La entrada TV interview for the Thirdlings exhibit se publicó primero en Picaia.

Ritual toys have been used in various cultures throughout history for different purposes. In many cases, these toys were used as part of religious or spiritual ceremonies or rituals. Here are some examples of ritual toys used in different cultures:

1. Ancient Egypt: The ancient Egyptians made dolls and figurines as part of their religious beliefs. These toys were often used in funerary rituals to represent the deceased and provide comfort in the afterlife.
2. Ancient Greece and Rome: In ancient Greece and Rome, small figurines and dolls were used as offerings to the gods. They were also used in fertility rituals and as good luck charms.
3. Native American cultures: Many Native American cultures made toys and dolls as part of their spiritual practices. These toys were often used in healing ceremonies and as representations of spirit guides.
4. Japanese culture: In Japan, the Daruma doll is a traditional toy that is often used as a symbol of perseverance and good luck. The doll is made without legs or arms and is used to set goals and wishes.
5. African cultures: Many African cultures use dolls and figures as part of their religious practices. These toys are often used to represent ancestral spirits and to communicate with the spiritual world.

Overall, ritual toys have played an important role in the religious and spiritual practices of many cultures throughout history. These toys have been used as offerings, symbols of faith, and as tools to connect with the spiritual world.

La entrada Thirdlings, ¿ritual toys? se publicó primero en Picaia.

First of its kind

The Thirdlings are handcrafted limited edition figures inspired by the ancient Valdivia culture. History and design of Nuno Acosta, handmade by Juan Orrala, 78-year-old Valdivian artisan.

The figures are presented through a new story that complements our legacy known through tradition and archaeology. The characters have a key role in the community that poses a social and cultural architecture.

Tercerícolas are creations of origin; original collectible crafts in limited editions handmade with traditional techniques introducing new stories and legends; integrating fair trade and traceability; developing a new economy for more artisans from Ecuador to compete in a global market with creative and cultural responsibility.

A NEW STORY. A NEW ORIGIN.

In order for the Thirdlings to exist and continue expanding their universe, a story was created:

“4,000 years ago, superior intelligences created designs that transcended the frontiers of time. Today we have unearthed traces of beings who came to create the world and gave meaning to our ideas. They are called Thirdlings, in honor of the third planet from the sun that they conquered” .

ABOUT THE DESIGNER

Nuno Acosta is an entrepreneur of creativity. Designer and creative writer with more than 20 years of experience in design and communication, he has dedicated his professional life to exploring graphics and popular manifestations of Ecuadorian culture. Promoter of creative and cultural responsibility, he focuses his ideas on original creations that highlight the pride of belonging to Ecuador.

ORIGINAL DESIGN + TRADITIONAL CRAFTSMANSHIP IN A BOX

The Thirdlings are the first line of crafts presented by Picaia, an ecuadorian brand focused on craft innovation that works with fair trade, is inclusive and creative, offers traceability and innovation, as well as a catalog of the best craftsmanship from towns dedicated to art. It was born with the purpose of making our most creative craftsmen known to the whole world.

THE CHARACTERS

The exhibit features 3 figures with established roles in their prot-society:

– The Bringer and the Heir: a female figure who leads her community with balance. She is chosen for carrying a child in her arms.

– The Seer: figure of the wise man who has one eye looking at the past to remember history, one eye looking at the present to understand reality and one eye looking at the future to imagine.

– The Linker: Creating and producing does not always come from a single mind. The linker had one of the most important jobs in the commune, that of building bridges between creators and producers. Interpreting dreams or ideas so that the hands that produced everything understood the spirit of the work.

The exhibition will introduce prototypes of 5 new figures that will represent new roles in the Thirdling culture.

MORE INFORMATION

www.picaia.com

info@picaia.com

instagram.com/picaiabox

twitter.com/picaiabox

La entrada All about the Thirdlings se publicó primero en Picaia.

Published by Forbes Ec on december 20th, 2021. Link here.

Picaia is the brand created to bring together, in a box, the original design of figures and the ancient techniques of artisans in the country. The Guayaquil designer Nuno Acosta’s project is based on fair trade, a new storytelling and shows the world the original product.

Nuno Acosta has created a new civilization called Thirdlings (Tercerícolas), the first inhabitants of the Third World. It is the third planet after the Sun, with a population of creators and artisans with ancient skills, whose vestiges begin to be unearthed in 2021. The characters are original artisan figures, inspired by the Valdivia culture, 4,000 years old, which are transformed into the product of origin Picaia box and that goes out to the world to expose the Ecuadorian culture.

The first series of 36 Tercerícolas figures is ready. They are made in a limited edition of black (or noir) and clay colors by Juan Orrala, a 78-year-old artisan from the Valdivia commune, in the province of Santa Elena. The characters are The Bringer and the heir; the Seer, with three eyes on his body that see the past, the present and the future; and the Linker, a leader of his people. Each character is accompanied by a base, an accessory, a seal of originality and are packaged in a box.

