Sometimes Ya Just Gotta Buy Something! - Why I Love Abstracta

Yes, sometimes we humans just want to go shopping! Even guys find the urge to hit a store for something other than a fuel filter or new saw blade once in a while. And, speaking of buying something, in1998 we began searching for a new product line to fit within the display biz and nourish our fondness for making things. Even though most of the product lines here at Consort are creations by us, where we look for a niche in the display biz that hasn't been addressed, we sometimes look for existing products that might make a synergistic fit to our capabilities and markets.
Through a several-months-long chain of events, we decided upon the Abstracta Modular Display System, originally a Danish system of tubes and connectors that was well known in the design industry. We saw our purchase of this proven product as an opportunity to add new blood to Abstracta and create line extensions and new concepts using the current elements and potentially new components. An exceptional company in California, Abex Display Systems*, owned it at the time and had imported the manufacturing machinery from Denmark about ten years earlier. We made the deal and by October of 1998 we had everything up and running. In the beginning, we were chasing ourselves around the building trying to get out Christmas-oriented retail fixture orders that Abex handed to us from folks like Macy's. It was quite the experience, adding a major product line all at once, and we had many hiccups but no major catastrophes.

So, why do I love Abstracta? Because you can (very quickly) make neat stuff with it!

I had known about Abstracta while in architecture school where it was known for the very reason I just stated - you can make neat stuff with it. We design students found its many possible forms intriguing. If you're familiar with it, you know that it can be shelving, tables, desks, space frames, room dividers and much, much more. I started with making furniture for my dorm room at the University of Colorado and now, many years later, have Abstracta cube tables, end tables and shelving at home.

Of course, if you visit our website you will probably find the stock retail store fixture designs and cube tables in the Abstracta Furniture section, which are all wonderful and can be easily customized, but please look at the "Mya Personal Tables” for something different. This will show you how easy** it is to create and make cool stuff. The Mya series was a result of my finding my home coffee table just about 18" too far away while I stretch out on the couch. I envisioned a sort of "personal, one cup table" that I could move around depending on where, exactly, I wanted to rest my coffee cup. So, I went to the plant and in about 30 minutes designed it, assembled it and plopped it into my car. The next morning my coffee cup was where I wanted it to be. Simple stuff.

A noteworthy thing happened immediately after I made that first little table. Visitors began requesting that I make them one or two of the little tables, at varying heights and bingo!- a product was born. We gave it a simple, sort of European name (Mya of English origin, actually) and dubbed it "The Personal Table". One of the features that make this product a bit more unusual is that the Mya table tops are interchangeable. That is, if you want a fine hardwood top for indoor use and a tile or teak top for outdoor use, you simply unfasten the top and make the change. A few options of cigar ash tray tops are available as well.

So, that's why I love Abstracta - it's simple in concept but can easily be configured into both simple and complex forms for many uses, anywhere you have in mind.

Roger

*For those of you who know about the former New York office, known as Abstracta Structures, we also moved that office to Kalamazoo. Today, the Kalamazoo office is the North American headquarters and we own the worldwide trademarks for Abstracta.

**Note that the "J" Series of Mya table is fabricated with a custom welded part and is not in the "easy to make category" !

Banner Brackets and Fly Fishing! - The Third and Last In This Series

In the past couple of posts, I related how our company was the originator of the fiberglass street banner bracket and I described where the inspiration came for using fiberglass (fly fishing!) and then how the "canting" of the banner arms came about in 1985. Our most recent innovation in the banner bracket arm business is the BannerFlex Airow, which we first introduced in 2004 but for which we had spent about three years researching and developing.

The Airow is an eccentrically milled pultruded fiberglass rod that allows up to 50% of the wind force on the banner to be dissipated through the extreme flexing of the rod. For a visual description of this see the video at the upper right of this blog site or view it at www.kalamazoobanner.com. By using modern materials like milled pultruded fiberglass in this innovative way, we are able to provide a product that will last for many, many years in windy outdoor environments. That is, there are no mechanical parts in our system that involve wear, friction or even rust as in the case of springs or mechanical levers, and so on, that might be termed "machines" (and we all know machines wear out). Instead, we have incorporated what I term "space age" materials, for lack of a better description, that include high performance synthetic composite chemistry to do over the long term what older mechanical technology cannot do. Other examples of these "modern materials" are easily found in our current automobiles, sports equipment and even office chairs, such as the Herman Miller Aeron chair or, for that matter, the space shuttle!

The actual shape of the Airow rod is a bit hard to describe so I've included an image here but please visit this link to see it in action: www.kalamazoobanner.com/br_airow.php. As you may be able to observe, the top arm in an Airow banner bracket installation has a rounded top surface and an angled and tapered bottom surface (and the opposite for mounting the bottom of the banner). These rounded surfaces are to protect the banner fabric and the angled surfaces give the arm the increased flexibility that a standard full-round arm does not.

