From Maker to Market

We've been in this business – designing products, producing them, and then selling them – for a while now. Distil Union started in 2011, but product design has been our passion since Nate started designing boats in 2005. By far though, our biggest lessons have been learned by diving head first into the world of small-business ownership. Nothing like starting your own company to really feel the pressure to succeed!

As Distil Union, we've been attendees and guest presenters at a wide range of events, from Pecha Kucha to Protocon. It's always an honor and a pleasure to share our knowledge and experience with the community. Now it's time for us to go from panel guests to hosts! Take a look behind the curtain and see how we do what we do (and how YOU can do it, too), we're excited to host our first ever "From Maker to Market" event at Objective Design Shop. We're so excited to be joined by fellow Charleston small-business founders Erik Holmberg of J. Stark and Alesya Opelt of Alesya Bags, as well as our own Nate Justiss: 

“We’ve seen a significant interest within the Charleston community to learn about bringing products to market. Hosting this kind of event gives us a chance to share what we've learned about mass production, to answer your questions, and to continue learning from our fellow designers,"
–Nate Justiss, Distil Union Co-Founder and Industrial Designer.

Beyond inspiration, our goal is to share steps and insights for bringing your creations to the market place, with tips and tools that will help you along your product-design path. So Erik, Alesya and Nate will let you know a little about themselves and what fuels their passion for product design. Then, we invite the audience to join in a participatory panel discussion moderated by Mac McSwain of McSwain Hiott CPAs, a local firm specializing in accounting for product-design businesses. In addition to being fueled by questions collected from the audience beforehand (ask us now), there will be an open Q+A session (and yes, free beer, so come with some food in you).

It is our objective that attendees gain relevant, actionable information – so come with questions, or reach out to us on Twitter and Facebook @distilunion with your specific questions. One of us will aim to address them during the session. 

“It’s in our DNA to make, to build physical things. I believe for every technical job created dealing with the ephemeral we need a matching manufacturing job dealing with the tactile and tangible,”
–J. Stark founder Erik Holmberg, who shifted from a career in digital design to instead creating lasting goods by hand.

From Maker to Market offers an unprecedented opportunity to hear firsthand how three Charleston-based product designers have transformed their ideas into marketable goods sold worldwide. This event is free and open to the public, but space is limited. Attendees must reserve their spot in advance.

UPDATE: View photos in this quick Event Recap.