oh hollis

New ventures & a summary of my work as founder and CEO of Subports.
LE COMPETITION Design work has begun on a new venture I have started called Le Competition.  The premise is simple: competitions geared for up-and-coming creatives where the prize is a learning experience as opposed to monetary.  For our host companies we will work with unique and established artists, designers, musicians, etc., many of whom are among the wonderful individuals I met while building Subports.  Le Competition gives rising artists and designers a chance to learn the processes involved in producing products in their desired career paths.

LE COMPETITION

Design work has begun on a new venture I have started called Le Competition.  The premise is simple: competitions geared for up-and-coming creatives where the prize is a learning experience as opposed to monetary.  For our host companies we will work with unique and established artists, designers, musicians, etc., many of whom are among the wonderful individuals I met while building Subports.  Le Competition gives rising artists and designers a chance to learn the processes involved in producing products in their desired career paths.

With its cross-pollination of swoony art and mischievous attitude, independent salesmanship and sleek design, Subports is an intriguing mutant: a website that dissolves old networks to achieve a porous and delightfully strange new form of consumption.

SHOPBOX: A 3rd Ward/Subports Collaboration

SHOPBOX may be the way of retail’s future.  Scattered around Brooklyn, NY are salvaged shipping containers that have been converted into pop-up stores.  In each container, you will find ready-to-purchase items from local artisans, but you won’t find a store clerk.  If you want to see an item within the container more clearly, you can use a remote to control the lighting and move the displays.  It gives window shopping a whole new meaning.  Once you’re ready to purchase something, simply register your details on the mounted iPad and text message your order. The product will then be shipped directly to your home.

Inc.
PSFK

LEROY MERLIN PRESENTATION: DRAWING ON MEMORY

I was asked by Leroy Merlin, the French home improvement giant, to give a talk concerning outside the box retail concepts.  My talk focused on creating novel experiences that would leave a lasting impression on customers.  During the lecture, a woman who was introduced as the Operations Manager for Subports approached the front where I was speaking and proceeded to take all of her clothes off.  The group was then asked to do figure drawing for the final half hour of the talk.  This surprising turn of events was integrated to give the audience a new experience that would resonate with them for years to come.  It was a palpable—and fun—example of how incorporating the unexpected can create a lasting memory.  

Leroy Merlin Presentation

Leroy Merlin Photos

PITCH FOR RACHEL COMEY: PUPS

Working under Dadoon Dadoon, the creative agency Karl and I started, we worked up this pitch for the client Rachel Comey. Joanna Totolici took these outstanding photos for us.

Retail Experiment: FRAT IN A BOX

Synopsis:

From March 2-6 2011 at the SCOPE Art Show, a centrally placed cube will contain an actual, traditional frat party where the brothers will drink from a keg and party “greek style”. Outside the enclosure, the usual opening party will be taking place replete with evening attire, champagne and art world conversation. Party goers will be able to interact with the frat party via text, purchasing items of clothing, accessories, and receiving messages and files created by the brothers.

Huffington Post

Refinery 29

PSFK

Gothamist

NBC Features Subports

NON FASHION PEOPLE’S FASHION NIGHT OUT Subports teamed up with Partners + Spade—plus a slew of amazing “every day folk”—to add a little balance to NYC’s glitzy Fashion Night Out 2010.  Using Partners + Spade’s Great Jones St. retail space, I curated the fashionable (and not so fashionable) creations of everyone from a farmer and a wallpaper designer, to someone’s dad and even the internet.      Core 77 Racked Gizmodo

NON FASHION PEOPLE’S FASHION NIGHT OUT

Subports teamed up with Partners + Spade—plus a slew of amazing “every day folk”—to add a little balance to NYC’s glitzy Fashion Night Out 2010.  Using Partners + Spade’s Great Jones St. retail space, I curated the fashionable (and not so fashionable) creations of everyone from a farmer and a wallpaper designer, to someone’s dad and even the internet.     

Core 77

Racked

Gizmodo

Daily Candy calls us the future of shopping.

Daily Candy calls us the future of shopping.

PSYCHIC RETAILING

On December 10-12, 2009, we debuted another one of our retail experiments: “Clairvoyant.”

Catering to the customer who just doesn’t know what gift to get for a special friend or relative, “Clairvoyant” brought Subports users to Judith Auora Ryan who provided psychic readings to aid them in selecting the perfect gift.

“Are you lost about what gift to get for that special loved one who seems to have everything? Relax and visit our clairvoyant. Let the spirit of giving flow through you and she will guide you to the perfect gift. You and your loved one can enjoy the wonder of the unknown when you open the simple, unadorned package together.”

clarvoyantexperiment-24-468x312

2009_12_clairvoyant

Racked

Story Store: Collaborating with various poets and writers we created Story Store. Embedded in the text of selected short stories, we placed images of products we were selling and made them available for purchase using text-to-buy or/and QR codes. The Story Stores could live on a wall, online, or on a postcard and become poetic points of sale.