Mari Baskin and Eric Neumann met in person for the first time in 1984, almost ten years after Mari’s first exposure to Eric’s work, work that influenced continued study of her first love: art and design.

Mari finished high school (Evanston, IL) and college (University of Illinois, BFA in Industrial Design), hoping to one day work on the same kind of cool stuff designed by Eric (Elmhurst, IL and Chicago Academy of Fine Arts) while her father had been a customer of the company for which Eric worked. Herein lies the prior exposure to Eric’s early work although the two did not meet for many years.

Mari unknowingly followed a similar professional path to Eric’s: interviews at the same Chicago-based design firms (discovering later that Eric had actually worked there), brief stints working in the furniture business (both arising out of necessity), and after three years designing trade show exhibits, Mari answered a 1984 Help Wanted ad in the Chicago Tribune that landed her at the same packaging design company that Eric worked.

Minimal collaboration at first – Mari had catching up to do and company management seemed keen on keeping Eric’s ingenuity sequestered. But as two people whose minds often focus as one, in 1988 Mari and Eric formed Para Designers (think a “pair of designers”).

From structures to graphics, products to packaging, displays, branding and campaigns, Para Designers provides clients the personal approach of a small and experienced design firm, the methodical analysis of strategic thinkers (it was thirteen years before the partners married), and the passionate ability to push the limits of imagination.

Alongside the (public) client work flowed the (private) development of product ideas: stacks and stacks of sketches, folders and boxes filled with prototypes, ideas and dreams for that next better mousetrap. First attributed to Plato, necessity is the mother of invention, but in the area of consumer product design, there’s a good deal of consideration to practical manufacturing and viable marketing. Their idea for Capsurz® was born at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in March 2000.

While aboard the Navy-operated launch for the trip to the USS Arizona Memorial, Mari and Eric watched as strong winds blew the hat off the head of a fellow visitor, landing it directly over the remains of the USS Arizona in full view of a sign prohibiting throwing anything into the water. The hat was out of reach and the helplessness felt by all aboard was visible: although unintentional, the final resting place for so many sailors had been desecrated. As product designers, Mari and Eric recognized a need. And as tourists in windy Hawaii, they continued to be bombarded with the inability to keep a cap on. Within several weeks, the patent process for Capsurz®, the only cap and hat retainer that windproofs while it accessorizes, was underway.

Anglers, boaters, sailors, convertible drivers, horseback riders, skiers, rollercoaster enthusiasts, outdoor recreationalists of every kind who wear hats know the need to keep their hat on. And hat wearers of every kind know their preference for self-expression. Capsurz® accomplishes both: it’s functional and fashionable. The colors and motifs are unlimited. Plus, Capsurz® can be customized with a graphic message/logo. It’s the first utilitarian cap and hat jewelry!

Whether the design project is work-for-hire or for personal use, Para Designers considers the best part of the process to be the confirmation of desirability. Clients are happy? Grrreat! Consumers are buying? Double grreat! The best solution for the time does not stop Mari and Eric from continuing the search for the next better mousetrap.

With the 2008 eTail launch of www.capsurz.com , Mari and Eric have expanded Para Designers’ endeavors. Ongoing wholesale partnerships continue to grow and new products are scheduled for rollout 3rdQ 2009. Some of the new items are cap-related, some relate to Mari and Eric’s vast experience designing products made of paper, an ecofriendly, sustainable material whose advantages are regaining popularity. Focusing on “reduce, reuse, recycle” as a recurrent product theme, even Capsurz®, by keeping caps on heads, is the preeminent soldier in the war on hat litter, embracing the personal economics of saving your favorite hat!

Visit www.capsurz.com and www.paradesigners.com.

Tags: hats