How a drawing on a bar napkin led to a software platform that processes trillions of calculations
April 15, 2024
In 2007, while sitting at the pub Moran’s with a beer, I drew a sketch on a napkin that would change our business. I drew a software model that would allow an indie store to instantly show (and sell) thousands of products online—without any labor. (The secret sauce: The respective brand would do the product update work for the merchants.) The immediate goal was to help my two retailers more efficiently load products onto their websites (and save me the boredom of doing it).
BERTIL VALLIEN is a gift to glass. The impressive portfolio of this prolific artist is haunting, memorable, and mesmerizing.
His 60-year career, spent advancing the craft of sand-casting, is a study of one man's existential questioning actualized on hypnotic works of art.
................................
BERTIL VALLIEN IS A 60-YEAR KOSTA BODA ICON, DESIGNING FOR THE BRAND SINCE 1963.
He is one of Sweden's most celebrated glass artists with numerous awards and museums exhibitions around...
Read More
Many of our graphics start as sketches. In this example, I drew a sketch of what we need to show brands and sales reps. We need to communicate visually that their showroom products need to be displayed on their retailer’s website.
I started with a sketch on a Times newspaper page, and then reproduced that in Apple’s Pages program. Pages is a bare-bones program that can help one make visual diagrams. (Photoshop is my preferred program for visual projects.)
EMON MAASHO, CEO AND PRESIDENT OF ORREFORS, NORTH AMERICA, is representative of the exciting trajectory in this 125-year operation. The über-exec joined the New Wave Group in 2013, a time when Orrefors and Kosta Boda (OKB) were underperforming assets in the portfolio. "Our crystal brands are national treasures and a part of Swedish history," Maasho affirms. And he wanted a front row seat in their revitalization. Maasho was placed in charge of the new hotel and restaurant division ...
Read More
Parisian cafe vibes seamlessly harmonize with rustic English farmhouse design in Juliska's latest collection, for the lovers and dreamers out there. Featuring charming hand-sketched French hot air balloons and the uplifting inscriptions, L’amour Toujours (Love Forever) and Café de L’amour (Love Café). A petite heart also flies alongside the Cafe de L’Amour banner and hot air balloon, reminding us to share love wherever the day may take us. We have the ...
Read More
Mother Nature is the best inspiration of all, and the Floral Sketch collection consists of delicate drawings of Jasmine, Camellia, Wisteria, and Cherry Blossoms. This marriage between Juliska's subtle thread and berries motif and the artistic depictions of flowers makes for mix n’ match fun.
See the pattern at Glassworks in Shadyside.
Most industry trends can be drawn on a napkin—or a 8.5” x 11” piece of paper. I’ve found that drawing operational structures leads to clarity and helps illuminate future trends.
View Post
In this video I share why retailers don’t add a brand’s products to their websites and therefore fail the brand and themselves in the e-commerce race.
Bridge’s Smart Products marketing service ‘bridges’ the gaps in online distribution. Bridge's service helps brands show 100% of the brand’s products on an infinite number of retailers’ Bridge Stores. The retailer can use Bridge Store as a stand-...
Read More
Clients choose Bridge because we bring together many of the benefits of selling on Amazon or using Shopify.
To understand this, it helps to first view the e-commerce provider spectrum. Marketplace sites are on the left, and solo sites are on the right. In the marketplace model, the store's logo (the seller's logo) is often nowhere to be seen. The seller is like a cog in the machine working for 'da man (aka Jeff Bezos). On the other end, there is the solo website for ...
Read More
Our indie retailers are being hunted by four major forces:
Amazon
Big-box stores
Brands (selling direct)
Zola
While we've known about Amazon and big-box stores for some time, they are becoming more sophisticated. Amazon is so powerful now that it's the focus of anti-trust inquiries by the government. Big-box stores are spending millions on their digital operations.
Bridge's goal is to give indie stores great software that reverses the gains being made by these forces.
...
Read More
This drawing shows how Bridge's design makes it quicker to administer your online business. Other platforms like Shopify have two 'sides': a back-end that clients use to manage their site and a front-end that shoppers experience. Bridge takes a different approach: we try to make the front-end and the back-end very similar. We believe they should look similar to make the experience consistent and easy to navigate. When a member is logged in as an administrator, we output edit links where needed.
...
Read More
How can you more quickly add products to your website? We have a solution. Bridge's Smart Products can help retailers add thousands of products in minutes at no cost. Brands pay for the service.
How you can save:
Save Time: Retailers spend weeks each year adding products to their websites. Bridge calculates that a retailer often spends 50 hours to add one thousand products to a website. If they were to add, for example, two thousand products, it would take 100 hours. In today's era, a
These days everyone wants to be a ‘digital company,’ but truth be told the heart of a digital company often lies in analog, traditional mediums like: paper sketches, face-to-face conversations, and inspiration from window shopping.
As an example of this, shown here is my stretch of the home goods industry that I’m converting to a digital graphic. While we’ll eventually view the finished chart via pixels, this idea was originally born of good ol’ ...
Read More
Outlined with the classic thread and berries motif, delicate romantic florals adorn this charming dinnerware pattern. Original artwork in watercolor and graphite depict Jasmine, Cherry Blossom, Camellia, & Wisteria blooms. Stop at Glassworks to mix and match the various Juliska Berry & Thread Floral Sketch combinations.
This graphic from the cover of ‘The Business Book’ caught my eye. Bridge helps businesses eliminate unnecessary steps, and it’s beneficial to lay out all the steps Bridge helps retailers skip.
Without Bridge’s Smart Products service, retailers would go through the following steps when adding a product to their website:
1. Realize they need a product on their website.
2. Google the product.
3. From the Google results, identify the correct product.
4. Download the ...
Read More