IDEATION


BareSkull means Naked Thinking.  It means imagining the way something should work, or look, or be communicated regardless of the perceived barriers and constraints.  Simply put, it means being willing to break the rules—at least for a moment.   Suspending disbelief.   This is the 'rare air' where new intellectual property and patents most often are generated.   Only then, after climbing all the way to the top of the possibility ladder, can the opportunity be properly contextualized and framed.  Then, we work our way back down the ladder—attempting to retain as much of the view as possible, while overlaying important reality constraints of time, budget, technology, fabrication methodologies, sustainability, serviceability, etc.



DISCOVERY


The first step in the innovation process is to firmly grasp what has been tried, both successfully and unsuccessfully, in the past.  Without that foundation, it is impossible avoid the likely pratfalls that would sap energy, & waste time.   Intriguingly and nearly inevitably, the magic spark for go-forward innovation lies buried in the trials and tribulations of the past.   By offering a fresh perspective and asking lots of 'dumb' questions, we often trip right onto the makings of a go-forward strategy.  Brilliant ideas are sometimes less about brilliance, and more about the diligent insights that steer and provoke astonishing foresight.




CONCEPTUAL DESIGN


Many innovation and strategy agencies are strongest at the 50,000 ft. level.  Great ideas are generated, written up, and then handed off to others for design realization.   BareSkull is happy to do that too—if you're willing to let us off the hook that easily. . .  Most of the time, however, our clients are eager to tap into the incredible horsepower of our award-winning staff of industrial designers, graphic designers, user interface and interactivity experts, mechanical and electrical engineers, and manufacturing scientists.   By working together as a tightly-integrated team, we ensure the idea isn't damned from onset by the numbing and dumbing effects of decentralized management and "too many cooks in the kitchen". Rather, our design solutions are consistently best-in-class game-changers that have lead entire industries in fundamentally new directions.



ACTUALIZATION


The best designs are those which can be built within budget and will stand up to the rigors of abuse day-in and day-out, while ALSO being fundamentally gorgeous to behold.  And of course, accomplishing these goals means presiding over the inevitably competing influences of time, quality, and cost.  Great objects, great environments, great technologies, and great brands all require extraordinary care and meticulous attention to the details of execution, lest they succumb to a fate that is less than all it could have been.  BareSkull's project managers work in concert with our established sourcing partners around the globe to ensure that the power of your great idea is actualized with the minimum amount of compromise.

Barrett Prelogar

Innovation Instigator. Idea-a-minute creative genius. Ebullient and effervescent leader. Classically trained musician. Barefoot water-skier. Part-time yacht designer. Inveterate dreamer. Father of three, who are more important and more talented by far than he.

A serial entrepreneur (having founded three of his first companies while still in college) ‘Bear’ prefers the challenges and inspirations gleaned by consistently taking the “road less traveled.” One of those early companies, Winntech, went on to generate more than $200,000,000.00 dollars in revenue selling Bear’s designs, ideas, and inventions during its first fifteen years in business! Bear laughs that he had, in fact, sold more than $30,000,000.00 of products borne of his own creation before he was old enough to rent a car—and used to have to come up with all kinds of excuses why his clients needed to pick him up at the airport. In fact, nobody cared how old he was—because his inventions and ideas were inevitably industry game-changers.

A renegade in all aspects of his life and work, his relentless pursuit of the extreme has propelled him around the globe—working with venture-funded startups, billionaire tycoons, staid Fortune 500’s, Saudi conglomerates, and even the U.S. Air Force—designing, innovating, and patenting fresh ideas. His work in emotional branding, environmental design, product development, and technology has been featured in hundreds of magazines and books, recognized with countless awards, and garnered several patents.

Bear frequently participates as a speaker and panelist at wide variety of industry trade events and innovation conferences around the world where his indefatigable personality and gritty no-nonsense communication style, peppered with real-world case-studies and clever insights, inspires large audiences to expect, reach for, and achieve, MORE.

