Tony Ratcliffe, inventor of Screenblock
I invented
Screenblock because I was a desperate dad! I wish I could
tell you that it was the product of much high-minded debate and
cunning business plans, but sadly this is not the case. Last year, I
found my two boys aged 9 & 11 permanently glued to the TV and
increasingly moody. My wife and I noticed that if we were
prepared to do battle with them and limit the amount of TV in the day,
their behaviour and mood improved. This battle started escalating to
unreasonable proportions and I realised something had to be done...
Being an
‘inventor’ of sorts (I design products for my electronics company), I put together a prototype Screenblock.
I fitted it to our communal TV downstairs and I remember being struck
by a couple of unexpected effects.
-
My children
didn't argue with Screenblock
Before the
prototype was fitted, if I
tried to turn off the TV when the children were watching, they would
object violently saying something like ‘oh, that was our
favourite program’ and both go into a foul mood. When the prototype
Screenblock turned off the TV, however, they sort of blinked and
looked a bit dazed and then got up without a murmur and found
something else to do. Witnessing this was a true ‘Eureka’ moment.
-
My children
quickly found other things to do when the TV was not on
When Screenblock had turned off the TV, they would come to me and
ask what they could do. We'd discuss something like making a cardboard house or Lego.
Half an hour later, their imagination had taken them places that was so
interesting, that when asked if they would like to watch TV, they
declined. Incredible!
I decided in
March 2001 to turn my prototype into a product. I actually recruited
the help of my children to participate in the design. I’ve kept their
drawings and if you are interested can see them here. I
worked on my first design for 4 months or so, made a model and then
proudly took it home to put by the TV. Unfortunately I couldn’t find
a place for it to go- it was the wrong shape!
Version 1
So it was a
case of back to the drawing board and I came up with the idea of the
‘brick’ which is what Screenblock is today.
Version 2
Incidentally,
I think Screenblock looks really good- there is something naturally
right about it. May I tell you my secret? For years now
I’ve been working on the magic ratio of 1.618 to 1. I try to
incorporate this in all my designs as they just look great whenever
the eye catches these proportions. This 1.618 to 1 (also
known as 'the golden section')
came from a TV program that
analysed the proportions of film stars facial features. This has
really worked for me- perhaps the TV is not so bad after all!
Finally,
may I thank the design team for their help, advice, inspiration and
hard work: Barry Garcia, Drew Hoggatt, John Cook, Paul Rawlinson,
Adrian Fort, Sally Timms, Arthur McCaffrey, Henry Wood, Paul
Bannister, Kim Cowan, Jody Brown, Neil Hemsley, Timbo Drayson, Leo
Bedford and Caspar Sheppard.
Tony Ratcliffe
4th
February 2002
tony.ratcliffe@screenblock.com
