It’s one thing to have an idea. It’s another having to figure out how to make it happen. I’ve been wanting to add to our Shadow Magnets line for who knows how long. New characters are the obvious choice, but I just can’t with the $20k production estimate. Maybe in the future, but not right now. And so I ignored the problem. Then one day, the idea of creating add-on parts came to me. They would be much simpler to produce. So simple, I might even be able to produce them in-house. Doing so would be SO much more affordable thank outsourcing overseas. It also means that we can create more items with smaller unit minimums. But how? And what would they look like?

So.Much. Research.

I knew that machines now exist that make it possible to cut materials at home, but I knew nothing about how they worked and which would work best for our needs. Laser cutters. Digital cutting machines. After super extensive research (because I’m a nerd), we settled on the Siser Juliet, a digital cutting machine that may notoffer as many design possibilities as a laser cutter, but I also don’t have to worry about burning the house down or toxic fumes poisoning the family.

Next up: sourcing material. Turns out, thin black sheets of plastic are hard to find. So I went researched and tested many duds before discovering Pacon plastic sheets. Bonus points for being an American company. Sourcing magnets and adhesives proved equally challenging. It took over a month of experimentation, but we finally had all of the components.

Now to the important question: What to make?

Remember the Mother’s Day image of Dancer holding a paper bouquet?

A cute customer emailed asking to purchase this character. I had nothing to sell, but an idea struck — I can make accessories in color! People have been asking FOR YEARS if Shadow Magnets will ever come in other colors. Accessories would be a great way to dip our toes into this world.

One of the best business decisions that I made for this project was to hire a freelancer to come up with ideas. I knew that I would have little brain space for design when immersed in production research, so for a a few weeks, Elements2 Design became a 2-person team. I sent Alan (he’s the artist who worked on Shadow Magnet character design with Rami) a list of requested characters and asked him to go wild. He came back with pages and pages of options. I squealed when I opened up the design file. I wanted to make everything.

Now what?

Shadow Magnets Accessories is my first foray into product design. It’s a process involving lots of problem-solving and plenty of trial-and-error. The biggest problem: how to attach an accessory to a Shadow Magnet character. My first thought was to use removable adhesives, but I worried about pieces falling or getting warped. And then one day, while staring at an early prototype, I thought, “What if the accessories functioned more like paper dolls?” Paper dolls use tabs. Shadow Magnets can use slots. I’m particularly proud of this innovation. Such a simple solution. It just works.

How big? Which direction? How many? Turns out, the process of developing a new product is basically the process of dealing with a seemingly endless train of questions. We’ve done the work, and now we’re really excited to share our first three offerings of our Accessories line: Baking Set, Building Set, and Eating Set.

Are there going to be other Accessory items?

Most definitely! This being my first attempt at product design, I want to err on the side of caution and start slow. Curious as to what else is coming? Remember the epiphany involving paper dolls? Imagine something similar for Shadow Magnets. I can’t wait!