Kadon Enterprises, Inc., Who we are, what we do (page 1 of 2)

Who we are, what we do

The People
The Philosophy
Product Line
Logo
Marketing
Manufacturing
Awards we bestow
Prizes, honors and awards we won
Praise and fanmail
In the media
The future

The People

Kadon Enterprises, Inc., was incorporated in the State of Maryland on June 18, 1980. The company was founded in the Fall of 1979 by two married couples: Dick and Kate Jones, and Don and Nosi Burnham. Kate Jones has been the President from the beginning to the present time. Dick Jones is Chairman of the Board. The other members of the Board are Kate Jones and Rita Krauth. Shareholders include the officers and several of the long-time helpers. Dick and Kate live in Kadon's world headquarters.

The Philosophy

Kadon's goal is to make and sell good and true and beautiful things at decent prices. The games and puzzles are a celebration of Mind—the uniquely human capacity to observe, learn, invent, imagine, reason and solve. The products should bring pleasure to the widest range of individuals, from child to adult, from beginner to expert. The style and concept of the products should be universal and timeless, each idea presented in its purest form. Each product must be worthy of the customer's time and money.

Product Line

The company's first product, and the reason for starting the business, was the game Quintillions. This set of mathematically related geometric shapes can be arranged in a huge number of different patterns and played as interesting strategy games besides. Its game/puzzle nature inspired the creation of dozens of other "recreational mathematics" models over the years. The term gamepuzzles came into use early as the distinctive name for this medium. Kate does most of the design and development. From 3 to 6 new products are introduced each year. See the full Chronology and the alphabetical index of first publication dates. As the company grew, compatible ideas from other inventors were also developed and added to the product line. Kadon pays royalties for exclusive license to produce such games. Our inventors are acknowledged throughout this website, and most have profile pages included. Any products not specifically attributed are the work of Kate Jones.

Logo

The symbol used in this website's background tiling and for the hotlink icons is the "W" pentomino, one of the 12 shapes in Kadon's flagship product, Quintillions. Kate chose it as the company's logo for its distinctive symmetrical shape, and because it is the only pentomino with not more than 2 squares adjacent in the same line. In October 1999, the large yellow logo on the homepage was given an extra treat—a Flash movie by Chris Palmer that shows the puzzle pieces in the W and makes them dance into interesting patterns designed by Kate. For Kadon's 20th anniversary in 2000, Kate created a special Logo Puzzle, dividing the W into 20 puzzle pieces. This limited edition was discontinued in October 2004, with a new 25-piece 25th anniversary logo puzzle introduced in 2005.

Marketing

Kadon markets its products only directly to the customer. The games are not available through stores or other wholesale channels. Kadon's philosophy is that the games should be produced in high-quality materials for durability, beauty and tactile pleasure. That costs money. By eliminating middle layers in marketing, Kadon can offer the games at the lowest price possible. The company ships to customers in every state and in 46 other countries (last count). Kate also hits the road for about 40 art shows a year. The annual printed catalog has been replaced by a free online printable edition, available in printed form for $4.00.

Manufacturing

The majority of Kadon's tiling sets are made of acrylic sheets, in opaque, transparent, and frosted mirror colors. Solid hardwood maple and some baltic birch plywood are the favored materials for the boardgames.

Laser The in-house production tools for most of the gamepuzzles are the company's two 25-watt CO2 Synrad lasers with computer-controlled motion tables, run by Thomas Atkinson, curator of the Star Toys Museum. The laser tables (one 24x24", the other 24x48") and control software are from Kern Electronics. The fine woodworking is done by Dick Jones. Heavy-duty cutting is still performed for us by the laser shop with whom we started out in 1979, Laser Applications Inc., who have grown from two guys in a small garage in 1979 to being the biggest and best in the nation. Kadon is their oldest customer. And we also cherish our other good, reliable, long-time suppliers. We stand behind all of our products, for guaranteed satisfaction. Replacement parts are always available.

