the journey it is on.