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I Designed My Dream Product

2022-09-16 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 6:43 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Tools, apps and tech · mode: Announcement and promotion · tags: His own products discussed

Ali launches Palettes, his collection of MacBook skins and phone and AirPods cases made with dbrand after a tweet asking which company to work with: five designs (Solstice, Magma, Sea Breeze, Alpine, Neopolitan) for 28 devices at launch, with a look at how dbrand prints, cuts and ships them from Toronto.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Viewers ask where his MacBook skins come from; he asks Twitter which company to work with and introduces dbrand

  • ★★ Over the last few years Ali has had hundreds of comments asking where he gets his MacBook skins; back then he searched far and wide for the look he wanted. — 00:00:00 · MacBook
  • ★★★ A few weeks before this video, Ali had the business idea of designing his own line of MacBook skins and phone accessories, and asked on Twitter which company to make them with. — 00:00:00 · MacBook, Twitter
  • ★★ Ali's tweet got a great many replies all naming the same company, dbrand, including one from Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) saying there is only one answer. — 00:00:29 · Marques Brownlee, Twitter
  • ★ Ali recounts that dbrand got into a lawsuit with Sony over PS5 side panels, released its own side panels a few days later and challenged Sony to sue. — 00:00:29

00:01:05 — The collaboration with dbrand and how the skins are printed, laminated, cut and stored in Toronto

  • ★ Ali says dbrand has worked with creators including MKBHD, PewDiePie and Linus Tech Tips. — 00:01:05 · Marques Brownlee
  • ★★★ dbrand replied to Ali's tweet and messaged him; Ali shared a mood board of the look he liked, and dbrand came back with five designs for the collaboration. — 00:01:05
  • ★★ dbrand prints the skin designs on pages eight feet wide, seals them with its own matte laminate that protects design and device, and cuts them with autonomous machines in six-by-six-foot pieces. — 00:01:41
  • ★★ dbrand stores the cut designs in its Toronto warehouse with tens of thousands of inventory bins, and makes every order in-house. — 00:01:41

00:02:31 — The Palettes collection, its website and the five designs

  • ★★★ Ali announces the Palettes collection, a collaboration between him and dbrand, on sale on dbrand's website from the day of the video. — 00:02:31
  • ★ Ali, who says he has a little background in web design himself, praises dbrand's website for the Palettes collection. — 00:02:54
  • ★★ Solstice is Ali's personal favourite of the five Palettes designs. — 00:02:54
  • ★★ Neopolitan, a pink, creamy and light blue Palettes design, is probably Ali's second favourite. (hedged) — 00:04:14

00:04:43 — Skins and cases, the supported devices and suggesting a new device

  • ★★ The Palettes designs come as a skin, a sticker that looks nice but does not really protect the device, or for phones and AirPods as a case combining the skin with military-grade protection. — 00:04:43 · AirPods
  • ★★ The Palettes collection launches with five designs for 28 supported devices, including the new iPhone 14. — 00:05:10
  • ★★ Buyers whose device the Palettes collection does not yet support can suggest it on dbrand's website; with enough orders, dbrand emails them when it can be ordered. — 00:05:10

00:05:39 — A dream collaboration that happened quickly; thanks and sign-off

  • ★★ Ali calls the dbrand collaboration one of his dream collaborations and says part of him can't believe it happened, especially so quickly after his first tweet. — 00:05:39

Mentioned

Central: dbrand · Palettes Collection

Also: People: Marques Brownlee · PewDiePie

Organizations: Linus Tech Tips · Sony · Twitter

Places: Toronto

Products: AirPods · iPhone 14 · MacBook · PlayStation 5

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