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Discovery research · case study 02a · 2018 – 2020 · 3-minute read

A creator marketplace, part 1: curators were already running marketplaces

It started as a third-year group project brief to do something completely new. We looked at Instagram accounts that reposted other creators' work, and found they already had the audience of a marketplace, just no way to sell.

My roleTeam member in year 3, then the research on my own
When2018/19 group project; research taken further in my final year
StageDiscover
MethodsEthnographic study of curator accounts, questionnaires with graphic designers, research into marketplaces for freelance designers
Discover

Curators were already running marketplaces

I studied Instagram accounts that reposted other creators' work: digital garment makers, 3D artists, poster designers. They had started as personal mood boards and grown into crowds of practice, where creators showed work to test interest, get feedback and meet each other.

They had the audience of a marketplace but no way to sell. The tools available meant either a web-builder store for every creator, with its own marketing bill, or waiting for Instagram to build commerce itself.

The question I set: how could a curator account become a social marketplace, and raise the social mobility of the creators in it, by easing early money pressure and building skills the digital economy wants?
How I studied it

Watching the communities, then asking the creators

  • Poster and 3D art communities on Instagram. I studied how curator accounts grew from mood boards into places where creators tested work and met each other.
  • Graphic designers. A questionnaire on how they found work, priced it and got paid.
  • Marketplaces for freelance designers. Notes on what existing marketplaces did and didn't do for new creators, from observation and interviews.
More of this research is still being recovered from my university files, including the questionnaire data.