does anyone know how they get the ideas for each firework's effect?

[Icooclast]

what i mean is: obviously they start with a blank drawing board. how do they go from that to the finished product of how many shots it is, what kind of effect a cake, shell or whatever will have in which shot, if it will whistle, crackle, what the finale will be, etc. i have always wondered this. and how many do they typically test to see if the idea works out in the real world (as opposed to just an idea) because we all know they would have to test them to see if they'd be good because the drawing board and in reality are sometimes (sadly) not anything alike.

Dave, maybe you can shed some light on this (if you haven't already) being that you have named some fireworks. did you tell them what effects for it and stuff as well?

thanks for any help provided everyone

[James76]

Hey Icooclast,

I think most (not all) items start out as a variation or copy of something else that is already out there. Say I wanted a 12-shot RWB cake. I would talk to a few fireworks companies, and they would likely talk to factories that are already making 12-shot cakes or RWB cakes to see if they can make a 12-shot RWB cake. It is also common to go the other way, where a factory makes 100 samples to demo and the company either chooses them as-is, or asks for slight changes.

If you had something more complicated and specific (say a 5-shot row of aqua, 5 shots of whistle, 5 shots of crackle - each 19mm shots), you (or the company you work with) would have to find a factory that can make a whistle effect for cakes, and then see if they can also do an aqua color and crackle. Even at this point, you may get recommendations to choose a similar item that is already being made or to make alterations to your specifications that are more in line with what the factory is used to making.

That has been my experience. There are others who would have more insight like Terry Winkle.

[PyroManiacs]

There are others who would have more insight like Terry Winkle.

+1 on that.