Sprout hits the shops!

In the shops!

The good news is that the first batch of Sprout are being sold at a real life shop in the heart of Shoreditch. The place is called Type East and is located on Sclater street off Bricklane. More importantly, it is quite close to the newly opened 'Cereal Killers' breakfast bar which has split the opinions of hip-stirs all over London. By working with Type East, the product can be tested on strangers and the shop staff, Rich and Robin. Asking price is £20.




 

Packaging

 
Packaging

Two companies in China produced the packaging (sleeve and soil packet) and laser cut parts (wooden and plastic pot pieces). There were quality issues with the logo and the glued sleeved. Other work included buying the soil and seeds from a local shop near Columbia Road and weighing out the stuff into bags and small envelopes. The seed packets were labelled by Aindri showing a selection of Water cress and Marigold.

Sticker instructions v2

Instruction labels

Instructions shown on the right were printed on white stickers and stuck to the packet. Stamps made from a lino screen print kit were made up to label the different sections. This was difficult! 


Website

Work has started on the website using a template from Squarespace.com and will support a Kickstarter campaign. The photos below were taken inside and then edited in Photoshop with a blue filter to cancel out the yellow light from the lamp. Help also provided by 'O'. Taking good photos is difficult!

It's Sprouting! Updates on the Sprout development project.

I have been working with Andy on a new planter pot product called Sprout, a flat pack planter which will come in a neat DVD-sized packet with seeds, soil, sowing instructions and a wooden pot that is assembled by the user. Kind of like the IKEA of the planter world. It has been in development for the last couple of months (as a break from the job search...) and is slowly but surely bearing fruit. 

The London Hack Space - my new home?

I used the laser cutter at the London Hack Space, probably the coolest space around with numerous tools, gadgets and stuff, all for £15 per month membership, open 24/7 and a good atmosphere.

Soil comes in a packet

Some changes need to be made to this prototype including changing the sprue arrangements, cutting some more windows in the packaging, adding instructions, removing twine from the soil packet and adding an inlay to prevent the wood from warping. We will print the instructions inside the soil packet to save on paper. I wanted to use a plastic packet for the soil so that it could be seen from the side but as I wanted to avoid using plastic and minimise packaging, I decided to go for a thin card packet.

Working on a Kickstarter too and business plan (Andy's expertise!) and are on track at keeping the sale cost at around £10 each.

Bidoooo - update

In the last post I was chatting about Bidoooo and soon I will be releasing it to the wild in order to check whether it will actually satisfy a need. Oisin sent this great article for inspiration; 'How To Validate Your Business Idea By Testing A Hypothesis!' I thought I would start now with you, so please check out the landing page and let me know what you think: Bidoooo app

Cheers,
Bryan
hello@suiledesign.com
uk.linkedin.com/in/bryanoregan/

P.S. Know of any product development jobs in London for a MSc in engineering design?! Let me know!