DYNOMIGHTY DESIGN VIDEO INTRODUCTION

Dynomighty Design established in 2002 seeks to create a vibrant array of products to complement and accentuate the modern urban lifestyle with the designs of Terrence Kelleman. His whimsical and innovative designs spark fascination and inspiration in their users. He aims to create new takes on old products and foster completely alternative views of traditional concepts.

Having started with only 5 jewelry designs the success of Dynomighty Design, inc. quickly grew in response to and in anticipation of customer demand. Today Dynomighty Design sells to more than 300 stores across the USA and internationally and we have the Exclusive rights to US Patent #6,427,486 for all link-less magnetic jewelry bound only by magnetic force. Dynomighty has also expanded its line of eco-friendly consumer products including the Mighty Wallet, Mighty Tote and Mighty Tags.

Dynomighty seeks to educate and impact people with products that influence their lives and perceptions. We want you to reach out and touch the products, play, learn and discover. We want to achieve this with simplicity of materials and economy of design. The best product ideas are often the simplest ones. Products that have a simple use of materials and an elegant solution of form and function stand out in the marketplace, spark consumer interest and create demand.

 

THE DYNOMIGHTY STORY

OR HOW I QUIT MY DAY JOB

by Terrence Kelleman

In the spring of 2001 I was living in New York City pursuing my career as an Artist and working at my day job at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) when I found several prototypes for a product that was being thrown out. It was a geodesic dome that had magnets inside each of its plastic forms. I started to break the pieces open to save the magnets and as I was placing them out on my desk they suddenly shot together forming a straight line. I picked up the line of magnets and thought "Wow, That's interesting!" and I realized I could make a bracelet that would be held together by magnetic force alone. This chance discovery launched me on a long pursuit of research & development to find the proper proportions, coating, and size for a magnet to create suitable functional and fun jewelry.

In 2002 my ambitions as a struggling artist met head on with the financial challenges of living in NYC. During the day I was working my 9-to-5 job at MoMA and on nights and weekends pursuing my career as a photographer and performance artist. I had been doing performance art for several years at small underground venues in New York and Europe often spending my vacations putting on exhibits and performances with the little extra money I had saved between paychecks.

In 2002 I had an upcoming exhibition of my photography at a Japanese run art space called CAVE in Brooklyn NY. CAVE was a converted car repair shop and was well known for its chaotic openings with performance art and visual art mixing and flowing with live music and drinks. This was one of the first venues that I ever did live performance art in and I had since performed several times at CAVE.

The exhibition at CAVE was a great opportunity to showcase my new photographic work before a vibrant community of artists and young collectors. I had been working on a series of color photographs using long exposure light photography to create surreal distorted human light actions that were preserved as long exposure photos.

Several years earlier I had to leave my art studio downtown because I couldn't afford it anymore but I was determined to finish these new photos for the show so I converted my apartment in the East Village in an art studio for several weeks. It was the best work I had produced and I was so excited by the potential of these photos that I invested all my money and time into the exhibition, even going so far as to make the frames myself on a table saw. It was an incredible amount of work, time and money that I finished just hours before the opening. The show was entitled "Beyond the Impetus" and two performances accompanied the exhibit.

Outside of the performances there very few visits to the show, and what was worse there was zero recognition by the press and not one photo sold. During the show I had left some of my bracelets at the gallery desk in case someone wanted to buy one, and in the end it was the only thing that sold during the show. When it was all over I was broke, exhausted and distraught by the low attendance and lack of critical review. It was at this critical point that I realized that the only way I was going to freely pursue my artistic ambitions I had to first solve the financial challenges that hindered my artistic expression. Given the success that the jewelry had been having it seemed like a logical place to start.

Above is an early video of a performance art piece I did with Naoki Iwakawa at CAVE gallery in Brooklyn, NY.

During this same time I had been developing my first bracelet concept and after several attempts I had finally found the correct proportions, coating, and size for a magnet to create suitable wearable jewelry. At first I wasn't comfortable with the idea of showing the design since initially it was met with a lot of skepticism by those people I showed it to. Then one day throwing caution to the wind I walked in to one of the Product Developers offices at MoMA and showed her the concept. She immediately rushed me into the Buyers office. "Look at this!" she exclaimed snapping the bracelet on the buyer's wrist, "It's made entirely of magnets". Everyone was genuinely surprised by the design and after the bracelet made the rounds in the Retail offices for a couple weeks it was eventually purchased for the MoMA Design Store in the winter of 2002. The bracelet sold very well in its first months including two bracelets that were sold to Jackie Chan, my first celebrity purchase. My initial order of magnets quickly sold out and I took the profits and reinvested them back into buying more magnets, and with time I began experimenting with other shapes and configurations.

