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Picture Start: Making Your Mark as a New Business in an Elite Industry

By Jennifer Fujimori

Throughout our many years of customization experience, Fusion of Ideas has worked with clients in almost every industry – healthcare, education, food service, construction, entertainment, fashion – the list goes on. We relish the chance to impress our clients by customizing devices or mobile apps for their employees or customers. But for many of our movie-obsessed team members, it’s hard to deny that it’s especially thrilling when we get the chance to work with clients who are in the entertainment business.

PICTURESTART is a production company who set out to find a customized tech gift for 200 top clients and company executives. Our design and business teams went to work, collaborating with the PICTURESTART decision makers to create a sleek logo print for Apple AirPods. The PICTURESTART logo is printed on the charging cases for the AirPods, the stems of the AirPods are printed with a clean blue stripe, and to round out the project, we did a custom sleeve to fit over the AirPod box. PICTURESTART is focused on youth-oriented movies and shows, so the colorfully printed AirPods were the perfect way for the new company to announce itself as a fresh and innovative presence in the film industry.

The gifts you give your clients and the technology used by your employees offer unique opportunities for you to make a statement about your brand and the way you do business. By partnering with Fusion of Ideas, PICTURESTART created an impactful brand experience that recipients will recall every time they pull out their AirPods. “We’re finding that the AirPods have become a highly preferred gift in the year and a half since they were released,” said Russ Taylor, CEO at Fusion of Ideas. “They’re compact, useful, and can be customized in several areas. Plus, they have the appeal of being a relatively new Apple product, at a price point lower than an iPad or Apple Watch.”

Whatever your tech and design preferences may be, we can help you come up with an unforgettable gift. And if you’re on the fence, check out some of the finished projects on our website and Instagram account. We’d love to create your custom gift next!SaveSave

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Great Projects Start with Mockups

By Jennifer Fujimori

If you’ve ever hired a company to customize a product for yourself or to give as a gift, you might understand the anxiety that stems from not being able to see your finished product until it’s done. Or worse, the disappointment you feel when you’ve paid and waited patiently, only to come face to face with a result that’s not what you’d hoped for.

A vast and growing number of retail industries are placing an emphasis on custom products, from bespoke wedding dresses and men’s suits to vitamins and skincare. In theory, this is a great thing for consumers. But many companies require a deposit or even payment in full before providing their customers with a visual of the planned design, and that can be a recipe for disaster and disappointment.

Our mockup service at Fusion of Ideas aims to alleviate that risk. When we start a conversation with a client about customization and branding services, we take the time to gather as much information possible about the client’s business needs. Armed with that information, along with any artwork, logos, or images that the client provides, our creative design team gets to work. We then present a mockup of several realistic, high-quality images that showcase some of the device customization options for the client’s unique brand. “Mockups give us a chance to show a prospective client what we can do,” says Bryan Underwood, Creative Manager at Fusion of Ideas. “We pull ideas from the client’s website, logo, branding, and existing artwork and come up with several design concepts that compliment the devices we’re showcasing. In many cases, the client ends up going with one of our designs instead of their original request.”

In our experience, this paints the clearest possible picture of what a finished custom device might look like. The mockup sent to the client is formatted as a polished, elegant image that sets the tone for the Fusion experience. And because Fusion is committed to providing a truly elite service experience, the first mockup is always free of charge. Our Senior Business Development Manager, Jacob Sarabia, can attest to the effectiveness of mockups. “The initial mockup is our first visual impression on a client. It’s a great way to settle any fears or apprehension about our customization services, and to present a sneak preview of the quality of service you can expect to get from Fusion.”

Take a look at some of the examples in this post. Each mockup displays six customized service offerings. Our creative team incorporates the look and feel of your brand into each different device, which gives you multiple options to choose from. When you are investing in a high-value item such as a mobile device, you need assurance that anyone altering that device will treat it with meticulous care and attention to detail. Fusion of Ideas establishes that level of service from the start by putting diligent thought and effort into every individual mockup.

The Chicago Bulls pre-production mock up.
The Chicago Bulls actual completed project before shipping.
Pepsi Co. Mountain Dew pre-production mock up.
Pepsi Co. Mountain Dew’s actual completed project before shipping.

 

KUIU’s Mockup pre-production.
KUIU’s actual completed project before shipping.

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Xilinx AirPod Project

It was almost exactly a year ago that the Xilinx project went down in Fusion of Ideas history.  The new Apple AirPods had just been announced, and everyone was anxiously waiting for them to hit the market.  A few months had gone by since Apple’s announcement, and the public wanted to know when the AirPods would be arriving in stores.  Small batches of AirPods were released to stores, but were immediately sold out. Fusion was told that it would be awhile before businesses would have the opportunity to purchase them in large quantities, because production was just not fast enough to keep up with the demand.  Then Xilinx reached out to Fusion after being referred by Apple. They had 800 AirPods (a big deal, since stores hadn’t even received this many yet) and they wanted to find out more about our customization services.

Xilinx was planning to give AirPods to each of their employees as a special gift from their executive team.  They wanted to customize the AirPods’ white custom casing with the Xilinx logo. They also wanted to send the AirPods to employees in unique customized packaging to show their thanks and appreciation.  Fusion was their one-stop-shop for getting both of those things done in record time. The custom packaging included signatures of all of the executive team as part of the design, meant to show their appreciation.  

“Xilinx was looking for something cool to give their employees,” said Theresa Brown, Senior Business Manager at Fusion of Ideas. “Gifting the Airpods alone would have been nice, but the real wow factor came from outfitting the AirPods with logos and customized packaging including their executive team signatures. It took the gift to a whole new level.”

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