Before leaving WHU to start a new chapter in their life, graduates from Class of 2016 celebrate their graduation and try to memorize their college life by taking photos and buying souvenirs. Two student organizations, Cloudium and LuoBiBan, which aim at producing graduation products and services, stand out for their creativity and their popularity among graduates as well as non-graduate students.
The “ghost graduates” from Luojia Mountain—Cloudium
“We are the ghosts from Luojia Mountain.” This unexpected introduction is the first thing most of us would recall when it comes to Cloudium.
Cloudium is a creative studio based in Wuhan University, initially found by two students. Facing fierce competition with numerous studios, Cloudium is able to maintain an overwhelming advantage for their cultural and creative products. In June 2016, Cloudium launches a series of products for graduates including T-shirts, canvas bags and mobile phone covers. Combined with signature patterns of WHU’s scenery and architectures, their original products were sold out in just three days.
The new series of Cloudium’s products
Three years witnessed the rapid growth of Cloudium. In 2013, Chen Rucheng, a student majoring in Material Shaping and Controlling Engineering and Zhang Tianxiao, a student majoring in Film and Television Drama Literature established the studio just to “create another possibility to memorize the 4 years in WHU”. It was a set of postcards that brought Cloudium to public. Dated back to the first design, Cloudium cooperated with a studio named “Another home: Luojia Mountain”. Three students captured WHU’s vigorous scenes in twenty-four solar terms like “Sakura castle in the waking of insects (the 3rd solar term)”. The twenty-four postcards represent the diverse beauty of WHU, which reminds every student especially graduates of the golden days of their youth.
It had never occurred to Chen Rucheng that postcards would catch students’ hearts so deeply. After the success of postcards, Cloudium came up with a significant plan concerning the graduation season. “We long for designing an extraordinary graduation shirt!” said Chen.
Graduation shirts designed by Cloudium
“Market is carved up by different kinds of graduation shirts manufactured by the production line, yet they lack creativity and uniqueness. We want to design a product with heart-felt love toward WHU.” So Chen and Zhang designed a brand new shirt with a dark blue base and the white traditional Chinese character “graduation”. At that time there was a coming graduation theme party named “fugitives carnival” and several vocalists said they wanted to dress Cloudium’s shirts to perform.
Beyond their expectation, their shirts were out of stock almost immediately. However, it was the very time for Chen and Zhang to leave since they were also graduates. Before they left the campus, they recruited four new members to support Cloudium’s development.
From then on, there would always be two WHU graduates each year and two freshmen joining the Cloudium. Zeng Yefu joined Cloudium in 2015. “I have always appreciated the chance”.
Zeng’s group designs the productions for 2016. Apart from the classic shirt, they added handbag made of environmental friendly materials that can remind students of the great importance of environmental protection. The new phone cover now has two patterns that are both WHU-related -- “Sakura castle” and “Olympic playground”. Zeng said that they will make a series of covers in the future.
The phone covers designed by ZengYefu
Zeng dedicated himself to designing the projects for three months. “I major in Literature but art design has appealed to me for a long time. Cloudium gives me the opportunity.” Said Zeng. To realize his design, he spared no pains to prepare for the brainstorm with his partners, to put the ideas into practice and to make the ideal products.
“Though we have frustrations and obstacles in our preparation, we also gain self-fulfillment and teamwork spirit.” However, what touched Zeng most is the help he got from the older members. At the very thought of a new proposal, Chen and her friends will try every fiber and think over the feasibility and push the optimization.
“I come back to campus life every time I’m engaged in the new plan of Cloudium.” said Chen. From her perspective, Cloudium has become her closest connection with WHU after graduation.
As for the future plan, Zeng clings to a belief that Cloudium will be more formal and professional. “We’ve been thinking about turning into Cloudium into an official organization by having it registered. And the boutique of the shirts will be remained and advanced.”
What’s more, their products also embody the old ethos of WHU -- “Ming (to thoroughly understand and be reasonable); Cheng (to be honest and sincere); Hong (to have a soaring ambition); Yi (to be firm and resolute)” By putting the old school badge and school anthem into their design, they want to remind WHUers of the priceless spirit they inherit from Wuhan University.
“Design is one of our greatest strengths.” According to Zeng, their products target at small groups of students and providing them with inexpensive products with high-quality. Their intention is to enjoy and promote art and design rather than simply making profits. “Presenting the memory of WHUers in a special way is extremely thrilled and excited. We want to impress others and that’s why we call ourselves the ghosts of Luojia Mountain.”
Another potential between hobby and money—LuoBiBan
Recently, a WHU autograph album has stood out among the other souvenirs of WHU. And this hot album was created originally and sold exclusively by LuoBiBan.
WHU Autograph Album
LBB, the Chinese abbreviation for “WHU Graduation Office”, is a photographic platform for photographers and graduates at WHU who wish to commemorate this special period by photographing -- just like Uber is the platform between passengers and private car drivers. LBB is affiliated to Black & White Dream Photographic Association, an association at campus-level with an over-20-year history. As a result, LBB is under the senior managements of Black & White. As a young organization, it was established on April 23, 2016 and has performed brilliantly for it received nearly thirty orders within two months.
Apparently, LBB is a profitable organization, which is also the purpose of founding it. These days, college students usually have at least one shutterbug friend, who takes a lot of pictures because they simply love it. However, other people tend to misunderstand their devotion as a kind of free service. Just as Lan Yuan, the head of LBB, pointed out, there seems to be a settled view about hobby and money: if a photographer takes photo out of pure interest, the further he or her stays away from making a profit out of the hobby, the more sincere the devotion will be. Therefore, Lan and other staff of Black & White intended to explore another possibility, an operation distinctively different from Black & White. And this idea brought LBB to what it is today. They set up a platform that exchanges information between graduates and photographers while charges the agency fee from the latter.
The Interior of LBB’s Studio
Up to now, LBB has eight professional photographers and six student photographers. In order to support its photographic business, its management decided to develop a sale of autograph album. With such a new option, LBB has indeed attracted more customers. What deserves a particular notice is that half of the albums have been sold out at the beginning of the sale. The long-term prospect seems to be both promising and challenging at the same time. The members of LBB are committed to offer quality service and products, which would inevitably lead to the corresponding high price.
“Everyone wants things with quality but not everyone is willing to pay at a higher price. Usually students cannot tell the good photographs from the ordinary ones. They just don’t understand why our products cost this much. Nonetheless, we won’t lower our standard because we hope to satisfy not only our customers but also ourselves.” Lan Yuan added.
Lan Yuan was Packing up the Album
To cope with these dilemmas, LBB plans to expand target customers from graduates to all the WHUers. It will also build other delicate souvenirs in the near future. The rising star is ambitious to establish the most famous and professional photographic platform in WHU.
There is no denying the fact that we take up a hobby just because we enjoy it. But it does not mean that we should draw a line between money and hobby. On the contrary, it takes money to cultivate a hobby. And the payment earned by hobby can also be an encouragement. As the student photographer Guo Xinnan of LBB once said, she joined LBB for people, for photography, and for money.
Enthusiasm can invite us to do things actively while money may push us to do things passively. An organization will forge ahead with the driving force that comes from both spiritual and material encouragements.
（Photo by Wu Jiamin, edited by Wu Siying & Hu Sijia）