Awards we bestow

In honor of Kadon's 25th anniversary in 2005, we created an award, the Gamepuzzles Annual Pentomino Excellence award, to be presented to the individual who offered the best new pentomino problem or activity in that calendar year. Why pentominoes? Because Kadon is founded on them. The game that launched the company, Quintillions, consists of the 12 pentomino shapes. Award winners:

For year-end 2004—Eric Harshbarger for his Enclosed Triplets problem.
For year-end 2005—Bryan Bouwman, Brian Goble and Garrett Price of HipSoft LLC for their superlative Puzzle Express suite of RealArcade games where you fill train cars with polyominoes. Their award fit the theme.
For year-end 2006—Blue Balliett for her mystery novel, The Wright 3, where pentominoes figure significantly in the plot about a Frank Lloyd Wright building. Her award was inspired by the theme.
For year-end 2007—Karl Wilk for his tour de force polyominoes solution, The Pentomino Clock. His award was a real clock with his solution forming the face.

Also in 2005, Kadon created an occasional industry award, the Gamepuzzles Originality, Perseverance and Leadership salute, to be presented to some other game company in recognition of its long-term dedication to providing consistently excellent, mind-challenging games and puzzles and popularizing them in the mass market. The first recipient was ThinkFun, Inc. (a Binary Arts company), on the occasion of their 20th anniversary in 2005. Their unique prize had 20 parts.

Prizes, honors and awards we won

Kadon's exhibits at art shows across the country have won prize ribbons through the years, including in:

Miami Beach, FL (1996, 1997)
Sanford, FL (1988)
South Miami, FL (1990)
Key Biscayne, FL (1996)
Hinsdale, IL (1991)
Indiana, PA (1990, 1993, 1996, 1998)
Binghamton, NY (1985, 1988)
Akron, OH (1993, 1994, 1995)
Ft. Wayne, IN (1990)
Englewood, FL (1998)
Greenwich Village, NY (1998)

In October 1999 Kate was awarded a certificate for outstanding performance for "the most improved booth" at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Here's a panoramic view of the interior.

On September 27, 1997, Kate received a Speakers' award in Hershey, PA, at the American Game Collectors' Association annual meeting, for a talk and discussion on game design and marketing.

Two of Kadon's present-day games were chosen by Omni magazine in 1983 as among the ten best new games of the year: Proteus and Kaliko.

Games magazine has reviewed so many of our games through the years that we've given them their own section, Games Magazine selects, in the Product Index. As of 2006, our games have appeared on the "Games 100" list of best games 39 times.

Kadon is frequently invited to set up a round-the-clock game and puzzle display, always a popular attraction, for the entertainment and stimulation of attendees at the annual conventions of American Mensa, the high-IQ society.

On May 2-4, 2008, at the regional gathering in Gaithersburg, MD, Kadon had a large and well-attended display, and Kate also gave a presentation as part of the program of speakers organized by Susan Wenger. Kate's topic was "A Grand Unification Theory of Life, the Universe, and Nearly Everything," accompanied by graphics of various gamepuzzles sets to illustrate the major points of the talk.

Kadon's Quintillions set was selected as part of a traveling museum exhibit of puzzles appearing in major cities and is among the puzzles visitors are allowed to play with hands-on.

Another museum exhibit, in Brussels, Belgium, invited Kadon to exhibit jumbo versions of some puzzles for hands-on play, and we sent five-fold enlarged models of three different Pyramid puzzles, Throw a Fit cubes and Square and Fair dissection, all of which Dick handcrafted. From all accounts, they were very popular with visitors.

Kadon was selected as the official puzzle supplier for the 1998 Mind Sports Olympiad in London.

International Puzzle Parties
Kate is regularly invited to participate in the exclusive International Puzzle Party, held annually in various countries by turns. We've attended many of them, primarily in the U.S.

