Origami Magazine: An Origami Spotlight on Conch Creative

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Origami Spotlight Special Edition Issue #1

Thursday Night’s @ 9:00 P.M. on KREM TV

OMG PREMIERE’S

OMG (Oh Miss Gegg) A late night talk-show geared to entertain Belize!

OMG ABSTRACT BUMPER Every week will be a different interactive TV experience. Live TV, with skits and fun segments; combined with a panel of entertainers, public figures, musicians, etc., who contribute to our show; as well as a Special guest every week to showcase and premier their work.

OMG (Oh Miss Gegg) a late night talk-show that is geared to entertain Belize! Late Night TV has never been this good (as their slogan states, the show is made up of Comedy, Parodies, Panelists, Guests and More.

They are a weekly night talk show, and they are focusing on promoting positivity and the people that are making a difference! OMG is a new and different TV experience in Belize!

PROMOTIONAL WORK FOR THE SHOW

IT’S BACK!!!!!! Dont Miss Out....

Go Behind The Scenes: http://bit.ly/ua0ibZ

UNIVERSE DENTED GRASS UNDERFOOT

By JOHN GRUBER After the WWDC keynote four months ago, I saw Steve, up close.

He Looked Old, Not old in a way That could be measured...

Those grass stains filled my mind with questions. How did he get them? When? They looked fresh, two, three days old, at the most.

Apple keynote preparation is notoriously and unsurprisingly intense. But not so intense, those stains suggested, as to consume the entirety of Jobs’s days. There is no grass in Moscone West Surely, my mind raced, surely he has more than one pair of those shoes. He could afford to buy the factory that made them. .

He looked old. Not old in a way that could be measured in years or even decades, but impossibly old. Not tired, but weary; not ill or unwell, but rather, somehow, ancient. But not his eyes. His eyes were young and bright, their weapons-grade intensity intact. His sweater was well-worn, his jeans frayed at the cuffs. But the thing that struck me were his shoes, those famous gray New Balance 993s. They too were well-worn. But also this: fresh bright green grass stains all over the heels.

Steve made time for a long, peaceful walk.

Why wear this grass-stained pair for the keynote, a rare and immeasurably highprofile public appearance? My guess: he didn’t notice, didn’t care. One of Jobs’s many gifts was that he knew what to give a shit about. He knew how to focus and prioritize his time and attention. Grass stains on his sneakers didn’t make the cut.

Late last night, long hours after the news broke that he was gone, my thoughts returned to those grass stains on his shoes back in June. I realize only now why they caught my eye. Those grass stained sneakers were the product of limited time, well spent. And so the story I’ve told myself is this: I like to think that in the run-up to his final keynote, Steve made time for a long, peaceful walk. Somewhere beautiful, where there are no footpaths and the grass grows thick. Hand-in-hand with his wife and family, the sun warm on their backs, smiles on their faces, love in their hearts, at peace with their fate.

The Facts Full name: Steven Paul Jobs Birthdate: 24 February 1955 Birth location: San Francisco, California Social background: lower middle-class. Father was fixing cars for a living.

Education: high-school certificate. Dropped out of Reed College after one semester.

Occupations: chairman & CEO at Apple Inc. + Director at The Walt Disney Company Net worth: $5.5 billion according to Forbes' 2010 ranking — 136th richest man on Earth Annual salary: $1

MIDNIGHT: AN ANIMATED SHORT

Ever find yourself awake at night?

Its past midnight and you cant sleep? That happens quite often. My animated short "Midnight" showcases that eerie feel that sometimes you get when its that time of night.

View it on YouTube http://bit.ly/sqe9FP

A STEP UP ON THE COMPETITION essi

B

Media Arts & Photography

Cross The Boundaries of Imagination For all your marketing needs, including but not limited to web, video, motion graphics, and photography.

Full Website Launch Soon. www.jessibetancourt.com

eature

Conch Creative

Conch Creative, its a name that most people in San Pedro know all too well. But who is Conch Creative? What are they all about? Well if you are curious to know the answer to these questions, keep on reading! They were kind enough to let us have a peep into their world.

What/Who is Conch Creative?

Conch Creative is a creative photography service in Belize.

What services does conch creative offer?

Conch Creative provides a number of photographic services including weddings, portraits and commercial photography. We also offer design, restoration and enhancement services.

What/Who is conch creative made up of?

Conch Creative is a team including Colette Kase and Maya Papovic.

What’s Conch creative background?

Maya Papovic got her first camera when she was 8 years old after developing a love for her father’s hobby of taking pictures during their travels. The first camera she used was a Kodachrome point and shoot with a maximum film size of 12 shots.

When Maya was 12 years old she did her first photography course, learning how to develop film, process photographs and special effects. Over time, she developed her skills in her own darkroom, using a paint brush to colour and treat film. Maya has been taking photographs for 30 years as well as having had a very successful career in video editing, working for MTV, BBC and VH1.

