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4.24.2006

For Immediate Release 4/24/06
For more information, contact:
Jolene Keach : 217.351.6700




Same creative team. Whole new s[h]tick.

Champaign, Illinois, April 24, 2006—In 1953, Sir Edmond Hillary climbed Mt. Everest "because it was there." In 2006, the designers at Spinlight Studio invented a new gadget for storing and displaying CDs because it wasn't. In that simple moment, the Stick was born. And a hot, local design firm that's used to telling clients how to market their products became a company with a product of its own.

By any measure, 2005 was a phenomenal year for Spinlight, located in a non-descript row of metal-clad office buildings on the edge of Champaign, Illinois. They marked their fifth year in business by taking home more American Graphic Design Awards than any other firm in the country. And in December, they capped off the year with word that they had made the list of "People to Watch in 2006," as named by Graphic Design USA, one of the most respected trade publications in the design industry. But even with all of that going on, they were ready for something more. They needed a new outlet for their creative energies. And in 2006, they found it.

"We didn't set out to invent a product," explains Matt Hutton, Spinlight co-owner. "We had just ordered some custom CD-R discs for our company, and we liked them so much that we wanted to display them on our desks. But the only option we had for doing that was using the ugly plastic spools they arrived on." In a creative works environment like Spinlight, ugly is never an option. So they began experimenting with a wooden dowel lying around the studio, sanding it down and applying their graphic design esthetic to industrial design. Eventually, the Stick began to take shape as a short rod with a slight ridge near the bottom and the base cut at 45º-angle, enabling CDs to rest on the stick at a perpendicular angle.

Several months and 30 prototypes later, the rough wood has been replaced by a solid piece of polished aluminum with a simple rubber gasket and even simpler name. The new product is currently for sale on their website, but the creators hope to announce other outlets soon at spinoffstore.com, a site created exclusively to market products developed under their new venture.

For Spinlight co-founder Debby Winter, the experiment has been more than an exciting, headlong dive into the perils of product development; it's been a chance to view the global marketplace from a different perspective. "We're always advising our clients on how to position products and market their business. Now we're getting a great view from the other side of the fence. We know what it's like to go through the ups and downs of product development and to put your heart and soul into every aspect of a product's design. It's not something we have to guess about. We've done it. And we can use that experience to serve our clients even better in the future."

About Spinlight

Since founding Spinlight in 2000, co-founders Debby Winter and Matt Hutton have won numerous awards for design excellence, including 22 American Graphic Design Awards. Located on South Staley Round in Champaign, the company offers a full range of print, broadcast and digital marketing services for a broad range of clients.