Portfolio: CC's Conversions

This portfolio originally appeared in Jump Point 9.2.
WHO’S CC?
Many have wondered who’s the namesake behind CC’s Conversions, the manufacturer of creative custom armor pieces known for their brash embrace of pop culture and highly irreverent aesthetic. The company first made a name for itself by freely incorporating trademarked logos and likenesses into their modded armor. It earned fans and copyright lawsuits in equal measure, but fame and ultimately mainstream acceptance grew along with it. Despite this notoriety, the privately-owned company strove to keep its owners anonymous. First out of fear for legal repercussions and later as a ploy to lean into the growing mystery of who was the fabled CC.

Rumors about CC’s identity ranged from plausible to ridiculous. One of the more popular (and generally accepted) stories claimed CC to be the initials of the company’s secretive founder while others swore it to be the name of a designer’s daughter whose doodles atop his armor concepts inspired some of the company’s earliest designs. In 2948, Arbana Brumbaugh, a journalist from the Aremis Post convinced her editors to do a deep dive into the company’s origins, where she easily debunked the most common myths surrounding the company, but ultimately failed to identify the real CC. What began as a simple story turned into an obsession that Brumbaugh chronicled in her bestselling book Seeking CC. Thanks to her diligent and exhaustive investigation, Brumbaugh ultimately discovered that people had been asking the wrong question. Instead of asking “Who’s CC”, the question should’ve been “What is CC?”

STREET CRED
The story of CC’s Conversions began in a small shop tucked down an alley in the east side industrial district of Fujin City. When opened in 2943, this shop was simply the public-facing facet as none of the company’s work was done on premises. Instead it operated as a small storefront that opened at odd and inconsistent hours to sell one-off artistic mods done to random armor pieces. CC’s stylish and subversive aesthetic quickly gained a cult following with fans staking out the shop at all hours and lighting up spectrum as soon as the signature CC’s sign switched on. In her investigation years later, Brumbaugh looked into anyone who had rented the storefront prior to CC’s and discovered one of the previous tenants to be a teacher at the Fujin City School for the Arts named Andilar Bree. Though the teacher had since passed, relatives recounted Bree’s close connection to a group of students who in 2941 collaborated on a school showcase called Killer Pop Culture featuring works aesthetically similar to CC’s Conversions earliest known items. Brumbaugh tracked down one of these former students, and after negotiating ground rules, he agreed to an interview.

The man, who called himself ‘Mendo’, explained that a collective of seven students started CC’s Conversions after art school. It was a loose organization where members individually worked on artistic mods of second-hand armor and helmets they salvaged from resale shops or scavyards. Initially the pieces were intended only for themselves to wear, but as requests from friends and acquaintances rolled in, the group soon began selling the armor. The true secret to their modding success was an advanced program created by a member who went by the name ‘Epoch.’ The software would take a scan of an item, like a helmet, and quickly enable the artist to previsualize styles, shapes, logos, and even likenesses pulled from a massive image database to prototype an idealized final product without wasting expensive materials. Epoch called his program Computational Crafting or CC for short. When the collective opened their storefront, it only felt appropriate to name their endeavor in CC’s honor.

Bree, who had been mentoring the students in her free time, offered up the shop as a way to sell their art. The group wanted potential buyers to focus on the pieces themselves rather than on who made them, and made a pact that their individual identities would all remain incognito. The added mystery would only further heighten the shop’s mystique. After opening, individual sales were decent but modest when a rare opportunity came along for the group to significantly scale their operations. A huge lot of RSI helmets was available for purchase after a local armor retailer went out of business. It would take almost all their combined profits to acquire them, but with that much stock they would be able to make hundreds of pieces rather than just the typical dozen or so. In the end, it was Mendo’s suggestion to mod them to look like the iconic cartoon character Rory Nova that convinced the group that the purchase would be worthwhile. It became CC’s Conversions first official line and it sold out fast.