Nuno, a creative from Guayaquil with more than 20 years of experience in design and communication, is the founder of Picaia together with his wife María Gabriela Campoverde, a specialist in intellectual property. Together they created a brand that allows packaging original crafts that connect designers with artisans from Ecuador. Picaia box is based on fair trade, with new storytelling, which leads the Ecuadorian artisan product to compete in the global market, with creative and cultural responsibility.

The story of the Thirdlings seems like a science fiction script and began to be written in the months of the confinement of the pandemic. The married couple, with their two children, became a digital nomad. And when they were in Miami, they noticed that Wynwood, the well-known art and design district, was still active. People went and removed the signature products that were made to order. He thought about the talent of the Ecuadorian artisan and how he was selling his creations. “It is not a problem of branding, of how the brand is managed, but of marketing, it is not being marketed well. The artisan is not selling his product to the people who should buy from him, because in the world there is a market for those who buy a Gucci suit for thousands of dollars or glasses for US$ 5,000 and there are people who do not measure up to buy a US hat. $500,” he explains. They had already noticed that with the project My name is Montecristi.org, before the pandemic and they reaffirmed it months later.

Nuno believes that the problem is that the craft is not sold by the person who produces it, but by an intermediary. For traceability, the buyer must know the origin, the artisan, and the fair price must be paid. So, he thought “what if I make the designs and look for the craftsman to make the ideas”.

Back in the country, the family settled in Salinas and visited the Valdivia commune where he discovered

an artisan with an innate ability to make clay figures using ancient techniques. Since he was six years old he began to create the figurines of the Venus of Valdivia. He also met his daughter Jennifer, a millennial graduate in Tourism, who is in charge of communication and logistics for the business.

“I give you my designs and you make them, with a confidentiality agreement.” Thus they began to work on the prototype that was ready in April of this year. The first doll was “fat”. Then it dried as the water contained in the clay dehydrated, it became compact and began to be polished. Don Juan put his Valdivian patterns on it and entered the oven at a high temperature. No figure is the same, they are unique and unrepeatable pieces. The entire artisan process in Valdivia, which takes between six and eight weeks, is documented.

“We have created a new type of contemporary art. Tercerícolas is an artisanal innovation, it is a new contribution to the Ecuadorian culture of which I am a fan”, Nuno points out. “Everything is under a meta-concept called Welcome to the Third World. I am proud of my people and if we use the same marketing, branding and e-commerce tools the world becomes smaller, that is what our artisans need and I learned it in 16 years of working in advertising; the difference is in putting a package, with a concept and social responsibility”.

ARTISTIC LABORATORY

Nuno was not born as Nuno 41 years ago. He was born as Edmundo, but his sister Maria Lissette could not pronounce his name. “He gave me the nickname when I was one year old. I am a product of branding, Edmundo was not a commercial name, he called me Nuno and it changed my life”, she jokes. Over time it became his name, his personal brand and his company name. He started working in the advertising and communication industry in 2000. In 2020, as a “premonition”, he became independent and founded Nuno Estudio that designs creative experiences. The pandemic hit and he had to return the office he had rented. Now his art studio is in a living room of his house, next to his children’s play area. It is full of posters, figures, books, drawings and samples of two other enterprises that he has, Chocosapiens and Tropiquo.

There he works on the tests to find the ideal box for Picaia. “In my work as a manager, designer and linker I never stop, I always try to improve the design, to test packaging, the less the packaging costs, the more useful it will be.” Juan Orrala sets the price of the figures and pays him for his work. The craftsman and the designer earn the same, but Picaia less, although the percentage is under study and will depend on operating costs. Currently the box with the product is valued at US$ 90. If the demand is good, the value will increase and the utility will be shared between the parties.

Until now, without quantifying the creative and design contribution of this project, Nuno has made a personal investment of US$16,000. “I haven’t calculated, but if I had to hire a designer, an agency to handle communications, a cinematographer, a story writer, I think the price would double or triple.”

He points out that the good thing about creating is that he began to meet other creators and network with entrepreneurs. In the Picaia box process there is an artisan, a serigrapher, a factory that makes cardboard and another that makes packaging, another that made the label, an audiovisual producer. “If you realize it is a creative industry, I had an idea but I needed more than nine people to translate it”.

One of them is Bio fábrik, a Guayaquil venture founded by César Silva. He has created a resistant and light material with an edible fungus, with which the inner packaging of the box is being tested. This will allow obtaining a product of organic, ecological, sustainable and biodegradable origin. In addition, the developers of the boxes, audiovisual production, cultural advice and intellectual property.

THE STORY CONTINUES

Nuno has created a total of 47 characters of the Thirdlings and only three have been manufactured. Starting in February and March 2022, three more models will be produced. Production will be limited, no more than 100 of each. He will also be working on a jewelry line that is already designed. His plans are to contact artisans from other parts of the country to continue producing other Thirdlings inhabitants. San Antonio de Ibarra will be the next stop, a place known for its wood craftsmen. He also wants to connect with artisans of weaving, bamboo cane, from the Amazon, fishermen.

