About Us
Our Story
In case it isn't obvious, we're obsessed with ancient life! Since we were young, we were fascinated by the animals that inhabited our planet in ages past; and, like most of you reading this page, our love of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures wasn't just a phase - it became a lifestyle! We watched all the documentaries we could, until the VHS player gave out, and our childhood heroes weren't sports figures or recording artists - they were paleontologists like Bob Bakker, Jack Horner, and Phil Currie. So, after collecting all the books, toy models, and museum gift shop shirts that two grown men can without getting strange looks, we began scouring the Internet for more. After an exhaustive search into the darkest recesses of eBay and Amazon, in 2015, we realized our calling: in our day-jobs, we worked as business consultants, guiding others on how to implement and execute on their visions - why not turn those skills inward to let us pursue our passion for prehistoric life?!
Permia was born out of our dream to make the sort of products that we'd love to collect, but never could find, and to build a brand that we knew we could hold to the highest standards - both in terms of science and art. After months of research, and the luckiest break imaginable in "drafting" paleontologist Scott Hartman as our partner in crime, we decided to pull the trigger on building the ultimate company for those of us with a zeal for ancient zoology - Permia!
Our Team
We're Michael and Manuel Fleischmann - siblings who grew up outside of Detroit, Michigan, and who share a passion for all things prehistoric! We've been fortunate to work together for nearly a decade now, and Permia undoubtedly has been the most exciting and gratifying project we've ever undertaken. We were elated when Scott Hartman, the world-renowned paleontologist, signed on to be Permia's chief scientific consultant and paleoartist. His expertise and guidance have been invaluable to our efforts. Little did we know that shortly after Scott joined our efforts, we'd also be so lucky as to retain the talents of Diana Hlevnjak, an award-winning artist whose unique style of vector-driven graphics has made the Permia brand what it is today. We are extremely grateful to both of them for all of their exceptional work.
Our Brand
If you're wondering where the name "Permia" came from (assuming our logo didn't give it away!), we decided to stylize the name of one of Earth's major geologic ages - the Permian - to make it something memborable and apropos of our brand. The Permian was host to a remarkable abundance of life, perhaps the most famous of which was Dimetrodon (hence, if we do say so ourselves, our adorable logo!).
Our mascot, whom we've nicknamed "Dimitri," as well as our actual Dimetrodon art, are based upon a brand-new reconstruction that Scott Hartman expertly crafted for us, using all the most recent anatomical data from peer-reviewed scientific literature. Unlike traditional depictions, our Dimetrodon carries itself with an upright gait, and its spines protrude above the webbing in its distinctive sail.