Ideating

The concept

I started this semester knowing that I wanted to continue with my digital artefact (DA) from BCM112. I was a content creator for the Makerspace Club Facebook Page, during which I founded the weekly Makerspace Mondays posts. I knew for sure that it was a solid idea with many opportunities for those all-important feedback loops. In the past it had demonstrated for me many successes and failures, as is the objective of BCM114—it seemed to be a perfect choice.

However, with my prior digital artefact I found myself struggling to stay motivated to do a task so heavily dependent on a space which was inherently unpredictable. Some weeks I would visit the space every day and come away with almost no content because the space was simply empty. Other days, people just weren’t undertaking projects which would translate well on camera.

Consequently, I found myself unconsciously dreaming up wild ideas for other possible DAs. These included: writing Buzzfeed Community articles, making a bedtime story podcast for insomniac adults and producing low-budget spoofs of iconic moments in cinema. These all had a certain appeal to me because they were wholly of my own creation and direction, not reliant on the constraints I experienced in my work with the Makerspace.

As much as I loved these ideas, they lacked a certain element of personal inspiration and purpose I knew I would need to commit to something so big. Especially since it would involve dropping a ‘sure thing’.

It wasn’t until one unassuming afternoon that the convergence of confusion and an over-working mind created a shared brainchild which I hope will become a successful DA.

See, my friend Maddie and I were discussing the DA, she had said something about needing to find the right “target market”. But, me being the deaf idiot I am, I only heard the word “market” and in my confusion tried to instantly piece together what a DA involving the markets could possibly be.

The more I kept rambling on, the more we both realised the potential for this idea. There was so much within this realm we could do, so many opportunities, and a real social utility.

How it feels when your DA starts coming together in real life… #bcm114 pic.twitter.com/sIskm8AMvf

— Christina Di Meglio (@ChrissyanneD) August 4, 2018

In my excitement, I knew we had landed on something we could turn into gold through the alchemy of the DA process. That afternoon, when I was resigning from the Makerspace, I was confident that I was making the right decision.

The Brainstorm

Empathise

As two people who frequent markets on an almost weekly basis, accompanied by friends and family, the empathise process for us has been underway long before the conception of our DA idea.

A conversation we always have when we attend the markets goes something along the lines of, “Where do you wan’t to go/eat from/buy __(insert any item here)__?” to which the other person always responds with something like, “I don’t know, there’s too much choice, it all looks so good!” This is typically followed by a lot of aimless wandering as well as ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ over all the wares on offer. A lot of time is wasted before someone proclaims the words “I give up” and tentatively orders something from the nearest stall.

We’re both personally familiar with this overwhelming feeling induced by the markets, and have heard people, countless times, wanting to either give up early or just “get in and get out” because of the chaotic enormity presented by the markets. In fact, it’s not uncommon to hear people wishing for an easier experience.

Solution

We want to establish a platform where we can share our experiences at the markets in the Wollongong and Sydney areas. By highlighting the good and the bad at various markets, we can help local market-goers make informed decisions about their shopping. The best way to share our message is through a blog and an Instagram as these afford us an authentic, yet idealised persona in conjunction with aesthetics and accessibility.

Shopping at the markets can be an overwhelming experience. Simple questions such as which markets to go to, and which stalls are the best, have answers that are challenging to find without first making mistakes in choosing where to shop. This produces waste as a result of a distaste for the product and also wastes the consumer’s money which would be better spent elsewhere.

Our DA aims to aid in this process. It will enlighten people as to the best places to shop for what they want, and will also illuminate some hidden gems which might once have been ignored.

At this point, we have so many great ideas we want to pursue that we start to worry we’ve lost the true essence of BCM114: FIST—fast, inexpensive, simple, tiny. So we brainstorm some more…

Identity

In formulating our identity as a market guide, we explored the digital meme objects associated with the markets. We investigated Instagram pages from food bloggers; from brands which have stalls at the markets; and from the individual markets such as Glebe Markets and the Newcastle Flower Markets.

Credit: Christina Di Meglio

Some of the most repeated and remixed meme objects include: bright colours, quirky/unusual food, street food, handmade goods, recycled and vintage fashion, cloth bags and flowers. There is also a lot of colour saturated images with a shallow depth of field; the frame often includes someone holding an item in their hands with their body unseen.

Incorporating these meme objects in our DA is critical to progress as they already have established association chains in the schema pre-existing in the minds of our target audience. This will mean an easy acceptance and appreciation of our DA by our audience, and will also result in feedback that enables us to better fortify our image.

#bcm114 Don’t worry if your DA idea ‘has been done before’. Existing ideas already have memetic value/power through the associative chains attached to meme objects—and what are memes? Little bits of cultural information REPLICATED and spread from mind to mind pic.twitter.com/HHpI6Squbg

— Christina Di Meglio (@ChrissyanneD) August 13, 2018

We mapped out our target audience by combining the type of person we associate with the aforementioned meme objects with the traits of people we have physically observed at the markets. These ‘real life’ people tend to be women between the ages of 18 and 35 who are environmentally conscious, enjoy organic and gourmet food, support local brands and are into the Indie or vintage ‘scene’.

Credit: Maddeleine Johnston

The persona (branding) of our DA will be formulated around these meme objects and this target audience. By incorporating these elements we are able to appeal to our narrow audience in a way that presents an idealised and ‘aesthetic’ market experience whilst also remaining grounded in perceived authenticity.

Take a look and tell us if you think that so far we’ve been successful in achieving this.

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If you want to support our DA follow us on Instagram at @finderskeepers_mc . Our website will also be up and running soon.