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Invention perfection
Girls’ product ideas take shape with designers’ help
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Stories by Kevin Joy
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Marissa D’Anieri and Tiffani Zorn know firsthand that great ideas can be born from frustrating problems.
The two recently were selected from hundreds of local entries in the 2006 Invention Convention to participate in an intensive, weeklong workshop sponsored by Design Central. The Columbus company designs consumer products ranging from toasters to loafers.
Earlier this month, the two soon-to-be seventh-graders attended the first Camp Design Central, where they turned their Invention Convention creations into real-life prototypes that someday could become patented consumer products.
The 12-year-olds found inspiration for their inventions in everyday inconveniences.
Tiffani’s problem was mud.
"I do softball 24/7. When I was on the bases, and it was raining, the mud would get in my shoes," she said. "I tried a lot of different ways to clean them, but it still left a big mess."
She’d often be lectured by a parent for tracking mud into the house.
Then, an idea struck her.
Tiffani, a Whitehall resident who attends Rosemore Junior High School, created a detachable cover for the bottom of her cleats. She made the model from the back of a hard-plastic binder notebook and cut it to fit the shape (and spikes) of the sole. She stapled stretchy elastic straps to the sides that could be attached to hooks on the cleat.
After a game, the muddy shoe covers can be removed, leaving the cleats — and the kitchen floor — clean.
Marissa, meanwhile, designed a special bike lock that is opened with a scanned ID badge (similar to a library card or grocery-discount key-chain card.)
Instead of fiddling with a bulky chain and finicky padlock, the rider would need only the pocket-sized card.
She developed the concept after noticing the lock policy at the public library near her home in Westerville. There, riders can borrow a bicycle lock at the check-out desk upon arrival.
"But someone could steal your bike in less than a minute," Marissa said, noting that the bike racks at the library and at Blendon Middle School (where she attends) often are crowded because so many kids lock up their bikes at once.
She made her prototype using a toddler’s bike, some wire and plastic piping meant to represent the locking device.
Neither Marissa’s nor Tiffani’s creation placed at the regional Invention Convention last month in Columbus. But their ideas caught the attention of several Design Central employees judging the event.
The company interviewed 10 students about their creations. Wowed by the two girls’ on-site demonstrations and professional attitudes, the company offered them spots for the camp.
"We thought they had some of the best market appeal of all the items," said Gregg Davis, principal and coowner of Design Central. "We were very impressed at their maturity, their creativity and their cleverness."
A visit to Camp Design Central found the girls awash in design sketches, lists and computer-generated blueprints spread out on conference tables and walls.
Marissa and Tiffani spent the week working closely with engineers, designers and consultants to perfect and modify their inventions.
They listened.
They researched.
They brainstormed.
"The idea is to instruct them on what we do and how we do it," said Jeff DeBord, Design Central’s director of industrial design. "We’ve had little mini-seminars . . . breaking down the steps of the design process."
The girls learned about business topics such as branding, teamwork, product assembly and distribution. They also went through the same multistep process the firm uses for large, global clients.
What kind of name sells a product? What should it look like? Should it come in different colors? Which stores would sell it? Who will buy it?
The business expertise proved helpful.
Tiffani, for example, changed her product’s name from the Cleat Cleaner to MudX because the original title sounded "too generic," she said.
And Marissa dropped the word bike from her invention, now called the Park n’ Lock, to make it sound more inclusive of other devices because a user also could secure a stroller or scooter.
Although the camp sessions were sometimes long and challenging, they also were fun, the girls said — especially because their ideas were on the drawing board.
They created their own logos on tablet PC computers that allowed them to draw on the flat monitor screens with a special pen.
Both had full input in the sketches and computer renderings, choosing their favorites from several designs.
Even more cool, a special machine carved life-size renderings of their inventions out of big foam blocks.
In the end, both made changes to their products.
Tiffani’s MudX cleat covers became molded, snap-on devices instead of the original, slipcoverlike design.
Marissa opted for a quirkier Park n’ Lock design that resembles a stick figure. And she added a digital fingerprint scan in addition to the IDcard entry.
At the close of the week, both girls presented a PowerPoint slide show unveiling their inventions to their families and Design Central staff members at a reception.
Debora Dyrenforth, the firm’s director for new business development, said it was good to see girls interested in an industry that remains male-dominated.
"We absolutely think it’s crucial for women to have exposure to what this process is about," Dyrenforth said.
The company is planning to offer another camp next summer, she said.
Marissa said the week piqued her interest in engineering. She’s a big fan of her science classes and also enjoys playing sports and drawing cartoons in her spare time.
"I really loved it," she said, adding that a career in graphic design is "one of my top choices."
Each girl is in the early stages of securing a patent — a federal government document that protects an inventor’s rights to his or her product and idea.
Design Central will not be taking claim to, nor receiving profits from, the prototypes should a patent be issued for either invention, Dyrenforth said. However, the company did help the girls find a lawyer to guide them through the patent-application process.
Tiffani is still excited about seeing her final creation, which has come a long way since she cut up an old binder (and stole her brother’s left cleat to use as a model.)
"I had no idea it could ever look like this," she said of the 3-D rendering.
Does she want to be an inventor? Maybe.
With a knack for softball, she’d like to play on a professional team.
Who knows — perhaps one day she can be a spokeswoman for her own wildly successful product.
kjoy@dispatch.com