The process proved so popular and profitable that the collective agreed to buy more refurbished or outdated armor wholesale and design lines around it. With this shift in strategy the collective stopped hand modifying armor and shuttered their storefront. Instead, members worked to find discounted armor, mechanize modding production, and find distributors while taking turns with being the artistic design lead. With each new line generating increased attention, the company was no longer an ignorable underground phenomenon. CC’s Conversions had become a success and a flurry of lawsuits over the use of trademarked images followed.

GOING LEGIT
As independent artists, the collective had felt free to draw from any source that inspired them. But once the group began drawing media attention for their work, litigation threatened to overwhelm the new company. In addition, some of the armor manufacturers took issue with the modification and mass resale of their pieces. Thankfully, CC’s Conversions was able to legitimize their operations by settling litigation with generous payments or favorable terms on future licensing deals. This display of good faith convinced other companies to sign official licensing deals with CC’s to cash in on the company’s hip style and cultural cache. The company was also able to successfully argue in court that their work was different enough from the base models that it did not constitute resale but were instead mass produced works of art. During this transition period, the company began producing completely original designs, like the Caudillo helmet and Tevarin inspired Aves armor. The success of their bespoke armor pieces proved that the company could achieve mass appeal on its own artistic merits.

Still, CC’s Conversions remains first and foremost a manufacturer of memorable armor upgrades with a pop culture twist. Their business model still revolves around purchasing discounted armor, adding their own artistic flair and never repeating a design, making their armor popular among collectors. The company recently collaborated with soda maker Fieldsbury for a line of helmets modeled after their mischievous “Dark Bear’’ mascot. They’ve even expanded into producing replicas from hit Spectrum vids, including two gruesome helmets inspired by the Parasite vid-series and one based on serial killer Neville Lott’s frightful look in The Hill Horror.

Though Brumbaugh revealed the mysterious CC to be a computer program, the company has never publicly acknowledged the claim. Names of those involved in the art school collective were publicly shared by former classmates following the release of Brumbaugh Seeking CC, but the company continues to ignore any request to confirm any of them as owners. Instead the company still prefers to keep fans guessing about who really runs the company and what armor to expect next. This stance doesn’t surprise Brumbaugh, who got Mendo to admit in his interview that “naming the thing after CC was a way to make the work about the art and not the artist. It didn’t matter who made it, only if the final product was good. The goal was to take something familiar to everyone and remake it in a way that people never expected. And in many regards, we nailed it.” Today, fans of CC’s Conversions who eagerly await their next limited edition run of their armor would have to agree.

Dieses Portfolio erschien ursprünglich in Jump Point 9.2.
WER IST CC?
Viele haben sich gefragt, wer sich hinter CC's Conversions verbirgt, dem Hersteller von kreativen Custom-Rüstungen, der für seine freche Umarmung der Popkultur und seine äußerst respektlose Ästhetik bekannt ist. Das Unternehmen machte sich zunächst einen Namen, indem es markenrechtlich geschützte Logos und Konterfeis frei in seine modifizierten Rüstungen einbaute. Das brachte Fans und Urheberrechtsklagen gleichermaßen ein, aber der Ruhm und schließlich auch die Akzeptanz im Mainstream wuchsen mit ihm. Trotz dieser Berühmtheit bemühte sich das private Unternehmen, seine Eigentümer anonym zu halten. Zunächst aus Angst vor rechtlichen Konsequenzen und später als Trick, um das wachsende Geheimnis zu lüften, wer der sagenumwobene CC war.

Die Gerüchte über die Identität von CC reichten von plausibel bis lächerlich. Eine der populäreren (und allgemein akzeptierten) Geschichten behauptete, CC seien die Initialen des geheimnisvollen Firmengründers, während andere schworen, es sei der Name der Tochter eines Designers, dessen Kritzeleien über seinen Rüstungskonzepten einige der ersten Entwürfe des Unternehmens inspirierten. Im Jahr 2948 überredete Arbana Brumbaugh, eine Journalistin der Aremis Post, ihre Redakteure zu einer gründlichen Recherche über die Ursprünge des Unternehmens, bei der sie die gängigsten Mythen über das Unternehmen entlarvte, aber letztlich nicht den wahren CC identifizieren konnte. Was als einfache Geschichte begann, wurde zu einer Besessenheit, die Brumbaugh in ihrem Bestseller Seeking CC aufzeichnete. Dank ihrer sorgfältigen und erschöpfenden Nachforschungen fand Brumbaugh schließlich heraus, dass die Leute die falsche Frage gestellt hatten. Anstatt zu fragen "Wer ist CC", hätte die Frage lauten müssen "Was ist CC?"

