It’s always an exciting scene at Inventionland, with skilled Creationeers handling everything from metalworking, woodworking, molding, laser cutting, 3D printing and more – all to prepare prototypes, products and packaging.

While this is the daily scene here at Inventionland, sometimes we shift into an even higher gear in preparation for industry trade shows. Leading up to July 2015, design and build teams were hard at work preparing new pet items for SuperZoo, the national show for pet retailers held in Las Vegas, Nevada.

It was then that a brand-new line of massage grooming brushes for pets was designed for our friends at Hugs Pet Products. Bristle by bristle, the brushes came together.

While the team was excited about their work then, now there’s even further reason to celebrate as the line of brushes just hit the market! Available for sale through Hugs Pet Products, the line includes three brushes made with natural bamboo.

All are soon to be showcased in their final form at the Hugs booth during Global Pet Expo in March.

Here’s to tails wagging and the evolution of prototypes to products in market!

Copyright Inventionland, 2016

The typical Davison client project is not licensed, sold in stores or profitable.  The Davison client whose products are depicted has not received a net profit.

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Not long before 2015 came to a close, we shared some exciting news about Inventionland-designed packaging solutions appearing in a commercial for our friends at Hugs Pet Products, who have partnered with none other than Paula Deen to formulate a nutritious blend of dog food known as Paula Deen Premium Select Pet Food!

Though news of that nature is exciting enough, what you might be interested to know is that not only was Inventionland given the opportunity to tell the Hugs and Paula Deen story by way of our packaging designs created by Designer Justin, but those designs themselves included photos that Designer Kyp took at Deen’s home in Georgia!

Kyp traveled with the Inventionland team to Deen’s home in Savannah, Georgia back in January 2015 to take photos for the dog food packaging and other projects our Inventionland team was working on. While there, she snapped some great shots of Deen in and around her home.

The secret ingredient that got us excited?  Those pictures showed up in Paula Deen’s latest cookbook, Paula Deen Cuts the Fat, which provides a lighter look at some of her old recipes.

“19 [photos]! Most of the photos of Paula and her family in and around her house were taken when I went to her home in Savannah last January,” she said.

Of the 19 photographs, Kyp said she has a few favorites.

“You can’t get much more ‘Southern cooking’ than a photo of Paula eating fried chicken, but I like the photo mainly because it showcases all the coppery, earthy colors of Paula’s kitchen,” said Kyp.

“The photo of Paula holding the kumquats is nice and vibrant, and I think it’s a very sweet portrait of her. Incidentally, I love kumquats, and I probably ate about 40 of them off these bushes while I was there, but luckily I had the foresight to wait until after I took all the shots,” she laughed.

While Kyp takes an archival approach to all of her works, this one was somewhat special.

“I save everything I do; I’m a file hoarder. I haven’t had anything published like this before, so it looks like I’ll have to start archiving this stuff for bragging rights,” Kyp smiled.

Congratulations to Kyp and the Inventionland team for a job well done!

Copyright Inventionland, 2016

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In celebration of National Mutt Day, a day that was created to embrace, save and celebrate mixed breed dogs, we’re sharing the story of Inventionland’s own, Michael otherwise known as “Spicy” (Special Operations) and his dog, Major!

Spicy’s dog, Major, is a German Shepherd-Black Lab-Border Collie mix. For the past eight years, Major has been working alongside Spicy and lending a helping paw whenever he can for packaging shoots and new pet toy testing.

At Inventionland, Spicy is the resident photographer.

“I don’t usually like working with animals for shoots as they can be unpredictable. It can be difficult to get what you’re looking for, but with enough reinforcement and treats, it usually works out!” said Spicy.

The tale of Major’s modeling story goes a little something like this.

“We were looking for a dog to do packaging shots with,” said Spicy. So, Spicy turned to none other than his right-hand man, Major, to fill the role!

After a few shoots, working with Major proved to be a good experience. While it may be difficult to work with animals that aren’t familiar, Spicy said he finds it easy to work with his furry four-legged friend.

“He listens to me!” said Spicy.

But, just as Major is a great helper, he is also a force to be reckoned with!

“He is very destructive. He just really loves to destroy things,” said Spicy, who further noted that Major always looks forward to the holidays.

“He likes opening presents,” he said.

By the looks of these next few pictures, he also loves to enjoy presents, too! We were happy to have Major be a product tester on several of our innovative, Inventionland-designed products including the Jaws Apple Chew Core, Cool Cot House, and Hydro Bone – created for our friends at Hugs Pet Products.

As you can see, we had the great opportunity to shine the spotlight on a mutt by the name of Major, who has been able to live an exciting life thanks to his owner, Spicy.

So, today on National Mutt Day, there are thousands of mixed breed dogs across the United States patiently waiting to experience a loving bond with a pet parent and to find a fur-ever home. Perhaps today is the day that you change a loveable mutt’s life for the better!

