Today we’d like to introduce you to Danny Blacker
Danny, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
That’s a bit of a loaded question! 🙂
My story started back when I was in the Navy in 2004. I’ve always considered myself to be a bit of a problem solver. Well, one day while on my first deployment, I was bored out of my mind and was looking for something to do. The accommodations aboard a military ship aren’t exactly set up for comfort, so I decided to do something about it. Using my sewing machine, a broken broom handle, some old sleeping rack curtains, and some rope, I fashioned myself a hammock chair that I could relax in as the ship rocked back and forth.
Since then, I’ve worked to solve everyday problems in various capacities. If I can’t find a solution to my problem, I make one. A good example would be when I had started working out for the first time in a long time, and I couldn’t reach my back in the shower! It felt like I had swimming floaties attached to my arms. I went to several stores trying to find a decent back scrubber loofah, and I couldn’t find anything that made sense to me. So, I set out to make one that did. I prototyped a handle that you could attach just about any loofah to so that you’re not throwing away a perfectly good handle just because the loofah needs to be replaced. I submitted it to a licensing company called Edison Nation, and it got picked up by Bed, Bath, & Beyond. Unfortunately, this was about the time when BBB was starting to take a downturn, so the product didn’t take off. However, Edison Nation felt strongly enough about the product that they wanted to continue to promote it on Amazon.
The initial production run sold out on Amazon, and as they were in the process of placing another order, Edison Nation closed its doors. While I was, and am still, bummed about how it ended, it was such a validating experience for me. It led me to start working at an academic engineering prototyping facility called the OEDK at Rice University, where I helped students with the design and prototyping of their projects. It was such a positive experience for me and helped to nurture that curious and exploratory part of myself. I dabbled with projects throughout my years at Rice, but I wanted to develop my skills even more, so at the age of 38, I enrolled at the University of Houston in the Industrial Design program.
While waiting to start my first semester, COVID-19 hit and dramatically shifted everything for everyone. While everyone was being sent home and we were all hearing about the ventilator shortage, a small team of us at the OEDK were approached to continue developing a student project that acted as a low-cost ventilator for patients using a Bag Valve Mask (BVM). Of course, we said “Hell yeah!”, and we got to work. The 3 of us had limited resources and parts were hard to come by, so we had to get pretty resourceful at times. We worked with local doctors to get their feedback and direction on what was important to sustain someone’s life. Every day we would hear about families who were having to manually compress these BVMs to keep their family members alive. For hours at a time, they’re compressing these bags wondering how long they can keep it up. Hearing this every day motivated us to work 18-20 hour days, non-stop. People brought us food so that we didn’t have to leave, we barely saw our families, and news outlets started reaching out for interviews…it was crazy!
After a little over three weeks in mid-April 2020, we built and tested a prototype, created build plans, and released it as an open-source project for anyone around the world to download. Over the course of two months, the files were downloaded over 3000 times from over 115 different countries. A few years later I received a message about a PhD student from Spain who wanted to interview me about the project. I agreed and talked with him over Zoom. He went on to ask me about some of the choices we made, what the project meant to us, and everything. It wasn’t until the end of the interview that he shared with me how our device saved lives during that time in his country. It blew me away! We had hoped that what we did helped in some way, but to hear that it did, meant the world.
Needless to say, I felt like the universe had validated to me that I needed to be solving problems more intentionally. The following semester after the lockdown of 2020, I started my first semester at the Univerisity of Houston (UH). Being a husband with two young children, a full-time job, and going to college… was stressful, to put it mildly. Thankfully, I had great support from my employer and my family, which made it possible to juggle everything without going insane. Well, not completely anyway.
I knew going into the program that I wanted to create products. I wasn’t sure what that looked like for me, but I knew I would leave there with my degree with the intention of making a difference in people’s lives in one way or another. During my senior year, I could finally select any project I wanted to be my capstone project. I had this air filter project that I had worked on sporadically for about 10 years. Now was the time to put some real energy into it and see if it had legs. At the end of this long four years, as I was presenting this project to a group of impartial judges, every single one of them encouraged me to take it beyond a class project. They loved the simplicity, the cost savings, and how unobtrusive it was. I once again had validation that I was on the right track.
Since graduating in May of 2024, I left my position at the OEDK after almost 11 years and started working at a relatively new building called the Ion near downtown Houston. Specifically, I work at the Ion Prototyping Lab, where we work with entrepreneurs, start-ups, and individuals looking to have their products or ideas turned into a living breathing working prototype. The entire building houses several companies, big and small, and fosters an environment of collaboration and growth. It’s exactly where I wanted to be so that I could surround myself with like-minded people to help me on my journey to becoming a business owner.
Since working at the Ion, I’ve met so many great people who are really helping me to create something sustainable and meaningful. My brand is all about saving homeowners time and money, while trying to foster healthier surroundings. Health is something that’s important to me, so as soon as I discovered an opportunity to help people save some money and make their environment healthier, I immediately obsessed over it. I really think this air filter product is going to bring some much needed relief to homeowners. Who couldn’t use a few extra bucks in their pocket at the end of the month?
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I would not characterize any part of this journey to be smooth. Some aspects along the way may have been less of an effort than others, but everything has required great effort and constant sanity checks from friends and loved ones.
Some of the biggest struggles I’ve had stem from feeling out of control of what’s going on around me. Whether it be how Bed, Bath, & Beyond handled testing the loofah handle (shower lily) in their stores, or while developing the ApolloABVM (ventilator project) not being able to order common parts due to the lockdown, or not being able to find someone to help me with the design of the electronics of my current air filter device…it makes you question whether you should push through or cut your losses.
While in my final semester of school, I developed a loss of breath that lasted a few weeks before I finally went to the doctor about it. It turned out to be how my body was dealing with the stress of everything. Everything is all fun and games until it starts affecting your mental or physical health. It was at that point I had to really dig deep and remember why I was there and figure out how I was going to make it through it.
It’s moments like those that I’ve had to remind myself why I’m doing all of this. I’m the best version of myself when I’m put in a position to help someone. So, I continue to push through the hard times because I believe someone is counting on me on the other end of it all, whether I know who they are or not.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Function & Form, LLC?
As the Senior Design Engineer at the Ion Prototyping Lab, I work with individuals to help them along their journey to having a successful product. The projects range from things like portable dog was stations, dreadlock washing devices, or even going away presents for a coworker who enjoys tacos and anything Texas-related.
I would say I’m most known for coming up with interesting ideas and problems to solve. I have a very mechanical “how does it work” way of thinking which allows me to think through how something is going to work in the real world before putting a pencil to paper. I think I have a good sense of empathy for how someone would interact with a product and what decisions should be made to account for those user experiences.
I’m most proud of going back to school and putting out some pretty decent projects. I attempt to be novel about what I produce, and I feel like I did a pretty decent job of doing that while I was there. One project that stood out to me was a project that aimed to help with vitamin D deficiency. We were required to do a good bit of research on the topic and current solutions, and I felt like my offering was really cool and clever. Maybe someday I’ll continue to develop it. You never know.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
They might be surprised to know that I don’t like most of the stuff I put out. 🤣
I’m the kind of person who could develop a product until the end of time because it could be “better” in some way that most people probably wouldn’t even notice. I’m insanely self-conscious about anything I put out into the world whether it be a product or social media post. I’m sure it helps to keep me from putting out complete garbage, but it also holds me back from moving on and moving forward.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/functionandformhome/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61568448640345
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danny-blacker/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FunctionandFormHome
