The yoyoGstring GS1 Design project.
Several years ago I put a chunk of time, energy and money into a purely cost-recovery design project.
It was called the GS1 – by yoyoGstring.
I have always been, and still am, a fan of white yoyos. The primary difficulty with this is the inability to anodize a metal yoyo in pure white. Yes, it could be powdercoated or anodized clear over a semi-blasted surface to create a light grey tone… but nothing was quite right. I love white yoyos because I also love bright colours and they work so well together.
So I set out to find the yoyo to match the image in my mind.
Then, to make that simple white yoyo into something special.
Step One: Find the white yoyo to use as a base.
I contacted Valerie at yoyojam about a purchase of 75 white projam bodies, bearings and pogs. This little polycarb dual starburst response yoyo is a blast to throw. It’s not too heavy and with it’s small gap/large bearing is a fun daily carry for just noodling about. Also, the white is VERY bright and full of pure happy shiny-ness. Perfect.
Val was awesome and I still have fond memories of working with her on this project. We chatted on the phone for ages about her past trips to Canada and how wonderful it was. I totally agreed, although I may have a resident bias. 
We discussed what I would like on the caps. I had the chance to do a custom artwork pog. That got me thinking…
Step Two: Artwork.
I have absolutely ZERO skill when it comes to drawing and such. Seriously. I end up drawing FAT stick men. It is simply that tragic. (Wah wah wah. We get it, you can’t draw…get back to the story Paul.)
I contacted the MAN himself, John Higby. I explained what the project was all about and asked him if he was willing to help. He was excited to be involved and we began working on ideas. His part in this was to create the amazing and unique pog artwork.
My only criteria was that each yoyo have the words “yoyogstring” on it and and that we do FIVE individual colours.
Yellow, Red, Blue, Green and Purple.
John did the rest.
About 2 weeks later I received a set of the most amazing yoyo pog artwork I’ve ever seen in the mail. All done by the airbrush and brush hand of John featuring his stellar yoyo character creations.
Each unit of pog art is about 3 inches across. I still need to find a frame for these. I’d better get on that.
Step Three: Stickers
A simple white yoyo with coloured pogs of custom artwork is cool, granted. But I didn’t feel that I was done. So I contacted a local friend of mine who was running a printing company at the time. We created 150 of each colour pog as a round sticker.
Step Four: yoyoGstring
Now, these are yoyos. Yoyos. A yoyo is not a yoyo without string…it’s a paperweight. So I set about creating a matching string for each coloured pog. I tried my best to match EVERY element in John’s artwork. you can really see this in the four tones mixed for the yellow string.
Step Five: Make a bundle out of it
I had yoyos, pogs, string and stickers. So I wrapped it all together in a bundle and sold it for 19.99usd.
They sold out in about a week.
/paul
April 15, 2012
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