John with his mentor Elizabeth at Proteus Design
Notes from John: This Thursday we went to Cloud Place in Copley to meet with Dennis Todisco of Karmaloop and Brendan Boyd of Society. I had never heard of Karmaloop or Society before Youthdesign, but I was very interested in all the cool things Karmaloop and Society have done. Dennis told us about how he started out with Karmaloop as a Rep, and was recognized as the # 3 Rep in the country, before being officially hired! We then learned how Greg Selkoe started Karmaloop, against some pretty high odds! Dennis also spoke about a recent collaboration between Korn Design, Karmaloop and the Boston Ballet — a party to celebrate the recent re-branding of the Boston Ballet. We watched a video of the party at the Liberty Hotel and it was amazing, simply amazing!
Brendan explained to us how he and his partner Marcel started Society, and told us about the story behind the Society’s bicycle logo — an icon that people of all backgrounds can connect to. Brendan then showed us some upcoming sample clothes from Society which will be sold later this year! Brendan also talked about marketing, and how he reaches his clients (and future clients) through viral marketing, like music videos and YouTube clips.
In the end, just when I though I was off the hook, Amy asked me to talk about the Cloud Foundation, as I am a current participant in the Boston 100k Artscience program. This takes place during the school year and into the summer for 10-12 graders, and it is a competition to create and develop ideas in the arts and design. I talked about the idea I created called Emuse, a device that reads brain-wave activities to find songs that you like, and how I won $1000 to develop my idea further!