When Judson Jennings originally launched his forked up iPhone stand in Spring of 2010, he had absolutely no idea that his functional design which was bent out of forks and spoons would ultimately lead him into a six-figure career crafting art from silverware. Frankly, neither did I.
In 2011, Jennings is still growing his Forked Up Art business which just reached $350,000 in sales, with some 800 of his whimsical iFork iPhone stands selling for $25 each. It was the clever iFork design that started a domino effect of success that sill shows no sign of slowing down.
When I first spotted the iFork stand posted on the Etsy.com craft site in March of 2010, Jennings was a broke college student working on his Business Administration degree at the University of Utah. He created two iPhone-centric designs at the time, one called Fork Head and the other he called Spoon Head. The catchy iFork name came later.
In less than 24 hours after the iPhone Savior post was published, CNET and a host of other tech blogs re-posted my forking discovery and Judson Jennings was quickly overwhelmed with orders on Etsy, which he sold out of a multiple of times.
"I was in school and sold 100 iFork guys in one day," Jennings told iPhone Savior in a recent phone interview. "I didn't even think this would be possible as a business model."
The Forked Up Art operation located in North Salt Lake, Utah, now employees 6 full time and 4 part time staffers who crank out approximately 500 to 700 silverware dudes per week. The stainless-steel utensils are bent, welded and buffed by hand using a combination of forks and spoons. Jennings then utilizes a stainless-steel welding wire in order to avoid corrosion on his finished pieces which are neatly priced from $25 to $29 each.
Some of Judson's latest functional art includes a cool toothbrush caddy he calls Bathroom Butler, a nifty candle holder, a cross-country skier and a dysfunctional fellow appropriately named the Guzzler. He was made to hold a full or empty can of soda tilted way back, giving Guzzler his killer swagger.
Ironically, the flagship iFork guy doesn't even reside on the front page of Judson's Forked Up Art Website. These days, the iPhone stand is offered up in four different styles, made to hold any handset both vertically or horizontally with case and all.
"I was just doing OK, selling a couple pieces here and there," said Jennings. Then you blogged about it and it blew up from there. I saw the earning potential once I got put on CNET."
There's no denying that this unique silverware art does have instant appeal. I asked Judson what advice he had for other struggling creatives hoping to get their own iPhone art launched into the mainstream.
"Don't be down just because the economy is," said Jennings. "I was out of a job which forced that kind of creativity. Keep fighting and you'll win if you're smart."
It's obvious that grabbing a proper portion of the iPhone gold rush doesn't always require developer kind of smarts or even big corporate backing to succeed. It appears to take a combination of wild creativity, wicked good timing and a handful of dumb luck to break through the clutter of ordinary and push over into extraordinary. I'm convinced that Judson Jennings has benefited from equal parts of all three.
But don't put a fork in this Utah artist just yet. He's not quite done.
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