When we started this business a year and a half ago we had only one goal; to create the ultimate travel-friendly pry bar. As a mechanical engineer for my day job, I am very familiar with designing products in a variety of manufacturing processes. What I didn’t know, and one of the many things Mrs. GondekEDC brings to the table is the design aspect for everything that isn’t product-related.
Now that GondekEDC is a two-person venture, we can combine the product design with the marketing design. This is best shown with our recent website update (www.gondekedc.com). I made the website when we first started with a simple, minimalist approach. This worked great because it is the minimal style I like as well as easy to make for my lack of graphic design. This worked great for a while, but it was time to step up our game. Mrs. GondekEDC did just that with the update. In our opinion, not only does it look way better but it much more functional to get our message and products out. It also led to our new motto, “Good gear from good people at good prices.”
Our hanks are another great example where design has played a huge role. We are around 75% purchased fabric and 25% designed from scratch fabric at this point. The stuff we design gives us that leg up against the other makers as well as creates unique products (such as our stop sign hank. This has continued to evolve to more elaborate designs that require a higher level of photo editing. We recently purchased photoshop to help with this and has allowed even more creative options. Currently, we are working on a future HOTMC that we edited to be amazing! Can’t wait for this one!
One thing I never thought I would get so into was social media and posting pictures of our gear. If you look way back on our Instagram feed, you will find some not-so-great pictures but still some great gear. We feel we have got close to matching our photo skills to the quality of our products. This sometimes takes some photo editing to get it to look just right as well as add some cool effects. Just another great example of how design is important to all aspects of our business.
We are always learning and trying to improve our design efforts with new skills and software. The website, hanks, and our pictures we feel are great examples of our continued efforts. Thanks for continuing this journey with us and let us know what you think of the new site.