When he isn’t traveling for business, you can find him in his home studio—writing and recording music. Bear cites his life-long study of classical piano, finger-style and flamenco guitar, and world percussion as having a “great influence” on the way he approaches problem solving. “Each time I write a new song, I have no idea how it is going to turn out. But the process is the same. I play around with different key and time signatures, oddball tunings, various melodies and chord progressions, different ways to get sound from the instrument, whatever. And pretty soon, a theme develops. Then I finesse it, —work with it over a few days, weeks, or sometimes even months. Finally, I have a finished product that is really unique and innovative—and I feel sated. Writing music, or designing something fundamentally new from scratch, is really the exact same discipline. Once you stumble upon the initial inspiration, just work it! Relentlessly overcome the obstacles that present themselves along the way, and eventually you’ll triumph.”
Can innovation really be that simple and straightforward? Bear swears it is, and his twenty years of industry-leading success stories ‘bear’ testament to that theory. . .

Brian Harvey

Part fitness freak, part creative director, part architect, part industrial designer, part project manager, part Eastern philosopher, part work-a-day mule. A native of mother England, and later a transplant to Arizona, Kansas, Bahrain, Mexico, and back to Arizona, —Brian’s leathery skin (some say he looks like a human Shar Pei) tells the story of a man whose world-travels and hands-on involvements have provided three or four lifetime’s worth of experience. But add to that a maniacal work ethic and you can multiply his experience gathering another two-fold.

Though just rounding the bend on 50 years of age, his 30 years of hard-fought battles to create projects that others considered “impossible” (including several in inhospitable countries where absurdly tight time lines, regulatory and import hurdles, or inappropriately low budgets stacked the odds for success staunchly against him) have conspired to simultaneously earn world-wide acclaim while making him inevitably the wisest man in the room. His deep forehead wrinkles, therefore, are justified!

Brian leverages his intense passion for learning, his insane pension for introspection, and his outright obsession with self-improvement to gain insights into each and every new client opportunity that comes his way. He LITERALLY finds a way to ‘climb into his clients shoes’—adopting the business, the culture, the brand, the message, —whatever—as his own. In so doing, he takes it ALL personally, and becomes the ultimate advocate for the cause. And it is exactly this determination that ensures that his creative work is as much substance, as it is art. Brian knows that designing something “pretty”, is “pretty easy”. Rather, it’s more about the fundamentals—build new ideas on top of a sound foundation, and reserve aesthetics as the final adornment that draws a crowd.

To work alongside Brian designing or inventing something new is akin to going to the gym and working with a personal trainer who has been paid to make you sweat. He rigorously challenges assumptions, preferring to examine every detail and ‘prove’ that the team is fishing in the right hole. His cautionary outlook stands in stark contrast to his unabridged creativity. Time and time again, in a room full of wildly-creative practitioners from myriad design, engineering, and business disciplines, it is Brian that rigorously stitches together the pieces which eventually solve the riddle.

Ed Legum

Retail people, process, and profit expert, with a specialization in consumer electronics and wireless telecom. Published business-book author with six current titles available in print. Blues Harp player. Eastern Philosopher. Teacher. World Traveler. Grandfather.

Ed is like a senior statesperson. He’s just been around forever, and knows where all the bones are buried. His kind, calm, and rational approach to problem-solving leaves everyone he touches inspired and simultaneously humbled. Ed has a manner—in his speaking, in his writing, and even in his movements, that is just graceful. There’s no wasted effort, and he’s ready, willing, able, and eager to teach you the secrets.

His detailed diagnoses of the myriad problems and challenges that often face a retail business are amazingly acute, and are informed by keen and well-honed insights gleaned over his 40+ year career. Ed helps unearth the impediments to success, and then assists you in killing them with a blowtorch. Certainly—he looks a bit like a nutty science professor, so the role suites him perfectly!

Spend a couple hours with Ed and you’ll quickly realize why businesses around the world—including over 50 wireless telecoms (such as Sprint, AT&T, NexTel, Verizon, T-Mobile, etc.)—utilize his training and business development strategies. In short, it is his ability to distill complex messages down into bite-size chunks that ANYBODY can understand and implement that makes him so valuable. He is literally a master of the retail craft.

Martin Ortiz

What do you get when you cross Italian and Argentinean genes, educate him at the renowned Facultad de Arquitectura Urbanismo y Deseño in Cordoba, Argentina, and then transplant him to Miami’s design district to soak up all things ‘cool’ for a decade or so before becoming serious about actually earning a living? Well, you get a design Rock Star whose laid-back approach to business and life are a refreshing and calming influence in boardrooms and design charrettes that are often filled with over-caffeinated type-A dragons vying for attention.