And, to bring the title of my last three posts into the discussion again, this shape takes its inspiration from my fly fishing rod back in 1984 and '85 that was so inspirational to me in deciding upon using fiberglass. So, in a way, we've come full circle back to that fly rod but have modified the typical cone or whip shape that tapers down from the fly rod handle to the tip and have made it an eccentric taper to accomplish the extreme flex and add necessary longitudinal strength as well as provide protection to the banner hem.

If all this seems a bit technical it's because it is! But, since our technology is well-researched and field-tested in thousands of applications over the past four years, I hope you'll take my word and guarantee that it works!

Roger

Banner Brackets and Fly Fishing - Part Two

In my last post I related how fiberglass was chosen as the material for the banner bracket arms 25 years ago. But, it seemed that another important ingredient to the BannerFlex® Banner Bracket System immediately become necessary. We had learned quickly what the specifications of the pultruded (see below for explanation of "pultruded"*) fiberglass needed to be to flex properly and to be strong enough but in the first actual street installation of a 30" wide by 94" tall banner it became apparent that we hadn't solved all the challenges. And, in typical young entrepreneurial style, I had already sold 30 installations to the New Center Area of Detroit that needed to be delivered and installed the next week (we are waaaay more cautious and deliberate these days, I'm pleased to say!). On a blustery and very chilly early December day in 1985 our little crew of three men and one substantial bucket truck nestled up to the first light pole with confidence and enthusiasm. We were about to change the look of the streets around what was then the General Motors** headquarters building. It was very exciting stuff for a young business that had previously only done work around southwest Michigan.

As soon we installed the first banner we backed away to admire our work, and warm our hands. At the same time, the Special Events Manager for The New Center Area Council, Patricia Haller, came out of her office to check out the progress. I had noticed right away that the banner looked a bit "pigeon-toed" with the outer hem of the banner looser than we had seen before. The top arm seemed to sag down a bit and the bottom arm was angled up the same amount. It was clear that Pat had noticed this as well and wasn't smiling her usual, happy smile. The "look" just wasn't what either one of us wanted. But, the good news was that with the 20 to 30 mph wind gusts, the arms were flexing and reacting perfectly, spilling wind and dampening the vibration on the light pole. I knew instantly what needed to be done to fix the pigeon-toeing but I also knew that it would take us a few days to come up with the proper modifications for everything to be perfect. I explained the situation to Pat and she understood and, what's more, she graciously allowed us the extra time without penalty. I will always be grateful to Pat and her boss, Ann Lang, for the patience and understanding they granted to me that day.

The solution to the pigeon-toed look was to install a "cant" or wedge into the system such that without a banner installed the top arm would cant up a few degrees and the bottom arm would cant down the same amount. The next day, back in Kalamazoo, we quickly figured out was needed and we went about having the parts fabricated for us. We were back in Detroit a few days later and completed the entire installation as quickly as we could. That installation performed flawlessly after that and we have done many more projects for the New Center since then.

What the "cant" system really does is provide tension to the outer edge of the length of the banner because the arms flex to take the shape of the banner and provide a trim and exact rectangular look. But, more important than the "look" is that this tension allows the force of the wind to be transferred immediately to the fiberglass so that this material will flex and spill off a substantial amount of wind force. About three years after this project we created BannerFlex II, the second generation of the canted system which had fewer parts, was sleeker and considerably easier to install. Currently we are producing the third generation, BannerFlex D-3, as well as smaller, more compact version know as the BannerFlex Metro for smaller and ornamental poles. I will write soon about our crowning achievement, the BannerFlex Airow, and also where we are headed with our ongoing research and development.
Roger

*Pultrusion is a continuous process of manufacturing of composite materials with constant cross-section whereby reinforced fibers are pulled through a resin possibly followed by a separate preforming system, and into a heated die where the resin undergoes polymerization, to become solid. In the case of our rods, think of all the glass strands all bunched together going lengthwise within the rod and held together with resin materials, very similar to typical fiberglass forms.


**General Motors, it should be noted, also did us a huge favor for this project by allowing us access to their aerodynamic engineers at their rather impressive aerodynamic laboratory. Since that time, I have been a “GM guy” as much as possible!

Banner Brackets and Fly Fishing! - Part One

Did you know that Kalamazoo Banner Works was the very first company to use fiberglass arms for light pole banner mounting? Next time you’re near a vertical street banner look up to the hardware and see what’s holding that banner on the pole. On most vertical street-scape banners installed on city streets and shopping center parking lots (among other places) you will probably see that the arms or rods that go through the top and bottom hem of those banners is a white or off white rod of about 3/4" in diameter. That technology, begun by us in late 1983 and now copied by virtually all bracket manufacturers, allows the wind force to be dissipated to some degree (by the flexing of the fiberglass rods) which puts less force onto the light pole and the base foundation. In addition, the fiberglass absorbs much of the vibration that occurs with prevailing wind currents and sudden gusts.

