As we grow our product offerings, the Grindmonkey team is laser-focused on summer. After two years of playing it safe and avoiding large groups of people, we are eager to get out and celebrate summer gatherings and activities, including July 4th barbecues, hiking, beach parties, Comic Con, and Pride month. This post introduces the first products of our summer line-up, including the :
- Masque-a-Ring Pride Balloon Decorative Cover for Ring Video Doorbell
- Masque-a-Ring 4th of July Fireworks Decorative Cover for Ring Video Doorbell
- Mini Ukulele for Disney NuiMOs and Other Plush Dolls & Toys
I also want to offer a peek inside my thought process behind creating designs to take to market, following the ultra broad categories of Why, What, and How.
Masque-a-Ring Pride Balloon
WHY a Pride product? Our first Masque-a-Ring product was our Halloween Bat cover for the Ring Video Doorbell. It was an instant success for us, and the first of many Masque-a-Ring designs. We quickly caught on that porch decoration products are in demand, so we brainstormed a list of seasonal themes for more video doorbell covers, and Pride month seemed to be a good fit for us.
WHAT should it be? While I knew I wanted to design something to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, it wasn’t so easy coming up with a design to fit the dimensions of the Ring Video Doorbell models and that would incorporate quickly recognizable Pride colors. I wanted more than a flag!
Inspiration comes suddenly, so when I found myself in the midst of colorful hot air balloons during my commute in Carmel Valley, I knew I wanted to design a Pride balloon for our Masque-a-Ring line. Who doesn’t get excited to look up and see these massive balloons color the sky? A balloon sporting the different gay pride colors across each of its segments would not only be eye-catching, but also dimensionally compatible with the Ring Doorbells.
HOW should it be composed? Erika has helped me warm up to modular and mixed media designs, so I wanted to stretch my abilities with this project, moving beyond a one-piece face plate. I saw an opportunity to incorporate a second piece (the basket) by hanging it on a jewelry chain. For the basket, I was concerned a simple square or cube would not generate much interest, so I thought of what other symbols or graphical elements could substitute for the basket shape. I remembered back to a Valentine’s Day project I abandoned, where I had recreated Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture in Philadelphia. I like the simple message of this iconic statue (love, and nothing more!), and I’m impartial to red. I reused my LOVE model from February and attached it to my multi-color balloon with chains, and I’m quite pleased with the final product:
Masque-a-Ring 4th of July Fireworks
WHY a Fourth of July product? I know, I know. I just finished explaining that Erika and I decided to do seasonal Masque-a-Ring covers, so it would stand to reason that we would have one for each of the big holidays. For me, July 4 is one of my favorite days of the year, but really, don’t all Independence Day decorations look the same? Nevertheless, we knew we wanted to do a patriotic decoration.
WHAT should it be? I thought of re-using my hot air balloon design, and swapping out the pride colors for Old Glory’s colors, but Erika had better plans. She wanted to design something with fireworks because, as with hot air balloons, who doesn’t get excited to look up and see massive displays of color in the sky? Fireworks are synonymous with 4th of July celebrations, and because they are usually represented in a vertical orientation (perfect for masking the Ring), fireworks made more sense as the main design element for this holiday Ring cover.
HOW should it be composed? At first we envisioned using cylinders for the fireworks, but the added depth proved to be too cumbersome and too heavy to slide easily over and rest on a video doorbell. I think Erika was a little bummed to revert back to a “flat” design, but she came up with a compromise so this product would be exciting and different from our others. She added spinning starbursts at the tips of each of the three fireworks in the design. I think the movement adds a nice touch and extra interest for this July 4th decoration.
Mini Ukulele
WHY a mini ukulele? The Grindmonkey team loves playing with toys, so it’s not too surprising that we started making doll accessories. A good friend of mine advised us to make accessories for Disney NuiMOs, which are plush dolls with magnets in their hands so they can hold their swag. We made a Lilo and Stitch themed surfboard for Disney’s Stitch plush doll, and we sort of fell in love with the whole “island life” and “ohana means family” themes, so we were eager to make something else for Stitch. A colleague suggested we make ukeleles, and we instantly knew he was on to something.
WHAT should it be? This question may seem silly on the surface because a ukulele is a ukulele, so the real “what” type question we asked ourselves was what does our mini ukulele need to have so people recognize it as a ukulele and not a guitar? It’s already miniature, so it stands to reason that it runs the risk of being mistaken for a guitar. I purposefully made the neck shorter in proportion to the body, and I was resolved to include strings because ukulele strings are distinct (generally four for a uke and six for a guitar).
HOW should it be composed? We see our doll accessories as photo props rather than as toys, and we’ve noticed that NuiMOs aficionados love to pose their plushies for snapshots to post on social media. For this reason, we chose to include magnets in the ukulele’s neck and body so Stitch’s hands attach to the uke as if he is playing it. Also, we wanted it to be two-colored, so we had to print it in multiple pieces to assemble. Lastly, with the four strings being essential to the design, we tested various wires, strings, threads, and elastics to use with our 3D printed elements. While a little extra post-production work needs to be done to complete this little gem, it is sort of fun stringing the ukulele!
Conclusion
Product design is an iterative process, which is the real advantage of using 3D printing as we can churn out multiple iterations daily until we have the final product. Of course I’m excited to sell products, but I’m even more excited to design them. So thank you for letting me not only share our early summer offerings, but also my thought process behind coming up with the products in the first place!
Share Your Thoughts
Let us know if you have any questions about what we design or how we approach design. We would love to hear from you. Also, let us know if you have an idea you would like to see designed and produced, as we love collaboration.
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