Copyright Inventionland, 2015

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Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in the United States and in the spirit of the holiday that’s filled with gratitude, at Inventionland, we’d like to share with you one of the many reasons we are thankful!

Thanks to our friends over at Hugs Pet Products and their partnership with none other than celebrity chef Paula Deen, we were able to put our packaging design expertise to use when we were tasked with the creation of the packaging for the Paula Deen Hugs Premium Select Pet Food line!

Our very own package designs, created right here at Inventionland, were featured in Paula Deen’s own kitchen, online and on TV!

In fact, our packaging designs were part of a 30-second commercial that has been airing on the major TV network, Lifetime!

See the commercial for yourself!

As always, when we see our products or product packaging in the spotlight, we can’t help but feel proud and Graphic Designer, Justin, echoes this sentiment.

“As you can imagine, having something that I helped design appear on television is rather exciting. Artists of any kind – performers, painters, authors or actors, all crave the reward of praise and validation from their audience by putting their work on display, whether it be the stage, a gallery or on book shelves or the internet. What better way to have my work on display than on TV and the store shelves? Pretty cool. I guess Warhol was right about everyone getting their 5 minutes of fame. I just hope I didn’t burn mine completely up!” said Justin.

Tune in to Lifetime after your big feast tomorrow for a chance to see our packaging designs in the limelight! From everyone at Inventionland, we’d like to wish you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving!

Copyright Inventionland, 2015

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Every year, Inventionland employees are able to work on “yearly projects,” which are personal products of our designer’s choice that they design and build.

This week’s story features our Senior Corporate Creative Designer & Engineer Matt’s yearly project, which just so happens to be his favorite product from the Pet Shack – the Whack-A-Mouse.

The tale of Matt’s product all started when he was informed that Inventionland would be working with a pet company, which turned out to be none other than our friends at Hugs Pet Products! So, in true Pet Shack fashion, he decided at that moment that his yearly project would be – you guessed it – a pet product.

As a cat owner, Matt decided to create a cat toy!

Cats are curious creatures and this notion applied to Matt’s cats as well, as they loved to play with boxes. In the past, Matt used to cut out holes and slits in old boxes for his cats to play with and they loved it! It was this intrigue and excitement that sparked his inspiration for his project.

From this moment on, the Whack-a-Mouse was born. The once cardboard box was transformed into a wooden-box frame with canvas fabric to cover the holes. With no tooling involved to create this product, “This made it really easy and cheap to manufacture, which I believe is usually the best, most-profitable kind of project,” said Matt.

This idea that once started out as a personal project transformed into a product that was then sold through Hugs Pet Products.

But the excitement didn’t stop there. In fact, the Whack-A-Mouse has done so well that it was actually featured on ThinkGeek.com as the “Cat Whack a Mole,” which usually sold out every time! Not to mention, ThinkGeek liked the product so much that they even made a product video for the Cat Whack a Mole.

Check it out!

Matt’s creativity paired with Inventionland’s Inventing Process made this innovative pet product come to life.

“I actually get to call that one mine,” said Matt on his project, “It’s a great feeling.”

Here’s even more great footage of the Whack-A-Mouse in use:

So, for the love of pets, Matt turned his invention idea into a reality – the Whack-A-Mouse. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for even more behind-the-scenes stories of our designers’ favorite products!

Copyright Inventionland, 2015

Media:

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Just last month, the Inventionland team carried out a photoshoot onsite at George Davison Studios to complete product photography for Paula Deen Hugs Premium Select Pet Food for our friends at Hugs Pet Products.

Inventionland had the pleasure of designing the dog food packaging – from the photos, to the graphics, and more.  And the proof is in the print with the Inventionland logo printed on the back of each bag.

Well, that packaging that holds specially-crafted, wholesome and nutritious ingredients is now being used to feed dogs in need, too!

The Midwest Beagle Rescue, Education and Welfare (BREW) group works tirelessly to rescue beagles from high-kill shelters and provide them with foster homes where they will, for the first time in their lives, experience love.

As if it’s not rewarding enough to see the hard work of our designers on store shelves, it’s even more rewarding when that hard work is then used for a great cause.

So when Hugs and our CEO George Davison shared with us that the dog food would be donated to help the Midwest BREW feed their rescue dogs, we were thrilled!

It was a special delivery, to say the least, when our Inventionland-designed packages of Paula Deen Premium Select Pet Food were delivered to selfless BREW volunteers who open their doors (or doggy doors) to rescued beagles.

BREW sent six bags of the Beef & Rice-flavored Paula Deen Hugs Premium Select Pet Food to Toledo, Ohio to lend a helping paw to a volunteer who fosters senior beagles that need balanced food in order to keep these older dogs strong and healthy.

Since the Midwest BREW began in 2002, this organization has adopted more than 1,500 beagles into loving homes. At Inventionland, we are proud that our package design and our friends at Hugs’ pet food will contribute in designing a better life for beagles in need.

Learn more about the Midwest BREW and how you can help this great cause, too!

Copyright Inventionland, 2015

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