STREET CRED
Die Geschichte von CC's Conversions begann in einem kleinen Laden, der in einer Gasse im östlichen Industriegebiet von Fujin City versteckt war. Als dieses Geschäft 2943 eröffnet wurde, war es nur die öffentliche Fassade, da keine der Arbeiten des Unternehmens vor Ort durchgeführt wurden. Stattdessen handelte es sich um einen kleinen Laden, der zu ungeraden und unregelmäßigen Zeiten geöffnet war, um einmalige künstlerische Modifikationen an zufälligen Rüstungsteilen zu verkaufen. Die stilvolle und subversive Ästhetik von CC gewann schnell eine kultische Anhängerschaft mit Fans, die den Laden rund um die Uhr belagerten und das Spektrum anzündeten, sobald das charakteristische CC's-Schild aufleuchtete. Als Brumbaugh Jahre später Nachforschungen anstellte, um herauszufinden, wer das Ladenlokal vor CC's gemietet hatte, entdeckte sie, dass einer der Vormieter ein Lehrer an der Fujin City School for the Arts namens Andilar Bree war. Obwohl der Lehrer inzwischen verstorben war, berichteten Verwandte, dass Bree eine enge Verbindung zu einer Gruppe von Schülern hatte, die 2941 an einer Schulausstellung namens Killer Pop Culture mit Werken mitwirkten, die den frühesten bekannten Gegenständen von CC's Conversions ästhetisch ähnelten. Brumbaugh machte einen dieser ehemaligen Schüler ausfindig, und nachdem er die Grundregeln ausgehandelt hatte, stimmte er einem Interview zu.

Der Mann, der sich selbst 'Mendo' nannte, erklärte, dass ein Kollektiv von sieben Studenten CC's Conversions nach der Kunstschule gründete. Es handelte sich um eine lose Organisation, in der die Mitglieder individuell an künstlerischen Modifikationen von gebrauchten Rüstungen und Helmen arbeiteten, die sie in Wiederverkaufsläden oder auf Schrottplätzen erstanden hatten. Zunächst waren die Stücke nur für sie selbst bestimmt, aber als die Anfragen von Freunden und Bekannten immer mehr zunahmen, begann die Gruppe bald, die Rüstungen zu verkaufen. Das wahre Geheimnis ihres Modding-Erfolgs war ein fortschrittliches Programm, das von einem Mitglied mit dem Namen 'Epoch' entwickelt wurde. Die Software nahm einen Scan eines Gegenstands, z.B. eines Helms, und ermöglichte es dem Künstler, Stile, Formen, Logos und sogar Konterfeis aus einer riesigen Bilddatenbank vorzuplanen, um ein idealisiertes Endprodukt zu erstellen, ohne teure Materialien zu verschwenden. Epoch nannte sein Programm Computational Crafting oder kurz CC. Als das Kollektiv seinen Laden eröffnete, schien es nur angemessen, sein Vorhaben zu CCs Ehren zu benennen.

