By DAVID BERTOLA
Business First

Merry Constantino, an industrial designer based in Buffalo, helps inventors bring ideas to life.

Using 3-D rendering software, she creates visual elements to show them what their finished products could look like.

Upon meeting inventors, she said, she asks questions such as "What's the competition for this?" "What's your price point?" "Who have you showed this to and did you have them sign a nondisclosure agreement?" These are things inventors usually don't consider, she said.

Sometimes the entire scope of an invention changes after a few conversations, according to Constantino.

She runs ProductLogic and refers to her work as a marriage of "fine art and engineering." Her work is an even split between designing new products and walking inventors through the patent process, as she keeps up with intellectual property law.

Area companies she has designed for include Delphi Corp., Shield Sports Inc. and Robinson Home Products Inc.

Sharon Hadj-Chikh, Robinson vice president of new product development, said when licensing a line of more than 100 kitchen tools and cookware for Culinary Institute of America, Constantino was among four people who designed them.

Hadj-Chikh (pronounced HAJ-uh Sheek) said for a set of mixing bowls that became top sellers, Constantino made the overlapping rims as handles. This way, the bowls can be picked up at any angle.

She said there are no in-house designers at Robinson.

"Working with different designers is very helpful. They also have a wealth of experience that they bring from other projects they worked on," Hadj-Chikh said. "It's a very productive, creative relationship."

Variety of product
designs spans 20 years

In July 1990, Constantino self-imposed a six-month timeframe to leave her management job at Fisher Price Inc. to begin a career as an independent consultant. As it turned out, she was laid off about six months later.

"I drank champagne that night!" she said of her reaction to the career-changing moment.

In January 1991, her first ProductLogic assignment was to design a line of children's furniture for Sauder Woodworking Co. She has kept busy since, almost entirely through referrals.

She's designed tool bags, hockey equipment and a device that looks like a toy dog to pick up waste from actual dogs that leave it behind while on walks.

New pair of ears not a bear necessity

On a dreary Friday, Constantino sits on a metal folding chair at the end of some long brown tables shaped like a "U" in the Buffalo Museum of Science's Cummings Room.

To get there, one must pass a tall display case housing a grizzly bear that stands 8 feet tall and, somehow, lost both ears.

Constantino, regional director for the Western New York Invention Convention, is awaiting the arrival of student inventions from eight area grade schools to be judged for a competition the next day, May 8.

She enjoys hearing stories such as one from a boy who kept mostly to himself but had his interest piqued by the competition. This, she said, seemed to bring him out of his shell.

Around 2 p.m., the early entries begin streaming in: a rotating dinner plate, a machine that washes laundry then dries it, and a device to be affixed to cars to prevent sideswiping while in traffic.

Alas, none are prosthetic bear ears ... Sad news for the hallway grizzly.

One invention catches Contantino's eye: Maddy Fredo, a sixth-grader at Notre Dame Academy, developed a set of snaps for socks that link a pair together and prevent one from going AWOL during a wash cycle.

"I love those!" Constantino said.

Take note, Maddy. Her excited reaction is a good sign that you just may be on to something.