Project Summary
My Digital Artefact Where2Cop is an Instagram and Blog page which highlights and curates information on a wide variety of hyped clothing and shoe releases. This project started with a frustration that I had when trying to purchase hyped clothing and shoes: finding information on where to purchase a specific product in Australia, for how much, and when.
Based on my research of a number of large Instagram pages I follow include Hypebeast, High Snobiety and SneakerNews, I found that they only catered to their local audiences, and as such, I was inspired to create an Australian version of such pages and fill the gap left in a culture dominated by US and European accounts. I thought this would be useful for the growing number of Australians interested in fashion and streetwear, a demographic that is largely male young adults or teenagers.
I initially decided to produce content in the form of an online blog an Instagram page. A choice which quickly changed to just an Instagram page, and then later back to both formats again. Much of the process of making content for Where2Cop involved the curation of information, specifically, the curation of websites which would release items in Australia or could be easily shipped here, pricing, timing and estimated re-sell information.
Important Learning Moments
Although there were many learning moments throughout this process, I have chosen to discuss two main topics: the removal and then reintroduction of the blog and the conflict between visual aesthetics vs curated information.
At the beginning of this project I had both a blog and an Instagram page, with the Instagram page essentially advertising the blog where the majority of content was available. After a poll on Twitter and with my own personal preference to view content on Instagram, I began to list curated websites in the comments section of my posts. Later, after feedback from my tutor who noted that part of the experience is to be able to press links and shop for the products, as well as the facts that Instagrams formatting is atrocious, I chose to reopen the blog. The consistent views are evidence of this success.
Early in to W2C I focused just as heavily on the visual aesthetics of my posts as well as the information I curated. The learning moment for this aspect was the amount of time I spent on an individual post, with many reaching 1+ hr of research and 20+ mins of photo editing. After missing several shoe releases as a result I decided to focus on the curation of information, as it is at the core of my projects social utility, and I now post stock images alongside my information.
Sources:
Shanks 