WHATS

WHATS FOR DINNER?

We heard processed foods wer having a rough time, and probably for good reason. Alot of processed food is high fat and high carb. But not all of it is . Some of it is plant based and actually better for you and kinder to animals. Many of these plant based offerings are a little higher brow, and certainly that makes sense as higher educated consumers are more health aware and can afford to pay more. The problem, I think, is they lost some of their fun. This is why we did WHATS. And , just to be clear WHATS does not need to be only plant based nor does a WHAT need to be edible. A WHAT can be anything.

For food, WHATS is like the love child of Tony he Tiger and Annie’s Kitchen. Both are fanstastic brands on different missions. WHATS is healthy (depending on category and amount consumed). self aware and fun. Sort of like HOT POCKETS with health insurance.

WHATS is also a unit of measure. It’s a hand held size that’s easy to snack on WHATS, in this case, can be a synonym for a chunk or a nugget and more. And,, it’s this that can make WHATS cut across categories, whether they be sweet or savory or different temperature zones ( shelf stale, refrigerated and frozen) and more.

Design-wise we created a processed food brand and a simple design language that works across multiple products.

The big pay off for all this is a simple verbal skit:

Person 1: What’s for dinner?

Person 2: Exactly

Person 1, a little more intentional: What’s for dinner?

Person 2: That’s right!

Person 1 ,now more exasperated: C’mon what’s for dinner?!

Person 2: We’re having Meat Whats, they’re delicious and plant based.

Fun , right?!

MONARCH

Transforming what a house is

Housing in America is too expensive. Labor, materials, land, and financing all push costs up. Most solutions chip away at the edges. Monarch starts over.

We believe the only way to meaningfully lower the cost of a single-family home is to change both what a house is and how it is made. Build homes more like cars — at volume, with high-production tooling, and with far less on-site labor. Higher tooling cost, much lower cost per unit. Less waste. Higher consistency. Think Tesla Giga-casting and stamped glass filled thermoplastics applied to housing.

Vertical by design

Monarch is a vertical home. A smaller footprint reduces land and foundation cost. It frees the rest of the lot for outdoor living. Large insulated, UV-tinted glass panels turn height into a daily pleasure rather than a compromise. Climbing a few flights of stairs is built-in exercise. When stairs are no longer practical, every Monarch is designed to accept a compact lift — the same type used by wind-turbine technicians.

The goal is the same feeling many people had the first time they sat in a Tesla Model 3: brief disorientation, then delight. A Monarch should feel new in a useful way.

What a house actually needs to do

Protect from the weather. Sleep. Cook. Eat. Clean. Work. Relax. Entertain, Ceate the next generation, Store things. Stay private. Most of the rest is habit.

Monarch questions the habits. Walls are no longer the primary place for photos and media — devices already hold that. Large high-definition displays and built-in audio are part of the house, the way they are part of a premium car. Primary furniture is designed in or included. Lighting, plumbing, electrical, entry, security, HVAC, and finishes are all Monarch-specified and app-controlled. Vertical integration keeps cost and complexity down.

Fewer choices, more value

Most home builders offer endless options. That flexibility is expensive. Monarch takes the opposite approach: limited exterior colors, limited interior packages, everything else standardized. The result is closer to the original iPhone or early Model 3 — one excellent configuration that replaces dozens of lesser ones. Owners get high value on day one instead of a long options list that inflates the price.

Mobile and decoupled from land

A Monarch can be delivered by rail and /or truck and set by crane. It can sit on a privately owned lot or in a Monarch Reserve — clustered sites designed for short- or long-term placement. The house and the land are no longer a single, inseparable purchase.

MODERN DOG TOYS

Heart Of Barkness

Ruffa, a new start up focused on optimizing canine health came to FUSE wanting to do a line of design forward molded dog toys. Toys dogs can really bite and chew while their human guardians can admire aesthetically. The designs need to be able to offer engaging, mouth feel and possibly hold treats or have surface development that can hold smeared peanut butter or wet food. Seems like a way to wreck your home’s interior to me, but I guess you’re ready for that if you’re taking in an animal that chews everything and poops anywhere already. Certainly, the more uptight can add the smeared food to the toy for outside play.

Also, because the toys are silicone , wall thickness is not an issue. It’s possible to over mold a denser asymmetrical core to create a product with a more random bounce that dogs love.

As our usual, or our fusual ( I’ll be here all week), we did a lot of exploring, but what we and the client really liked were these more abstract computational/generative designs. Much more complicated but still mold-able in food grade silicone. They’re like these beautiful objects worthy of display, but can be fun for a dog’s mouth and brain.

FOGLESS SNOW SPORTS GOGGLE

The team that created the Abom no-fog goggle learned a great deal doing the Abom 1 and the Abom Heet goggle, Not only did they learn the ways to remove water vapor efficiently, they also learned that users would prefer to do nothing but enjoy a clear field of view. Of course, the best product is no product and that’s how the new Tempest gets the job done. Users only need to make sure their goggle is charged and the sensor driven goggle auto-magically eliminates the hint of fogging.