In 2002 we attended IPP22 in Belgium,
In 2003 we participated in IPP23 in Chicago. Kate designed a special puzzle for these occasions.
IPP25 in 2005, celebrated in Helsinki, coincided with Kadon's own 25th anniversary, and Kate made a special, very limited version of the Silver Anniversary logo puzzle honoring IPP as well.
In 2006, IPP26 was held in Boston, and so Kate couldn't resist designing a special, limited-edition Boston T-Party puzzle for the occasion.
Our most eagerly anticipated puzzle party was IPP27, in Australia, August 2007, our first trip south of the Equator. Naturally, Kate designed a special, limited-edition "down-under" puzzle, SudoKoala, blending Sudoku puzzle themes with koala bears.
IPP28 was held in August 2008 in Prague, the Czech Republic. A record crowd of 400 strained the resources of the organizers and the facilities, especially the food services and entertainment, which meant standing in long, slow queues several times a day. Bus and walking trips around Prague and vicinity showed the city's antiquities and ornate architecture. Striking was how clean the streets are kept and how good the beer is. For this occasion, Kate designed a special Prague Czecherboard puzzle.

Gatherings for Gardner
Another event of great honor to be invited to is the Gathering for Gardner, held in Atlanta every two years since 1994. Guests are encouraged to bring something on paper to share that is in the spirit of math, magic or puzzles, inspired by the writings of Martin Gardner. Kate has attended most of them. Martin Gardner himself attended the first one, which was intended to be a one-time celebration of his work. The event proved so successful and enjoyable that a second one was planned, and by then the Gathering had become a tradition.

In 2006 it was the 7th Gathering, and the theme of 7 ran through many of the dozens of presentations by the distinguished scholars, writers, puzzlers, and magicians. Kate's 10-minute talk summarized 7 philosophical principles that could be drawn from Gardner's work, whose original field and degree was in philosophy.

Attendees are also invited to submit articles for the souvenir book. Some of the books are published in handsome hardbound editions by the eminent publishing house A. K. Peters. Kate has contributed three articles and a large variety of puzzle challenges. Two of the articles are part of collections published as books. See In the Media below. The third, "Combinatorial Philosophy," is still in the pipeline.

Here are the puzzles based on "7" that Kate contributed to the 2006 souvenir book. The Magic Heptominoes question offers a prize for the right answer, and this challenge is now open to the world. Everyone is eligible to try for it.

A great pleasure for Kate at the 7th Gathering was to be photographed with one of the most famous and brilliant minds of our time, Raymond Smullyan. Scholar, teacher, thinker, magician, writer, trickster, motivator, musician, and a romantic in the classical sense — Ray gives a new definition to "Renaissance man". Here's the photo of Raymond with Kate and two other Smullyan admirers.

In 2008, at the 8th Gathering, the theme of "8" permeated most of the 87 presentations by an awesome group of mathematicians, puzzlers and magicians. Kate gave a 10-minute talk on "Philosophy Revisited: 8 Great Memes" (.pdf file, 434K), accompanied by colorful puzzle images projected on twin screens. Attendees also brought exchange gifts that invited thought, play and astonishment. Kate had prepared a special one-of-a-kind set just for show, Octachrome Insanity, and three little contributions for the gift bag. All played with the concept of 8:

Among the Gathering's festivities was a visit to organizer Tom Rodgers' fabulous Japanese-style home, where part of the fun was building life-size 3-D puzzles, sculptures and interlocking constructions in the gardens, and watching authentic Japanese music and dance performances while enjoying a feast of Japanese culinary masterpieces. The largest "puzzle" built was a dome made entirely of bamboo rods fastened with sturdy rubber bands. It was strong enough for even full-grown people to climb.

This Gathering also saw the world premiere of Kadon's gorgeous Doris octagonal tiling/matching set, with a lively animated presentation by its inventor, Zdravko Zivkovic, who flew in from Serbia, and an engrossing introduction and analysis by our co-researcher, Toby Gottfried, who came in from California for the occasion. The three—Zdravko, Toby, and Kate—had been collaborating by email for months across the globe in the Serbia-California-Florida triangulation, in a synergy all three agreed had been most satisfying and mutually energizing.

In October 2003 the Maryland Renaissance Festival gave Kadon a special award for its unique 28-page Shakespearean catalog, published for 18 years. Products are described in iambic pentameter, with sly topical references hidden here and there. Here's a close-up of the first page.