Zagar Innovations

In 2010, my father had an idea. As an avid bicyclist, music on-the-go was important to him, as it kept him motivated and pumped to keep going! At the time, however, there weren’t too may good ways to carry around such a portable device on a bicycle. After a few brainstorming sessions, and several phone calls to his brother, Steve, who is a machinist in California, a prototype was born!

Once the product was ready for store shelves, we designed packaging, marketing materials, business cards, and a website to bring it all together. Take a look and see how we did it!

Creating the brand

So we had an idea for a product, but we needed to back up a bit and get ourselves a logo going! The idea was simple – show progression, forward motion, conceptual thinking. Most of the design process was trial and error directly on the artboard, and here was the final result in a few different flavors:

We also created some simple business cards to hand out at events, and to ship along with the products to the customer had a person to contact at any time during the process.

This flyer was inserted into the local newspaper as a full-color, quarter page ad.

The product development process begins

As the branding efforts were progressing, so was the work on the product itself. The designs were drawn by my uncle and dad, and soon the first prototype was ready to test.

Original drawings for the EDM
(Electronic Device Mount)

Prototype for test fitting [LEFT]

First production run in green [BELOW]

The final product in all colors

Designing the packaging

Each EDM would be bundled with the mount itself, a rubber gasket for accurate fitment, instructions, and a tool for quick adjustments. This would all be neatly packaged within a stitched leather case, fitted with a belt clip on the back side. The belt clip then slides over the mount installed on your handle bars!

We decided to pre-install the bundled case directly on to a 5 millimeter piece of cardboard stock. This piece of cardboard was stamped to include rounded corners and a cutout for hanging on store shelves.

Creating the website

We wanted the website to be quick and easy to access so people could order on the go. I developed a simple CMS with a small and lightweight backend that my parents could use to manage sales and prices, if adjustments were necessary. All payments were directed into their PayPal account which transferred its balance automatically each week.

Trade Shows & Events

To help push sales, my parents attended several bike-related events around the area and soon around the country. They brought their bikes, a ton of product, and all the marketing materials they could fit in to their van. They sold several hundred units online and in-person before finally deciding to retire from the sales floor… and biking soon after.