Made In Vienna: Paul Hanna Designs

When Vienna resident Paul Hanna graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design with a degree in industrial design this past spring, he wasn’t interested in finding a job.

“I didn’t want to work for someone else and design what they told me to design ... I wanted to have an idea and run with it,” said Hanna, who graduated from in 2006. “A lot of the times, in industrial design, industrial designers get stuck in cubicles.”

Instead, Hanna decided to go into business for himself. His start-up company, Paul Hanna Designs LLC, is just a one-man operation, but the 23-year old designer has more than 100 people to thank for the funding of his first product Wrap'It, a headphone storage device intended to prevent headphone tangling. With suction technology, it can attach to an iPod, smart phone or any device with a smoothed back electronic case.

“The idea came about from taking the metro one day and me just watching the people in the train car listening to iPods and when they got off the train, they would wrap them around the iPod or their phone and get them really tangled,” Hanna said.

Last month, Hanna put his product on Kickstarter, a worldwide online platform that gives aspiring artists, designers, musicians, inventors and entrepreneurs a place to solicit funding for a project, requiring they raise the minimum amount needed for their pitch, or, forfeit all the donations they've received. Hanna said it's a process several of his classmates at SCAD used to fund film projects.

Hanna posted his project idea on Nov. 22 and has since met his goal of $7,000, which means he'll be able to move forward with the project. Hanna plans to use the money for the first production run and to market the product and hire someone to revamp his website; in its current form, it's not able to host an online store from which he can sell current and future projects. Hanna's deadline is Dec. 22, so he plans to use each additional donation to increase his initial inventory.

“I try to split my time as best as I can [between new projects and my current one].  Right now, my main focus is to Wrap'It. When Kickstarter ends, I’m going to fill all my orders,” Hanna said.

And then, he said, it's onto the next project.

"I always liked engineering and doing things that were artistic. And then I found out about industrial design and how it was basically a combination between artistic and engineering ... In the future, I’m hoping to branch out," Hanna said. “It’s a struggle at times, but I like what I do so it makes it a lot easier.”