Today we’d like to introduce you to Rob & Dana Comradd
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
We met in college at the University of Texas at Arlington as graphic design students. We got married a year after graduation in 2004 and have just celebrated 20 years married! Our love of design saw us both do stints as art directors and creative directors at various agencies doing work for clients like JC Penney, AT&T, Six Flags, Citi Bank and more. We both evolved our passion to product design for clients but felt the urge to create products of our own! Dana began work on a 3d-mapping projector (goicast.com )that displays various content on various defined areas-from the control of your smartphone! During the peak of covid, Rob hatched a plan to build a container home in the Smoky Mountains, counting on the fact that normalcy would eventually return and folks would want to be near nature.
The Bruin Bin (thebruinbin.com) was born and we’re both excited to bring this very unique and well thought out design crafted home to the Smoky Mountain and Knoxville inclusive area for all to book and enjoy!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road has been anything but smooth. Each project (the projector and the container home) took years to develop. Part is you don’t know what you don’t know and the other part is trusting the wrong people to help with your vision. We learned that nobody is going to care more about your project than you, so we’ve learned to break the projects down to smaller pieces that we can better manage and solicit the right experts. We had to learn in real time and mistakes are costly-so that’s another learning lesson-you need cash to handle unforeseen issues!
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
As product designers we’ve both had our hands in the creation of very unique and even life saving products and applications. Together we worked for a company that allowed us to launch a black-owned app that focused on building community and shared knowledge for black business owners that allowed those businesses to level up and get access to information and resources that are often gatekept. The app is called Squad-Elevate Your Hustle. We’re very proud to have been able to work on that as a creative, husband and wife duo. We’ve also worked together on products for the Department of Defense that allows our Air Force warfighters to visualize threats to the U.S. and act accordingly-a very special and honorable assignment we’ve been privileged to design for and safeguard America.
We feel we are set apart from most other designers because we are very self-aware and know our strengths and bring those to every single design project we do-including the container house in Cosby. Experiences are important and the experience has to be thought through completely in order for people to use it, love it and revisit.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
The Covid-19 Crisis taught us to not take anything for granted. The downtime when the world stood still for a bit, allowed us to realize what is most important and the time we had to reflect amidst the fear, danger and uncertainty proved to be invaluable. We realized that time was the one commodity that could be taken but never given back, so we move with a purpose now and intently. We think about what we want to do, but don’t spend time over analyzing and getting in a rut; sometimes you build the parachute after you jump.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thebruinbin.com and also https://www.goicast.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_bruin_bin and also https://www.instagram.com/icast_innovation
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@the_bruin_bin