Bree, die die Studenten in ihrer Freizeit als Mentorin betreut hatte, bot den Laden als Möglichkeit an, ihre Kunst zu verkaufen. Die Gruppe wollte, dass sich die potenziellen Käufer auf die Werke selbst konzentrieren und nicht darauf, wer sie gemacht hat, und schloss einen Pakt, dass ihre individuellen Identitäten inkognito bleiben würden. Das zusätzliche Geheimnis würde die Mystik des Ladens nur noch verstärken. Nach der Eröffnung waren die Einzelverkäufe anständig, aber bescheiden, als sich der Gruppe eine seltene Gelegenheit bot, ihr Geschäft erheblich auszuweiten. Ein großer Posten RSI-Helme stand zum Verkauf, nachdem ein lokaler Rüstungshändler Pleite gegangen war. Es würde fast den gesamten Gewinn der Gruppe kosten, diese zu erwerben, aber mit dieser Menge an Vorräten würden sie in der Lage sein, Hunderte von Helmen herzustellen, anstatt nur das typische Dutzend oder so. Letztendlich war es der Vorschlag von Mendo, sie so zu modifizieren, dass sie wie die kultige Zeichentrickfigur Rory Nova aussehen, der die Gruppe davon überzeugte, dass sich der Kauf lohnen würde. Es wurde die erste offizielle Linie von CC's Conversions und sie war schnell ausverkauft.

Der Prozess erwies sich als so populär und profitabel, dass das Kollektiv beschloss, weitere überholte oder veraltete Rüstungen im Großhandel zu kaufen und um sie herum Linien zu entwerfen. Mit diesem Strategiewechsel hörte das Kollektiv auf, Rüstungen von Hand zu modifizieren und schloss sein Ladengeschäft. Stattdessen arbeiteten die Mitglieder daran, verbilligte Rüstungen zu finden, die Modding-Produktion zu mechanisieren und Vertriebshändler zu finden, während sie sich mit der künstlerischen Leitung abwechselten. Mit jeder neuen Linie, die mehr Aufmerksamkeit erregte, war das Unternehmen nicht länger ein unbedeutendes Untergrundphänomen. CC's Conversions wurde ein Erfolg und es folgten eine Reihe von Rechtsstreitigkeiten über die Verwendung von geschützten Bildern.

LEGITÄT
Als unabhängige Künstler hatte sich das Kollektiv frei gefühlt, aus jeder Quelle zu schöpfen, die sie inspirierte. Doch als die Gruppe begann, die Aufmerksamkeit der Medien auf ihre Arbeit zu lenken, drohten die Rechtsstreitigkeiten das neue Unternehmen zu erdrücken. Außerdem hatten einige der Rüstungshersteller Einwände gegen die Modifizierung und den massenhaften Weiterverkauf ihrer Stücke. Glücklicherweise war CC's Conversions in der Lage, seine Tätigkeit zu legitimieren, indem es die Rechtsstreitigkeiten mit großzügigen Zahlungen oder günstigen Bedingungen für zukünftige Lizenzverträge beilegte. Dieses Zeichen des guten Willens überzeugte andere Unternehmen, offizielle Lizenzverträge mit CC's abzuschließen, um von dem angesagten Stil und dem kulturellen Ansehen des Unternehmens zu profitieren. Das Unternehmen konnte vor Gericht auch erfolgreich argumentieren, dass sich seine Arbeit so sehr von den Basismodellen unterschied, dass es sich nicht um einen Weiterverkauf, sondern um massenhaft produzierte Kunstwerke handelte. In dieser Übergangsphase begann das Unternehmen mit der Herstellung völlig neuer Designs, wie dem Caudillo-Helm und der von Tevarin inspirierten Aves-Rüstung. Der Erfolg ihrer maßgefertigten Rüstungen bewies, dass das Unternehmen auch mit seinen eigenen künstlerischen Leistungen Massenattraktivität erreichen konnte.

Dennoch bleibt CC's Conversions in erster Linie ein Hersteller von denkwürdigen Rüstungs-Upgrades mit einem Hauch von Popkultur. Das Geschäftsmodell des Unternehmens besteht nach wie vor darin, preisreduzierte Rüstungen zu kaufen, sie mit eigenem künstlerischen Flair zu versehen und niemals ein Design zu wiederholen, was ihre Rüstungen bei Sammlern so beliebt macht. Vor kurzem hat das Unternehmen mit dem Limonadenhersteller Fieldsbury zusammengearbeitet, um eine Reihe von Helmen nach dem Vorbild des schelmischen Maskottchens "Dark Bear" herzustellen. Das Unternehmen hat sich sogar auf die Herstellung von Repliken von Spectrum-Hits verlegt, darunter zwei gruselige Helme, die von der Parasite-Videoserie inspiriert sind, und ein Helm, der dem Serienmörder Neville Lott in The Hill Horror nachempfunden ist.

