Matt King (op), myself, and the rest of our team at Instrument have been building out the site and backend infrastructure for this manufacturing process for the past five months.<p>It's been one heck of a ride...we're web guys and don't exactly have a lot of experience in building factories or making, um, real physical objects.<p>The frontend is powered by Interface (<a href="http://www.getinterface.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.getinterface.com</a>), with the backend order fulfillment / manufacturing infrastructure built in Rails running on top of Ruby 1.9 and Unicorn, all sitting behind Nginx. All asset processing on the backend is done using GraphicsMagick using a modded mini_magick, which is way faster and more efficient than ImageMagick.<p>We'd love to hear your feedback, thoughts, and criticisms!
I just ordered one. This is a great idea! I really like the flash tool that helps you place custom artwork on the case. The checkout process was very smooth as well.<p>That being said, there's a problem with the custom artwork process. The vast majority of my photos are landscape, and these simply don't fit well onto a case. I had to photoshop one of my photos to add some extra sky onto the top in order to graft it onto a case. Any landscape photo taken with the rule of thirds will have this problem.<p>This is compounded by the tool, which has a nasty looking warning if you fail to fill the entire print area with your photo. There's nothing in the FAQ about the "print area", and none of the photos show the front of the case, leaving me completely in the dark about how serious an issue this is.
This is awesome. Price is right too, in my opinion.<p>The biggest value to me is to be able to upload and use my own photo; I don't care too much for the existing art, not that there is anything wrong with your selection.<p>Uploading the photo was easy and resizing and centering is easy and intuitive.<p>Couple things, though:
When I submit my uploaded pic for approval, it just spins indefinitely.<p>Also, when I was centering my custom picture on the phone, the picture filled the entire area of the phone, but not the entire "print area." I don't really get this. If the pic covers the whole case, how does this not cover the whole print area? It wasn't originally clear to me that the blue dotted square is the entire print area.
Dang... I wish I had seen this two weeks ago. I would love to have purchased something as a Christmas gift for my wife. It's cutting it a bit too close at this point, though.
Looks great! The custom designer works well and the available artwork is fantastic.<p>One thing: maybe this is just me, but the account verification email got caught in my spam filter. If I had to guess, I would say it's because the title was "hello" - kinda spammy sounding.
I love the idea, well done guys!<p>A friend mentioned he's unable to upload artwork from Safari 4 on a mac, if you'd like to double check that. (it worked in firefox on the mac).<p>Also, $60USD shipping to Australia for a $40USD product? is that correct?
I usually _hate_ Flash intros, but this one was just right. Quick intro, and the animation leads the eye nicely to the products. The shifted perspective on that spinning product animation gives it a bit more impact. Really well done.
I just went through the ordering process and from a designers standpoint, this is a really solid execution. I'll probably order a case soon but I need to spend some time designing something worthwhile. Bookmarked! Great job fellas.
Really slick. And that's saying a lot since I typically dislike iPhone cases (they look clunky and makes the iPhone look big and ugly) - I love the designs you have on the site. Good job folks!
I don't know if it's just me, but this page isn't loading:<p><a href="http://www.getuncommon.com/customize/product/13/" rel="nofollow">http://www.getuncommon.com/customize/product/13/</a>
I think it would be great to deign your own case and be able to share it from your "saved designs" list in your account. For instance, I made a cool case with a picture of mine and I would like to post it to facebook or sent it in an email to share with my friends. This would let them see my cool case and be good marketing for you.
Can you elaborate on the manufacturing process? Do you outsource the files to a printer? I would think it's just getting a blank case made (not too hard to find someone to make an unbranded one, right?) and then sending it to a printer for fulfillment.