Productized AI design tool + member-voted promotion + Fobou expert pipeline → drop.
Open Call is no longer about submitted sketches. It's about the tool. Members open Fobou's AI design studio (productized Flora pipeline), iterate until they have a piece they want, and submit it to the queue. Same vote-and-promote flow downstream — but the entry barrier moves from "can you draw" to "can you direct."
Free tier: 5 generations a month. Token packs (€8 / 50 gens, €30 / 250 gens). Designer membership (€39/mo): unlimited gens + priority feasibility + design-history archive. Token sales fund the compute and the expert pipeline; designer subs fund the people.
Pre-vote: automated + light review. Catches obvious un-makeables, IP rips, structural issues. Fast filter — keeps the queue trustworthy. Post-vote: deep review with a Fobou product developer. Tech pack, sourcing plan, factory match, sampling. Designer iterates with the expert until it's ready to drop.
Lowers the bar to design without lowering the bar to make. The tool is fun — Wordle-fun, not Photoshop-tedium. The vote is meaningful — you're not picking a like; you're commissioning a piece. The expert layer is what stops it from being garbage-AI-junk: humans, with hands, finishing the work.
Open Fobou's design studio. Iterate until you have a piece you'd wear. Submit it. If members vote it up, our experts take it the rest of the way — sourcing, factory, sampling, drop. You stay in the loop. The making is on us.
The studio is open to every member. Generations cost compute, so we meter them. Most members never need more than the free tier; designers buy tokens or upgrade.
For members who want to try, or vote without designing.
For people serious about the work. Most graduates start here.
For when you don't need a subscription, just more runs.
Tokens carry across sessions and never expire. No designer-tier upgrade required.
The lighter gate sits before voting (members only see designs that could be made). The deeper gate sits after voting (experts only spend deep cycles on designs that will be made).
Iterate in the AI tool. Refine. Pick the design you want to submit.
Brief, references, fabric direction. The submission carries forward into manufacturing.
Manufacturability filter. IP check. Structural sanity. Hours, not days.
Members yes / save / pass. Threshold + cohort capacity decide promotion.
Product developer assigned (Melanie or peer). Tech pack, sourcing, factory. Designer iterates with expert.
Sample reviewed. Pre-order opens to members; threshold met → production runs.
Three drops landed in 18 months → designer admitted to a Residency cohort.
A snapshot of the queue. Every card shows the design, the designer, the stage, and where the auto-feasibility check landed. Members move them. Experts take over once they pass.
Five generations free, every month. No commitment. The tool is built for direction, not draftsmanship — write what you want, iterate, refine. When you have something you'd wear, submit it.
You don't have to design to participate. Browse the queue, see designs that passed feasibility, vote yes / save / pass. Your weight scales with your taste graph — the more you've shown, the more your votes count on directions you've meant.
Your vote weighs more on directions you've shown you mean. Stops bloc-voting; rewards engaged taste.
Even an over-threshold design can be passed over if better designs landed in the same cycle.
Kate, Melanie, or Vincent may call up or down one piece per cycle. Reasoning published.
Once a design clears the post-vote gate, the studio funds first sample. Designer pays nothing further to ship.
The tool's outputs are yours. Fobou licenses non-exclusive, royalty-free for the duration of the drop. Revival rights remain with you.
Every dropped submission lists the why — feasibility, cohort capacity, structural concern, founder call. Resubmits welcome; the why is recorded.