Musicians and music lovers are at double risk ending up in nighttime pedestrian crashes. 1. They are mostly dressed in black. 2. They often head homewards in the dark after evening concerts and rehearsals. Obviously, these things won’t change, so the easiest solution is to add some reflective gear that fits right in. A black treble clef safety reflector is stylish and blends in with any black outfits. It can hang on instrument cases, jackets, purses, backpacks and bags.
Treble clef safety reflector looks good on a violin case.Treble clef safety reflector on violin case increase visibility up to 500 feet (125m) at night.
Then in nighttime traffic, it puts its wearer in the spotlight with its reflective power. Thanks to a unique manufacturing technique, …
Like most everything else, not all reflectors are created equal. You can buy “reflective gear” and “safety reflectors” and yes, or course, they all reflect – at least a little bit. But how do you know if they reflect enough? You want the Volvo, not the Trabant when it comes to the safety of yourself and your loved ones, but how do you know which is which? Let’s take a look at two reflective slap bracelets/slap wraps, both with a black and white pattern, but made with different manufacturing techniques and different reflective materials. The striped one, we found online, while the other one is “Baroque” from our own webshop.
Diagonal stripes printed ON the reflective surface while the baroque pattern of the funflector wrap is printed on the material UNDER the 3M Scotchlite material. Surprised about the result?
How is the safety reflector printed?
As you can see in the image, the two safety reflectors may look similar, but the way they are manufactured are vastly different. The striped one is made in bulk and then printed with logos and patterns as orders come in. But what happens if you print on top of the reflective material? Well, obviously, you loose reflective power where the ink is as you can see in the image. The funflector wrap, on the other hand, has been assembled with a printed material that goes UNDER the reflective layer. That way you can get as much colors/prints as you want, and the entire surface is still totally reflective. Obviously, this makes manufacturing more complicated as the sealing machine needs to be fired up for each order. You can tell the difference by wiggling the reflector and see if the clarity of the print looks different depending on the angle. If the clarity changes, then you know that the microprism layer is on top of the print and will reflect the car headlights back to the drivers to its fullest capacity. Learn more in one of our previous posts.
The typographic symbol “&” or “ampersand”, is a fun squiggle that requires some practice to write smoothly. As the funflector team has worked on the design of our ampersand safety reflector, I remember the proud feeling of accomplishment when, in second grade, I finally got the pen to turn and twist the right way. From a designer’s perspective it is fun to play around with and many different 3D versions has lately made it onto the shelves of many home decorating stores. The Design Hack has written a blog post on the history and their love affair with the graphic beauty and styles of the ampersand and we totally share their love of the design.
Ampersand safety reflector in sandalwood hanging on the handle of a bag.
If you want to decorate your home with ampersands, there are so many styles, materials and sizes, but how about if you want to decorate your bags or clothing with one? We did not find many ampersand accessories beyond jewelry so we are proud to add an ampersand safety reflector to our 2016 collection. It looks awesome on jackets, bags and purses. Check it out in our webshop here! It is available in a number of colors and even our black safety reflectors are super bright as explained here.
What’s the meaning of the Ampersand?
Ampersand home decoration covered in with sequence and purple safety reflector.
The ampersands symbolizes the word “AND”, which is the word that brings people together, ties together two disparate things or thoughts, the word that can make 1+1 equal to 3 AND it is the word that if used in the right place, sparks discoveries and innovation! The ampersand is also a reminder that we are not alone, but stronger together. As a friend of mine put it: “I have many brothers and sisters and think of us all strung together by the word AND. So when I se the ampersand, it makes me think of my loving family.” In many languages it represent a very short word AND in English UND in German ET in French OG in Danish even in Finnish where something as simple as 1-2-3 is yksi-kaksi-kolme, the word for “and” is JA. Why is it a favorite for us? When you put AND between thoughts, concepts and models that have not previously been combined, that’s when you get discoveries and innovation! It is also a constant reminder to take one more step, to dig one shovel deeper and take in one more viewpoint. And then what? We’d love to hear what you think of when you see the ampersand. Please comment below!
Even in Chicago, it is almost spring – Yay! – and it’s time for the funflector team to emerge from hibernation. Let’s give you a sneak preview of our fall collection that we’ve been hard at work with during the never-ending winter months.
New design 2016 – 📸 Camera safety reflector by funflector 📷
For amateur and pro photographers alike, the funflector® camera safety reflector will look great on your camera bag and backpack. When you are too focused on what’s in your lens at sunset, this reflector will help drivers notice you.
No ninjas on the roads, please! Make them visible in style!