Colette Kase has a background in psychology and behaviour. Having run her own business for 15 years she brings her organisational, management and marketing skills to Conch Creative. Having also worked in PR and marketing, she understands the client’s needs and works as the creative designer for Conch Creative, organising shoots, planning poses, developing ideas with commercial clients and models as well as troubleshooting on a day to day basis. She is developing her own photographic skills and now works as second photographer at larger events with her own work becoming more recognised.

Where can your work be seen?

Conch Creative’s work can be seen on our website, on our Facebook page, our blog and on many commercial websites that we have provided images for including fashion houses, resorts and even in a bird guide to Belize. We are proud to see our work pop up unexpectedly in features about Belize, newspapers and magazines.

What initially interested you in the arts?

Maya has always found photography to be a means to express herself. She traveled a great deal as a child and lived in many different countries. She was hugely inspired by the different cultures she experienced. As she grew older and more rebellious, she rejected traditional academics and moved into the world of still and video imagery.

What is your favorite part in regards to what you do?

We love meeting new people and working in fabulous locations. Belize is one of the most beautiful countries to work in the world with so many fascinating things to

Colette was brought up in a home where the walls were covered with art and the bookshelves filled with books by great authors. Her parents were great supporters of the arts and this allowed Colette to explore her creative side with encouragement and support. She spent

see and photograph.

much of her early years in museums and galleries, meeting and mixing with artists, musicians and creative people. As she grew older and more rebellious she became a musician working with bands, writing and performing music for many years.

Has your work ever been featured anywhere?

Conch Creative’s bird photography has been featured in Bird Watching with Bubba 2.5, by Elbert Greer; commercial photography in Flavours of Belize, by McNab Design and Dots Per Inch Ltd; portraits in Modern Luxury Magazine (USA Glossy) and other images have been used by numerous websites promoting Belize. We’ve also provided the front page images on more than one occasion for the San Pedro Sun, our wonderful local paper.

We produced a full calendar for 2010 for the local Humane Society, which raised $5,000 USD and we are very proud of the images we took for that calendar which included pet owners in swimsuits, nude or semi nude – with their pets. We still get asked about that calendar constantly.

What would you say is more important Good Knowledge/Good Equipment?

Good equipment helps, but a good photographer can take a great photo with pretty much anything. Knowledge is a must, a talent and good eye as well as attention to detail are crucial and good luck helps a lot.

Which photographer do you look up to and why?

Richard Avedon. His portraits show an immense amount of character and his fashion photography always had an element of fantasy. He also took on subjects that were almost taboo at the time, such as patients in mental hospitals and civil rights activists during the Vietnam War. If pictures can tell a thousand words, Richard Avedon’s told millions.

Who are you commonly associated with? (clients) We are commonly associated with wedding planners, resorts in Belize and wedding couples.

We love doing wedding photography – with a twist and try to encourage our clients to make their images something they will want to look at for the rest of their lives. We love working in fashion and working with wonderful designers such as Barracuda Bikinis, based in San Diego as well as having the chance to work with international beauty queens for our own local boutique, Moondancer.

How long has conch creative been around?

Conch Creative was formed in 2009.

Would you say photography is a hard line of work to get into?

This is a great question. Anyone can take photographs and we would encourage them to do so. It is fun and a great way to be creative. Professional photography, however, is hard work especially if you want to make a living at it. It would be lovely if it were all about just turning up, taking some shots of beautiful people in beautiful places and that would be it..but it’s not. Each shoot takes a great deal of preparation. You need to be great with your clients and make them feel comfortable and confident. You have to be in pretty good shape as it often involves a lot of running around and being on your feet for hours – and if you’re anything like Conch Creative it will also involve climbing pyramids, going into caves, crawling around in the sand and standing in muddy cold water.

You’d think that would be enough, but then processing the images to bring out their very best requires a great deal of time and hard work ‘in the lab’.

Now everybody has a digital camera do you notice less work coming your way as people now think they can do it themselves?

We’ve only been in business for a couple of years so we came into it well after people had discovered that they too could get great pictures with their own camera. This doesn’t seem to affect us or our work. Often we turn up to events where dozens of guests have cameras and we encourage that. It’s great for people to have personal photos taken by friends and relatives. The reason we are hired is because we offer the professional touch. Our images are extra special and we make sure that everyone and everything looks perfect. We’re also quite entertaining and our clients always say how much fun they have with us.

If you could work along side any one photographer who would it be?

Robert Mapplethorpe (RIP). He was brave, ground breaking and for anyone familiar with his work – he must have had some very interesting sessions. Some people considered him highly controversial and shocking and those should be an artist’s greatest goals and marks of achievement.

What goal are you working towards within your photography and when will you know you have reached it?

