In March of 2010, I decided to rebrand my store with my own name. I did this for a couple of reasons:
1. The name “OPIUM” was no longer unique in Second Life. Note to those starting a new business: it is good practice to search for names under consideration before deciding on your Second Life brand.
2. “OPIUM Everyday” was a sub-brand of OPIUM. But I was no longer releasing anything under the OPIUM brand, so the name “OPIUM Everyday” made little sense without the umbrella brand.
3. I am a solo designer and all fashion I create is made by scratch, 100% handdrawn, without pre-purchased templates or photographs. (Note: I do buy sculpties sometimes, and I used Eloh’s open source skins as my base, though they have been dramatically changed from her versions.) Using my name as my brand reflects the pride I take in my work and the fact it’s unique to me.
→ Read the full press release on the new branding here
The new name is alaskametro<3 , all one word, lowercase, with the <3 heart on the end (or without if it’s not possible to write the less than symbol.) The logo is my own handwriting, to reflect the handdrawn and personalized aspects of my business.
The skin system called SYNERGY by OPIUM during beta testing is now referred to as beauty by alaskametro<3 , a division of the brand that includes all the skins, makeup, eyes, lashes and nailpolishes.
I’m going to be slowly renaming and keeping some OPIUM Everyday stock in my store, with the new brand. A lot of older stuff is going in the bin as I add new alaskametro<3 releases.
Unfortunately, I no longer have room for the L$1 store with all the OPIUM stuff from 2005-2008. If you have a newbie store or fashion/makeover centre for new players that has a lot of prims to spare, let me know and I’d be happy to move the L$1 store there. It did receive a lot of traffic and it was popular!