Obwohl Brumbaugh das mysteriöse CC als Computerprogramm entlarvte, hat das Unternehmen diese Behauptung nie öffentlich bestätigt. Ehemalige Klassenkameraden haben nach der Veröffentlichung von Brumbaughs Suche nach CC die Namen der an der Kunstschule beteiligten Personen veröffentlicht, aber das Unternehmen ignoriert nach wie vor jede Bitte, einen von ihnen als Eigentümer zu bestätigen. Stattdessen zieht es das Unternehmen vor, die Fans im Unklaren darüber zu lassen, wer das Unternehmen wirklich leitet und welche Rüstung als nächstes zu erwarten ist. Diese Haltung überrascht Brumbaugh nicht, der Mendo dazu brachte, in seinem Interview zuzugeben, dass "die Benennung nach CC eine Möglichkeit war, das Werk nach der Kunst und nicht nach dem Künstler zu benennen. Es war egal, wer es gemacht hat, Hauptsache, das Endprodukt war gut. Das Ziel war es, etwas zu nehmen, das jeder kennt, und es auf eine Weise neu zu gestalten, die die Leute nicht erwartet hatten. Und in vielerlei Hinsicht haben wir es geschafft." Heute müssen die Fans von CC's Conversions, die sehnsüchtig auf die nächste limitierte Auflage ihrer Rüstung warten, zustimmen.

This portfolio originally appeared in Jump Point 9.2.
WHO’S CC?
Many have wondered who’s the namesake behind CC’s Conversions, the manufacturer of creative custom armor pieces known for their brash embrace of pop culture and highly irreverent aesthetic. The company first made a name for itself by freely incorporating trademarked logos and likenesses into their modded armor. It earned fans and copyright lawsuits in equal measure, but fame and ultimately mainstream acceptance grew along with it. Despite this notoriety, the privately-owned company strove to keep its owners anonymous. First out of fear for legal repercussions and later as a ploy to lean into the growing mystery of who was the fabled CC.

Rumors about CC’s identity ranged from plausible to ridiculous. One of the more popular (and generally accepted) stories claimed CC to be the initials of the company’s secretive founder while others swore it to be the name of a designer’s daughter whose doodles atop his armor concepts inspired some of the company’s earliest designs. In 2948, Arbana Brumbaugh, a journalist from the Aremis Post convinced her editors to do a deep dive into the company’s origins, where she easily debunked the most common myths surrounding the company, but ultimately failed to identify the real CC. What began as a simple story turned into an obsession that Brumbaugh chronicled in her bestselling book Seeking CC. Thanks to her diligent and exhaustive investigation, Brumbaugh ultimately discovered that people had been asking the wrong question. Instead of asking “Who’s CC”, the question should’ve been “What is CC?”

STREET CRED
The story of CC’s Conversions began in a small shop tucked down an alley in the east side industrial district of Fujin City. When opened in 2943, this shop was simply the public-facing facet as none of the company’s work was done on premises. Instead it operated as a small storefront that opened at odd and inconsistent hours to sell one-off artistic mods done to random armor pieces. CC’s stylish and subversive aesthetic quickly gained a cult following with fans staking out the shop at all hours and lighting up spectrum as soon as the signature CC’s sign switched on. In her investigation years later, Brumbaugh looked into anyone who had rented the storefront prior to CC’s and discovered one of the previous tenants to be a teacher at the Fujin City School for the Arts named Andilar Bree. Though the teacher had since passed, relatives recounted Bree’s close connection to a group of students who in 2941 collaborated on a school showcase called Killer Pop Culture featuring works aesthetically similar to CC’s Conversions earliest known items. Brumbaugh tracked down one of these former students, and after negotiating ground rules, he agreed to an interview.

