Great ideas are usually the simplest; innovators take a simple task that appears unattainable and make it happen in an efficient manner. That’s how a couple of college students cramming for their finals came up with the concept of Idea paint! Think of this, you’re studying for your final exams, and your notes are sprawled all over your dorm room, only to fill it up to capacity. Where do you go from there? You stick them up on your wall, after you have already overloaded your whiteboard with notes. How about writing everything out on your walls, Einstein style, only to erase them off with a simple tissue after you’re done? Get out of town.
At bazaar, we have a similar dilemma, we come up with great ideas, plan them out to every meticulous detail, yet run out of the space to write more. Our funky acrylic clear board was our loyal companion, where we wrote follow up notes about interviews, motivational doodles to keep us going, as well as schedule all the yummy reviews we conduct throughout the year. Sadly, our board was rendered useless towards the bitter end, just in time for us to start planning the annual dining guide navigational grid. After doing much research on how to capitalize on our now empty space, we found Idea paint. When we first met the brand representatives, brothers Rakan and Badder Al-Ghanim, we immediately thought this was a prank. Rakan comments, “No seriously, we can transform your desk space with idea paint. You wouldn’t need notebooks anymore, just scribble on your desk using an erasable marker, and you can wipe it off with your finger if you like.”
The young entrepreneurs, also the official reps for the innovative brand in the region, have been working on bringing this brilliant brand to the region for quite some time. After reading about Idea Paint in Time magazine as one of the best inventions of 2010, Badder was intrigued by the small brand, which he actually experienced during his college years at Bentley University. “It came as a total surprise to see that I graduated with these guys from Boston, except that they went to our rival school, Babson. I emailed them the first time with Rakan, and then a year later they went for it!”
Badder delivers the story behind this genius invention.“Babson and Bentley are both business schools, the first being entrepreneurial and the latter more finance related. During final weeks, Morgan, one of the founders, was sticking A4 papers on the wall to write and look at, as he studied with a group of friends. He figured, there must be better way. Three years after graduation, and after going bankrupt, the invention materialized in the form of Idea Paint. “So far, we as Idea Paint implemented at least 50,000 installations in the US alone, and we are super excited about Kuwait. Everyone from hospitals, elementary schools, colleges, creative agencies, to corporations, has gone for this mechanism to facilitate communication and change the concept of the traditional meeting.”
But then we had to ask, how would we, as bazaar, benefit from Idea Paint?
Rakan explains, “Well, with you guys, you have the creative capacity to do so much, you have an open-plan office, and the great thing about Idea Paint is that it provides you with a blank canvas to openly jot your ideas down. You won’t need your laptop, notebook, or Smartphone to visualize your thoughts. All you need is an erasable marker. Sometimes, it’s as simple as writing a word down.” Surely enough, after the paint dried and we started doodling, we couldn’t stop.
Somehow, we felt like Idea Paint was made for us, yet the fun thing about Idea Paint is that it is perfectly suitable for the family home as once the paint is dry, it is 100 percent child-friendly. One of the biggest installations implemented so far in Kuwait was carried out in a personal home. Children love the idea of having a creative playing space, as they are finally allowed to scribble on their walls! Families like to interact together in a new form. Badder jokes, “So it looks like it is working! To be honest, when we knew that we wanted to do this, we first thought that this product would be interpreted as a novelty, as it is absolutely fun. To our surprise, however, we found that our customers would call us back for a secondary job using Idea Paint because the product is entertaining and cost effective.”
Idea Paint comes in a variety of colors, and can be implemented on different surfaces, like desks, walls, cardboard paper, drywall, plaster, chalkboard, whiteboard, tables, bikes, and the smallest garden gnomes. Try it our right now by simply finding an erasable marker and using the Idea Paint insert attached inside the pages of this issue.
Get in touch with Idea Paint by sending an email to Kuwait@ideapaint.com, or visiting www.ideapaint.com.
