Rockers

Rockers

This was my first ‘made in Sheffield’ product, but it very nearly didn’t happen!

I had the idea of a simple form that could be easily made and bring a playful quality to humble Salt&Pepper shakers. I wanted to make it in metal and thought it might be suitable to try Pewter. I had drawings and a card model with me plus the money to pay for the production so what could possibly go wrong?!

Well as it turns out..plenty!

First of all, just because I thought it was the thing to revive a rather staid industry didn’t mean that other people already working in the industry would agree, and at the first factory I called upon I was told in no uncertain terms “Listen mate, your job is to sell what we make!”… to which I replied in my oh-so-sure-of-myself way… “Nah mate, your job is to make what I can sell!” Needless to say, the factory in question didn’t feel they needed my advice and kicked me out on my ear!

Second of all, just because something appears ‘simple’ doesn’t mean that it is ‘easy’ and once I had found a factory that was up for it, I had to work through many challenges and frustrations to deliver the purity and detail that I wanted… so what I thought would take a week or two and a small amount of money to develop actually took 6 months and a pile more money. As the saying goes ‘it always costs more and it always takes longer’… a good lesson to learn and never a truer word spoken in the world of design.

Third of all, just because you think something is perfect for the market doesn’t mean anyone else will agree (or buy it)! So ordering and paying for a load of stock before anyone has placed an order isn’t necessarily the greatest idea in the world. You need a bit of demand to justify setting up the supply and you have to get out there and SELL it!

So Rockers turned out to be my teacher and the lessons I learned were at the time a bit painful, but gave me something valuable which I have continued to draw upon ever since…