“Is there a ninja school around here?” A friend of ours visiting us on a Saturday night was stressed out when arriving. Not one, but two kids had appeared next his car on the badly lit residential streets. The high schools kids were of course dressed all in black. Luckily, our friend was going slowly enough to stop, but it was stressful, nevertheless. Equip your ninjas with funflector safety reflectors for safer walks around the neighborhood and to keep heart attacks away from drivers.
🎶 For all bass singers, cello, double bass, bassoon, trombone & tuba players, we have made a bass clef safety reflector to keep you safe when getting home from late night rehearsals and performances!!! 🎶
Our popular treble clef reflector will get accompanied by a much asked for bass clef reflector. We have both cello and trombone players in the family and know about the struggle for bass clef gifts. Musicians are often out at night, on their way to and from rehearsals and performances. These ultra reflective tags look stylish on any instrument case!
Stay tuned for more cool designs coming this summer and fall. Follow us on Instagram, twitter and Facebook to get the news first!
September has swished by with vendor shows, equinox, some days of cool weather and now, what a Swede would call, summer weather. However, the warm Chicago days are numbered and October is already knocking on our door. After a very busy week with our first in-house pedestrian reflector manufacturing, YAY!!!!! (proudly Made in USA), and Evanston Green festival, Sunday was a day for enjoying the outdoors. We had fun picking out fall pumpkins and taking a leisurely stroll through the Rollins Savanna Forest Preserve. Summer and fall at the same time in Lake County, IL. Rollins Savanna Forest Preserve and a black swan gourd. Our combined booth for funflector and Norwex at the Evanston Green Festival, September 2014
Let’s go back for a moment to equinox, which occurred a week ago, when day and night were equally long. From then and until March 20th, there will be more dark than light hours each day. In Chicago and New York, we are right now losing 17 minutes of daylight a week, in Miami 9 and in Seattle 23. You can look up your city at timeanddate.com/astronomy/ (Put in your city in the upper left, under the headline “Sun”).
Soon, if not already, you might go to or from work, run your errands, walk your dog or get kids to and from activities during the twilight or dark time of the day. If you drive, you know how hard it is to see pedestrians in the dark and it is not surprising that 70% of pedestrian accidents happens while the sun is gone. Luckily, it is cheap, fun and easy to make yourself visible with our funflector® safety reflectors. Goto our webshop and pick out some for yourself and your loved ones. We offer free shipping for orders over $9 to the US and Canada!
We are looking forward to October and are dreaming of apple pies, cosy sweaters, big mugs of hot tea, rosy cheeks, frosty red leaves and of course the crown jewel of the month: a spooky and scary but safe Halloween!
“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” ― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables Elisabeth
We are so excited that the 2014 funflector® wholesale catalog is off the press! We hope you are too! It has all our new (and old) designs and our first licensed line of reflectors from the Particle Zoo. New for this year is also an online flip book, (you just need a little bit of patience while it downloads) but we have stocked up with envelopes and stamps and will gladly mail a copy to your store! You can order it here or shoot us an email.
We are thrilled to launch our first line of licensed pedestrian safety reflectors – designs from The Particle Zoo! The personalities reflected in the charming plushies teach us so much about the elementary particles. Now you can get the proton and the photon as safety reflectors to hang on your jackets and backpacks!
Some of our favorite particles – neutrino, gluon, quarks, the Higgs, nucleons, electron and dark matter – from The Particle Zoo
… before Halloween! One last weekend to head for the local pumpkin patch or a haunted house. Pumpkin Patches and More is an extensive directory of pumpkin patches by county. If you don’t see the links right away, just scroll down. They also have tips on carving pumkins, recepies and much more.
Jack O’Lantern Halloween Reflectors – cheaper by the dozen at the funflector webshop. Available in 5 and 12-packs.
If you hurry up, you can still order your Halloween decoration and costumes online. Vote with your wallet and buy American made products! Keepamerica.com has a large selection of cool Halloween items, all supporting US manufacturing. US made Halloween reflectors are of course available in our webshop! Don’t forget to check out our Halloween specials at shopinterest! We ship as fast as we can, but don’t wait much longer to place your order to get it in time!
Metal candy bucket, window decoration and bat earrings – all made in the US and available at keepamerica.com
Coming soon: Made in the USA! (and so is the scrapbooking paper by DCWV INC.)
We are super excited about being on the way to move production of some funflector® reflectors from Sweden to the USA! It makes a lot of sense to us to manufacture locally but we are also very proud to do more to put Americans to work! Future batches of our popular chubby ghost safety reflectors will be made in the USA! The funflector team
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