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Grainspace
www.dseplovich.com
Grainspace is a digital platform where photographers can share their work in its intended format, find work opportunities, and dive into the technical complexities of images and image making tools
Hooks AI
A smarter way to print
My Role
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Problem discovery and definition
Asking questions that uncover the primary pains and goals of photographers and photo shops
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User flow and information architecture development
Designing intuitive models that help users achieve their goals.
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🧑🏽‍🏫

Workshop Facilitation
Using design sprint techniques to turn data into insights and make decisions quickly
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Defending the viability of the project
Designing a viable business strategy, documenting it, and defending it in front of a panel of university advisors
Project Description
United by our love of photography, my project partner, Davide, and I noticed a revival in analog photography amongst Millennials and Gen Z'ers. We hypothesized that this renaissance has left unmet user needs in the market after years without innovators in the niche.

We set out to learn as much as we can about the space by speaking to market players, making assumptions, testing them, iterating, and documenting everything along the way. This project was completed as part of a final Master Thesis for the European Institute of Design in Barcelona.
Project Impact
Validation from potential customers and business partners
Although this project was our Master Thesis, we treated it like a startup. That means we treated the people we spoke to like our potential customers, investors, business partners, etc. Although we know verbal commitments aren't guarantees, they are a step in the right direction.
"If you build it, I would buy it"
3/5 photo lab owners we spoke to verbally confirmed interest in Grainspace
Invited to apply to a Startup Accelerator
Pitched to a Barcelona Accelerator and was invited to apply
Validating Assumptions
We had a hunch that film photography was seeing a resurgence. However, before diving too deep into discovery, we conducted a simple desk research as a proxy to determine if our suspicions were correct. What we found online gave us the green light.
“Film cameras are seeing another renaissance”
Ali Watkins
The New York Times
“In 2023, Leica expects to sell 10 times more analog cameras than it sold nearly a decade earlier.”
Micheal Grothus
Fast Compnay
“In the last two years, film sales have increased 20x and processing has quadrupled”
Nick Vlahdamis
Owner, Sydney Super 8
Whose Involved?
We spoke to key stakeholders
Since we set out to discover opportunities in a niche market rather than a solve a specific problem, we wanted to understand the goals and pains of the key players. One of the primary challenges with this project was getting to chat with us for 30-60mins with practically no budget to offer as an incentive.

However, we pulled up our bootstraps and spoke to three user profiles by leveraging a network of friends and family, cold reach outs on social media platforms, and physical drop ins to photo stores around Barcelona.
Photo Lab
Owners
Hobbyist
Photographers
Professional Photographers
Key Pains
What did we learn?
Hobbyist Photographer
The technical jargon intimidates newcomers
The analog photography community is strong, but information for beginners—such as choosing a good starter camera, selecting film, and understanding the effects of different films—can be hard to find. Newcomers are often intimidated by the technical jargon used by experienced photographers both online and in stores.

We saw an opportunity to centralize this info for newbies.
Professional Photographer
Photography is a competitive profession
Photography has been and remains a competitive profession. Those who are early in their career find it challenging to share their work, connect with other photographers, and find work opportunities.

We saw an opportunity to help emerging photographers find gigs.
Hobbyist Photographer
Professional Photographer
File Management is a tedious chore
Photographers often struggle with file management, facing risks like file loss, challenges in sharing high-resolution images, and confusion about which files match specific film stocks. These issues make organizing and sharing photos with family, friends, coworkers, and clients more difficult.
Photo Labs
There is an opportunity for photo labs to "phygitialize"
Not every photographer has a photo lab near them. And not every photo lab offers the same quality film scans. The world’s best labs recognize this and capture clients outside of their geographical area by offering online scanning, development, printing, and purchasing experiences. However, the majority of labs are struggling to do this.

We saw an opportunity to help photo labs capture more clients.
Inflection Point
Who are our customers?
After identifying pains for both photo labs and photographers, we were at a cross-roads for which problems to tackle.

Despite the increased complexity, we chose to focus on building an ecosystem where both photo labs and photographers can grow their businesses, making the photography community our primary customer.
Idea #1
Help photo shops and labs digitize their business to attract more online customers
Idea #2
Help young photographers connect & grow in their careers
Navigating complexity using Object-Oriented UX
As our project grew more complex, we used object-oriented UX to tackle the complexity and design a clear, coherent, and predictable interaction model. The goal was to identify the core objects in the system, define their relationships, attributes, and functions, and use this as our North Star while wireframing.
What is Grainspace?
The digital home for analog photography
Following a 3 pronged approach, we conceptualized an ecosystem where hobbyists, professionals, and photo development labs are connected in a way that is mutually beneficial for everyone.
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Get Inspired & Learn
Curious how a photographer achieved a shot? Each photo includes advanced metadata, revealing the film stock, camera settings, and scanning or development techniques.
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Connect & Develop
Grainspace will partner with the world´s best film development labs allowing you to purchase film, mail in rolls for development, and print your work completely online.
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Contribute & Grow
Showcase your best work. Get your first gig. Find the perfect photographer for your business, wedding, event, etc.
Monetization Plan
How would Grainspace make money?
We defined the beginnings of a path to profitability through targeted photography-related advertisements, subscription plans for photo labs and photographers looking to find work, and "pay-per" fees for job postings looking to contract photographers.


This is linked to our mission of creating an ecosystem where both photographers and photo labs can connect to grow their businesses.
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Subscriptions Plans
Job Postings
Want to know more about Grainspace?
Check out our full project documentation on Notion
Open Notion File
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Designed in Barcelona