Creativity and technology are two disciplines that have always come more naturally to me than others. I’ve frequently produced work in fashion, photography, and branding while doing my own research in programming, user experience, and hardware. I’m not going to pretend like merging these areas of expertise is an uncommon phenomenon, but I knew that with recent advancements, there is room for improvement and always will be.
Photography is a creative outlet that I take part in without thinking twice about it. Often times, when I’m creating something fashion related, it works its way into the final output… but I don’t consider myself to be a “photographer.” Photographers know all about manual settings, lighting, flattering angles, and the like. Instead I was more skilled with post-production such as filters, enhancements, and graphic design. Though, I knew this mindset wasn’t unique to my mind.
Creative expression, in my honest opinion, shouldn’t be judged by technical abilities and learned skill. While I was attending an art school in Savannah, GA, I had skepticism when it came to how I was being evaluated. Why should someone else receive a 95 on their still life of a bowl while I receive a 70 on an illustration depicting the hidden sides of my mental health. The expression gap is a common reason for the discouragement of creative expression and imagination. As many of us know, an idea weighs way less than the process of actually generating output. While this is a good thing to some, for me, it serves as a problem to solve.
IRIS is currently being built to minimize the expression gap while maintaining creative authorship and skill. The objective isn’t to give an “easy route” to amateurs or take away the beauty from skilled creative people. The vision is to instead pioneer the new frontier of photography and creative technology. To explore the intersection between imagination and hardware. To encourage a new generation of creative people to express themselves with a camera made for them. The typical camera can come across as a rocket ship to aspiring creatives, but the IRIS is made to provide simplicity to an easy process that can seem overwhelming.
THE VISION
HALO doesn’t stop at cameras, however. The long-term objective is to expand into other areas such as sound, form, space, performance, and motion. The future holds unlimited possibilities, but our main focus is what we can develop today. Research and development is currently taking place for the IRIS 01 while I search for a Chief Technological Officer (CTO). A vision like this can only last for so long without the technical expertise a counterpart of mine could fulfill. Over time, this dilemma will only bring us more challenges, but we will come up with more solutions.
After the first prototype is built using founder funds, a CTO is present, and the validation is apparent, the goal is to seek external financing through an Angel / Pre-Seed round. After that, we would build the next couple prototypes. Once those prototypes are realized, we expect to move onto our Seed round, validation and manufacturing, launch, and eventually Series A + Series B funding. Hardware is known to be unusually expensive, so outside funding is a necessity. Though, we wouldn’t want to search for it without validation from our target audience.
I’m extremely enthusiastic about HALO’s goals, vision, and role in the market. The process will require tough teamwork and meticulous planning, but the feeling of seeing a new generation of creatives execute THEIR vision will be invaluable.
I’m excited to take you all on this journey.
Sincerely,
Trey May