We were lucky to catch up with Innominate Kraken recently and have shared our conversation below.

Innominate Kraken, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful projects to us are every single one of our how-to videos that we were able to work on with our grandma Herta, who we all called Oma. She was our biggest supporter and our first fan when we started our Innominate Kraken YouTube channel. She even became a team member when we launched our video production company.

She inspired our love for crafting and DIY projects. Oma loved drawing, making clothes, and creating her own home decor. So she was super excited to help us with our how-to videos. And when we were out of ideas, she’d peruse how-to/DIY, home design or cooking/baking magazines for inspiration.

As excited as she was just to think of ideas, she was even more excited to go shopping for the supplies. She always had a huge smile on her face going up and down each and every aisle. We’d spend hours looking at everything and then, of course, walk out with carts full of arts and crafts stuff.

Along with doing the research and getting supplies, Oma also played an active role in the production of our how-to videos both behind and in front of the camera. More often than not she took our thumbnail photos and manned the camera when filming our videos’ introductions and endings. She took the job seriously, suggesting poses, helping put together outfits, and telling us when we missed a line or if we’d need to say something again because it sounded off. Oma would also work on the how-to projects with us during practice runs and sometimes be in the filming of the actual takes too. Most notably she was featured in our “How To Make A Cinderella Glass Slipper” and “How To Make Personalized DIY Glitter Ornaments” videos which went on to win silver Telly Awards.

With our Innominate Kraken how-to hub YouTube channel she was an integral member of our team. And with her passing in September, we hope to carry her excitement for DIY projects and artistic spirit with us in each and every future how-to video.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Innominate Kraken started with one sentence, “You should start a YouTube channel.” It’s pretty cliche, but our friend wasn’t wrong. Over the years our adventurous group has been to so many cool events and places because of our jobs and personal hobbies. So why not make vlogs to share with our family and friends and whoever else wants to follow our adventures?

For years our YouTube channel was purely for fun. We didn’t get many views or subscribers, but that didn’t matter to us at all. It was just like our own visual album of our best memories.

But it all changed when we posted our first how-to video. We filmed the making of a full suit for Shiro of Voltron: Legendary Defender. With our “How To Make Cosplay Armor” video we ended up sharing that adventure and process. We started posting how-to videos regularly because showing people behind the scenes of a project was fun. We picked projects we’ve always wanted to attempt or life skills and knowledge we wanted to share. However, those videos took more planning and time to create. As we started our respective careers in animation, marketing, and education, we had less and less time to film to the point where we didn’t post any videos for about 3 years.

After all that time we logged back into our account and were shocked! That very first Cosplay How-To reached over 60,000 views! And not only that, a lot of videos broke 20,000 with one Shipping How-To reaching over 300,000 views. To top it all off we had over 1,000 subscribers! Since we met the requirements to monetize our videos and were stable in our careers, we decided to give our channel another go.

Having a film production background and a dream to launch a film production company, our founder put in to make Innominate Kraken a legitimate business. Officially known as Innominate Kraken Inc, we rebranded with a new logo and shifted our focus fully to how-to videos. We dedicated time to setting up spaces and acquiring new equipment to film and present all the how-to information. Within the first year, we won multiple video awards in the how-to/DIY category and our channel grew slowly, but steadily.

We created other social media accounts, built out a website, opened an arts and crafts store, and partnered with other organizations in public events around our community to grow our YouTube channel and advertise our services as a video production company. Our next steps in regard to expansion involve starting a podcast series. We are still in development as our focus remains on video production and servicing our video, photo, and motion graphics client’s projects.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

When we were kids, we had a love for making videos. Innominate Kraken’s founder was determined to improve those videos by obtaining better equipment. They saved up for and stockpiled equipment since they were a teenager. The go-to money savers were Amazon Prime Days, special sales on video equipment and tech websites and, of course, asking for new equipment for birthday and holiday gifts. But what really helped were the sacrifices made in terms of personal living expenses. Living at home and forgoing buying a car in favor of public transport saved a ton of money. They were able to use that money for Innominate Kraken’s startup costs.

But of course, that isn’t enough to fund a business, you also need a stable job and connections. Through volunteer and freelance work, moonlighting on film and TV sets, joining membership societies, and going to networking events we made connections with future Innominate Kraken clients and collaborators. Each of us having full-time jobs gave us financial security and the capital for startup costs. The only downside is that in pursuit of this dream, many of us have struggled to find work-life balance.

It took planning and patience to get here. By the time we decided to start our Innominate Kraken video production company, we were set to go because of these steps. We didn’t have to worry about equipment because we had a majority of what we needed already. We were also able to replace outdated equipment and buy the rest of what we needed by monetizing our YouTube how-to videos and earning money as an Amazon affiliate.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Life is pretty stressful. For us, it’s the little things like creative projects with friends and family that give us time to relax and be grateful for what we have. Creativity is part of our story. We want to share these stories that resonate with people just as much as stories we’ve read and watched have done the same for us and have had a big impact on our lives. If we can make even one person feel less stressed or allow them to express their artsy side, then we’ve accomplished our goal. For Innominate Kraken, that’s the basis of why we do what we do.

On the YouTube side, that’s something we’re able to accomplish with every how-to we post. It’s truly an amazing feeling to know our how-to’s are helping a lot of people. We get a ton of comments where people tell us stories of how we gave them the confidence to try the project/task themselves, how we saved them a lot of time and how great and fun the project turned out to be for them and their friends and family.

On the video production side, we’ve accomplished that too with photo shoots where we capture the raw moments of joy shared between couples and friends, and with super artistic and detailed videos and motion graphics that tell our clients’ and their projects’ stories.

Our passions and want to help people both drive our creative journey and contribute to our true mission. Once we grow Innominate Kraken to the point that we can fund our own short films, we hope to not only share our own stories, but also to give a voice to creatives in communities we and our families belong to such as the LGBTQ+ community.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.innominatekraken.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/innominatekraken
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InnominateKraken
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/innominate-kraken-inc
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/innominatek
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/InnominateKraken