In this interview Gretha Oost of Half A Teaspoon, a Melbourne based sustainable design and product development company, talks about the development of their soon to released product 321 Water.
1. Gretha, Welcome to Design Droplets. Thank you for taking the time to chat, could you please give a quick introduction on yourself.
I have a background in corporate communications and moved to Australia from The Netherlands in 2004. I now reside in Melbourne and run a sustainable design and product development company. Half A Teaspoon is dedicated to making a positive contribution to the environment by bringing products to market that inspire consumers to use water consciously.
2. You are the founder of Half A Teaspoon and the inventor of 321 Water. Can you tell us about your vision for Half a Teaspoon and 321?
After reading about the environmental impact of bottled water in Anita Roddick’s ‘Trouble Water’ I researched why people drink bottled water and why we don’t re-use water bottles. Then I combined the features of both products into one. 321 Water is Re-useable, BPA free, convenient, great tasting water fresh from the tap is stylish and developed to protect the environment from more rubbish.
3. You have worked with Melbourne Industrial Design studio Charlwood Design to create the actual 321 Water Bottle. Since Design Droplets primarily features Industrial Designers, can you shed some light on the other side of the coin, from the perspective of being an inventor who engages an Industrial Designer or Design Studio? What do you expect from the Designer/Studio? What should they expect from you as a client?
Charlwood Design has proven experience with sustainable design so I knew that I was on the right track. My vision was to make a reusable drink bottle that filters tap water and is both visually appealing and practical for the mainstream, style-savvy consumer. Charlwood got it right from the start.
4. What did you look for when searching for an Industrial Designer to take your vision and turn it into reality?
We looked for an industrial design agency that has established itself as a provider of total product development, with expertise in sustainable design.
5. You are funding the development of 321 Water through a Crowd sourced funding model, can you tell us a bit about this model and why you chose to take this path as oppose to more traditional funding paths?
After winning the People’s Choice Award on the ABC’s New Inventors (July 2009) we received an overwhelming amount of enquiries. People wanted to know where they could buy 321 Water. This proved to us there was a demand and we then came up with the idea of crowd sourcing 321 Water. Let the demand create supply rather than the other way around.
We need 10,000 orders before production can begin. We have now reached half our target and already started the production process.
In addition, the process of securing finance and obtaining investors began in October 2009. The launch of 321 Water is scheduled for end of June 2010.
6. Marketing is an incredibly important part of taking a product from just a design to a commercial reality. Designers often think they have an understanding of marketing, but in many respects they don’t. As a marketer, what pointers on marketing would you give to designers who are trying to make their products a commercial success?
Think about who your target market is and start communicating with them as soon as possible. The crowd-funding model immediately got us in contact with our customers and they have taught us a lot.
7. What have been some of the challenges of bringing 321 Water to reality?
The main challenge is to get all the funding to start the manufacturing process. When taking the path of crowd funding there are many wonderful people who put their faith in us by paying already for their product. This is a huge responsibility but then again it is a massive motivating factor as well.
8. Half A Teaspoon received a funding grant from Design Victoria. In what ways, apart from monetary support, did this help bring 321 Water closer to reality?
Being a small business with exciting ideas, it is difficult to move them to the next phase. This grant has made it possible to go out and speak to interested parties. We are now not just talking about an idea we have an actual working prototype to show. This made our vision a reality and gave us the confidence to move forward to the next phase.
9. What is you opinion on the current state of the Australian Innovation?
I think that Australia is a very inventive country. Probably for the same reason as the Dutch, being a small population compared to the rest of the world, maybe we feel the need to prove ourselves. But it’s great and provides lots of opportunities.
10. Gretha, thanks for taking the time to talk with us here at Design Droplets. Do you have any final thoughts or advice for Design Droplets readers?
If you really, really believe in it, go for it. Be persistent! Don’t think it is going to be easy, the good thing is that taking a new product to market is an amazing and exciting journey.
