Phokki: arts for everyone

Want inexpensive customized art, browse hundreds of styles, and have it delivered to your doorstep anywhere around the world?

Singaporean start-up Phokki, whom I wrote about before, just launched their customized digital art marketplace early this month, a world’s first, according to founder Sean Seah.

Phokki used to be an art e-commerce site with a few artists in its stable a few months back, but now it is a complete end-to-end marketplace — a concept that the founders wanted from the very beginning.

The idea is simple: inexpensive customized art from a banquet of art styles to choose from.

Get artists to come aboard from worldwide, and let them set their own price, production times and review options. The customer sends in a photo to be styled with a corresponding brief. Phokki manages the platform, and any physical prints and delivery within the time stated. Phokki also takes 30 per cent of what the artist charges.

Here are some art style examples. The idea speaks for itself:

Machinima. Virtual worlds. Next generation human computer interfaces.

Bruce Branit’s nine minute World Builder short film is poignant, brilliant and beautiful. A work of art that fires on all cylinders — concept, storytelling, music.

If you’re a sci-fi fan or computer geek, it’s definitely worth a look. Super cool.

The story of how World Builder became a viral internet video is also pretty interesting. According to this excellent story on NewTeeVee by Wagner James Au, Bruce sent out his video last year to various film festival circuits, but it drew little attention.

Dejected, he put it up on the internet as a portfolio, and a high quality video was put on both Vimeo and YouTube about a month ago. Within days it became a viral hit and spread via word-of-mouth and blogs (like this one here!). It is still drawing traction, as the Viral Video Charts can attest.

Ever wanted to turn your photos into pop art? As a personalized gift to be printed on a T-shirt or mug?

Singaporean start-up Phokki allows you to do just that. All you need to do is browse for a styling option, submit your photos, and you’ll get the art in your email in-box within three days.

Below are some examples:

Illustration example (courtesy of Phokki)