The man, who called himself ‘Mendo’, explained that a collective of seven students started CC’s Conversions after art school. It was a loose organization where members individually worked on artistic mods of second-hand armor and helmets they salvaged from resale shops or scavyards. Initially the pieces were intended only for themselves to wear, but as requests from friends and acquaintances rolled in, the group soon began selling the armor. The true secret to their modding success was an advanced program created by a member who went by the name ‘Epoch.’ The software would take a scan of an item, like a helmet, and quickly enable the artist to previsualize styles, shapes, logos, and even likenesses pulled from a massive image database to prototype an idealized final product without wasting expensive materials. Epoch called his program Computational Crafting or CC for short. When the collective opened their storefront, it only felt appropriate to name their endeavor in CC’s honor.

Bree, who had been mentoring the students in her free time, offered up the shop as a way to sell their art. The group wanted potential buyers to focus on the pieces themselves rather than on who made them, and made a pact that their individual identities would all remain incognito. The added mystery would only further heighten the shop’s mystique. After opening, individual sales were decent but modest when a rare opportunity came along for the group to significantly scale their operations. A huge lot of RSI helmets was available for purchase after a local armor retailer went out of business. It would take almost all their combined profits to acquire them, but with that much stock they would be able to make hundreds of pieces rather than just the typical dozen or so. In the end, it was Mendo’s suggestion to mod them to look like the iconic cartoon character Rory Nova that convinced the group that the purchase would be worthwhile. It became CC’s Conversions first official line and it sold out fast.

The process proved so popular and profitable that the collective agreed to buy more refurbished or outdated armor wholesale and design lines around it. With this shift in strategy the collective stopped hand modifying armor and shuttered their storefront. Instead, members worked to find discounted armor, mechanize modding production, and find distributors while taking turns with being the artistic design lead. With each new line generating increased attention, the company was no longer an ignorable underground phenomenon. CC’s Conversions had become a success and a flurry of lawsuits over the use of trademarked images followed.

GOING LEGIT
As independent artists, the collective had felt free to draw from any source that inspired them. But once the group began drawing media attention for their work, litigation threatened to overwhelm the new company. In addition, some of the armor manufacturers took issue with the modification and mass resale of their pieces. Thankfully, CC’s Conversions was able to legitimize their operations by settling litigation with generous payments or favorable terms on future licensing deals. This display of good faith convinced other companies to sign official licensing deals with CC’s to cash in on the company’s hip style and cultural cache. The company was also able to successfully argue in court that their work was different enough from the base models that it did not constitute resale but were instead mass produced works of art. During this transition period, the company began producing completely original designs, like the Caudillo helmet and Tevarin inspired Aves armor. The success of their bespoke armor pieces proved that the company could achieve mass appeal on its own artistic merits.

Still, CC’s Conversions remains first and foremost a manufacturer of memorable armor upgrades with a pop culture twist. Their business model still revolves around purchasing discounted armor, adding their own artistic flair and never repeating a design, making their armor popular among collectors. The company recently collaborated with soda maker Fieldsbury for a line of helmets modeled after their mischievous “Dark Bear’’ mascot. They’ve even expanded into producing replicas from hit Spectrum vids, including two gruesome helmets inspired by the Parasite vid-series and one based on serial killer Neville Lott’s frightful look in The Hill Horror.

Though Brumbaugh revealed the mysterious CC to be a computer program, the company has never publicly acknowledged the claim. Names of those involved in the art school collective were publicly shared by former classmates following the release of Brumbaugh Seeking CC, but the company continues to ignore any request to confirm any of them as owners. Instead the company still prefers to keep fans guessing about who really runs the company and what armor to expect next. This stance doesn’t surprise Brumbaugh, who got Mendo to admit in his interview that “naming the thing after CC was a way to make the work about the art and not the artist. It didn’t matter who made it, only if the final product was good. The goal was to take something familiar to everyone and remake it in a way that people never expected. And in many regards, we nailed it.” Today, fans of CC’s Conversions who eagerly await their next limited edition run of their armor would have to agree.