This is an interesting question because we have no fixed goals. We love allowing the process to happen and evolve. We’re great believers in making the right choices and taking opportunities when they come our way. Obviously, we’d love to work with more beautiful and interesting people in fascinating and gorgeous locations – but ultimately we don’t work for recognition, but for our own satisfaction and that of our clients. We came into this probably a bit later in life than many photographers, so we tend to be grateful for the work that comes our way and can only hope that one day we can inspire young people to follow their own dreams. One goal for certain is to be part of helping to uplift Belize and letting the world know what a magical and wonderful place it truly is.

Do you find it hard to turn down a day planned with your family at the last moment because of a job put towards you?

Yes! This can be very difficult. Trying to plan for personal and family time can be tricky. Colette’s previous experience in running her own business is very helpful in this respect as she understands the importance of boundaries and time off. We try to maintain a schedule that helps us maintain our sanity and enables us to give our clients our very best.

What was the most flattering thing any of your clients has ever said to you?

One of our brides told us that her husband said to her ‘I always knew you were pretty but I never realised how truly beautiful you were until I saw these images’. This client had done a fabulous trash the dress session with us and we are very proud of the work we did with her. Our clients give us great feedback as we focus a lot of attention on customer service and communication so we do everything possible to give them everything they want and more. Exceeding our client’s expectations is the best thing we can do as photographers.

How do you usually reach out to your customers? How can customers reach out to you?

We have never advertised as such. We believe that word of mouth is a powerful tool, but of course we take advantage of social networking such as Facebook and Twitter. We pride ourselves on our cooperative attitude. We love other photographers and we love our work. We believe that being personable and professional goes a long way to creating a reputation that brings in work. We do a lot of work for free within our community, not because we expect anything in return, but it does gain us a great deal of support and we really appreciate that and never take it for granted. Our customers can contact us directly through our website or Facebook. We also work with a number of resorts who recommend us as well as wedding and events planners.

What is your motto in regards to client satisfaction?

We don’t really have a motto. All that we care about is that our clients love us and love their images and we’ll truly go to any lengths to achieve that.

What makes your work different from anyone elses?

We are a unique team. We are quirky and a little bit ‘out there’. We’ll try absolutely anything and we are good at getting our subjects to let their hair down and express themselves. We are committed to making all of our subjects and locations look the very best and we’re not ashamed to use enhancement to achieve that – and that may be where we are different. When we enhance our images we do so to bring out the best in the subject so that they say ‘Wow, I looked good that day’. Feedback from our customers tells us that we have a knack for catching emotion and true character in our images. One other thing that we believe makes us unique is that we are not boxed in by any particular style or subject matter. We love to photograph everything and anything and we love experimenting and being inspired by other artists, so our work is always evolving and changing depending on what takes our fancy at the time.

Are you a member of any associations or groups specific to your industry?

We are not a member of any professional association.

Are you a member of any associations or groups in general?

We are proud members of the San Pedro AIDS Commission. Colette runs a non profit humane education programme called Be Kind Belize and is an active member of the Belize Wildlife and Conservation Network.

What photographic styles do you specialize in? Do you do any creative shoots?

We’re known for our work with bikinis and pageant girls. Pageants are a very important part of Latin American culture and it gives girls a great opportunity to learn public speaking and poise – all gifts that help to open doors for them in the future. We support our local pageants and as such are lucky enough to work with some very beautiful young women. We believe that women should take strength in their beauty and be proud of themselves whatever skin tone, shape or size they are. Conch Creative finds beauty in all of our subjects and helps to make them shine. We love creative shoots – We are, of course, Conch Creative!

Do you use any assistants?

We are our own assistants. Colette does most of the running around whenever needed. Should things continue to go positively for Conch Creative, we may well have to have a few more ‘conchs’ join our team.

Do you offer any packages? If so what is commonly included?

We offer a number of wedding packages, starting with 20 images up to 100 or more. These include a photographer (Maya) and assistant (Colette) or on larger shoots, both of us working cameras. We insist on meeting our clients before their wedding and we will help to guide and advise them how to make the most of our services. We are unusual in that we enhance and edit all images taken before we send them to our clients to choose. Our clients are able to choose their own images and request further enhancement as part of the packages.

We offer Boudoir and Trash the Dress/Drown the Gown packages, which are some of our favourites and great fun. Because these images are truly fantasy and we put a great deal of work into the images, we do make the choice on behalf of the client.

We very much enjoy doing commercial resort shoots and hope to expand on our client base this year. We offer portrait packages for individuals, families, children and pets (or all at once) and always turn these shoots into a mini party! Everyone has a great time. We invite everyone to get ‘conched’ at least once in their life.

