With the dream of ethically produced products and fashion accessories from around the world, born from creative collaborations and spread through influencer marketing, Proto Proto has founded its business concept. With eXpression Umeå as their base, they are travelling the world, working with traditional artisans and preparing to launch their first collections.
Anna Parry and Jeff Parry are both product designers and they met at a design school in Australia. They have always been interested in how products form bonds with people and have a passion for equality. This, coupled with the fact that Anna grew up in Tanzania, was the beginning of Proto Proto.
A design brand revolutionising the craft product market
- In fact, the craft economy is the second largest in the developing world. There is great potential for economic development and there are hundreds of non-profit entrepreneurs working in the area to try to unlock that potential. But what we see is that most of them are quite old-fashioned and based on an outdated charitable model, so we think it's time someone came in and modernised. It's important that it's a proper business approach with excellent design and modern marketing,' says Jeff.
He continues:
- The problem is that ethical and fair trade products as they stand today do not appeal to young, sophisticated consumers. We want to reinvent fair trade.
Cooperation on equal terms
- We are designers, but our main purpose is to work for human equality. Of course, that means paying everyone fairly, but we also strive for a design process where two people, a designer and a craftsman, from very different cultures and circumstances, can work together on a level playing field," says Jeff.
Three collections ready to be launched
- This year we are launching our first three collections; a series of bracelets we developed with a Maasai cooperative in Kenya, silver jewellery designed with artisans in Thailand and a beautiful and colourful Moroccan rug," says Jeff.
Anna continues:
- That rug came about through a very cool collaboration between designers from Berlin and a Moroccan weaving cooperative of 20 women. The designers sent their sketches to the women to get their input and the women then had a workshop where they redesigned the whole thing! We sent their redesigned proposal back to the designers who loved it, they thought it was fantastic and they reworked the design on the rug to include the weavers' ideas. So it's been a real give and take process and the result is fantastic.
Marketing through influencers
- Our design and marketing model is based on influencer partnerships. We choose designers who have an established social media audience, and we develop the product with them. The model we use is that we fund the production and sell the products on our online store and each designer is paid a royalty for each product sold," says Jeff.
He continues:
- By using influencer marketing we can target the product to the right audience and I think that's very important because that's what today's design and fashion consumer expects.
Follow Proto Proto
Instagram: protoprotostudio
Website: protoproto.studio
