Handmade designer upcycling seems to be the latest designer trend. First, it was Hermes’ hugely successful travelling caravan exhibition in Hong Kong with over 2,000 one-of-a-kind pieces, made from discarded scraps of exotic leather and luxurious fabric from its atelier, snapped up within a month at astonishingly high prices. Now, Hong Kong’s very own talented upcycling designer of handmade goods, Agnes Nong, successfully achieves her financial support target through FringeBacker for her “Memories Factory”upcycling project. In fact, she has exceeded her financial target on FringeBacker, ....and with some to spare!

Next to come will be Agnes Nong's personal exhibition of her handmade upcycling designs. Watch out for news of this!

As a supporter of handmade designer upcycling, a process of using discarded materials and transforming them into unique, one-of-a-kind pieces, Agnes met with Pascal Mussard, the great-great-great granddaughter of Hermes founder, during Mussard's stay in Hong Kong to talk about what quality means for a designer.  Regardless of it being a hundred-year-old brand or a young designer, the critical factor for coming up with quality work is in the attention to detail.  A designer has to put in love and care, instilling value and quality when making or designing an item, and to ensure that the item is even more valuable 25 years later.

To this, Agnes’ “Memories Factory” has lived up to its values. Her project has now been successfully funded on FringeBacker through great support from the public. Agnes will be preserving memories in two ways -- first, she will design her own special items for her supporters; secondly, she will custom-upcycle and re-design old pieces from other supporters, breathing new life into each of them.

During her project campaign on FringeBacker, Agnes reached out to people in her circle of life, her family, friends, schoolmates and designer colleagues, getting them excited about her project and getting support from them. Agnes has become a hot topic for the press, with widespread media interviews from Tao magazine, Hong Kong Economic Times, Sudden Weekly, Weekend Weekly and U Magazine, to name a few, spiraling her supporters to even higher levels.  We're so delighted that crowdfunding on FringeBacker has given Agnes an all new opportunity to pre-sell her creative work in a way that otherwise was all too difficult for designers. She was able to connect with a vast online community and to showcase her work through FringeBacker.  Traditionally, the public got to meet Agnes only through designers’ marts or exhibitions, and they were no different from any other consumers. But Agnes’project on FringeBacker allowed supporters to participate in her creative process and be a part of it. This vicarious experience has excited the online crowd, giving them a unique experience to not just buy things online, but to be the first to do so for something that has yet to be made and then see it come to life.

Congrats to Agnes and her supporters! Watch this space for updates on her exhibition!

After barely recovering from the excitement of meeting up with dozens of boisterous indie bands at the Clockenflap music festival a week ago, and answering their crowdfunding questions, FringeBacker was out in force this past weekend to support our United Nations friends from UNESCO.

All of us at FringeBacker were absolutely thrilled to have been a guest of honour, together with diplomats from 15 consulates and numerous representatives of United Nations organisations, to officiate at UNESCO's Peacemakers' Day opening ceremony.

The ceremony, the first of its kind, took place at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, with over 500 participants in attendance.  As a part of the “UNESCO Peace for All” programme, Peacemakers' Day aims to promote cultural diversity, tolerance, inter-cultural dialogue, mutual understanding and respect for different traditions and customs.

FringeBacker joined Professor Patrick S. S. Lau, President of the UNESCO Hong Kong Association, Professor Samuel Leong, Director of the UNESCO Observatory RLCCE and Head of the Department of Cultural and Creative Arts at HKIEd, and diplomats from 15 consulates and numerous representatives of United Nations organisations, in officiating at the Opening Ceremony

As a UNESCO network partner at its RLCCE Observatory, FringeBacker has enjoyed being a strong proponent of UNESCO's mission.  Along the way, we've successfully brought U.K. a capella champions All the King's Men from King's College London to Hong Kong, as well as now preparing to help fund young entrepreneurs from the Chinese University of Hong Kong's Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program. Brilliant young designers from the Hong Kong Design Centre and IT developers at Cyberport are also on our list of exciting projects to showcase soon.  Innovative young filmmakers, Hong Kong's gold-medal athletes, our exclusive interview with Hermes' creative director Pascal Mussard......the list goes on and on.

FringeBacker and other guests of honour

Nothing brings a smile to our faces here at FringeBacker more than helping creative and innovative people to showcase their great work for everyone to share and enjoy.  And full credit to the tremendous work done by President Lau, Director Leong, and everyone else at UNESCO in Hong Kong!

FringeBacker has always been a huge supporter of talented and creative minds, and we're seeing a great deal of interest in submissions to our online crowdfunding platform by musicians and other creative people who want to connect with others who share their vision and passion. And of course, FringeBacker didn't miss the chance to share our passion for music with so many indie artists and bands at Clockenflap over the past weekend. 

The hottest pick of the day – Primal Scream

Amateur musicians spotted!

Thousands of music-lovers, hipsters and even toddlers headed down to the West Kowloon waterfront promenade this past weekend to celebrate Hong Kong’s biggest indie music and arts festival – Clockenflap 2012. Although the sun didn’t show up and the temperature dipped to almost 15 degrees Celsius over the two days, the crowds kept warm by wrapping themselves up in the awesome waves of music, dancing and drinking.

Music is the focus of the day

Shall we dance?

Two days, seven stages, over 70 Hong Kong and international bands, artists and filmmakers, Clockenflap is the first ever indie music and arts festival of this scale in Hong Kong. The spectacular lineup included exciting performance by Primal Scream and Alt-J from the UK, De La Soul from USA, and, not to mention the astonishing performance by Hong Kong’s Jun Kung. What’s more, Clockenflap brought an early Christmas gift for all music-lovers, both the artists and festival-goers, for the opportunities provided for showcasing their efforts and support for indie music in Hong Kong.

But what lies ahead for these talented indie artists and bands after Clockenflap? In Hong Kong, as elsewhere, so much of the talent of indie artists and bands remains undiscovered.

Luke Sital-Singh (UK) at Timeout Stage

Let's sing out LOUD!

Are you ready for Jun Kung?

End of the day, get drunk and say HEY!

Well, FringeBacker now comes bearing an ‘alternative’ Christmas gift for indie musicians!  With our online platform, indie musicians, artists, filmmakers and many others can now bring their projects to life by connecting with their fans. In the US, music projects are the most successful ones among all crowdfunders, comprising 29% of the total number of successfully funded projects.

So, let's continue to hear from you!  Crowdfund your musical talent, and showcase your passion to your fans!