* All photos provided by Conch Creative. * WEBSITE: www.conchcreative.com * FACEBOOK: http://on.fb.me/t1nSOA * BLOG: http://bit.ly/vF7mZ7

Conch Creativ

www.ConchCreative.com

JBMA’S ANDROIDS

A Three Part Animated Short

View it on YouTube http://bit.ly/t7rbq0

B.BONNIE FASHION SHOW A fashion Show by Yvonne Bradley!

B.Bonnie Designs are Custom made Beach Dresses, Summer Dresses and Destination Wedding Dresses by Yvonne Bradley. They were showcased in a fabulous fashion show held in San Pedro, Belize at the Red Ginger Restaurant.

You can find out more about them by visiting their fan page using the link below, or view the full fashion show video on the Origami channel.

Click the links, or scan the qr code! http://on.fb.me/s8wIvH

http://bit.ly/ua0ibZ

Corkbin Wine app Corkbin gets the Paperlinks treatment with a design that co-ordinates with, and even features, its distinctive logo.

(Right)

Help Japan NOw Chances are you've already seen SET's "Help Japan" design. As well as extending the code to make an instantly recognizable red cross, the faux parts of the code contain related symbols for an arresting overall effect.

(Bottom)

M&M’s

Farmville

Anther concept design from Patrick Donnelly, we like the idea of arranging real-life objects into a scannable code.

Patrick Donnelly is such a QR code enthusiast, he spent months on Farmville "growing" a design!

(Bottom)

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AYARA THAI CUISINE Designed by Paperlinks, a charming elephant drawing adds a dash of Asia to this LA restaurant's QR code.

(Left)

Louis Vuitton Another SET creation, QR codes get playful with a dose of Takeshi Murakami-influenced design for Louis Vuitton's mobile website (Bottom)

Burtonwood & Holmes

Magic Hat Brewing COmpany

Artists Tom Burtonwood and Holly Holmes have fun by extruding the classic code design with a code-within-a-code concept.

This clever code from Patrick Donnelly is made up of bottle tops and links to the beer company's mobile optimized Facebook page.

(Left)

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QR CODE REVOLUTION What are those weird boxes all over this Magazine?

We all know that one of the keys to great SEO is making sure you keep your website updated, new and fresh. Whether you do this with a blog, or you change your homepage with new offers, coupons or new products, it serves to show Google that your site is “alive.” For many small businesses in particular, this is a real challenge.

Discover LA Tourism Bureau

Disney

This Paperlinks code is both cool and calm with made-you-look palm trees that add a special design touch.

Cliffano Subagio spotted these awesome Disney codes in Japan where QR is a well established marketing tool.

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So you already have great, fresh content on your site—what’s next? Do you know what is coming that may benefit your small business?

Have you heard of QR codes yet? Here is a quick introduction: They come to us from Japan where they are very common. QR is short for Quick Response (they can be read quickly by a cell phone). They are used to take a piece of information from a transitory media and put it in to your cell phone. You may soon see QR Codes in a magazine advert, on a billboard, a web page or even on someone’s t-shirt. Once it is in your cell phone, it may give you details about that business (allowing users to search for nearby locations), or details about the person wearing the t-shirt, show you a URL which you can click to see a trailer for a movie, or it may give you a coupon which you can use in a local outlet.

(Below) A QR Advertisement by Retail Store Macy’s

The reason why they are more useful than a standard barcode is that they can store (and digitally present) much more data, including url links, geo coordinates, and text. The other key feature of QR Codes is that instead of requiring a chunky hand-held scanner to scan them, many modern cell phones can scan them.

How does the cell phone read the code?

The cell phone needs a QR code reader, like this one from Kaywa. It takes literally 1 minute for someone with an iPhone or Android phone to find and install the reader.

How do you generate a code?

You can easily generate a QR code using a site like Kaywa.com or you can use the Open Source code to generate codes for you if you have a smart developer on hand. Google also has a tool.

How will Google see them?

If you add them to your website, the search engines will see that your pages have changed, and that you are updating pages. The search engine will see a new image and index it accordingly. At some point soon, the search engines will likely recognize QR codes and possibly index the content in them.

TRUE BLOOD HAS A QR CODE. How could you use a QR code?

Your business, no matter how small or large, could use QR codes in a number of ways. You might auto generate one next to every product on your web site containing all the product details, the number to call and the URL link to the page so they can show their friends on their cell phone. You could add one to your business card containing your contact details so its easy for someone to add you to their contacts on their cell phone.

So add them to any print advertising, flyers, posters, invites, TV ads etc..

Will your customers use them?

Today, few may use them, but those that do will certainly appreciate your tech knowledge, and those that don’t will certainly be inquisitive, which may open the door for conversation and a potential sale. Those that do use QR codes will definitely have a high tech know-how and may be more receptive to your presence on the web, your Twitter presence, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube etc.

Paperlinks added musical instruments into QR CODE.