I get a lot of e-mail from other parts of the country interested in organizing Upcycle Exchanges of their own. My intention has always been to expand it as a Creative Commons project, like Swap-O-Rama-Rama. As you can see, our URL forwards to “Lucoop.com/pilot”. LuCoop stands for “Local Upcycling Co-ops”, and The Upcycle Exchange is the pilot program for this project. Since all is going well, development for LuCoop is beginning to take shape.
Basically, the site will have concise downloadable instructions for starting your own upcycling program, as well as Creative Commons licensed graphics (our “U” symbol to be precise), and also act as a directory of locations. With Strange Folk coming up very soon (list to be published in the next few days), we are looking at a launch date in late fall!
I thought I’d give you a little glimpse of how this program takes shape as I’m working on publishing a Wish-List. The main component of planning an exchange is compiling that. We take applications from artists online, and are able to pull their individual wish-lists into a document fairly easily that way. Once all is copy/pasted and consistently formated, I color-code each artist’s list. Since I know most of them personally, or at least are pretty familiar with what they make, I’ll usually give them colors that remind me of them somehow. It’s really easy if there’s a color in their brand name. If a request is too vague, I remove it or mark it for clarification. Otherwise donors end up bringing us everything but the kitchen sink!
Then, I create another document with catagory headings. This is the fun part (I think) where I get to organize all the items, keeping the color-coding intact so everything can be cross-referenced. I make sure to group similar requests by separate artists together. I think a dozen people asked for buttons this time around. So, when I compile a third time for the “nice” list that you download, popular items like that will appear in larger text to indicate more than one person asked for them. Sort of like a tag cloud, and that’s really all there is to it prep-wise aside from making coupons, promoting like crazy, and dressing our table at the shows. Having these color-coded lists makes it much easier to sort when people bring us donations!
Another tidbit: if you are thinking of starting an Upcycle Exchange in your area, try to think of a different name! Thing is, I’d like to see these programs sprout up independently and have the flexibility to form their own entity that is suited for their locality. There won’t be any trademark issues, and you’ll have more creative and financial freedom for your program. We just want to provide you with everything you’d need to get started, and you will be welcome and encouraged to use the “U” symbol as part of your logo or on promo materials so there is cohesive recognition of what we are doing.
I hope that gives you an idea where we are headed with expanding the program globally. As for the Lou…drop-off off locations are the next step, and we hope to have that figured out by early fall!