First bracelet design and first tradeshow at the New York International Gift Fair

In 2003 I expanded the line to include more styles and later started showing the jewelry at trade shows including the New York International Gift Show. Gradually I was selling to more and more museum stores, design boutiques and gift stores including, The Smithsonian, Contemporary Art Museum Houston and Arango in Miami Florida. Eventually the business became so successful that the increasing demands upon my nights and weekends, often working past one a.m. on week nights, that it was jeopardizing the quality of my work at MoMA. I was very concerned about leaving the stability of my day job and there was no certainty that the jewelry would keep selling. The only thing I did know is that this was my chance for change. If I was serious about changing my financial situation I had to take the leap and quit my full time job and become a full time Designer.

Taking that leap was a very scary commitment to make with a Bachelors of Fine Art in Painting, but I knew that this was the opportunity I had been looking for and I committed myself entirely to the Dynomighty project temporarily letting go of my artistic ambitions. I was entering completely new territory but thanks to my 7 years of Retail at MoMA I had learned enough about design, product development, trade shows, press kits, online stores and digital photography that I had developed all the skills I needed to take Dynomighty Design to the next level. As Dynomighty grew, so did I in response, often giving more and more to the project working on every aspect of the business myself including, press, advertising, websites, assembly, packaging and even shipping the orders.

The business started off in the foyer of my apartment in the East Village and consumed all the nooks and crannies of every closet and storage space I had (home office). Even the crates that I had built to ship my displays and products to trade shows were built in my kitchen by hanging plastic drop cloth sheeting to prevent dust from going everywhere. This was an amazing time and an incredible feeling to step out on ones own and realize that everything I did for the company was critical to its success. There were times that customers in New York City would order from our website and I would pack up their order and hand deliver it on my motorcycle the same day. I did everything possible to help further the success of Dynomighty as my own success was inextricably tied to it, and that is something that continues to motivate me today.

Now in our 5th year of incorporation and 7th year of retail sales Dynomighty Design continues to improve all aspects of our business. Even though we are still a very small company (4 employees myself included) our hope is to oneday establish Dynomighty Design as a nationaly recognized provider of innovative, creative and affordable design products. At Dynomighty we are constantly seeking new ways to better communicate with our customers and our buyers to better server everyones needs. So please write me with your feedback and experience with the products. Its such a valuable experience to hear directly from the customers about the designs and it helps us continually improve our products and influences the direction of our business as a whole.

Best wishes,

Terrence Kelleman
President / Designer

DYNOMIGHTY DESIGN

 

 

TERRENCE KELLEMAN

Biographical Information

1970
Born & Raised in Cleveland Ohio

1989-93
Graduated from Cleveland Institute of Art
Bachelors of Fine Art, Painting 1993

1991
Studied abroad at the Lacoste School of the Arts, in France.

1993-96
The day after graduation moved to the South of France
Worked at Lacoste School of the Arts, Lacoste France
Independent study of European culture and history of Provence

1996
Moved to New York City to pursue Art Career
Began doing Performance Art at Alternative Art Spaces in NYC

1997
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Started working in the MoMA Retail Department
Began as PR Assistant and grew into the in-house Product Photographer for MoMA Retail.

2000
While working @ MoMA had idea for magnetic bracelet

2001
Researched various strengths and sizes of a suitable magnet for jewelry
Developed a thin tublular packaging design for the first bracelet design

2002
Started selling the first bracelet design at The MoMA Design Store
Press in the New York Times Sunday Style section for Magnetic Bracelet
Filed for D.B.A. of Dynomighty Design in New York State.

2003
Worked with Ben Yellen to obtain exclusive rights to US Patent #6,427,486
Granting Dynomighty Design the protection of all linkless jewelry bound by magnetism

2004
Incorporated Dynomighty Design in New York State.
Left the MoMA to work full time on developing Dynomighty Design.
Researched and developed idea for a wallet made of Tyvek.

2005
Marriage of Ingrid Mourreau and Terrence Kelleman
First Tyvek Wallet design realized, included two formats, billfold and tri-fold
Distribution of Dynomighty Design in Italy and Korea.

2006
YouTube features our "Magic Magnetic" video for 10 days during the Holidays
Online orders explode and we struggle to keep up with demand
Dynomighty experiences many growing pains, we adapt and grow to meet the new challenges.

2007
Alice Kelleman is born
Distribution of Dynomighty Design products to the United Kingdom

2008
Mighty Wallets introduced along with Mighty Tags and Mighty Totes.
Distribution of Dynomighty Design to France, Germany, Benelux, Hong Kong, Switzerland and more (see Store Locator)
Magnetic Jewelry designs featured on HSN segment featuring MoMA Design Products