Anybody can invent anything they want and anybody gain a patent for the said invention. This is how product design has come on in leaps and bounds to create every possible thing you use every day. Product design is apparent in your vehicle with every individual component needing its own patent. All these components come together to give you this machine that you take for granted to get you from A to B.
Product design is there in your home. In all the components that make up a TV, DVD player, games console, toaster, washing machine, every conceivable thing you use right down to the fabric of your carpet.
In the workplace, product design can be seen in the equipment you use, even if it is only a desk, chair and pen and paper. These things may well be taken for granted but it takes time and patience to come up with the ultimate product design to make our lives that little bit easier.
Patents are granted for new inventions every day. Not all as useful as the ones we see in the health care system, mind! Below are a few genuine inventions that have been granted patents for their product design.
The spider ladder. A miniature ladder that can be placed in the bath to prevent the drowning and expiration of stray spiders that climb up the water spout.
The baby cage. A device to be placed over baby when it's in the parental bed to prevent said parents from squashing it. Can also be used when baby becomes a handful by securing it to the ground with tent pegs. (The last bit was my idea but worth consideration).
Still on the subject of product design for parents and children we have a god send in the form of the Squabble Shield. This is a clear, Perspex, shatterproof screen that will divide children sitting in the back of the car preventing them from poking and pinching each other.
This has the benefit of also preventing the parents from having to reach through to the back of the car, cuffing the squabbling children and thus possibly avoiding a nasty pile up, leaving mum to apply her make up while manoeuvring around traffic at the same time.
Whilst on long journeys that require the separation of offspring, we also have the invention of the P-Mate. This is a device that looks like an Origami boat but that unfolds into a creation made for allowing women to pee standing like a man (although I think one hand on the wall in front is not strictly necessary). Obviously invented by a man who doesn't understand women are multi-directional.
For the man on that journey, or in that important meeting or, let's face it, just about anywhere, product design experts have come up with the 'Subtle Butt'. This is a small, square piece of carbon fabric that sticks to the inside of underwear. It's job is to absorb and neutralise odours from extracted wind. If my ex husband was anything to go by, they should make trousers out of this stuff!
Two children in America (where else?) have come up with wedgie-proof underwear. The Rip Away 1000 is underwear constructed of two pieces that stick together with Velcro and come apart when yanked by the playground bully.
And product design for the mother of children that wedgie each other or the wife of the man who needs carbon trousers? The product design to make us all feel better - the instant face lift.
This is a device whereby you use surgical adhesive to glue small straps around the edge of your face. These straps are then attached to an anchor band further back on the head. It's fine - no-one will notice!
Perhaps I should explain, and maybe tell a bit about myself first. I found myself at the age of 60 widowed, no income, having to sell my home to try and keep my head above water financially and to top everything I had been diagnosed with a progressive and though not fatal neurological disease one for which there was no cure.
The first phrase that comes to mind when I look back is PANIC. Where do I go from here, no home, no income and no job or even any likelihood of finding one with my medical problems? I managed to solve the first one relatively quickly and found a house to rent, however that in itself along with my financial situation led to ?how do I pay the rent?.
Okay, I was 60 so I had a state pension but nobody ever got rich on the old age pension, it would pay my rent but little else.
Suddenly out of the blue came what I thought was the answer to all my prayers, it was an invitation to subscribe to a monthly guide to make me a millionaire in three to five years at the cost of only ?30 per month. So, I signed up but unfortunately because I did not have the basic expertise I got nowhere with it. Then again out of the blue just as I was about to give up and admit defeat I was invited to a weekend boot camp where I would be given all the help I needed from successful internet millionaires. So, out came the credit card and I signed up but because it was at the opposite end of the country from where I lived I also had the added costs of a hotel and train fare.
I enjoyed the weekend and came away with many hundreds of pounds of resale items and videos and I signed up to yet another course which maxed out credit card number one. The course was to be sent to me from the US within a couple of weeks. When it arrived I just didn't know where to start, there were so many books, videos and cds that it literally blew my mind. I tried wading through them but all that happened was that I became even more confused and eventually gave up. I wondered how these guys were so much brighter than I, I told myself that I was no dunce as I hold a nursing qualification and a teaching diploma but I just couldn't get my head around it until the penny suddenly dropped. There had been in excess of 4000 people at this weekend and I am sure that nearly all of them bought one or other of the courses that were for sale plus most people bought the videos of the weekend. These seminars were held at regular intervals and mostly sold out. So work it out for yourselves as to how much these guys made from them, no wonder they were millionaires!!
How sick did I feel and I vowed never to get taken along again, but guess what the headless chicken really took over, I ended up trying everything that was offered on the internet and boy when they know you are looking to set up an online business do they contact you with the most amazing offers and ideas imaginable each for just a few pounds a month, the problem is that you lose track of what you have signed up for and those few pounds soon max out card number 2.
At this stage you are not only broke but in debt as well and a lot worse off than you were to start with. Plus what you also lose is time as your inbox fills up with information from every site that you have signed up with and you spend nearly all of your time trying to sort out the wheat from the chaff and so you lose the most precious commodity of all, time. By now you are really feeling depressed and defeated and don't know which way to turn.
If I can get this message across to just a few people out there who are just starting out then I feel that I will have done a good job. What I did was cancel everything, unsubscribe to everything and start from scratch with a totally clean slate. I made my mind up that even though I was broke I had to do some homework and look at what was out there that would realistically get me started. After much searching I came across the PIPS site which offered me what I felt I needed which was a structured system with day by day instructions over a 30 day period, I could make the 30 days last as long as I wanted. I could also revert back as often as I wanted to clarify things, finally I could actually see where I was going and more importantly how to get there, it is such a shame that it took me so long and cost me so much before I discovered that there is no substitute for planning and taking things one small step at a time. If I were starting from scratch now I would save myself thousands of pounds and even more importantly hours and even weeks of that most precious commodity, TIME.
If you are just starting out please, take these words of advice to heart, STOP, THINK, PLAN.
Take it step by step, don't fall prey to all the offers out there to make you a fortune overnight, take it from one who knows that there is no substitute for doing your research and planning your business stage by stage, the internet can give you a good living but only if you do things slowly and plan each step that you take in advance, don't rush headlong into things because I can assure you that if it were that easy the internet would be swamped with millionaires and of course it isn't.
Don't give up either because you can succeed given time and a lot of effort. Try a few of the freebies before you pay for anything, you will find that there are a lot of things out there that you can try for free before you waste your money. See if they are for you, if not try something else. Remember what I said at outset:
Necessity is the mother of what?
Make sure that in your case it really is the mother of invention. Learn from my mistakes and save yourself a lot of money and a lot of heartbreak.
Both Catherine Harvey & Anne Dunton are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Catherine Harvey has sinced written about articles on various topics from Culture and Society, Home and Wedding Gowns. Design expert Catherine Harvey looks at the role of in new inventions.. Catherine Harvey's top article generates over 1500000 views. to your Favourites.
Anne Dunton has sinced written about articles on various topics from Work From Home, Culture and Society. Anne Dunton . Anne Dunton's top article generates over 8100 views. to your Favourites.