…and we’re back! Last week we were in New York City, overlooking Times Square at the 2012 annual Housewares Design Awards. So what exactly is the Housewares Design Awards? In short, the awards ceremony is a celebration of innovation in design for all housewares-related products. With 12 different product categories, each category names 5 top finalists.

Our product, Note UM!, was a finalist for the category of Home & Outdoor Decor!

Keep scrolling to see pictures from our trip :)

Venue for the 2012 Housewares Design Awards

Note UM! Product Display

Chatting with media and other finalists

Spotting Note UM! in the Design Awards Catalogue

Though we weren’t able to walk away with a “Best in Category” award for Home & Outdoor Decor, you’ll now be able to see all of our Note UM! products sporting a new logo on its packaging to indicate our placement as a finalist. This being our first time ever entering the competition, we definitely hope to return for next year…and the next..and so on :P

Stay tuned for new, innovative products from UM! Brands!

Today is the 6-month anniversary of one of our earlier prototypes, monikered “The Beast”, who has been sitting on the glass of our QA Lab holding a 5KG (11LB) bag filled with sand. It was mounted on the 26th of April, 2011 and has not moved an inch since! LONG LIVE THE BEAST!

This is where we keep our whiteboard markers at our California office. These have been up since May and still staying strong. Note the surface is roughish and the markers are cylindrical. Still, doesn’t stop Stick UM! from sticking ‘em up. They never cease to amaze me.

So I finally got around to cleaning my room, like actually clean, as opposed to just re-arranging my stray socks. Over the course of the last month, the pile of debris in the corner of the room has slowly matured into a terrifying mountain of miscellany.

I finally summoned enough courage to scale this beast, and in it, I found the box for my  iPhone 3GS.

It’s an incredibly nice box. I don’t know why, but it just feels wrong to throw it away (something about product packaging to be learned here).
So I suddenly had an idea. And this idea has led to the birth of a new product line concept: Organize-UM!
(Don’t tell Steve Jobs I’m using his packaging as a stationary organizer ;D)

I took a Stick UM! and simply stuck the box halves to it to create two mini floating organizers on my wall.
Take a look at the pictures below and let us know what you think!

So I love posters. But I HATE trying to put them up.
It sucks to spend $10 on a poster and then have them get all messed up by horrible poster tape which you can only use once. Then they become useless and you have to try to put more poster tape over your old poster tape, until it gets ridiculous and you end up with something like this:

So then I remembered. Oh hey. Don’t I own a company that makes this like, revolutionary sticky tapey material stuff?
Hmm…I wonder if that stuff could work… :)  So I pulled out a pair of scissors and cut the Stick UM! pad into slips of super awesome poster tape.

And BAM! It works AMAZINGLY. :) Check out the gallery for the process and the end result-
I can’t wait to start makin some UM Brands Poster tape for you all :)
Any suggestions for us about this? Let us know in the comments!

Cheers-
Ben

So to be honest, I never really understood how amazing this Everstik stuff was when we started making it. I mean, it was obviously pretty neat and I could imagine a few cool things we could do with it. But it hasn’t been until recently that my mind has really been blown.

Over the past month, since I had all these samples laying around my house, I figured I might as well use as much of it as I can. And this made me realize just how incredibly useful this material is. Everstik is such an amazing and versatile material that it actually takes a bit of creativity to explore all of its practical uses.

I’ve found use for it in the kitchen, the bathroom, and my bedroom, but I’m sure I still havent exhausted its potential yet. Here are some of my findings so far :)

If you’ve discovered any great uses for Stick UM! let us know!

Hooraay we’re live!
After months of hard work and gallons of sweat and tears, the site and blog are finally live.

On our site you’ll be able to peruse and buy our finished products :)
While if you’re interested in our musings and experiments as we continue to innovate and come up with new ideas, or just to say hello, the blog is where you should be!

If you have any feedback or suggestions about how we can make our site or blog better, please let us know!

Cheerio-