About Fore-thought Designs™:

Forethought Designs™.com was launched by Industrial Designer, Steven Tidcomb in September of 2005 to make his inventions available for license to selected manufacturers. The portfolio examples shown throughout this site are the original work of Steven Tidcomb. We do not represent outside inventors nor do we solicit or accept their invention submissions. Please do not submit unprotected inventions or other information that you consider confidential. We do not make, or sell any products; nor are we selling "Design Development" services in the traditional sense. Instead, we initiate research, industrial design development, and patent protection for inventions within the consumer, medical, industrial, and architectural product markets. We are financed solely through royalties associated with our inventions. Our revenue is commensurate with the sale of products derived from those inventions, and manufactured by our Licensees.

Our Mission:

Proactive design: shared risk and reward.

Unlike most Industrial Design firms, Fore-thought Designs™ operates proactively by identifying opportunities to re-think the design of products that are often so familiar, that they have eluded the scrutiny of innovation. We initiate research, industrial design development, and patent protection to specifically target products that offer exceptional opportunities for innovation. Our goal is to create simple design solutions through thoughtful objective analysis, and broad creative thinking, while respecting the disciplines of volume driven manufacturing processes and commercial practicality. We offer selected manufacturers like you a risk-free opportunity to view, evaluate and consider those inventions for licensed production. We present design solutions that can be easily judged on their merits, directly to only the companies that are likely to be interested in them. This “reverse marketing” approach offers you the opportunity to invest in tangible design solutions instead of the unpredictable product design process. Since the return on our own R&D and patent investments depends entirely on your sales of those products; we are vitally committed to your success. -Steven Tidcomb, Industrial Designer, Inventor, and founder of Forethought Designs.

Proactive Design / Reverse Marketing Approach:

We don't wait for design opportunities to knock on our door.

Most Industrial Design firms operate reactively in response to inquiries from clients looking to develop or improve a particular product. Fore-thought Designs™ operates proactively by identifying opportunities for design innovation across a wide range of products and industries. We target design opportunities, not design clients, offering design solutions instead of design development. If you are reading this, we either approached you with one or more inventions that we believe match your specific area of interest, or your search query precisely matched our content. In either case, it is likely that something we have developed will be of interest to you.

Don’t gamble on a designer; invest in a design.

The value of a specific design solution is far more discernable than a designer's ability to develop that solution. As our motto says; "Invest in solutions ". This “reverse marketing” approach spares our licensees the inherent unpredictability of the creative process, and offers a risk-free opportunity to evaluate the results of our R&D investments. The time and capital that your company normally gambles on the R&D phase can instead be invested in a product's introduction.

We value innovation over decoration.

By applying the disciplines of industrial design, human engineering, and manufacturing, we balance marketing needs, practicality and aesthetics. We strive for the simplest design solutions using a thoughtful, objective and logical approach. We set a course to that solution by clearly identifying the priorities and constraints of a problem. We believe that any design's form should not only follow its function, but also communicate its function. Using thoughtful objective analysis, broad creative thinking, and commercial practicality, our goal is to create simple design solutions that are free of needless cosmetic embellishments or complicating features.

An inventive incentive; a fore-thought strategy for mutual success:

We don't profit from a design unless you do. Our up-front R&D investment and delayed compensation is dependant on your success in marketing our products. This shared objective fuses our individual interests and helps assure our mutual success. We will remain available to you for further product design support, or promotional graphics and communication well beyond the signing of the "Licensing Agreement". The licensing relationship provides you with a creative resource and a business ally. As we become more familiar with your particular vision for the future we would welcome any opportunity to contribute creatively to your new product design and promotional initiatives.