The best thing that happened to me this year on digital. VSCOX.
Yes, you heard me, VSCOX. It’s the one app that if it died, I’d cry. Like M-Pesa.
But I’ll come to that later. Hold that thought.
Today, I am astonishment at how we’ve become so reliant on apps. From Shazam (anyone using this)? Slack, Twitter, WhatsApp, and a plethora of social, gaming and banking apps. Don’t even get me started on Google, Google Maps. At times, we aren’t even aware how many we use in a day, a dozen? 50? Count.
Literally, anyone with a smart phone has a loaded gun of content. Like a genie in a bottle; to be summoned when required.
Well what these apps have done, is made life more easier by having to access information in real time, at an almost negligible cost and at almost 100% accuracy.
I think if our ancestors woke up today, they’d keel back as they watch their zombie red eyed descendants shuffle between multiple apps on the phone!
Maya waving in our garden
Well, today I thought in honour of Designers, as well as anyone who loves to look the part on social media, I would share one power weapon app to knock the socks off your fans (haha!). That’s the VSCOX app.
However, let me begin by saying, they are not paying me to write a blog about them. They are just a great brand, good enough for @shopnanjala to dedicate a whole blog to.
I bumped into the app like 6 months ago when I was looking for an easy app to use that was available on mobile to clean my iPhone-shot photos on-the-go. I tried a couple but this one when I bumped into it, liked it, I installed it, checked it out then just gave up because it had ZERO instructions! It was a tad exhausting trying to guess what all the pictograms meant and gosh were they many! Funny, none other app impressed me as much, so I just carried on with the free filters that are readily available on Instagram and Facebook.
Then, a few weeks later, I decided to really try it. The newsletters in my inbox rubbed off on me – I guess. And I learnt fast. In an hour I’d figured out the filters, “staring’- similar to ‘liking’, uploading iffy photos and what not. But guess what? After taking an hour or so figuring it out, I discovered that it was WAY better than the free ones we use on our social apps.
Maya & Theo
In a matter of time, I who believed that Photoshop was the Mecca regardless of the device or medium – changed camp.
Don’t get me wrong, I still have mad respect for the creators of Photoshop I still use it on my laptop for client work) – I became a disciple of VSCO because, with all the great qualities that comes on Photoshop, its still doesn’t have a on-phone-to-edit app, besides, fiddling on Photoshop in easy on laptop, on a tiny screen? Impossible.
In less than a month I had joined the VSCOX club and never looked back since. Great community too they have on there. I follow a couple of cool people and hashtags just the way you would do so on any other social media platform. Its the 21st Century app (in waiting) for the impatient Designer.
I’ll leave it there. Go to App Store. Find it. Get the in-purchases one if you wanna go pro.
Your welcome. “Mimi ni Member, je wewe?”
*All images edited on VSCOX, courtesy of the author.
Shot of my laptop