Rocketship in the News

Nearly 10 years ago Michael Horito launched a company in Provo that looks at product form and function and makes it better — or the best — through innovative and creative problem solving.

Rocketship, located at 110 S. 300 West (in the old seminary building), has helped numerous companies develop a better product with a think tank of eight employees who work with color, form, texture, cost and design.

“We take an idea, look at the technology available and the target market needs and then create,” Horito said. “A company comes to us and says their product isn’t in a usable format. They ask us to make it appealing and manufacturable.”

Some of the products touting Rocketship’s innovation include the Cuttlebug, a portable die cut machine. When closed, it looks more like a woman’s purse than a cutting machine.

Rocketship has provided unique, usable designs for everything from handheld X-ray machines, to Rocketship’s own “Simple Garden” design.

The Simple Garden grew from the idea of square foot gardening. “We are just taking it one square at a time.” The garden comes with everything from a planter to seeds, with a special soil mixture as well.

While the Simple Garden is an in-house concept and design, their designs for other companies are giving Horito, and his crew of eight, notoriety as one of the best small design manufacturers in the country.

The company recently designed a light that runs on lithium batteries to help light homes in Africa. “The lithium batteries keep the lights running longer and have sold successfully,” Horito said. “Having light has increased children’s ability to do homework, helped with depression and other issues.”

According to Horito, their clientele is a blend of 50 percent in-state and 50 percent out-of-state companies. “Out of the three or four firms like us in Utah, we are the biggest one for product design. Our name is best known because of the number of products we have done,” Horito said.

Like most creative companies, Horito relies on his crew to be a team of thinkers and problem solvers.

“When we launch a project, we first have an understanding of the project’s scope. That leads to a brain-storming session in that we look to innovate and then expand our scope,” John Omdahl said, Rocketship’s creative director. “From automotive to aerospace, we are inspired to make the product the best. We take ideas, sketch and then funnel ideas down to the final decision.”

Horito added, “We’re coming up with ideas and debunking some. Some are un-debunkable, and those are the ones that become our decision.”

Some of Rocketship’s product designs include packaging lights for those suffering from seasonal effective disorder, Cricut (versions one and two), water sticks (tells whether plants are over- or under-watered), a variety of products for camping, hiking and fishing as well as medical and household products.

Horito is a graduate of Brigham Young University, but says he believes that experience trumps education when it comes to his industry, imagination and innovation. He is hoping within the next five years to expand his company internationally and has looked at places like China.