ShineBIG – Online Video Journaling for Artists

 

Recently, I had the privilege of speaking with Tola, the founder of ShineBIG. ShineBIG is a way for artists to promote their art by incorporating video commentary along with artwork. I asked Tola a few questions, and this is a transcript of our conversation.

 

Hi Tola! Please introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi my name is Babatola “Tola” Oguntoyinbo and I am the founder of ShineBIG.com.

 

What is ShineBIG?

ShineBIG.com is a site where you can tell stories about your artwork using video. Like making “DVD extras” for your works of art.

 

This is a tool to help artists move beyond the written artist statement.

 

What is the mission of ShineBIG? (Why did you create it?)

Our mission is to help artists illuminate their work to fans, prospective buyers, and collectors.

I've been a painter for a little over 20 years. I've always been curious about the creative processes of other artists, how they view their work, and what makes them tick. There are so many talented people out there and each work they produce has its own unique story. I received a Master's degree in journalism and mass communication with a specific focus on new media from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2006. I studied about online marketing, online social networks, and social media extensively. Prior to that I experimented with live streaming and several other concepts all focused on uncovering the creative processes of artists. With my skills, experiences, and background, I set out to create a platform that would help artists to illuminate not only the fantastic work that they do, but give them the opportunity to share their stories of what it took to do that work. The end result of an artist's creative efforts sometimes represents only a fraction of what went into a piece. We have the ability to help artists start capturing more information about their work and to the benefit of the art market as a whole.

 

Artists can increase interest, customer engagement, and sales by sharing stories and anecdotes about their art using a combination of video and images. I've noticed that something different happens when we get to talk to people about our work in person. Sometimes you can just see light bulbs turn on as they start to understand a work or get insights about the creative process of the artist. ShineBIG is a platform designed to begin to facilitate those kinds of interactions without the artist actually having to be there.

 

Can you tell us about some of the features of ShineBIG?

Features of shineBIG include:

Quickly and easily add images of your work and use your webcam to add your video commentary as an overview and/or to the specific areas you highlight.

 

 

Create albums for your work, ideal for showing works in a series or that are part of a show.

Add overview videos to your albums or profile page.

Set optional viewing preferences for your viewers. Options include full screen images, light/dark backgrounds, autoplay videos, highlights on/off, and more.

 

How can artists use ShineBIG to promote art?

This system is a market first and is designed to provide the artist's viewers with a unique and impressionable experience focused on the work of that artist. Artists who discover, utilize, and share their stories on this platform will benefit from the feedback and engagement they get from their viewers.

 

I designed this platform as a living archive for artists who want to give their fans, colleagues, prospective buyers and collectors an insiders glimpse of themselves, their work, and their stories.

 

 

ShineBIG can be a great, rounding-out addition to an artist's current online presence. Our primary focus is to help you tell the story of your work in a direct, engaging, video-based format. I see shineBIG as the missing piece to an artist’s online presence as opposed to being a competitor to the various promotional and networking tools they might use now.

 

What are your future plans for ShineBIG?

Our product road map is a gorgeous thing indeed. We are looking forward to adding some pretty solid features as we grow. Look out for some contests from us to start things off this Fall and expect to see more socialization features soon after. And of course, there's some other stuff that we're going to keep under wraps for now ;).

I will say this, our goal is to give our customers what they want and we're listening.

 

Thank-you Tola… It has been a pleasure speaking with you and learning about ShineBIG!

Readers can visit ShineBIG and signup for free here: ShineBIG