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WORDS  of  THE VISUALS

  • Oct 3, 2018

Since I promised to write about my senior project here on the blog…

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Introducing: Re:Craft. A platform for crafters and DIYers where they can share their art, connect with other artists, sell their craft projects, and many more.

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Initially, I was supposed to do an animal/pet adoption app, but I had to scrap it off the table after seeing a newly launched local app that does the similar thing. My number one worry was always how I’m going to defend the uniqueness of my project. So I thought of something more unheard of, locally. And since I have a knack of thrifting and transforming the heck out of it, I decided to use that as a concept, as I was running out of time back then.


MY ARGUMENT:


In recent years, there’s been an increased interest in DIY crafting. In fact, the size of craft and DIY industry in the Philippines today is a staggering $30 million up from $18.7 in 2016. But in a recent study, while 73% of respondents showed interest in DIY, it recedes to a decline of 24%, making it 49% of respondents who really do DIY themselves.


While there are a ton of DIY and craft platforms, there’s no denying that there’s still a lack of accessibility to DIY locally. Today’s DIY culture offers a wide array of platforms for crafters, but each has a disadvantage over accessibility; Workshops demand a lot of planning and scheduling (which really drags the whole mood altogether), DIY bars demand a relatively pricy accessibility (plus you don’t get to keep the materials), and DIY websites are scattered here and there (heck, even Pinterest is one whole mumble jumble of a mess sometimes).


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The app is essentially Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, Etsy, and a little bit of BuzzFeed all rolled into one.

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Aside from being accessible as an app on your phone, Re:Craft is also social. Provided with your own profile, upload and share your craft projects with friends! With detailed craft posts where you can share the materials you used, the procedure, etc., share your creative genius-ness with other crafters. You can follow other users, like, share, and comment on their posts, ala-Instagram. leave them a message with the built-in inbox/chatroom. You can even list your project as an item for sale, and check out other for sale items on the Marketplace, ala- Etsy, and check out how-to videos on Re:Craft TV, ala-YouTube.


Lastly, Re:Craft also has Re:Blog that features a news feed/blog page that features various news and articles on arts, crafts, and its impact on the environment (upcycling, recycling, fast fashion waste, etc.)

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For the branding, I opted for a 70’s/80’s look as thrifting and upcycling really grew popular on this era (there was the recession in America, and the Hippies against huge companies and mass production, etc.) I made it very fun to embody the creative energy of DIY and crafts, while still balancing it with a clean and professional layout.

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Here are some of the marketing stuff from this projects too:


SOCIAL MEDIA (Awareness)

Re:craft will keep an active presence in other social media outlets, like Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, etc. to keep a buzz on the cyberspace. Additionally, Re:craft will keep a close partnership with art and crafts supply stores to have an active presence in the existing market’s routinary circle.


THE RE:CRAFT BAR (Influence)

The Re:Craft bar is an annual crafting/DIY event, where all materials will be provided for everyone to go all out on. DIY anything and post on the app with the tag #recraftbarchallenge, and share/link to at least one other social media. The most like and share count wins a prize!


DIY OF THE MONTH (Influence)

One of Re:craft’s main features, is the DIY of the Month Starter Kits. Monthly, there will be a featured DIY project, in which the materials needed are stored in a starter kit box that are available for shipping right onto your doorstep so you can get your craft on!


CONTENT (Capture)

New stuff will be posted every week in the app blog and videos section, including a bi-monthly featured artist video, where featured artist will be interviewed while crafting a project. The item will then be sold/auctioned in the Marketplace.

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The main goal of this project is to make DIY and crafts more accessible, to encourage and cultivate a more creative and self-sustaining community. By encouraging people to create than purchasing (that will eventually be thrown away), landfill waste will hopefully lessen, and eventually help build a healthier environment.

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(read the full detail on this project at my portfolio site!)

  • Sep 22, 2018

The golden hour light was looking particularly golden that day so we decided to take advantage of it by doing a mini shoot just inside my bedroom. My sister also bought this new blush that she wanted to play around in, but the golden hour was stronger than her Golden cheek tint lol.


Here are some photos from my Pentax:


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This one was around 5PM or so? And we didn’t even need to go out or anything—this was just shot inside my room with open curtains to get all the light possible, and literally just using my closet for the background! 🙂

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If you have a very blank background and a relatively simple subject (in this case, my model’s just wearing a very simple top, and her hair/makeup isn’t really that “loud” detail-wise), it’s nice to use something as props just to add more dimension in the composition. If you’re shooting on a very limited space like this one, adding something for a foreground will add more dimension in the photo as well.


Here’s some from my DSLR too:*

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Ok, that’s all I have for now hahahaha. Let me know if you have any golden hour photography tips/techniques that you use! I would love to learn how you do your own warm glow magic!💫

*Let me know if you guys want to get the Lightroom preset I used for this one! (Simulated the colours from the film hehehe)🌞

  • Sep 19, 2018

Last June, we found ourselves back in Puerto Princesa, Palawan (but this time with my mom and cousin in tow hahahaha). We visited the same places and also stayed in the same place as before, so there’s really not that much new stuff this time. We did, however, spent a whole day in Pandan Island (part of he island hopping experience) as we opted to not push through with the other islands; more time swimming, less time transferring (also because we saw the other islands before and this one was the one we skipped. Turns out Pandan Island’s the best of all (in my opinion)).

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There’s also not much photos like before because this trip came right after my thesis defense and all I wanted to do was have a vacation like any ordinary person (which loosely translates to “I just wanna swim and enjoy the trip and not be the appointed docu team” hahahahha #lovetakingpicturestho)

I didn’t take my Pentax with me that time, but I had my Lomoinstant, so there were a lot of instant photos for this trip! 

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Even though it was around summer time, it was actually rainy then, all thanks to global warming lol. So it wasn’t exactly the usual summer heat (which is a fucking oven) here in the Philippines, but we were blessed with a sunny enough weather in Palawan (it was hella rainy back in Manila).

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Anyway, the waters were DIVINE. I haven’t enjoyed swimming that much for so long! I didn’t want to go out of the water, tbh. It was also such a win that that time, there weren’t that much people on the beach, so the whole experience was just serene. Sigh. A damn highlight.

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