Inventables Blog - The Playground

Exploration: Rock Climbing

noreply@blogger.com (Candace) — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:38:00 +0000

This month’s Inventables team exploration took us on a trip up to Old Town at the FFC Gym’s rock climbing wall. Rock climbing is an intense sport which synthesizes across many athletic disciplines as well as creative problem solving.

The most important part of climbing, hands-down, is safety. With this being said, we spent the first part of our exploration learning all there is to know to have a safe climb. We were taught how to properly secure a harness, tie a figure-eight knot, and our safety knot. Next, we learned how to properly belay our climbing partner while they are climbing. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, we learned how to lower our climbing partners after they made it to the top! Our safety lesson granted us our belay certification and now we can climb safely and correctly.

After a quick bouldering lesson from our instructor, it was our turn to put our skills to the test. The rock wall has more than 100 routes to climb ranging from entry-level challenges all the way to the toughest routes around! Each team member made it through at least 1 climb and some even did 3! FFC Gym also gave us each a two-week pass to come back to the climbing wall to keep our skills fresh and to continue challenging ourselves with new, more difficult climbs.

Exploration: City Hunt

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:21:00 +0000

Today the Inventables team exploration took us on a scavenger hunt through downtown Chicago. We broke up into two teams and hunted for clues throughout Chicago's loop. Above you see Mary and Monica finding out how much Calder's Flamingo weighs (50 Tons!).

The kick off started in Daley Plaza in front of the Picasso statue. The guide handed out clue sheets.

Both teams ran through Chicago's loop looking for clues at famous landmarks including Harris Bank Building, the tallest Church in the World, the old Marshall Fields Building, Art Institute, The Rookery Palmer House, Oriental Theater, Chicago Theater, and the Chicago Cultural Center.

In the end team #2 (Damn Awesome Unit) won by 1 point!

Institutionalizing Exploration

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 18:43:00 +0000

The Inventables exploration budget is intended to keep our team creative while quenching our curiousity. At its core, Inventables helps customers make non-obvious connections. Our customers go out and identify opportunities in the marketplace to make new products consumers will need. They then look to Inventables for all sorts of materials and technologies that can differentiate their products. Setting up a culture in your company to get outside the standard solutions in your industry can be challenging because it requires taking risks and exploring the unknown. We understand this activity can be very hard.

At Inventables we’re institutionalizing a “safe” way for all employees to explore the unknown; we call it our Exploration Budget. Each month every full time professional employee gets a $50 budget to go explore anything they want. Sometimes there is that magazine that piques your curiousity but you don't need; other times you want to try a new gadget you haven't been able to justify buying or add that new song you aren't sure if you want to buy to your collection. Whatever it is that excites your mind, this budget gives you the opportunity to explore - without risk. We also add $50 to an Exploration Pool that each month a different employee uses to lead a company-wide exploration.

The group explorations have taken us to unique places, brought otherwise unavailable experiences to our office, and afforded us the opportunity to play with innovative new products. We are institutionalizing a safe way to really go explore and learn about new things, have new experiences, push boundaries, and try things and fail. The whole point is to broaden our horizons as a company in a judgment free forum.

noreply@blogger.com (Candace) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 16:12:00 +0000

At Inventables we research materials and technologies that have unexpected properties. We focus on the unexpected because we have found that when you learn about something unexpected it expands your understanding of what is possible. This broader perspective helps you come up with non-obvious solutions to problems. Our customers use this technique to come up with products that differentiate them from their competitors on store shelves.
An example of a material we found that has an unexpected property is hydrophobic sand, or, said in plain English, sand that does not get wet.

Check out the video filmed by Eric Olson of FeedBurner!

noreply@blogger.com (Candace) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 16:10:00 +0000

Over the last few years we have been studying the way our customers work with the technologies they receive from us. We discovered that there was a correlation between how they were displayed and how frequently they innovated with them. The most successful customers had created their own innovation displays. We took the lead from our successful customers and worked with Studio Red at the Rockwell Group to design the Inventables Innovation Center. Customers now install this in their office when they get started with Inventables.

noreply@blogger.com (Candace) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 16:08:00 +0000

When flat, the material in the picture above looks and feels like a
solid block of metal – but this metal can actually bend and flex. It
can be engineered to flex backwards and forwards.

This material is made by applying thin strips of adhesive onto sheets of aluminum. The sheets are then stacked together and a block is formed by applying heat and pressure. In this state, the solid brick is flexible; however, the brick can also be expanded to make a honeycomb structure that is lightweight and strong, similar to corrugated cardboard.

noreply@blogger.com (Candace) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 16:02:00 +0000

The Inventables Concept Studio created this future commercial for the "paper nose" technology Inventables found from a start-up named Chem Sensing.

noreply@blogger.com (Candace) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:59:00 +0000

Inventables self inflating structure demonstrated at Hush Labs in Houston, Tx

Inventables - Playground

noreply@blogger.com (Candace) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:59:00 +0000

Welcome to the Inventables Blog - "The Playground"