Martin’s demeanor is so laid back, sometimes you have to wonder if he’s breathing. And he’s so quiet, you might wonder if he speaks. Thankfully, he is very much alive, and has a distinct design point of view. But he doesn’t pipe up until he’s pretty confident that he’s got exactly the right answer. Then, with a level of talent bordering on ‘idiot savant’, he just ‘whips it out’ with stunning elegance, simplicity, and taste.

Martin is the designer all of the rest of us aspire to be in our next lives. And we are truly and honored to work alongside him. Don’t be surprised at all one of these days when (despite his best efforts to avoid it) he winds up incredibly rich and famous for one of his iconic product or furniture designs. Hey—at least we can all say “we knew you when. . .”

Dave Warner

B.S. Electrical Engineering. Digital audio engineering specialist with safety and quality experience such as IEC 60601 and FCC part 15. Named inventor on patents for Acoustic Reflectometry Calibration. Heavy Metal Drummer. World’s most unlikely wakeboarder. K-State football fanatic extraordinaire.

Though all of us are chicken to say it to his face (Dave is 6’-5” tall and pushing 270#—but who’s counting), most everyone would agree that basically Dave is one of the biggest geeks on planet earth. And that’s why he’s indispensable—because when you need to go deep in the technology trenches, Dave is your guy.

Dave’s methodical and pragmatic approach (to nearly everything, but especially to technology) may be a bit unnerving to the wild - eyed creative maniacs in a room—but becomes an important and practical counterbalance. That given, Dave is anything but a naysayer. Rather, his basic outlook is that there is likely a ‘way’ to accomplish nearly anything given the right implementation of technology. And he’s got just the right demeanor and fortitude to assemble a disparate team of think-tankers, inveterate tinkerers, and subject-matter experts to ensure a successful and timely outcome to even the toughest technology challenges.

Kirill Miniaev

Junior Art Director and Designer. Rock cellist. Autocross aficionado. Russian. Learner. Doer.

A recent graduate of Yale University (B.A. Art), Kirill is a multidisciplinary designer, with interests and capabilities spanning the graphic, motion, animation, web, and 3d spectrums. But don't get him started. Kirill's interested in everything—willing to try his hand at anything once and then continue that something for the rest of his life.

When he's not hawing away at legitimate design work, Kirill enjoys helping his dad build an amazing portable/electric cello beyond anything that this world has every seen, rocks out to classical instruments playing unconventional music, works with a few friends on ridiculously cool startup ideas, races cars in Autocross, snowboards, windsurfs, wakeboard (attempts to, with thus-far dismal results), lives, breathes, and hopes to change the world around him. What can he say—he's young, with fire in his blood and brains in his head. He's got nothing better to do.

Noah Smith

Software Guru. Pipe Smoker. Philosopher. Insomniac (sleeping is a crutch!) Movie nut (the only way to trick an over-active mind into relaxing!)

When Noah was eleven, his father challenged him to mathematically plot the course of a traveler who wakes up and starts following the sun at dawn and walks in pursuit of that sun until sunset, only to sleep, and repeat the next day. Noah solved the riddle by writing his first piece of code, and the rest, of course, is history... (you can still see the program in action at www.sunfollow.in)

In fact, though he had been a very serious musician in his youth and all the way through college, —he finally made the decision (much like a monk makes a solemn commitment to God), that his pursuit of interests outside of software development were distracting him from true enlightenment. Hence, he abandoned everything else—and dedicated his life to becoming “one with the software gods.”

While all this sounds, frankly, utterly ridiculous—we can assure you that his passion and study of the craft is exactly this disciplined. Simply put, Noah likes to think of software development as actually being ‘media development’—meaning it has an audience, and should be written as though people will hang on every last line of code in the same way a movie buff critiques each frame of cinematography.

Like any true developer—Noah is a ‘nerd for everything’—meaning, he’s not at all tied to any particular coding language and rather prefers to constantly update his skill set so that he is comfortable working with nearly any programming team and across myriad development environments.

Steve Klein

Interactive user-experience maven/Lion tamer. Literally.

When Steve isn’t writing the juicy code that powers award-winning interaction experiences for the web and in-store kiosks, he volunteers (often more than 40 hours a week) managing the largest ‘big cat’ refuge sanctuary in the Midwest. This 6’7" "statue" of a man may look imposing, but his personality is all kitten, and he is as clever as any cat out there. Steve’s passion for these exotic animals is palpable, and despite the constant struggle of attracting visitors and donors whose revenues enable the park to feed and house these animals (most of whom have been taken in after their original “owners” lost interest and/or abandoned them), he manages to remain eternally upbeat and optimistic.

