I have asked contributors of Kraasimages to share tips and advise, combined with a couple of interviews with Caribbean Entrepreneurs in the pipeline, but I’ve decided to start off with an interview of our own.
Here’s a look back at my thoughts when interviewed in 2014. Some of the questions asked were not published and I thought why not share these with you a little over 6 months after launching kraasimages.com v1.0.
Because content should suit its audience. Advertising is about convincing me that ‘Product H’ will make me, and my life in extension better. If the woman or family using to promote ‘Product H’ doesn’t look like me, not in an environment thats similar to mine, will I be able to relate to this ad? Will I want the product? Are you telling me I should change who I am, my environment so the product can make my life better? You have no idea how important imagery is.
What inspired you to start kraasimages.com?
Meer frustration.
I was working on a “Building Leaders” design project with FLOW Jamaica and the challenge was finding not just inexpensive images, but an image of a child/children in a classroom that fit within the Jamaican setting. After 2 pitches with African American students and teacher dressed cardigans in a classroom. My client was losing faith in me completing the project. I quickly called a friend and photography, set up a shoot with a local student and voila I was back in my clients good grace.
I recalled while working at the Marketing Counselors as an Art Director we had similar challenges, but we had clients that had larger budgets so we did mock ups using the international stock images and we shoot to suit our audience. I went on to ask a couple colleagues in the creative industry if anyone has ever tried to curate Caribbean stock content. I was told about two brothers that tried, but never got much details on what happened more than, it just never worked.
After a couple weeks of mulling it around in my head I called Christopher Birch, we worked together on web design + development projects then, and said, “Hey, we should build a website and sell Caribbean images.” and all he said was, “Uhm sure.”
Well, the rest is history.
What distinct challenges did you face when starting the company?
Trust.
I believe the Jamaican/Caribbean creative industry (photographers, illustrators, graphic designers, motion designer, animators) are hesitant in joining, because they have been burnt so many times. Misuse of imagery is quite rampant and it may seem hard to believe that someone could actually be on their side for a change. Convincing them that a woman with absolutely no prior business success traction, fellow creative, will make her life about giving them global access to marketers and content creators and well, not steal their work, notify and pay them once a sale happens. Getting over this hurdle may take some work, but I think it will be worth it.
Can you share 3 tips for new entrepreneurs in Jamaica?
- Done is better than perfect.
- Its not failure, it’s learning. Jamaica’s entrepreneurial eco system doesn’t encourage and motivate growth for small business and/or facilitate non-traditional concepts. I believe they are trying, not hard enough but trying. So getting your idea together and a couple clients first is important before registering and while we are all anxious to be wealthy, do not sign up for GCT in your first year or 2. If you must, be sure to place a reasonable figure as the projected income.
- Balance. All work and no play makes you hungry and unfit.
What does next year look like for kraasimages.com?
Well, being able to get more creatives from Jamaica and the entire Caribbean on board. Kraasimages.com is fueled by creatives and content creators will rely on us to give them authentic content. We are also reworking the platform to accommodate a feature to offer exclusive (rights managed) content, subscription packages and stock footage and audio is in our long term plans. All being well we should be hosting a Digital Illustration workshop before 2014 ends.
There’s so much happening in the Caribbean and we plan on curating every moment. Connecting content creators and creatives, building trust and encouraging growth in the creative industry. We’re going to be busy so keep an eye on us!
Have Caribbean images? Start uploading today
and together let’s amplify the conversation about the Caribbean’s diversity & inclusion in media!
#sharingculture #WheretheCaribbeanLives
I’ve been a kraasimages contributor for a few years now, building my stock image collection and gaining the impetus to do so based on the needs communicated by Staysean. It has been an absolute pleasure contributing to the growth of this Jamaican business and I pledge my continued support.