One feature that’s a major improvement is the lens. It’s attached magnetically and it separates from its internal heated lens. This makes the exterior tinted lens much less costly. Users can now get the tinted lenses they need for different conditions at a more reasonable price, Sure, maybe not a huge consideration for this demographic , but everyone appreciates high value,

If you know the Abom One and Abom Heet goggle you will notice the lens of the Tempest is cylindrical as opposed to spherical or toroidal. This decision was based on the industry trend that currently favors cylindrical lenses. Over time , the pendulum may certainly swing back and this chassis deign can certainly accommodate this without needing a total redesign,

STEW

STEW is a place for ideas, drawings, models, oddities, musings, national emergencies* and more. These are not necessarily associated with a destiny of commercialization. They, hopefully, have a smidge of creativity

MOBILITY DEVICE

Walker, Texas Ranger

A successful real estate tycoon came to FUSE to design a better cane. He had pals that were getting to that age and he disliked the choices they had for this additional stability. Our benefactor wanted something that did not say “disabled or feeble”. Something that was more akin to a piece of sports equipment. He and we wanted something its owners would love and rely on like a favorite tool or tennis racquet. We know the best products are not just trophies, but also tools.

FUSE understood the styling problem but certainly wanted to do more by adding functional attributes to the product. For example can it stand up on its own, i.e. self-balance? Provide a better smoother gait? Offer greater mechanical advantage? Be lightweight and not cost a fortune?

FUSE generated several concepts and here below is the Blade Runner concept that we and a focus group of users liked the most.

The Blade Runner (or Riddler?) can balance on its foot, provides shock absorption, adjust for height, collapse for storage and provide a better ride due to its curved foot. This concept is inexpensive to manufacture with a telescopic aluminum shaft and injection molded handle and foot structure. A rubber outsole grips the ground and its design is easy to clean.

Runners Orp

BE EVEN MORE SPLATTERPROOF

Orp Industries has always talked about building a running version of their innovative bike horn/ light product, and finally with our help, they’ve done it.

The Runners Orp or “Rorp” is for runners, walkers, hikers and boarders of all types. The big idea, of course, is to make pedestrians more visible by being more hearable, but the Rorp can do more. Runners and walkers who use nights or dark early mornings to run and walk not only have a beacon to be seen but also a very loud horn to let any would be attackers know their attention is unwanted, and if that’s not enough, an accessory cranulator (machined aluminum) is available to cause more serious damage.

The Rorp has a gumby-like malleable metal armature in its body so it holds on to you, works for small and large hand sizes and features a dual tone horn, just like the bike Orp, and the actuator is always under thumb. The Rorp is symmetrical so works on either hand. Multiple light modes including highly visible green LEDs. The LEDs fire every time either horn is fired. Newest versions incorporate a 180 degree Chip On Board (COB_ LED array. This new LED offers better visibility.

ABOM SBIR PROJECT

SPOOK SPECS

ABOM won a prestigious government contract to leverage their fog fighting technology across multiple military optic platforms. Beyond the more protective war fighting goggle, the SBIR project included the undercover operator. This is the individual that may appear to be a good looking Russian speaking petroleum engineer, but is actually a lethal CIA operative.

The military was looking for slicker design that could go from the urban cafe to the battleground. Military operators call these “spectacles”. This product, of course, can be used in low temperatures, but also in high temperatures where the wearer may be sweating. The wearer’s head is radiating heat at a temperature higher than the ambient air. The result is condensation, fogging. ABOM’s moisture sensing system will automatically turn on and eviscerate the fog. Because the system is only on when needed, less energy is required so the product is feasible even with the required smaller batteries. That said, an external battery pack can provide additional runtime.

BATTING GLOVE CONCEPTS

Hey batter, batter!

Wilson Sporting Goods owned DeMarini, came to FUSE to to get concepts for a batting glove. Batting gloves do a few things to make batting better for the batter:

1. The batting glove adds a protective layer of skin, like a callus, to protect the player from the friction injury caused by wielding a bat. The injury is usually just blistering, but this is painful, can keep a player from participating and becomes and entry point into the body for more lethal bacteria.

2. An errant pitch can hit the dorsal surface of the batter’s hand. Injury can range from bruising to real broken bone and nerve damage. Putting protective armor and or energy absorbing materials on this dorsal surface can mitigate this problem.

The less great aspects of the batting glove is the reduction of feel and the increase in heat or rather hand heat.

The challenge of creating a good batting glove is to provide protection, not impede articulation and keep them as thermally neutral as possible. Below are the more traditional winners.

SUPER HERO MASK

FACE – ON

FUSE was contacted by a team of seasoned product marketing professionals at the onset of the pandemic. They wanted help designing a face mask for professionals working the front line in health care, teaching and emergency services.The team had identified that seeing the facial expression of these first responders and front liners would be valuable to reinstate the calm and confidence these pros always want to communicate to the people they’re helping. The team was also obsessed with minimizing the waste associated with disposable masks. While the filters are not washable, they are recyclable.

To achieve the crystal clarity, the mask would need to be silicone injection molded. This lower durometer material and process also allowed for the undercuts we needed for a clever face seal and the nesting of the replaceable filters cartridges.

Keen viewers will recognize the Iron Man inspiration in the chin area of the mask. Actually, what we were doing was reinforcing the chin to keep it stiffer so we could achieve greater elasticity in the jaw for mouth opening and talking while still maintaining a good seal to the face.