We’re not entirely sure when Steve sleeps. Caring for the animals and conducting educational tours nearly every day of the week would be a full-time occupation all by itself. But, certainly, those volunteer heroics wouldn’t put food on the table for Steve, or the animals. Thankfully, like the cats, he is nocturnal. And during the wee hours of the morning, Steve really hits his stride—churning out delicious interfaces that are engaging, inventive, and consistently award-winning. Though he demurs under the spotlight, make no mistake: Steve secretly loves being king of the jungle, and cracks a wry smile each time he is presented with a new challenge to overcome.

So far, we’ve never found one that could best him, but we’ll continue to try—just to keep his teeth sharp and his instincts finely honed. Grrrrrrr.

John Jason Pieschl

Mechanical Engineer Extraordinaire, named inventor on multiple patents. Digital animation artist. Custom Harley Davidson Chopper-builder. Heavy Metal Bass player. Dedicated family man.

“JJ” is an anomaly. The kind of person we’re afraid to list on the website, since nearly everyone we work for tries to steal him away from us already. Way back when he was in high school (25 years ago, but whose counting. . .) he developed an alternate and more efficient method for solving a particular mathematical equation that was subsequently proved and is now taught in some college algebra texts. His ability to solve the very most complex mechanical design and engineering riddles is absolutely uncanny. But even freakier is the fact that he is often able to do it all by himself in a matter of a day or two—when teams of consulting engineers haven’t been able to do it in weeks, or in some instances, MONTHS. No kidding.

Now stay the hell away from him—he’s ours! Got that? We found him first—over 16 years ago!

Patsy Prelogar

President. Detail maven. Foodie. Fitness freak (makes up for the foodie problem. . . not to mention a drinky drink or two!)

Patsy has spent three decades in Sr. project leadership roles—including several years with Sprint, and later with Winntech—where she lead the successful integration of multiple creative, engineering, and manufacturing disciplines in order to deliver massively complex projects around the world, on time, and on budget.

As the senior principal at Bareskull, Patsy rides heard over an eclectic mix of creative geniuses (or so they like to think) who, quite expectedly, might likely lose their collective asses were it not for her rigorous attention to the business of business.

Let’s face it. Creative people. . . aren’t necessarily the best folks to handle the rigors of contract negotiation, project administration, budget accountability, and time-management. Patsy drives the team like a pack of sled-dogs at the Iditarod (thank goodness!)

But the fun doesn’t stop there! Patsy also drives our clients’ internal teams with the same focused intensity—ensuring that critical milestones, external client-supplied deliverables, and sign-offs are all executed timely. Thankfully, this ensures that everyone is successful, all together!

Contact Us


1802 Palisades Dr.
Lake Ozark, MO. 65049

Telephone: +1 816.898.0728
Telephone: +1 913.706.2216

E-mail: info@bareskull.com

Environments

The ultimate brand touch-point is its three dimensional incarnation.

Customers vote with their feet when they enter your retail store, your kiosk, your trade-show exhibit, or your rolling road tour. Reward them for that step.

Create and environment that is transformational, and sets the mood and tone that are in alignment with your personality, and carry it through at levels that exceed your customers expectations!

Brands

It has been said that a brand is what your customers believe about you. That given, customers can smell a fake a mile away.

Great brands are great because they tell people what to expect. And then they deliver, consistently, and expertly on that promise.

We'll help you define and build-out every brand touch point in ways that resonate with truth.

Objects

Industrial design is the 'fine art' of the 21st. century. And we take that art to the max, by stripping it down to its naked truth.

By working with the simplest expression of a form, and then only adding the minimum accouterments that celebrate its ergonomic and pleasurable use, we aspire to create objects that are truly modern, and ultimately timeless.

Technology

We believe that technology must never be gratuitous. Rather, it must deliver the same predictable and useful result that a simple tool would conjure.

Flashiness isn't really fashionable, and it's never enduring. It's just faddish. So instead, we look for ways to push the boundaries the farthest by demanding the simplest expressions of leverage that will yield the desired result.

Specifically, those that make a consumer's journey more effortless, instinctive, & natural. Much in the same way that a great hammer is a native extension of one's own hand.