BUSHWICK — A video series highlighting how local creative and artisanal businesses — mostly based in north Brooklyn — thrive is seeking help to to film a second season.
Graphic designer Jennifer Dopazo, 31, started her web series "The Fabricant Way" as a way to find inspiration when she began to feel like she was burning out in her own business, she said.
Passion and creativity in business, she said, could be found close to home — at places like East Williamsburg chocolatier Fine and Raw or Williamsburg sex shop Shag.
"It’s real inspiration from people who live in the same streets that we walk every day," said Dopazo, whose graphic design company is called Candelita, "Maybe you bought a chocolate from one of these guys, but you didn't know his story. It's the story behind the story."
Dopazo is currently raising money on Kickstarter to help fund a second season featuring interviews with New York artisan business owners like the creators behind vegan cheese company Dr. Cow and medicinal herb farm Field Apothecary.
Most of them were selected based on recommendations from other local business owners, Dopazo said.
Dopazo hopes her profiles of small business owners will serve as inspiration for aspiring entreprenuers.
She learned about pushing boundaries via Matt Dilling of neon light shop Lite Brite Neon Studio, who spoke about how clients can be teachers by asking for specifications that you maybe previously didn't know how to do, Dopazo said.
Wreckords by Monkey's owner spoke about seeing the business not as a way of moving product but as a method of building relationships and telling your personal story, she said.
"It was key things I try to remember every day running my business, or talking to people about running their businesses," said Dopazo, who still works full-time at her graphic design company.
"The Fabricant Way" is a side project to explore the creative ways local businesses use passion to fuel their work, she said.
"It’s like having this resource of showing people that there’s no formula," Dopazo said. "There’s no right or wrong way of doing it. That’s kind of the idea."