Trademark registrations in several categories have already been made in Ecuador and the United States, as demand increases it will do the same in Asia and Europe. In addition, he is developing the e-commerce website, the niche marketing plan, the public relations management. On the page picaia.com you can already pre-order the handmade figures. An initial line of connection with buyers will be museums, such as the Anthropological and Contemporary Art Museum (MAAC), in Guayaquil, collectors and people who love this type of art.

WHAT IS PICAIA?

As if to add more fiction to the Thirdlings, Nuno says that the name of the product was the first thing he created and kept it for 20 years. He remembers one of those dull, sleepy days, when he was 21 years old, he was watching the Discovery Channel on the internet and an archaeologist was telling a gripping story. He asked if they were willing to bet on a little worm without a brain or eyes that would conquer this planet, then he replied that this animal was Picaia and was the origin of the human being, apparently. This is how the concept ‘Picaia, the first of its kind’ was born. According to scientific publications, Pikaia (with k) is an extinct animal known from Middle Cambrian invertebrate fossils and found near Mount Pika, to which it owes its name. The fossil deposit dates back to 505 million years ago called the Burgess Shale, in British Columbia. (I)

La entrada Forbes Ec: The Ecuadorian Thirdlings go to conquer the world – Forbes Ec article se publicó primero en Picaia.

In Ecuador, crafts are identity and heritage, it is the work of more than 300,000 artisans, but their lack of innovation is erasing the trace of our culture.

Picaia is a brand of original creations that distributes collectible handicrafts in limited editions made by hand using ancestral techniques; introducing new stories; integrating fair trade, blockchain and storytelling; developing a new economy for more artisans from Ecuador to compete in a global market with creative and cultural responsibility.

La entrada Our purpose: craft innovation se publicó primero en Picaia.

• Planting rituals, soil fertilization, rain and harvest.
• Shamanism, medicinal practices and use of healing plants.
• Gastronomy: preparations of dishes such as guinea pig, maito, tonga, guagua mama, mushunguitas, yamor drink, chicha, guaguas de pan, among others.
• In the livestock field: grazing techniques, reproductive standards, signaling rites and animal cures.
• Cultivation and agricultural production based on the equinoxes.
• Andean cosmovision.
• Land conservation practices and the natural environment.
• Fiestas or Raymis, closely related to the Andean agricultural cycle.
• Cultural knowledge such as the creation of original clothing and fabrics.
• Crafts of coconut, tagua, seeds, fabrics and other materials.
• Elaboration of objects such as rafts, carved wooden toys in the shape of animals, mills, crushers, marimbas, drums and cununos, baskets and fans.
• History and traditions transmitted orally.

source: click aquí

La entrada The treasure of Ecuador: ancestral knowledge se publicó primero en Picaia.

Watch the video that briefly tells you how the Picaia unboxing is lived.

Recommendations

Enjoy it with time, in your own space. Each piece contained in the packaging was made with dedication and art so that it reaches you. Inside the box, in addition to your figure, which in this example is The Bringer and the Heir, you will have additional material to get to know the entire Picaia universe. Unpacking guide, promotional material and accessories.

Future rewards

Each Thirdling figure comes with a numbered certificate of ownership, to be able to trace from its creation to the delivery of its owner. Each Thirdling will have a limited edition of 100 figures, so it is vital to know who owns it. In the future we will reveal the rewards that each member of our extraordinary Picaia community will have access to.

La entrada Picaia, the unboxing experience se publicó primero en Picaia.

The organization of the Anuaria Colombia Awards 2021-2022 informs that the Nuno Studio from Guayaquil, Ecuador has obtained the following awards in this edition:

– Anuaria Selection in the category ANUARIA COLOMBIA Award for the best design for packaging, label or container with the work “Tercerícolas packaging” https://www.veredictas.com/mmedia/treballs_img/4/3f67a682d5a493fd9c7c4156cc82e7.jpg

The ANUARIA COLOMBIA Awards are the design awards with the most support in the sector in Colombia and have the support of the main organizations, universities and design centers.

The jury for the ANUARIA COLOMBIA Awards, made up exclusively of representatives of professional organizations and universities, has met and chosen the best graphic design works from Colombia and the region, packaging, POS, corporate identity, advertising, self-promotion, illustrations and logos, among others.

La entrada Picaia packaging design recognized for the best design by Anuaria Colombia se publicó primero en Picaia.

Soon in picaia.com

#tercericolas #thirdlings #picaiabox

La entrada CNTRBND y ARTIFACT: New from Thirdlings se publicó primero en Picaia.

According to the writings of the explorer and the only known scholar of the Thirdling culture, Sir Ed M. Undo, the Thirdlings maintained a strong relationship with seven animals. Until now, we have only found evidence and remains of sculptures made by hand of the serpent, the octopus and the manatee.

According to legends and folklore, the Thirdlings maintained this relationship with 7 mystical animals.

What will be the other 4 Thirdling mystical animals to discover?

La entrada Thirdling Fauna in the new creative culture of Ecuador se publicó primero en Picaia.