"Our world is filled with problems, and in many cases it feels like, we, the citizens of the earth, can do little whether it's a natural disaster or a flawed economic policy. " This was the start of the pitch I received from future client, Problem's CPO (Chief Problem Officer), Jon Conch .

Jon came to FUSE as he wanted to make pet activity toys that represented real problems. He explained his frustration with feeling powerless to rectify these societal maladies, but loved the idea of his dog or cat ripping these problems apart. It's hard not to agree with this.

Kind of a simple idea but super viscerally satisfying and perhaps fulfilling art's mission in wanting to exact change or at least communicate problems that government and industry can affect, or at least build resilience to.

Design Team

Toren Orzeck - Industrial Designer at FUSE

John Conch - Problem CPO (Chief Problem Officer)

Marf - Cat

After lots of slide shows and concepts to visualize the world's problems, Jon and the FUSE team settled on this first series of "problems" as these seem to be the highest priority. Jon said, "solve these problems and everything else seems more tackle-able."

Sure, anyone reading this may have a different point of view, but our client is well aware and does not care. He is steadfast in his convictions. For FUSE, we generally try to be Switzerland, and if this comes off as provocative, so be it - we are guns for hire.

I also like the connection to voodoo dolls. While I don't necessarily believe casting a spell upon or pushing pins into a scaled replica of a bad individual does anything, I do think the idea of exacting vengeance on the replica is a safe way to vent frustration without hurting anyone.

Designwise Jon wanted to keep the capital expenditure low, so cut and sew would fit that bill. As mentioned, we started with natural disasters, but Jon really liked targeting problematic individuals. Initially we drew cuter renditions of the "problems", but Jon felt these "problems" did not deserve this break.

We heard this, but the only way to really decide this is to get some feedback. We made samples of a few variations and showed them to friends and neighbors with pets. The simple more realistic color illustration versions churned up the most ire. Jon felt this was important.

The first set is cat toys. If you fill anything with catnip, a cat will go nuts. Dog toys will be next and we're hoping we can address other problems like homelessness, measles and drought.

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