Red Bubble Profile - The Pilgrim Interview

Martin Hosking’s road before co- founding RedBubble has taken him on many a long and varied path.

So it seems apt that Martin chose Pilgrim as his User name.

Martin believes in the journey to wisdom. It is a journey which progresses through humility and creativity.

He hints at his own path in his writing’s CORNISH MINER and SYRIA

Martin grew up in Canberra and completed his higher education at Melbourne University where he studied history while also spending a lot of time involved in the theatre. Moving on after graduation Martin joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade where he served in the Middle East. It is here where he learnt Arabic and changed he view on life, he was also affected by the areas passionate nature while indulging in some foreign affair himself – Martin met and proposed in seven days to his now wife and Mother of his three daughters – Loreto.

Martin is also a keen poet and contributes regularly to RedBubble, which also gives him a great understanding of the type of people who are members and what they want from the site

I asked Martin some probing questions about his journey to and beyond RedBubble.
He was gracious and generous in his replies.

The name Pilgrim, I touched on that in the introduction, I’ll assume it doesn’t have any biblical connotations, how did you get this moniker? And was it chosen exclusively for RedBubble ?
You seem to wear it with pride.

I chose Pilgrim because I wanted a name that conveyed a sense of journey and of purpose.
It is also about humility.
I believe our journey in life does have a purpose but also it doesn’t have a specific end. We need to continue moving without losing our sense of wonder. We also need to share it with others and yes it was chosen exclusively for the site.

Do you have an artistic background or did you run within artistic circles prior to the Bubble?

When I was younger I was a very keen poet and also was deeply involved in drama at Uni. I have tried my hand at creating visual art but really don’t have the knack. I am, however, a keen viewer. After I left Uni and was building my career, like so many others, I lost my contact with my creative side. I think I felt this loss and the biggest and best thing about RedBubble has been to reconnect with myself by creating things that I value.

Ok now this begs the question how did the RedBubble idea evolve?

In 1996 I joined two friends, Evan and Tracey, in the company they had just founded called LookSmart. We rode the Internet boom all the way up and most of the way down. Many of the lessons of LookSmart are being applied in RedBubble.

Initially RedBubble was going to simply be a Print-on-Demand site for Australia – sort of like Zazzle. As we got to thinking about it, we realized that this idea didn’t really excite us. So we asked what is the site that we would truly want to build and which we would want to participate in. And that was how we came to RedBubble.

How did you hook up with Peter and Paul ( the other Red Bubble co-founders)?

I have known Paul for almost 20 years. He is a graphic designer and is married to my wife’s best friend. Peter and I have worked together for about 5 years on different projects.

The early promos of Red Bubble quoted it as being addictive.
Did you ever realize how prophetic this would be?

Not really. We have been a bit overwhelmed, and humbled, by the response of the community to the site. We wanted to make something which was beautiful and empowered people. We didn’t quite appreciate how needed this was.

Has RedBubble changed your view on artists in so much as the stereotypical make up?

RedBubble has exposed me to some art forms I didn’t really know existed (fractals and 3D art for example). As for the artists, I no longer have any preconception of who can be or wants to be an artist. The community is incredibly diverse. One of our earliest “bugs” was discovered by an artist who couldn’t register her age because we only went to 1927 and she was born before then. We have people from all over the world and all walks of life. We have professionals who use RedBubble as just one platform to show their work as well as people who are just starting out. Sometimes members of the community press us to be more prescriptive about who can join the community. We try to resist this.

ON WRITING

Writers think they get a bit of a raw deal on RedBubble, but unleashed07 was a fantastic initiative, you have never released a coffee table book of Photographers or other artist’s work should they be satisfied with that?

We fully understand the need to be more balanced. As a writer, I feel their concerns. The next few months will see at least one big thing for writers as we will be launching a high quality magazine on October 11 (you heard it here first!). We have some very important initiatives that will allow writers to more easily stand alongside the image folks.

Another point to the above question- with the exception of one or two a great deal of those authors chosen for unleashed07 do not contribute very regularly.
Is this discouraging?

We will always have a little churn in the site. That said I understand why the authors feel a bit discouraged as a good image may get 50 comments and many sales. There isn’t that same level of interaction for the writers. The new magazine should help address this and the new initiatives for writers will take it to the next level. We have always wanted a rich and diverse community and this cannot be achieved if we are not multi-genre.

One last question, what is the long term goal of Red Bubble?

I believe Red Bubble can become a major Internet site.
The first generation of community sites were all about a people- centric view of the world and their (often offline) social networks: MySpace, Friendster, Bebo, and Facebook. RedBubble takes a different view. We believe networks can be created around the important artifacts which people create and share – their art. This is not an elitist vision but rather sees shared art as a legitimate part of creating and supporting identity. If we think of MASLOWS HIERARCHY of needs then after people have satisfied the need for social interaction they move on to satisfying their creativity.
Red Bubble aims to support this in every way.

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danny, martinhosking, pilgrim and rbnews