Dan Provost and Tom Gerhardt, designers of the Glif, were the first product designers to bring Kickstarter into the public consciousness. In the days before anyone realized Kickstarter could have a profound effect on the field of industrial design, the roughly $137,000 that Provost and Gerhardt received to advance the Glif shattered their expectations of doing a quiet little $10,000 project.

The two designers, who now operate under the name Studio Neat, took the time to sit down with Core77 for an in-depth interview on what this project has been like for them, from start to finish.

Provost and Gerhardt were refreshingly open about discussing the money, the manufacturing process, mistakes they made and things they learned along the way. The interview, which we've broken into four parts, should be of interest to anyone starting out in ID or thinking about Kickstarting a product design project.

Here in Part 1 they discuss the project's inception and how they got started.

Don't miss the rest of the series: Part 2: Manufacturing, Part 3: Package Design and Fulfillment and Part 4: Lessons Learned and What's Next or find out about the original Kickstarter project that set it off!