2021 Development of Paw Cat Guide π
2022 Intentions. Wishful Thinking & Doing.
Write me some meows
It me, Nya.
Anya does not like to write. Anya does not also share much.
It usually only me who does impawtent plan making for Paw Cat Guide.
So today I issues Royal Order to Anya to write about Paw Cat Guide πΎ
It better has some hooman and cat words, Anya. I watches you!
You helps Anya stay accountable while I takes my nap.
2021 Brand Development of Paw Cat Guide
Working on Paw Cat Guide has felt like pure brand strategy on many days as an art brand with a distinct personality, more so because it isnβt a posh, clean, high brow kind of art luxury. Paw Cat Guide is indulgence for inner children inside adults.
People often ask me, βWhy donβt you write childrenβs books?β βWhy donβt you make childrenβs products?β
The short answer is, Paw Cat Guide may look like it is for kids, and while itβs wholesome outlook can be a natural fit for kids - I have poured a lot of love and strategically crafted it to turn the dark world we navigate as adults into a cute cartoony world where there is a never-ending source of optimism and innocence.
It is consciously laid out this way, and maybe kids can benefit from that world view. I can tell you this world view is crafted because many of us as adults struggle to βadultβ and wish we could go back to being kids without many responsibilities. When it was simply acceptable to laze around - the consequences for which was a bit of scolding at best but life moved on the next day, instead of the frantic anxious thoughts we experience as adults.
βIf I laze around, how will I earn?β βHow will I pay bills?β βHow will I put a roof over my head and how will I feed my family?β
Nya & Paw Cat Guide, simply give us adults a play space where we can indulge this desire to be a kid once again in a society that disapproves of such behaviour.
Oh, the glee I see on peopleβs faces. You know it is hitting the right note when you can repeatedly use the same line and it tickles people to no end. They break out into unconscious smile or giggle as their eyes light up.
βWould you like to be adopted by a tiny cat?β
And then you hit them with the punchline afterwards regardless of whether they make the purchase: βWould you like to sign up to our newsletter? Cat sends you cat thoughts.β
Immediate and overwhelming yes.
I canβt recall the last time people enthusiastically gave out their email addresses so easily (especially with privacy burnout these days) - perhaps since the days we were all trying to claim Dropbox account credits.
Paw Cat Guide as a new luxury brand
It took me a while to fully lean into it, but Paw Cat Guide is new luxury.
βNew luxuryβ is evolving right before our eyes, and it has very little to do with the familiar concepts of luxury we grew up with.
Articulated well by Jasmine Bina of Concept Bureau, new luxury is not defined by high price points or restricted access. New luxury is those brands which engender such fierce loyalty, people would rather buy their products than more established and often expensive brands⦠regardless of how much money they may have to spend.
Paw Cat Guide is slowly beginning to establish its roots to sow the seeds of authority against bigger brands.
Paw Cat Guide has a created a language of its own
Weβre very familiar with the written and visual languages that we see in traditional luxury, but we (Nya & I) are pushing the boundaries of what this language reads and sounds like for us.
In a sea of pristine perfectness, or rich vibes - Paw Cat Guide has a distinct identity and the way it expresses itself in words.
It stands out in a noisy sea of others, unafraid to be itself and calls out to catch the attention of the people who would respond to these cues.
Paw Cat Guideβs cue is a battle cry and rally... to play. To laugh. To giggle. To be grumpy teenagers and riot against the status quo just one time. To be that innocent child once again exploring the world with curious eyes. For the person to go back to the point before the dreariness of the adult world sets in. A small promise of a do over of childhood pleasures, a temporary escape.
We bring you in on our inside joke so we can laugh about it together, itβs our little moment of connection & unexpected intimacy.
Paw Cat Guide lets the individualβs story unfold, not the group
The real magic is that Paw Cat Guide as a brand promises to help reconnect people with their real selves.
I thought a lot about what it means to connect βauthenticallyβ, or what I refer to when I say βauthentic selfβ.
