Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 09:19PM Design school did not prepare me for paperwork. As a new LLC, I've got m fair share of it. My Babaloo is getting rooted in this business thing - I'm working on my business plan, and talking to a lot of smart people. If there is a great start-up bible out there, I need to get my hands on it! Any suggestions?
Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 09:54PM LPK's Emily Lang reports on my experience after winning Cincinnati Innovates. Here's an excerpt... okay more like the majority of the article:
Since winning the award, Sally has been working with an LPK design team to create and refine a brand image for the Patients at Play project, now renamed My Babaloo. The line includes IV cover gloves that protect needle sites, making them less irritating, more secure and less likely to pull than an IV taped in place. The IV covers allow kids to interact more freely and even play, without constantly having to think about their IV sites, while receiving treatment. The gloves come with fun, custom Velcro patches that can be picked out by the child.
The line also includes comfortable and colorful hospital gowns constructed from a supersoft bamboo blend material that is naturally anti-fungal and anti-microbial. After interviewing nurses and a Child Life Specialist, Sally reinvented the original, awkward, open-back design of regular hospital gowns. Her version of the garment is close-backed and features front snaps and strategic openings where doctors would need access, while maintaining patient modesty.
The My Babaloo line also includes a bravery crown system, in which children are awarded stickers and patches for completing various treatments over the course of their hospitalization. The children can then affix their patches to an elastic, wearable cloth crown in merit-badge-like fashion.
“It’s been inspiring to work with Sally and see all that she’s doing to improve (the child’s) experience in the hospital,” said Kris Kuderer, an LPK project leader working with Pipkin.
LPK collaborated with Sally to create a brand and marketing strategy surrounding Sally’s product designs, develop a brandmark for her company and host brainstorming sessions to explore the brand’s potential for growth in the future.
“Sometimes when you get into the corporate world of design, you don’t feel like you’re directly helping someone,” said LPK Design Director Sheila Lewis. “And this did.”
With My Babaloo’s new identity ready to launch, Pipkin is now seeking out investors and partners for her brand.
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 10:49PM Last Summer, Linda Palacios from Cincy chic wrote a piece about My Babaloo, then known as "Patients at Play." Thanks Linda! Here's an excerpt:
Pipkin kept the kids' mentality in mind. "I fleshed out a bunch of different concepts about celebrating the patient in the hospital room and how to let kids be kids again," she says. So she came up with ideas for a "bravery crown," IV cover and screen printed designs on the back.
"With the bravery crown, they earn stickers to put on their bravery crown by doing something brave like getting an IV in," Pipkin says. And if patients have to have an IV, they get to choose from 10http://cincychic.com/content/view/2874/1/designs, which range from a robot to a rainbow, http://cincychic.com/content/view/2874/1/ the patch on their IV cover.
Another kid-friendly detail is with the screen-printed backs of the gowns. Patients don't have to check their imaginations at the door, as they can have either a set of butterfly wings or a super hero cape on their back. "It's just kind of something special to add that dress-up element," Pipkin says