Inventors are unique. They often toil alone, working with minimal resources as they chase the wisp of an idea. When they achieve those eureka moments — that point when all the thinking, sketching, tinkering and building produce a viable product — they are just beginning. It takes money to take that innovative or creative new idea or product to the market and that is where investors can play a crucial and possibly lucrative role. Many would be investors shy away from this type of investment, claiming the risks are too […]

When engineer and mother Gwenda Lindhorst–Ko visited the Design 1st offices for the first time in 2009 she brought only herself and an idea. The idea was an invention that would solve the novel problem of keeping her child’s milk cold throughout the school day. The end result was “myColdCup” an innovative product guaranteed to keep milk cool for 5 + hours. Recently, Gwenda was featured on the television show “Backyard Inventors” – a video of her segment is included below.

Flying Fish, a mysterious mythical creature and now a reality. Dubbed the 'Salmon Cannon', a new glorified vacuum tube is helping fish in the Columbia River traverse man made dams by flying over them. Whoosh Innovations, the company behind the device first designed the pneumatic tube system to transport fruit and vegetables in packing plants.  But when Washington state posed a research question of how to help Salmon migrate across hydroelectric dams Whoosh pondered if fish could use the system too. "So we put a tilapia in the fruit tube," says Todd […]

The San Francisco Maker Faire is the flagship event of Maker Culture where everything is big! This year we were lucky to get a first person account of the event from Design 1st  maker buddy Steve Borza from Bluink who supplied the photos. The event featured a giant 25ft tall Fire breathing Octopus called El Pulpo Mecanico,  a Robo-Tar product that lets beginners play the guitar by picking out cords mechanically,  mind controlled interactive games, 3D printers that print all kinds of materials including flexible plastic, cake icing and  living […]

Ok, brace yourself...We just came across a desktop CNC Milling machine for $2000 on Kickstarter! The machine is called the Nomad Mill and we believe it's ready to take the Maker, Inventor and Hobbyist market by storm. And we're not the only ones either, since launching on Kickstarter 4 Days ago the Nomad has already blown past it's $30K goal and is currently sitting at $146K with 26 Days left. Check-it out for yourself:

3D printing is not new. In fact it been around for 30 years but now the technology has gone mainstream. 3D printers are now affordable to everyday people are their growth, use and features are growing exponentially. When we came across this infographic on the Revolution of 3D printing  created by Newark it got us thinking about the changing nature of prototyping and what this means for design and entrepreneurs. We think it will do the same for you!