ACRHIVE® Instagram Community
Role: Curator, Creative Director, Art Director, Photographer, Designer
About:
A personal Instagram page representing consumers wearing Errolson Hugh’s brand, ACRONYM®, in their natural habitats. Both a wordplay based on the two words of ‘ACRONYM’ & ‘ARCHIVE’. ‘ACR’ - ‘HIVE’. “ACRHIVE” was born. Meeting other collectors of the cult brand, the community planned meetups to photograph fit pics. Sought after fashion items, accessories, clothing were personally put together by consumers. This started a wave of community members showing off their individual style. Inspiration taken from “AKIRA, METAL GEAR SOLID, TECH, CRYPTOPUNK” themes arrived between fashion, utility, graphic design, art, illustration, and a vision towards protopia.
The @ACRHIVE instagram account started in 2016 growing an audience from zero to 52K followers at its peak in 2019. Since the pandemic hit in 2020, I have put a pause on this social community experiment.
“In the case of Acronym, I've gotten so used to having a phone pocket now,” says Bryan Lee, a creative director in the Bay Area who has been collecting Acronym since 2003.”
GQ — Bryan Lee
“Oh, my God, where's my phone!?” Lee runs the Instagram account @ACRHIVE (follower count: 52K), which catalogs the fit pics of the converted. Pronunciation-wise, both “Archive” and “ACR Hive” are acceptable—like “Pet's Mart” and “Pet Smart.”
GQ — Bryan Lee
Credits:
Curator: @ACRHIVE | @ACRHIVIST
Creative Director, Art Director, Photographer, Designer: Bryan Lee
Photographers: Brian Valdizno, Brian Ford, Mike Tello, Saruul Enkhamgalan, Karl Nikolai
Collaborators: @memecomplex, @aleporte, @edg.e, @24.fps, @markrcamacho, @thatslapz, @ahjushi, @bt4d, @kevinpeterhe, @dobu.haishen, @valdizbro, @bachronym, @karlnikolai, @yoshimitszu, @deeengee
Press Mentions / Interviews: GQ Magazine (Chris Gayomali), Hypebeast (Felson Sajonas), Thirdlooks (Rocky Li)