There are two ways to go about your job search. You can push or you can be pulled. You can seek out companies that you want to be a part of, or you can wait passively for companies to blast their job openings out to the world. The former will lead to far more rejection, but it can be well worth it. This is why I occasionally like to cover companies that don’t appear to have any opportunities posted for new or recent grads. If they’re doing something fascinating, they’re worth looking at regardless of what they have posted. One of the coolest things that I’ve seen lately is the iPod Nano watch made by LunaTik. It’s simple, elegant, and totally awesome. Basically it’s a watch band that you can slip a 6th generation iPod Nano into–totally putting calculator watches, game watches, and every other kind of watch to shame. Not only can you tell the time and use it as a stopwatch (with a multitouch interface), but you can listen to music and track your runs with Nike+. If I didn’t hate wearing watches, I’d totally buy an iPod Nano just so that I could get one of these watches. Now, LunaTik is the brand that these watches come from, but it seems that the whole product line came out of a Chicago, IL based product design shop called Minimal Inc.. Both are founded by a guy named Scott Wilson, so they seem to be very closely related if not formally connected.

Watch Out for Minimal Inc.

The whole TikTok + LunaTik thing started when Scott Wilson saw the newest release of iPod Nanos. As the former Global Creative Director for Nike Watches he was inspired by what Apple had done, so he riffed on the design and came up with a really cool way to make the product even more functional (and achieve what watchmakers have been trying to achieve for a long time). He went to a site called Kickstarter to raise some money for the project so that he could build it out and start selling it. His goal was to raise $15,000 in 30 days, but he ended up raising nearly $1 million (making it the most successful project in Kickstarter’s history). His idea was validated, and he went to work producing watches and expanding the product line. Here’s a good video on the whole story (e-mail readers may need to click through):

Minimal Inc. is about more than just these watches, but this project is a perfect example of the kind of work that they do. They’ve designed all kinds of cool products with the same care and style that you see in TikTok + LunaTik. I have to think that the popularity of the watches may have somewhat altered the direction of the business. Like I said before, it’s unclear how intertwined Minimal Inc. and LunaTik are, but they both seem like they’d be cool to work for. Minimal does have a Jobs page (which I can’t link to because it’s a Flash site) that lists a Senior Designer position while also encouraging “talented product designers, image designers, engineers, and project managers” to “send a resume and samples to: info@mnml-jobs.com.” My guess is that things are changing quickly at Minimal, and now might be the right time to reach out to them about working for them. They also have offices in Portland and Milan, so there could be options there too.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• MNML.com
• LunaTik.com
• About LunaTik

Would you buy one of these watches?

We've identified Minimal Inc. as having career opportunities in the following categories:

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• design
• engineering
• Illinois
• industrial design
• innovation
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