Yes, that innovation came rather quickly after KBW started business as one of the first street banner manufacturers. When I started the company, the standard method of attaching these rather large banners, 30" wide by 5' to 8' tall, onto utility poles was with steel arms of about 1" in diameter welded to steel collars and bolted to the poles. I immediately noticed and became frustrated with the constant bending and permanent distortion that occurred with the steel brackets. When the brackets (pipes) bent permanently due to wind force, the banners became floppy and the would flutter more and more as the steel arms bent, and stayed bent, more and more. Eventually, as the amount of flapping increased and put incresed stress on the banner fabric and hems, it caused them to tear prematurely. This was most apparent in the city of Chicago where these types of banners originated. There the banners were always colorful and well printed but looked battle worn quickly after installation.

As an architect and designer, I've had many chances to work through "the design process" and noodle through design challenges. This certainly was one of those! It just so happens that I was, at that same time, also attempting to learn how to fly fish with, as is common of course, a fiberglass rod. Well, there was the answer! "Pultruded" fiberglass flexes and always comes back to its original shape. The major challenge after deciding to use round fiberglass rods was to figure out what diameter to use and how to attach these to the poles. That next challenge also resulted in a solution that is also now copied by most companies who now use pultruded fiberglass for banner arms. I will leave the rest of the BannerFlex® story for the next writing.
Roger

Be The Best You Can Be!

My father had always reminded me as a youngster when I announced I wanted to be a cowboy or a fireman, and then later when I figured being an architect was where I was headed, "Son, be the best (cowboy or fireman or) architect that you can possibly be!" So when it came time to keep the cash flow going in 1982 and '83 when architecture in Michigan took a big hit with that recession, the graphic design and street banner business was picking up and Kalamazoo Banner Works was officially born on January 1, 1984. It grow so fast from just one person (me) that by 1987 there were 25 people at KBW making banners and brackets. Dad came out of retirement and was right there helping out and reminding me that we needed to be the "best banner company" we could be. Dad is gone now but we still keep his motto around.

And here's more of that story: we changed our name from Kalamazoo Banner Works (KBW) to Consort Display Group in 1999 to better reflect all the other product lines that have been developed or purchased since then. But, because the name "Kalamazoo Banner Works" was so well known in the street scape banner and banner bracket business we kept "KBW" as a brand for those products. The original name was a brilliant inspiration handed to me by my good friend, Donavan Kindle, who mentored me through the early days. It was simple, he said. Where is the business located and what do you do? And, since there is only one City of Kalamazoo and the city name is somewhat memorable, if a potential customer had heard just the name, they would instantly know we were in the banner business and they would know where to find us. That was all before internet, so the 800 toll-free concept was a huge marketing tool for us at that time.

So there, being the best business you can be includes having a really good name!
Roger

It's All Happenin' In The 'Zoo...

Kalamazoo! What a great town with a zoooper history. Known for many things through the years, such as Checker Cabs, UpJohn pills and the first downtown mall, it's also the home of Kalamazoo Banner Works, now known as Consort Display Group. This medium-size, little company designs and manufactures some of the most unique and innovative display products ever conceived on earth! Well, OK, some of them are pretty good and some of them sell better than others but we are proud of all of them.

So, who are the "we" in all that? The "we" are the talented and dedicated folks who make up this company that I started in 1984 to combat one of the past US recessions that occassionally affects my other profession of architecture. We are made up of designers, accountants, screen printers, digital printers, sales professionals, office managers and staff, CNC and waterjet operators, business administrators, assemblers and machinery operators and techies. A diverse group to be sure! But we do it all here, right here in Kalamazoo. We design the products, we make them, we market and sell them, we design and print the marketing materials and we create and maintain the websites. Of course, we hereby also acknowledge all the vendors, suppliers and consultants who fill in the gaps with materials and expertise that we absolutely count on to help bring it all together.

This blog site will wander through the goings on of Consort Display Group with an emphasis on innovation and other fun stuff that we and other designers are doing as well as some serious discussions about our products. With some of our products being somewhat technical in nature in regards to wind loading and structural engineering, we will address many whys and hows of the street light banner and banner bracket business to share important information to our customers. And, in a lighter vain, we'll talk about the fun, non-technical side of our products like Dori Pole Pennant System, Podia Tabletop Displays and others to share how you can benefit from what we and our customers have experienced with those.

Also, we'll link to some very astute designers and companies which we admire and think more folks should know about. Thank you for stopping by now and again. Roger