I believe each one of us is unique when weβre born into this world as children. This is all of us - a unique individual who eventually grows up and is shaped by societal expectations & values. And in this process, we forgo a part of ourselves, a betrayal of sorts that we usually donβt consciously make a choice about.
Some of us eventually go on to one day begin to unlearn and relearn what it means to be ourselves. We try to find our way back to ourselves.
In being able to evoke the inner child, Paw Cat Guide puts each person in a powerful position for themselves - a temporary taste of themselves that they can glimpse before their personalities were muffled or distorted by society.
Paw Cat Guide empowers people to be more true to themselves and lets their real stories unfold.
2022 Intentions
As much as Paw Cat Guide is my personal art, it is as much a business and brand too. I donβt think I can I can take this out of the things I create. Looking back, I fought it a lot.
I wanted βartβ that monetizes to be different from the βartβ that is personal to me as well as different from the βworkβ that pays me. I drew very rigid boundaries about how they overlap and intermingle together and struggled to make decisions because sometimes the way ahead was in the grey fuzzy areas.
If thereβs anything 2021 has taught me, it is that ambiguity is not a bad thing. Progress, changes and/or shifts in status quo happens in the messy spaces between the black and white. Where there are no clear answers, where itβs acceptable to have no clear answers. Ambiguity does not mean the lack of clarity. Ambiguity has helped me personally overcome old ways of thinking and embrace new ways of being & doing.
My personal intentions for 2022 for Paw Cat Guide and the space it is in, is to keep pushing the boundaries of where personal art ends and a business begins.
Wishful Thinking & Doing
There is something that rarely comes up in conversation, but I want to share with you.
Since 2020, I have been applying to incubators, grants and funders with ideas and things I work on for Paw Cat Guide. Iβve applied to over 10 and been rejected each time. And maybe youβve journeyed with me for a few of these, or heard about the outcome for a few of these.
I learn something new about myself, about the state of affairs in these industries, and about how Iβd like to shape Paw Cat Guide each time.
Things I have learned about myself:
I donβt want to do tasks to fulfil the role of a person who is being productive
I want to do tasks because they help me connect with myself, people and the world around me. This means that I want tasks to be personally fulfilling, allowing me to be in the present rather than hoping to tick a checkbox for a version of me that exists only in the future.
I want to meaningfully exchange my skillsets, the value I bring to the world in exchange for resources that will keep enabling me to do my art + work sustainably. And yes, this includes money.
I welcome and accept surplus money. Surplus being more than what I would personally need. I want to use the surplus to in meaningful ways to grow/expand ecosystems and redistribute it where possible/ put it in the hands of people who will benefit from it.
I feel a sense of helpless everyday that there is someone on this planet who might need resources to change their circumstances but they donβt have access to such things. I have been given the gift of such resources at key points in my life to leave behind situations that were toxic and/or dangerous to live in, and I have a deep desire to pay that forward.I want to change my relationship with money. Iβm not sure where Iβm headed, or what the outcome should be. But what I can tell you is Iβm unclear and unconscious of my current relationship with money, but Iβd love for this area in my life also to live by my personal values.
I am curious about funding & support for community and creator based economies and I will be exploring topics like those this year.
I donβt like setting goals. I am terrible at setting goals. I set intentions and a focus instead with a commitment to an outcome.
I stretched myself too thin by wanting to do it all, learn it all. This year, I will play to my strengths. But the first step is to take stock of my strengths.
Each rejection helped me realise art & artists reject business (or are wary of it), and business rejects art & artists (or are wary of it).
I want to slow down. Do things more mindfully. Not get caught up in needing to create the next best thing, or constantly being relevant, or providing the next update. I give myself permission to step away from things, even if they come to a standstill.
With this, I end my very reflection. Thank you for staying with my words till the end. I hope 2022 brings you magic, warmth, and sunshine into your life. β¨
I leave you with this thinking prompt~
What area in your life would you like to sprinkle some magic on right now?
"To err is human, to purr is feline." ~ Robert Byrne
Think another hooman might enjoy following Nya and her hooman Anya? Help her recruit other hoomans.
Sent to you by Nyaβs secretary with best meows from a desk at Paw Cat Guide.