Offsetter · Brenna

(Product · Person)

Concept

A friend of a friend came to me with a proposition. “I work with crafts a lot”, they said, “and I have to do this tedious thing over and over, and doing it manually isn’t very exact. I haven’t found a tool to do what I need - I think we could make it.”

The idea was for a device that could cut fabric at a given (adjustable and measurable) distance from an existing edge, specifically aimed at cases where that edge is not a straight line.

Audience

Crafters

Production

Mass

Price Point

$3-15

Timeline

3 months

Process

The original intent was for this item to be hanging at the checkout aisle of a craft store, priced low enough to be a low-risk pickup for perusers. However, after talking about the potential of the device, we wanted to adopt the idea of interchangeable tips.

With the low price point fighting the upgraded feature set, we landed on 2 versions: the first a $3 rendition with cheap (plastic) build quality and no removable parts; the second a premium version with a metal build and interchangeable parts for $10-$15.

Different iterations employed different mechanisms, but inspiration was consistently drawn from a drawing compass and metal link watch band. Twist the threaded rod in the middle to set the offset distance, then simply trace the existing line with the wheel to make the new cut.

Software

SketchUp · Inventor · Google Suite

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