Check out the store at: store.adamelmakias.com
For this FSF we had a chance to talk to both Adam Elmakias and Zach Reed to find out how a well oiled collaborative machine works.
BC: Can you talk about where you got the idea for these bracelets?
AE: These bracelets are a concept I came up with in late 2009. I wanted to create an item that other photographers wanted to wear- something that instantly said “i’m a photographer”. I was thinking along the lines of a camera strap, bracelet, or t-shirt. After some Google powered research on what already existed, and what I could realistically customize- silicone bracelets it was.
I found a company and ordered 100 7” bracelets. I started handing them out to photographers and a few to some bands that I work with that know nothing about photography- but wanted to support me. After these took off a bit more I put up a store on Big Cartel and started selling them to everyone. People started loving them, buying them, and I started making enough money for me to be able to put out more designs. To date I have 12 different designs/ lenses each available in 2 sizes.
BC: Your product is a great icebreaker/networking tool. How important is that in your line of work?
AE: Networking is everything. I always tell fellow photographers to start networking now and learn their photography somewhere along the way. You can learn photography on your own time; at your own rate- you control that. What you can’t control is how fast your relationships develop with your clients, that involves at least two different parties growing, and that takes time.
I was hesitant to print my website on the bracelet at first because I wanted people to wear these even if they hated my photography- so I printed it along the inside. I network with photographers at concerts at a lot- passing out business cards in a loud photo pit can be hell. These bracelets work perfectly because people “get it” right away and it’s hard to misplace something that is stuck to your wrist.
BC: As a touring photographer you’ve seen a lot of artists make it with blood, sweat and hustle. Can you give BC store owners some tips on making a name for themselves?
AE: Making a name goes hand in hand with networking, the more you network, the bigger your name gets. It is a pretty straight forward concept and I think that most people get that part of it- the difficult part is “how”. How the hell do I get the thousands of potential customers to visit my store page?
Here is what I have learned so far though. Perceived image is a big factor- what people truly believe they are buying is solely based on how you present it and market it to them. Take advantage of Big Cartel’s customizable features- I tried my best to keep my store simple, clean and mature. My product can go to the 13 year old photographer who just got their first point and shoot- or to a 45 year old professional photographer who has been shooting for 20 years.
Advertising is great, but most can’t afford it, but there is so much free advertisement out there today- take advantage of it. I ran a few contests on tumblr- all you had to do was reblog a post featuring a photo of my bracelet and every 100th reblogger I would send a bracelet. That was how Photojojo found my item and eventually started carrying it. After photojojo started selling my bracelet it received a lot of exposure from big tech blog sites such as Gizmodo and Wired.com. From there everything just kept going with the momentum, the hardest part is knowing where to start.
BC: Can you guys talk about the design process of putting this store together?
ZR: Any client project I do starts off with a design questionnaire. Adam answered approximately 25 questions about his site. Questions like his vision for it, his product information, current site likes/dislikes and his overall ideas for the new site. I then looked over his answers and had a good idea of what he wanted. After I reviewed his answers, we had an hour long phone call about the site and how it would look and function. That phone conversation lead to some prototyping of the website in Adobe Photoshop. I would send Adam .jpg mockups of what the store appearance would be, but without web functionality.
We did a several rounds of revisions to get something we were both excited about. Once we had the design all worked out in Photoshop, I then took my work to Big Cartel. I started off using the “Sexy” theme that is already built into Big Cartel. I customized the majority of the theme to make it work with the concept we had created in Photoshop. After lots of time testing, tweaking and using the site, we decided the site was ready to rock and roll. Then we launched it.
The biggest thing I would like to note about the whole design process was communication. Throughout the whole process Adam and I were constantly emailing each other and talking via phone to get the right functionality for certain aspects of the site. I made sure that I did not just work for Adam but I worked with him.
Ninety percent of what makes this Big Cartel customization so awesome is the fact we were always bouncing ideas back and forth. The site ultimately came out so well because of the two-way communication we had. As always, it was a great experience working with Big Cartel.
Honestly, this was the first time I really was able to push some of the Big Cartel limits. I had to dig deep into the api documentation to accomplish the site functionality that I had never attempted before. Luckily, after testing code over and over we got everything to work just like we needed it to. I was very excited to really push my own Big Cartel coding experience with this project as well dig deep into the Big Cartel documentation.
BC: Now that the store is up and running, which Big Cartel feature do you use/appreciate the most?
AE: Zach knows more on this then I do- after all that is why he designed everything. But, after seeing the final product I knew that I was most stoked on just how much you could integrate into your guys design. It reminds me of myspace right after it started getting big- you could customize everything and truly make it your own, and thats why kids loved it. Big Cartel does a great job of providing this service while at the same time each store retains similar core building blocks.
ZR: This is probably a different answer than you expected but truthfully, I really appreciate the documentation that Big Cartel has taken the time to publish. The information in there is invaluable in helping with the customization process. Everything in the api documentation is very well laid out and easy to follow. It makes customizing a Big Cartel store as easy as pie because you can easily look up the information you need.
