The View-Master is getting a digital upgrade.
Doejo, a Chicago-based digital agency, has partnered with custom View-Master maker image3d.com to launch Reelagram, a platform that converts anyone's Instagram photos to the classic View-Master wheels. For $24.95, the site can take seven Instagram photos from a user's account and create a custom circle of 3-D photos ready for nostalgic viewing.
"We're all so entrenched in digital," said Darren Marshall, co-founder of Doejo. "We're always online, on our phones. We forget how magical that analog experience can be. People try to replicate that in digital. Instagram does that [with filters]. We thought this was a creative way of taking something that's online and turning it offline."
Marshall said Doejo's collaboration with Image3D came as a result of the digital agency wanting to send out their portfolio in View-Master format several years ago. The technology at the time, however, was limited to hand making the wheels, which took several hours. Now, the wheels can be made in seconds. As part of the collaboration, Doejo developed the website and platform that makes the service possible, and Image3D provides the printing technology to make the product.
For those who don't have their old View-Masters packed somewhere in a box, Marshall said, the viewer can be purchased for an additional $5. The wheels can also be made as gifts, as Reelagram allows users to use their friends' photos.
Reelagram will be hosting a release party Sept. 5 at 8 p.m. at Bow Truss Coffee Roasters in East Lakeview, along with InstaThis, a site that prints Instagram photos on wood or acrylic surfaces.
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