Former design students detail business adventures in book

Two former Texas A&M environmental design students who create, then bring to market innovative accessories and apps for Apple’s iPhone and iPad have detailed their business adventures in a new e-book called [“It Will Be Exhilarating.”] (http://www.studioneat.com/products/exhilarating)

“We have learned a lot in a short period of time, and wanted to share this information with the world,” said Dan Provost ‘07 and Thomas Gerhardt ‘07, founders of New York-based [ Studio Neat] (http://www.studioneat.com) . “So we wrote a book.”

“It Will be Exhilarating” will transform preconceptions about the business of design and the design of business, said Liz Danzico, chairwoman of the Master of Fine Arts in Interaction Design program at New York’s School of Visual Arts.

In 2010, Provost and Gerhardt began their entrepreneurial odyssey by designing the [ Glif] (http://archone.tamu.edu/college/news/newsletters/fall2010/stories/GlifIphone4.html) , a stand for the iPhone that greatly improves a user's interaction with any number of its applications such as FaceTime, or watching videos, making movies, using the phone as an alarm clock, and many, many more.

They followed the Glif with the [ Cosmonaut] (http://one.arch.tamu.edu/news/2011/4/7/ipad-cosmonaut/) , a fat stylus designed to glide effortlessly over the iPad’s glass surface and fit comfortably in the writer's hand.

They raised funds for both projects through [Kickstarter] (http://www.kickstarter.com) , an online funding platform for creative projects, which they sold through their studio website and amazon.com.

Provost [ told] (http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/4/3288731/dan-provost-cosmonaut-interview-5-minutes-on-the-verge) The Verge.com’s Ellis Hamburger the idea for a book grew out of a [ blog] (http://www.therussiansusedapencil.com) he started after the Glif Kickstarter campaign.

“This book tells those lessons learned from two successive and successful Kickstarter projects and the first two years of bootstrapping their company,” said Glenn Fleishman, a freelance technology reporter. “Studio Neat has a practical roadmap for taking something you love and potentially making it your livelihood."

The pair’s latest product, [ Frameographer] (http://www.studioneat.com/products/frameographer) , is an app to make high-definition stop-motion movies using iPhones and IPads.