Spotlight on: Plus Minus

Images courtesy of Plus Minus

Enter Plus Minus - An independent store based in Singapore that is all things design; where every new brand that launches in their store surprises and excites us, and even makes us want, no crave for a piece of it. It's a tiny heaven, a portal for all the brands and stuff you don't have access to in physical stores in Singapore.

Against all odds, Plus Minus opened their virtual doors and created a portal for so many wonderful brands that has not been made available to Singaporeans (in physical stores). The idea was to bring in well-designed stuff, along with good quality and at an affordable price.

So who makes Plus Minus? How do they do it?

Plus Minus was actually co-founded just less than two months ago in early November (2012) by lovebirds at present, Ira and Fauzi, along with a friend of theirs who has since dropped out of the venture. Despite vast differences in interests; Ira into design and checking out new brands (Ira was a graphic design graduate from NAFA) and Fauzi with his love for motorbikes and racing sorts, they share a common love for food and built Plus Minus together.

Ira and Fauzi, and Ira on interview with me at 8Q Street

The whole thing was an absolutely casual idea that took off and started growing at an amazing rate. It all began when Ira wanted to realize her dream of having her very own shop, "It runs in my family. My Dad runs a furniture business and my sister has her own online store as well. Plus I love surfing the net and sourcing for new brands and items and I just wanted to share it with everyone." On why the name Plus Minus, Ira shared that it was a completely random name that hit her in a five minute brainstorming session and it was so easy to catch on.

More prominent brands under Plus Minus - Tattly and Hype

Despite the challenges and competition in the online store business, Ira saw potential in running her very own store and kept a generally positive outlook. "So many brands are unnoticed, and most of the brands we currently bring in at Plus Minus are not available in Singapore or even Asia." Only 20 this year, Ira and Fauzi were both new and raw to running a business and coming up with an enormous captial. It was then decided that Plus Minus was to start out on its Facebook page to gain experience in running their very own business before moving on with bigger plans. Within a few days of putting everything in place, the store made its first pre-order available in early November.

"I didn't expect it to become so big and it's actually very hard to manage because I'm doing almost everything now, from marketing to responding to queries and posting the stuff out. It's basically like a one-man show and Fauzi does the accounting side of things." said Ira, when asked about what were their expectations on opening the store. But the folks at Plus Minus see it as merely a (good) start for them, and are looking to make things bigger and better than ever.

Other brands featured under Plus Minus, such as Mister bracelets

Plus Minus has since started up The General Store, which is a concept they are still working on before an actual debut, "The General Store is an actual store front I want for Plus Minus. This was created so we can put out two extreme sides - the minimalist and the expressive (louder side) to present to people and I hope to target as many people from different age groups and tastes."

In the (near) future, Plus Minus is hoping to have an actual web site (which they are working on) and set up a physical store and spread the love to more people, "That's the challenging part. I've always (wanting to build a store) in mind, and I even went to search for rental prices. It's insane over here but I hope I can slowly build this up and have a store."

Stay tuned for more (awesome!) brand launches and be surprised. You may check out Plus Minus here via their Facebook page.


Apart from all that, Plus Minus has kindly collaborated (and sponsored) with Pocketto to have A WONDERFUL GIVEAWAY! We're giving out a Poketo x Furni (coincidentally, and no pun intended) watch and an issue (12) of oh comely magazine.

If you haven't heard, Poketo is a US-based store/label founded by couple, Ted Vadaan and Angie Myung who believes in "art for your everyday" and strives to integrate real art into everyday wear and things that can be around you. These watches are part of a collaboration between Furni (Montreal based design company) and Poketo.

And if you're thinking that oh comely falls short of being a real magazine, you might want to think again. oh comely is one that brings real stories to us, from real people. With adventures to capture the feeling of being free, stories from people with tales to tell, recipes to warm your heart and craft you can make. It embraces imperfection and simple things we do in life and is delivered through beautiful words, illustration and photography.

Find Poketo and oh comely by clicking on their respective names.

Two lucky winners will be selected for this giveaway! All you have to do is:
1. Like POKOPOCKETTO and PLUS MINUS on Facebook
2. Like and share A WONDERFUL GIVEAWAY on pokopocketto (click here for the post to like and  share)
3. Comment on the post with anything (with a suggestion, things you want to see, a brand you love or just professing your love to us etc.)

This giveaway closes on 20th Jan, Sunday and winners of the giveaway will be announced by 22nd Jan.

Once again, here's a BIG thank you to Plus Minus, and a HUGE THANK YOUUU for reading pokopocketto! Cheers (from both Ira and I) and have a good day (: